A new, home-grown documentary series about doing public services differently – created with more than 100 voices from across our brilliant city region.
When the Greater Manchester Live Well team first approached MIC media almost two years ago, none of us could have predicted the scale this project would grow into.
What began as a conversation about growing great everyday support has become one of the most ambitious podcast series we’ve ever produced: the Greater Manchester Live Well Podcast, hosted by Mayor Andy Burnham, GM Shaper Folashade Alonge, and the GM Live Well team.
What is GM Live Well?
GM Live Well is Greater Manchester’s commitment to making great everyday support available in every neighbourhood. It’s a shift in how public services work with communities – moving from crisis response to early, connected support that helps people thrive.
It’s a partnership between NHS GM, GMCA, 10GM, local authorities, and the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise sector, and residents themselves. Together, they’re backing community-led action, reducing inequalities, and creating the conditions for better health, connection and opportunity across our city region.
As our Mayor Andy Burnham puts it:
“It’s time to reimagine how the state works with communities – to put people and places at the heart of growth so everyone in Greater Manchester can Live Well.”
The Greater Manchester Live Well Podcast brings all of this to life – capturing the voices, ideas and everyday experiences behind this growing movement.
MIC media CEO Vic Elizabeth Turnbull says,
“Producing the Greater Manchester Live Well Podcast has been a real honour. The scale of the voices, the ambition of the Live Well movement, and the sheer heart across Greater Manchester made this one of the most exciting projects we’ve ever taken on. At MIC media we specialise in social-impact storytelling, and this is exactly why – to help brilliant people, places and ideas be heard.”
A documentary-style journey across Greater Manchester
The Greater Manchester Live Well Podcast was recorded live at GM Live Well movement-building events over the past 18 months. Capturing the real conversations, tensions, hopes and ideas being shared between residents, community groups, voluntary organisations and public service leaders.
Throughout the series, you’ll hear the support Live Well aims to grow, brought to life – the libraries, barber shops, women-led groups, food banks, music cafés, community hubs and neighbourhood spaces that communities trust and rely on every day.
The podcast explores what happens when public services take a different approach: one that trusts communities to lead and focuses on offering a helping hand, not a hoop to jump through.
Across more than 100 voices, the Greater Manchester Live Well Podcast charts the city region’s shift towards a Live Well approach – prevention that starts with people and places, not systems and crises.
Listen here
Why Live Well matters
Across eight episodes, you’ll hear residents, organisers, GPs, youth leaders, community connectors, Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise groups, council teams and system leaders – including the Mayor – reflect on:
- what community-led support looks like in real life
- when and how systems should support this
- how equality, dignity and human connection grow locally
- what’s changing in Greater Manchester, and what still needs to
It’s a candid, hopeful journey from neighbourhoods to boardrooms, across all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester.
Why you should listen – who the Greater Manchester Live Well Podcast is for
This series is for anyone who cares about making things better where they live or work.
It’s for:
- people working in public services who know there’s a better way
- community groups, volunteers and local leaders doing the graft
- NHS, Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise organisations and statutory teams exploring prevention
- policymakers and system leaders looking for real-world examples
- social impact professionals, funders and innovators
- residents who want to understand how change is happening in their area
And it’s for anyone who wants to hear people at their best – collaborating, challenging, imagining and creating something new together.
Made possible by genuine partnership
This series has been shaped by a collaboration between MIC media, the Live Well team and the wider movement across Greater Manchester. The trust placed in us – and the willingness of hundreds of people to share their voices – is what makes the Greater Manchester Live Well Podcast so powerful.
As Annette Cloherty, Communications and Engagement Lead for Live Well, says:
“This series simply wouldn’t exist without MIC media. Vic and the team brought expert guidance, patience and real craft to every minute of this work. They helped us bring #GMLiveWell to life through the voices of more than 100 people, and captured the spirit of this movement in a way we couldn’t have imagined at the start.”
New episodes every Thursday
Eight episodes of the Greater Manchester Live Well Podcast will be released weekly throughout the rest of 2025 and early 2026.
Listen and follow the series here:
https://podfollow.com/greater-manchester-live-well-podcast
Thinking about starting a podcast?
That’s what we do. At MIC media, we help social-impact organisations and value-led good eggs make cracking, purposeful podcasts without the faff. Whether you need full production, training, or consultancy, we keep things simple, supportive and totally doable.
Fancy a chat about your idea?