Journalist and broadcaster Claire Fordham introduces her latest creative project, a podcast: “The Chat with Claire Fordham.”
Interesting people. Regular contributor to the Messenger Mountain News, Claire Fordham loves writing and reading about them, but hearing them speak with their own unique voices is an even better way to understand their stories and what makes them tick.
Considering her extensive experience as a freelance journalist—she worked for the BBC, ITN and Sky News in the UK and wrote a weekly anecdotal column for Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper, The Sun and currently writes regularly for Huffington Post, The Malibu Times and us, she is an author as well. Her first book, “Plus One: A Year in the Life of a Hollywood Nobody,” inspired the mockumentary, The Making of Plus One, starring Jennifer Tilly, Amanda Plummer, Geraldine Chaplin and John Sessions, which was launched at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010—there is no doubt a podcast was inevitable.
In “The Chat with Claire Fordham,” that launched October 9, she shares extended interviews with people she wrote about in the Messenger— the “Good Witch” Coco Blignaut, musical warrior Tony Selvage, creative visionary Kathy Eldon and death midwife Olivia Bareham.
“The podcast goes into more detail than a print article can due to space constraints,” says Fordham. “Not all the guests are Topanga residents, but a lot of the early ones are based on Messenger articles. I guarantee you’ll learn a lot more about them on ‘The Chat’,” which is also available on iTunes for free.
Fordham says she had been thinking about doing a podcast for a while. “I didn’t have the technical wherewithal. Then I met Tiago Barreiro, when I interviewed puppet master Steven Ritz-Barr, whom I now know lives three doors down from me in Topanga, possibly the shortest route Waze has ever had to calculate.”
Tiago is Associate Producer on Ritz-Barr’s Classics in Miniature film, “The Legend of Joan of Arc.” (see Messenger Mountain News, “The Puppet Master”, Vol 1, No. 14, July 28, 2017).
“We got chatting and Tiago is exactly the producer, engineer and social media whizz I’ve been looking for,” says Fordham. “By the way, Ritz-Barr gave his blessing for Tiago to work with me on ‘The Chat.’ I didn’t just steal him.”
Her most recent book, Life Lessons for Mia Rose: An Irreverent Guide to Living and Loving Well, was inspired by the birth of her granddaughter. “In it,” she says, “I share the experiences of my own lessons learned covering subjects from sex, love and marriage, to dying, death and religion. So, you see, I’m not scared to discuss tantalizing topics.”
She asks readers to put on their headphones, click on the link and give “The Chat” a listen. “If you like it, share it. Also, if by some chance, you’re a business and would like to sponsor us, let’s talk.”
To listen to The Chat for free: clairefordham.com; clairefordham.com/itunes; clairefordham.com/coco; messengermountainnews.com.