Media Storm - Q&A Special pt.2: Ask your hosts anything!

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

This week Media Storm hosts Mathilda and Helena answer all your questions - from tattoo regrets to the meaning of truth to who was shagging who in the newsroom. Variety. Join our supporters to ask your questions (and give us essential Media Storm funds) via ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! The episode is hosted and produced by Mathilda Mallinson (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@mathildamall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) and Helena Wadia (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@helenawadia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). The music is by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @soundofsamfire⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow us on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today.

We'd love to talk, business. Want to make a difference in your community, but not sure how? GoFundMe.com right now and start a GoFundMe. Seriously. Your next fundraiser doesn't have to start in a school parking lot or a church basement. You can start a GoFundMe today in just minutes. Fundraise for yourself, a friend, or family member, or an organization. All that matters is that you care about them.

GoFundMe is the trusted place to fundraise for what you care about. With no pressure to hit your fundraising goal, but tons of tools to help you reach it, You can confidently start fundraising right now, whether it's creative, local, or critical. Your cause matters. And there's a reason why GoFundMe is backed my millions and chosen by fundraisers everywhere. It works and it matters. GoFundMe helps you make a real difference.

Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com. That's gofundme.com. G-O-F-U-N-D-M-E.com. This is a commercial message brought to you by GoFundMe. Hello, Matilda. Good morning. Look at us, we're both so sniffly. I'm always sniffly, first thing in the morning, sexy. Anyway, welcome to part two of this very special Q&A episode,

and thank you patrons for your questions. We have been really excited to do this part two of Q&A because part one was really so much fun. We thought that we would get through all your questions in one. We didn't, and so we are back to finish. off the list. But first, we need to give you a quick update because this is also the series finale. This is the end of, God, what season are we on now? This is series seven. Seven series. Did you ever think you'd make seven series of Media Storm? I didn't think I'd ever make

seven series of anything. Did you ever think that series eight is going to come at the end of Jan? We've been renewed? Yes, we have renewed ourselves. We had a discussion. We had a discussion. with ourselves, and we decided to renew ourselves for series eight. Oh my God, thank you, ass. In the meantime, though, every little bit of your support counts. So if you are able to, and you haven't yet, please join our Patreon for less than a cup of coffee or more than a cup of coffee a month.

You can support me and Matilda. Maybe a cup of coffee each. Maybe. Yeah, all of these questions came from our Patreon subscribers, And so, guys, thank you also for sending in your questions. It's so nice to have like a dialogue with you and to know that we're not just sending thoughts out into the ether. Community is power.

Community is everything. And on that note, let's dive into the Q&A. Okay, our first question is from Eliza. Hi, I'd love to hear your takes on the relationship between the role of an activist and a journalist. Do you believe they are the same or different? Great Eliza Impression. Did I put on a voice?

Did I put on, like, I'm Eliza voice. I feel like you did at the beginning. It just really, it just really cracked me up. What kind of personality did I give her? I don't know, she sounds great. I want to meet her. Hi, Eliza. Bit of a teacher's pet, maybe.

Not real Eliza. Mitchell or Eliza. Yes, great question. I firmly believe that journalism is inherently activist. Anyone who goes into journalism is hopefully an enemy to falsehood and lies and unaccountability. You know, I thought really hard about what role I wanted to play in the cause for the social good. When I was growing up, I didn't immediately go into journalism. It was a route I chose through really calculated thinking about how I could be of value.

And I landed on journalism. However, I do think it's important that there is, often a distinction compared to other activist roles. If you are reporting on a protest, you know, you might be there because you think that the government or the public needs to hear these messages. You might be amplifying it, and that is in itself activist, but your role there is important. And it's very key that you remain distinct and independent from the protesters in order to actually be your value to the protest itself. Is that kind of how you felt on the flotilla? Yes, totally. Being on the flotilla, it was quite,

a tricky line to tow between the journalist and the activist, because, you know, being there was even more inherently activist than other journalists' tasks. My life was on the line. You're never going to put your life at risk unless you have moral conviction about the importance of being there. But it was very key that I remained independent from the global summit for TILA because the value that I provided was being able to independently fact check and verify everything they were saying. Like the drone attacks that were happening, me being able to say, yes, this has happened, is only of value if I am not perceived to be an arm of the flitilla itself. You know, having said that, there were also people who were like, oh, you know, isn't it a bit

unjournalistic for you to be on board? Isn't that a bit too activist? And that, I think, just reflects naivety about journalism. Why is it any more activist for me to be on that boat than it is for a reporter to be embedded with the British Army battalion overseas, like a lot of war correspondents are? There was nothing illegal about being on this boat. This was like a perfectly lawful group of civilians carrying humanitarian aid through international waters. All journalism is activism, all editorial decisions are activist. But my final thing I'd say is Helena and I obviously do approach the role, critically compared to mainstream journalism thinking.

