You’re Dead to Me
In 2020, Olivia Croyle (University of East Anglia) undertook a CHASE funded placement with Muddy Knees Media as a researcher for the BBC 4 podcast, ‘You’re Dead to Me’. The podcast aims to make a wide variety of historical subjects accessible to a broad audience by injecting high quality research with funny commentary by comedians. ‘You’re Dead to Me’ is hosted by Greg Jenner, who is joined each week by a professional historian and a well-known comedian to discuss a particular topic, person, or period of history.
Olivia says: “Have you ever wondered how a dead man won an Olympic event, or why the pilgrims took so many pairs of shoes with them on the Mayflower? Has it ever occurred to you that, while Genghis Khan did do some questionable things, he also had a very effective management style? No, me neither. That is, not until I started my part time placement as a researcher on BBC Sounds history podcast, ‘You’re Dead to Me’.
What attracted me to the placement was the chance to see public history outside of museums and heritage sites. One of the exciting things about ‘You’re Dead to Me’ is that it often either reassesses subjects that feature heavily in pop culture or the school curriculum, or puts important subjects and people that have failed to get the historical recognition they deserve into the spotlight.
My role was to take a topic for a particular episode and produce research notes to support production. Not only did the research need pass the scrutiny of an academic specialist, it also had to act as a basis for a funny script. Being able to approach these kinds of topics is one of the most important jobs of a public historian, and was exactly the kind of experience I was looking for in participating in this placement. [Working for ‘You’re Dead to Me’ was a welcome break from the sometimes isolated PhD research routine, [and gave me the opportunity] to collaborate with others and see a finished product delivered to a large audience.”
Placement Supervisor and ‘You’re Dead to Me’ Scriptwriter Emma Nagouse says: Olivia’s work on the BBC Sounds podcast 'You're Dead To Me' has been hugely beneficial to Muddy Knees Media. Olivia joined the team as a researcher and provided rigorous, thoughtful and prompt research notes which formed the basis of the scripts for the show. Excellent research is essential to You’re Dead To Me’s goal of delivering University-level education to a huge range of audiences in a fun and friendly format. Olivia’s diligence and reliability has made that possible. She delivered in spades! It’s been a delight to have Olivia on the team and we’d love to work with her again in the future.
Listen to an edition of the ‘You’re Dead to Me’ podcast featuring Olivia’s research here.