I take issue with the idea that journalists need to be, quote, objective or, quote, unemotional because A, objectivity doesn't exist, and B, intelligence is not unemotional. And that's why you might have gotten the sense that media storm is a little bit off the beaten track as a journalism podcast. Yeah, I massively agree. I see journalism and activism as similar, like hugely intertwined, but not the same. There's that famous quote about journalism, right? It's like if someone says it's raining and another person says it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. It's your job to look out the window and find out which one is true.

So to me, journalism operates on reporting the truth. and activism is pushing your cause. That's where I see that they are not exactly the same. It's interesting that, you know, you distinguish between a cause and the truth because that for me is an impossible distinction. I know someone asked us about truth later, so we'll probably get into it then, but that I think is a very difficult distinction to draw. Okay, our next question is from Emily.

saw your joint media storm tattoos super cute do you have any other tattoos and if so what are they what do they mean and do you regret any i feel like that that needs reciprocation emily you need to tell us about your tattoo regrettm us on patreon and tell us about your tattoos um yes we got matching media storm tattoos they are very cute something we wanted to do for a while and while i feel like my Media Storm tattoo is obviously about Media Storm. It's about my friendship with Matilda because it's matching. I also feel like it's a very good reminder to me to take a risk and just like go for something because I quit quite a stable job to start Media Storm and it's been worth every bloody second. So yeah, that's what that tattoo stands for. Otherwise, I've got one on my

ribs which relates to coming out of a time where I had quite a bad mental health moment and then I've got three on my legs or ankles. One is the symbol for women. That's like quite a classic one I got quite young but I still love it. One is a matching tattoo with my friend Kiki which no one including us is entirely sure if it's a lotus flower or a weed leaf up for interpretation. The other one is called the Rose of Venus which is a geometric pattern. that Venus makes around the earth. And then my most recent one was done last year by Allie Inc, who also did our Media Storm Ones. She's an amazing tattoo artist in Hackney, and it's homage to my favourite band, The National,

and it's based on the lyric, it takes an ocean not to break. And I love it so much. And I don't regret any of them, apart from the Rose of Venus and the Women's Simple Tattoo were done by a man with, like, a massive tattoo gun, and they're quite like thick lines. And that really annoys me, because I, like, kind of want to get out. them redone but it's too late i do you regret any didn't know all of those tattoo stories and i feel like i should know that about you i mean i don't even know how many you have i don't think i do either my tattoo uh portfolio it's much more random because almost none of my tattoos were planned

i mean that checks out so much with your personality and my personality I literally am like meticulously planning them for years and then Tilda's like Yeah I'm not sure how many I have Some person just did it on me When I was dancing in a cave Get ready for a few stories like that My first ones were done by this trainee tattoo artist for a fiver

And it's just a little sun and a moon on my wrist Because my little sister Phoebe is the light of my life So she got a sun and a moon but now that like my work is often bringing me into Muslim spaces I get a lot of engagement with the crescent on my wrist and people wanting to know if it's something to do with my work which I think would be pretty appropriative if it was but anyway they seem to like it.

What else do I have? The only one that I actually sort of planned was I have a quote on my back which is written in the illustrative style of Quentin Blake who is the children's illustrator of all the rolled dull books and it is a role dull quite What is the quotes? It's actually borrowed by Role Dahl from an old Irish poem.

It says, we are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams. I got those were all when I was teenager. Rebel. I got a stick of poke on my thumb, which is when I used to work in Calais. It was done by a friend, and it's a little tent on my thumb. I have another stick of poke, which probably is the one I should regret, and I think most people would regret it, but I just like don't care enough to regret. And that was when I was dancing in a cave.

Yeah, no further comment needed. I thought that since I'd gotten tuts for my sister, it would be quite, it'd be only fair to get one for my brother. And his name is Barney. We used to call him Barabbas when we were young, because we were Christians, right? Very good Christians. And in the Bible, there's a story about when Jesus is going to be crucified.

and Pontius Pilate knows that Jesus is not a criminal. So he gives the people the chance to save one of the people who's going to be crucified. So there's Jesus, the son of God. And then there's Barabbas and he's like some, I don't know, rapist and thief. Oh my God. Pontius is like, guys, which one are you going to save? And the people are like free Barabbas. So Barabbas is freed instead of, and Jesus dies.

Yeah, so this drunk. Raver tattooed the Bible reference to Barabbas on the back of my elbow as an homage to my brother. Oh my God. Yeah. Anyway, I think that's enough for now. Yeah. Okay, our next question is from Marie or Mary. How do you and the media storm teen stay motivated since the left is always the target, it seems,

and everything seems to keep getting worse. That is a really good question. I was actually thinking about this the other day and basically I stay motivated by remembering that there are more good people in the world than bad and basically I was looking up negativity bias, right? For example, like we experience negative comments as more impactful or important than positive comments.

When I was researching this, it showed that we give anywhere from three to five times the weight to negative comments as we do to positive comments. So there's a disproportionate amount of attention on negativity. And this, I thought, was so fascinating, okay? So there was this research from Stanford in 2018 and it found that 74% of the conflicts on Reddit, the social media chat site, were instigated by only one percent of the users. And worse than that, most of these online conflicts were not fought by the people

who started them. So they were fought by these like innocent bystanders that got sucked into them. And that also happens in the real world, right? Like a very small percentage of people are responsible for a very large proportion of the hate and then innocent bystanders get sucks into it. And anyway, all of that to say that that means that most people are good. I also feel like we're more aware of everything in the world than we have ever been. And I'm not sure our brains are like wired to have that much exposure to everything in everyone's opinions. So when it all gets too much, I just remember that yeah, people are inherently good. That is really helpful. And that's really true. I just want to pick up on one part of the question. How do you in the media storm team stay

motivated? Team, lo! This is the whole team guys. We are the team. Look, I would say I have never been more motivated, right? When you are losing, your fight has never mattered more. My view of history is that it's two steps forward, one step back. Like, I do think things generally get better, but they don't do it in a straightforward way. And often a step forward. would, like, triggers a reaction. We can identify step-back periods of history, right? Like the 1930s. Well, guess what? We are entering a step back. And that is the era that we are going to be dealing with as a generation. But look, we all studied the Nazis, right? And we all sat there in the classroom and said, oh, I would have been part of the resistance. Or, you know, I wouldn't

have been a collaborator, even though the majority of people were. Well, now you have the chance to prove it, to know for sure. So, yeah, I would say, like, it never matters more than when you're losing. It's never been more meaningful to get out of bed and fight in our lifetime than it is now. But I understand that it is still demoralizing to be on the losing side. I've struggled a lot lately doing public immigration commentary, which was always my beat. And it makes me feel guilty that I'm not more vocal. So, yeah, I struggle.

But what helps is focusing on small wins and small goals. Don't self-aggrandize. You cannot change the world. But you can change one person's opinion or one person's mood. So identify what you can achieve in your corner. We all have a corner. Maybe it's your family dinner table. Maybe it's your office.

Maybe I don't feel like talking on the radio today about how migrants are fucking human beings. But what I can do is give my friend a call because I know he's lonely in his asylum hotel and be a friendly voice for him to chat to today. And I actually feel like that leads perfectly into. this next question from Eliza, who asked us the first question about journalism and activism. And they said, going a little more philosophical here, what does seeking the truth mean to you as

journalists? I find myself asking this question as I've been working as a news reporter and particularly now I'm starting a history degree. This is a really good question because, and it goes off what you were just saying, you can just talk to one person. For example, I was getting my haircut and the hairdresser was asking me like, oh, what do you do? And I said, you know, I'm a journalist. The hairdresser was like, oh, I don't get involved in any of that. Like, I don't listen to the news. I don't watch the news. I'm just not really intelligent enough. You must be so intelligent. And I was like, oh, no, you know, like anybody can get involved in the news. And I just started talking to him about what matters to him. Turns out, you know, he's a part of the LGBT

community. He really cares about men's mental health. Everything he was saying, I said to him, you know, that is politics. Like, that is political. That is the news. Anyway, by the end of it, I'm pretty sure that he was going to sign up to vote for the very first time. Oh my God. Wow. But I just, I feel like that is seeking the truth for me. It's like working towards making people care about knowing the truth. So it's not just like you knowing the truth that matters. Yeah, yeah. Well, I guess that's why you became general. Yeah. I really like that story because what we do does not matter at all if it's not accessible. Right, exactly. Yeah. So this is why I think I ended my last question, you know, asking if you can distinguish between chasing the cause like an activist does and chasing the truth like a journalist does.

Because, you know, there is no the truth. There isn't a single journalist who just tells you everything that is the case. I'm not like, hi, I'm reporting for the news and I've got a microphone in front of my face and there's a blue paint wall around me, you know, just shout every fact that is a fact and that's journalism. There is always selection involved. There is always the choice about what stories you consider worth telling. So for me, seeking truth is identifying which stories are really genuinely in the public interest. That's a bit jargony. You're taught that in journalism. That's how you justify maybe sharing details about a prime minister's sex life, is it or is it not in the public interest? And the thing is, most headlines for me fails this

test. All this cultural war bullshit we're seeing, all these headlines that are just peddling quotes of politicians or political rabblers that aren't fact check. That doesn't pass the public interest test. It requires thinking with perspective, right? What is being over-emphasized elsewhere? because then I don't need to tell that story. But what is being underreported, what voices have been left out, filling in the gaps? That is the role that Media Storm has chosen to do. And that is about seeking truth. And for me, this also comes from studying history, which I'm going to talk about because

Eliza you said you're about to do a history degree. Right, in history, you are taught critical thinking about narratives. You're taught to ask, why is this source claiming that the battle happened in this way? Victor's write history, yeah, and the people who lose, well, their voices get lost. But that happens in real time too. So the work we do now, at Media Storm, trying to find those voices, that is essential for the historians of the future. We are live archivists, and we're trying to provide justice in narrative.

So, yeah, I would say there's no knowable absolute truth. There is only getting closer to the truth, and the way of doing that is by seeking out more perspectives, the missing perspectives, the missing voices, that's our service to truth. Let's take a quick break. Hack the holidays with the PC holiday insiders report. Try this PC porquetta, crackling, craveworthy. You're going to eat that? Who are you?

I'm the voice for the next ad, car commercial, but I noticed that show-stopping roast and... Help yourself. Mmm, designed for... Indulgence. Precision crafted to navigate every corner of my mouth. All for just $18. Okay, okay. Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Please feast responsibly. Welcome back to Media Storm. Our next question is from PIPA. Hi both. I have a question for your next podcast. I can do my Pippa boys. How could the media, including live legacy media, better.

use AI tools to live fact check in interviews with politicians and guests or debates such as question time to make sure that the stats that are being said are accurate and to provide the viewer with the context of the stats or the facts rather than giving a platform to people who intentionally falsely spread information. Okay, so this question came before our episode into how AI is changing journalism. So, Pippa, I hope you enjoyed that episode and maybe it helped to answer some of your questions. I feel like live AI fact-checking is a really great idea in theory. However, what we know is that AI is currently trained on the information that is out there right now and the information that is out there right now is biased as we spoke about

more in our episode. And from what we have discovered by doing that episode, it kind of seems like you need human fact-checkers to fact-check the AI fact-checking. So maybe outlets to just hire humans to fact check during interviews? Yeah. We should absolutely have live fact checking. Like a question time, yeah. But also, you know, Prime Minister's questions every Wednesday. Oh yeah. We should obviously have live fact checking and there should be a little section at the end where anything that they said that was false should be cross-examined. So yeah, you're asking the right questions. How should we use AI for good? Live AI fact checking like GROC, right? Isn't that what GROC does on X?

Unfortunately, GROC is pretty good proof that live AI fact-checking, either it's not technologically developed enough yet, or it is inherently flawed. I suspect the latter. Why? Look, studies tested GROC's ability to identify the provenance of article excerpts, right? That means the origin of article excerpts. GROC was wrong 94% of the time. Oh my God. Yeah. This is my experience of AI, actually. If I dispatch it to do research, the main mistake it will make is completely ignoring the provenance of articles. I might say, oh, did any Tory politicians vote for this policy? And they'll say, oh yeah, seven did. And then I'll see that this is about a totally different policy in 2013. And this is the problem, like AI operates on affirmative

algorithm bias. So if you were going online to look for proof for a statement, you will always find proof for that statement because there is so much online. So I am inclined to think that AI is inherently flawed when it comes to fact-checking. It also hallucinates. That means like it generates entirely fabricated info. And so without human intervention, what you'll get online is a cycle of self-affirming info because it will generate and then it will use that to back it up. So right question, but I think AI might be the wrong answer.

Next question, would either of you go on GB News or similar kinds of programs that you've criticized as not really news? if they asked you to speak about a topic that you cared about. I know both of our answers already. Yeah, we have differing answers on this. However, okay, I think it's a tricky balance. I don't think it's good to legitimise programmes like GB News because, I mean, it's called GB News, but it's not a news program. Like, offcom can barely keep up with the amount of times that they break the code.

And I feel like when well-established journalists put themselves on these kind of shows, then that does legitimize their. Also, I've had really bad experiences myself of going on these debate-style shows years ago when I was asked to go on Jeremy Vine's BBC Ralea 2 show to discuss different politicians' attitudes towards LGBT rights. It ended up with me side by side with someone from a highly transphobic organisation, not a trans person in sight or to be heard, with Jeremy Vine asking me, well, should we let men into women's bathrooms or women's prisons? And like, I just felt so upset and set up after that that I feel like a lot of these shows are not done in good faith. Also, there's another side to it, which is that I've come to the conclusion that I believe I am not personally built for these kind of shows. Even shows like question time, which are, you know, very legitimate on an important news channel. Even shows like that are often set up as like debate style can be quite clickbaity or sensationalist.

And in those cases, I feel like it's just knowing who you are. Like, I used to really want to be a social commentator and go on all these shows. And now I've just learned that my personality, my mental health, whatever, it's all better suited to something like Media Store, where it's thoroughly research, it's laid out. I can feel really confident in it. I'm not put in a situation that's, like, heightening my, like, fight or flight. So I think it also just, like, yeah, really depends on who you are. and I think that's also a good thing to recognize. That's a really good thing to recognize.

The thing I disagree with is the, oh, if you go on, you legitimize these programs. I don't really know what that means. Like, these programs exist and a lot of people watch them, and they don't give a shit if we consider them legitimate or not, they're there. And also, those people, you know, what they want to consume is relevant because of the massive role it plays in shaping our society and the politics that affects. all of our lives. So for me the answer is yes. I wouldn't go on like any topic debate. It has to be

a public interest discussion, not just a cultural war. But the main reason that I would be inclined to say yes is because maybe my biggest war right now is polarization. I think polarization is one of the most damaging forces, not just for society, but for justice. The humanitarian issues I care about. I don't think anything has done more damage to refugee rights than polarization. And we can polarize each other as well. Like even if you are just fighting so hard for something you believe in, you might end up polarizing others and that's something that increasingly we need to notice in our behaviour. So reaching across the divide is one of the most important acts of activism in my mind right now. But that also makes going on these shows dangerous because nothing has done more to

polarise than these shows. So if you go on them, you have to be very careful not to play the game. Someone has to go on to interrupt the binary, to challenge the line of questioning. I did that go back to where you came from, Channel 4 documentary. It was really hard, and my biggest fights were with the guy behind the camera. I've said this on, you know, we talked about it on Media Stone. We had Jess and Nathan on. Jess and Nathan were two very, very anti-immigrant Brits who travelled with me along this refugee trail, met the people doing the journey, and were encouraged to debate with me along the way. But what was going to change their minds

was definitely not me insulting them or calling them racist or ignorant and provoking pride instead of letting their organic response to the realities in front of them do the work. So the key is challenging the format. Exactly. And before you went on, that was the main thing I said to you, right?

I was like, don't play their game. I said, you know, kill them with facts, kill them with kindness. but yeah, don't play their game. And you didn't and it was very effective. No, it's true. You were really, really helpful in like making me think so hard about that. And I really tried and it was not easy.

And to be honest, like I'm not really in the documentary that much because while I didn't play the game, I also didn't really know how to meet Channel 4's editorial desire without playing the game. So it takes training. To be honest, like doing this, it takes training. And you can't just do it on any topic. because the host always has an advantage. So you've got to be really intellectually equipped on the topic.

So, yeah, like I say yes, but I realize it is not an easy task to take on. Our next question is for Mary. This is so funny. It says, Helena, on the Q&A part one, you mentioned someone in a newsroom stealing your story. What's the goss? Are you going to finally out your nemesis? No.

No, I don't, okay, I don't even know how I can see this. Okay, as with any job, we can have kind of shitty superiors. Mary is not going to be satisfied with this. No, okay, okay. I'll try and give some goss, but basically, I think a lot of this has to do with, like, power structures and the power structures and big companies. And essentially, this person, my superior in this case, just like didn't fight for us, didn't fight for our stories. And they just agreed with the most powerful person in the room. So often I'd spend a lot of time on a story and then like one higher up kind of, you know, shitty, powerful man would maybe raise like a tiny concern about it.

And this person, my manager, would just kill the story instead of pushing back because essentially they were too scared to go up against power structures and didn't really ever have an original thought of their own. But ultimately, when those powerful people that they're too scared to go up against are all like middle age, middle class white men, the stories I was trying to put out that maybe impacted minority communities just never saw the light of day, really. I think the specifics, specifics. Yeah, okay. I think the specific example of stealing a story that I was laughing about in last time's Q&A was that I had discovered this story. I pitched it to my manager. They said no and that it wasn't important enough. and then basically two weeks later it was on the front cover of the Telegraph, Vogue, the Times, it was on the homepage of the BBC, and then basically my manager got the contact off me and then did the story with their byline and not mine.

So yeah, shit happens. So bad. You know what? I will out a Telegraph editor who once took my report, changed the story so that it no longer reflected reality was basically just rage bait and put his name on the byline. I would say that that felt not just like being robbed, but having the robber leave a massive turd

where your TV used to be. Mary follows this up with, on that note, do you have any juicy gossip from your time in the mainstream media? We do. Yes, when the people were shabbing. Oh my God, that's too juicy. We'll be sued.

It's too big. it out. Cut it out. Amy. Hi, Amy. I'm seeing an increase of people on social media with really large followings talking about mental health, so-called mental health influences. What do you think about this and how do we know they are legitimate? Should we be taking advice from them? Oh my God. You want to gossip. I know who Helen is thinking of. Oh, man. Okay, again, we might have to beep out a name. No, I feel strongly about this because I've had some. personal experience of this, which I won't go into, because it's not the point, but the point

is, I have seen firsthand how the social media churn can become more important to an individual than giving out actually good, healthy advice. So I would say, be really fucking wary, okay? If someone calls themselves a therapist or a life coach or a mental health expert online, look them up, research their credentials. If they've got nothing to hide, then it should be very obvious in what way they are qualified for that job. The other thing I would say is that in an industry, like any industry, when someone is saying one thing and then applying that one thing to a large audience, that can never be advice that applies to everyone.

As an example, comedians, comedians have large platforms or are performing in front of the massive live audience. We'll probably make their jokes really broad so that everyone in that audience can hopefully find that joke funny or relate to it in some way. And similarly, these mental health influences will say really broad, sweeping things to try and apply this to hundreds of thousands of people who follow them and be like, you know, if someone's toxic in your life, you should just cut them out. But the consequences can be far more severe than just, you know, listening to a joke from a comedian. So yeah, be really freaking wary. We actually did an episode kind of on this a while ago.

It was called Mental Health, the pros and pitfalls. of diagnosis and it was a lot about like the self diagnosis wave coming out of social media and it was a really good episode it really speaks to the issue you're talking about i learn a lot from it and the question the key question which this episode asks is who benefits right you've always got to ask that and look like i'm gonna sound like a dickhead here like maybe i am a bit of a dickhead on this topic but personally i find this culture of the self that we're all being suffocated with i find And it not just like indulgent and hyper, modern and Western, but actually counterproductive to well-being, which comes out of not orienting your entire existence around yourself, but just

doing the day and like putting other people first. I know that this is not university treat when it comes to mental health. Like mental health is physical health and yeah, it's this, it's this brand of like self-care, yourself first, be selfish. Right. I'm honestly in cringing agony when I see a lot of it. And frankly, I think there's something quite parasitic about an industry that is built in large part of ballooning unnecessary self-awareness so that it can charge people for solutions to problems that they didn't know that they had. It's not that different to like the cosmetics industry in that respect. Yeah, be wary. Our next question is from Jamie. How much of your time does Media Storm take up over a typical,

if that exists, week or month? You've both mentioned some of the other work you do as well. it sounds busy. Well, you're not wrong there, Jamie. Every waking, breathing minute. Technically, we both work on Media Storm for two and a half days a week, I guess. But realistically, yeah, it's every single waking moment that we're alive.

Also, like, Helen and I will be at a music festival and I'll turn around and Helen will be like, yeah, like, so we've got this podcast called Media Storm. But it's like bringing the missing voices into the mainstream. No, literally, when I had surgery and I came to from the surgery, and I was like high off of the surgery drugs.

Apparently I was like promoting Media Storm to the nurse that was looking after me. And my mom was like, my God, do you ever give it a rest? Yeah, it's a lot. I like doing other things, but I wish I could do Media Storm full time. But yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. Our week breakdown is basically two and a half days on Media Storm, two and a half days on other work. And that's what our very regular five-day working week.

looks like. And we've refined it. I use AI in editing now. I don't use it in fact checking. I'm afraid. Thank God. But yeah, there's always more work to you. I don't know like, I don't know this feeling. Oh, I'm done. Is that a, is that a feeling that exists? Does anyone know that feeling? I've never heard of that in my life. And this kind of leads into the next question, which is how is media storm funding going and what can we do to help? Oh my God. Yeah, that's my like the to do list that never ends. How do we get more money? Look, okay, there's probably an end date to our current grant funding, which has been our lifeblood for the last two years. And the reason for that is that the foundation, where that comes from, has been really spread thin since Donald Trump

cut US aid and also slash research and development funding because the entire philanthropic section in America is trying to plug those gaps. So we're looking for more funding options. Our costs are as low as they can be, and basically every donation, it buys time. It buys another week of Media Storm. So if you have a chunk of money to put somewhere, approach us and we can show you exactly how much Media Storm that will buy. And the hope is always that the more time Media Storm is continuing, the more chance there is for a viral breakthrough that means we can just pay for ourselves.

We're not there yet. Yeah. It's really hard for a podcast to get to that is like as research and neighbour intensive as ours and not then just delivered by a celebrity with a massive multi-million following. Exactly. Please, as Matilda said, every donation buys us time. Also, send us suggestions of ethical brands, you know, like Lush or Ben and Jerry's or Tony's Chocololoni, or contact them and tell them to sponsor us.

Or if you have a brand, a small brand and you want your brand advertised on MediaStorm, you can also contact us. There's lots of different ways we can help each other. next question what do you see for the future of media storm shall we put this into the universe one two three a book a book we want to write a book put that out into the universe we've done four years of in-depth research into pretty much every sector of coverage collecting the voices of people from those communities and having them critique the coverage so there is so much information that we want to archive there's a book in there for sure also

we want to do more educational engagements or workshops. We love doing that. That feels also like the most tangible change making you can do is engaging with an incoming generation of journalists or activists or citizens. And it kind of leads into the next question, which is, would you come and speak at my university? Yes. I recently spoke at the University of Westminster about Media Storm and Media Literacy, but we can also do workshops about media literacy or about ethical reporting or about creating a podcast.

We can do media training. I do media training with level up about reporting responsibly on domestic abuse. I did that at the University of Westminster recently. In the next months, I'm speaking at UCL, Anglia Ruskin and SOAS, although SOAS I'm speaking on their like Palestine student encampment, which I think is anti-SOAS. But the point is like it's not just journalism or comm students, but also societies or courses focused on social justice, focused on activism. Yeah, we love doing that. So don't hesitate to reach out. Our next question is, please can you make some MediaStorm merch? Yes. Oh my God, we really, really want to. Okay, if you are an independent designer, please get in touch to make MediaStorm

merch. Like, I want to support a small independent designer if we are going to do it. So please, get in touch. Just not our faces on cushions again. Oh yes. Not that. It's just staring at me. It's scary. That was from the British podcast awards where, because we were

nominated, we got our face on a cushion. So good times. Our husbands have had to like deal with this being in each of their beds at one point. Lucky boys. Next one, this is for you, Helena. Who are your favourite musicians and bands and why? And is Samfai and Matilda's sister?

You can answer that. Yes. Samfire, who does the music for Media Storm, is my sister, who is also the life of my light, as previously mentioned. So please search Samphire, S-A-M-F-I-R-E on whatever your music, I don't know, platform is. And if you like her, just loop her, share her, put her on playlist. That's really, really good for artists when they are put on playlist. It's great for their algorithm.

And follow her on social media at Sound of Samfire. Yeah, I love Sampire so much. And her music is incredible. She's very like Florencey, you know, Lana Del Rey. So like, if you like that vibe. A bit of drama. Very dramatic. I love it.

Favorite musicians of bands? I feel like, basically, I didn't grow up in a household with music. So I never, like, listened to music. We were never one of those families that, like, had the radio on or had music on or anything. So I was very just like listening. to like the top 40 mostly like throughout school and stuff and then basically when I was like 16 an ex-boyfriend who honestly was like the worst man in the world apart from his music taste he played pixies for the first time I heard it and I was like what the hell is this like this is

incredible this is unbelievable I've never heard music like it and just listening to that pixies song just led me on an indie rock path and I've just never turned back basically. Oh, someone give Helena a music podcast. Oh my God, please. I have no time but I will do it, please. Okay, the next question is from Alex on Patreon. What have you learned the most from the other person, Helena from Matilda and Matilda from Helena?

That's so cute. That's so cute. Who's going to go fair? I don't know. I don't know. Oh, my God. Okay, I'll go first. Okay, go on. I'm intrigued.

Okay, yeah. I know what the answer is, but it has, like, taken lots of different forms as our relationship has evolved. Because it started right when you were my senior colleague at the evening standard in my first, like, journalism job. And it was, it's attention to detail. But that means one thing in a professional context, and it also means something in a personal context. So I'm quite trigger-happy, I just like get the job done, I publish, and to be honest, you know, I was probably publishing quite a few too many typos. But that really became relevant then when I got angry with the editors and I wanted to write a letter about how terrible and racist, not refugee coverage was. And Helena went over it and just, you know, had me really consider every sentence to think about how is this going to be heard, how is this going to generate a response?

And I'd say in our work, the pattern is I press the go button and you stop and think and make sure that what we're actually going out with is as good as it can be and as considerate as it can be. And I think that's what it really is, on a personal level, is it's like consideration. I notice that like I normally am doing the audio edits on the podcast. That's our division of labour right now. So in the live conversation, I'll notice that Helena would maybe interject or ask someone to like repeat something and I don't really get it. And then when I'm listening back in the edit, I'm like, oh, she really heard. Yeah, it's like a slower process, but a more considerate process. And it's not in my nature.

It's in your nature. But I really admire it and I try to imitate it. That's so cute and so funny because my answer is like the same but just reversed. It's so funny. Because it's like my, when immediately when I read it. this question, what have you learnt the most from the other person? I just thought about like saying yes to everything and going up to people and just talking to them. Like, especially when we first started Media Storm, but still now, you know, we go to events where there's networking

and I'm kind of like, oh, okay, build myself up to like go and speak to someone. And then Matilda arrives and she's just like, hello everyone. And just like goes up to people and's like, hey, I'm Matilda, who are you? No drama just so it goes and speaks to people all the time. And it's just, it's just amazing. So yeah, my, my thing is like I have learned to take risks and learned to just say yes to everything. And crucially, what I think your dad told you, which you've now passed to me, is never miss a party. Yes. It's honestly where most of our funding has come from.

Exactly. Never miss a party. So I've also learned that. Oh, that was so cute. We are just the perfect team. I hope you guys all have a Helena I hope you guys have a Matilda A crazy

risk-taking Matilda Okay we have reached our final question Which we deliberately left to last Because I loved it so much It is from Jamie Do you want to read it out? Yes I do Jamie I'm Jay

Hi I'm Jamie Oh God If the social justice fairy Fixed all the world's problems, what would you want to do with all your spare time? I literally have just written in my notes in capital letters, move to the sea and swim and never stop swimming. Oh my God, I would just move to the sea and watch Helena swim and never watch. Helena swimming is so cute. She's like a little, happy little dolphin in her like turquoise little swimming costume and

she's just flipping about like so cute and happy. I just love this. sea. I'm just happiest in water, any water. It is adorable. Me, I would dance. I would dance all night long with my friends and then I would sleep all day. I would definitely get some sleep. Probably also by the sea. Yeah. Oh God, what an ideal world to live in. Wow, social justice fairy. Please, where are you? Where are you? Thank you for listening. If you want to support Media Storm, you can do so on Patreon for less a cup of coffee a month. The link is in the show notes and a special shout-outs to everyone in our Patreon community already. We appreciate you so much. And if you enjoyed this episode,

please send it to someone. Word of mouth is still the best way to grow a podcast, so please do tell your friends. You can follow us on social media at Matilda Mal, at Helena Wadia, and follow the show at MediaStorm Pod. MediaStorm is an award-winning podcast produced by Helena Wadia and Matilda Mallinson. The music is by Samphire.