Dave Pickering started making podcasts in 2008 with a DIY attitude and very little money. Since then his work has been nominated for Sony Radio and Audio Production awards, won a British Podcast award, made a radio series for Cbeebies and been able to give up his day job and become a freelancer. Among many other podcasts he currently produces Made of Human for Sofie Hagen. In all that time he’s only ever bought one recording device and has never paid for audio software.

In this session he will cover thinking big whilst spending small, making your limitations your strengths, finding the best ways to work with the resources you have, how good content trumps good sound quality and approaches to sourcing kit. We will also go through the approaches Dave has taken on different shows over the years, with practical tips and advice, as well as all the mistakes he’s made on the way (so you can avoid making them yourselves.)

Dave Pickering

Dave Pickering is a podcaster, storyteller and writer. As well as co-producing the magical realist podcast drama The Family Tree, he produces Made of Human with Sofie Hagen, The Breakup Monologues with Rosie Wilby and The Restart Project podcast.

His drama series Numbers, written for RethinkDaily, was nominated for the Sony Radio Awards in 2009. His podcast Getting Better Acquainted (which ran from 2011-2019) was nominated for a Radio Production Award in 2012, was featured on BBC Radio 4’s In Pod We Trust, BBC Radio 5 Live’s Required Listening, has been recommended by The Guardian, Time Out and the Financial Times, and in April 2017 it won a British Podcast Award (bronze in Best Interview Category).

Dave ran a live night and podcast called Stand Up Tragedy for 5 years which was recommended by The Guardian and The Independent. In 2015 he developed a live theatre show called What About the Men? Mansplaining Masculinity which was released as a podcast through Stand Up Tragedy and led to writing and performing the BBC Radio 4: Four Thought piece Liberating Men.

He co-wrote and produced the Cbeebies Radio series, Ministry of Stories which starred Jenni Murray. He is part of the Spark True Stories team, hosting their Hackney true storytelling Open Mic from 2012 to 2018, running true storytelling workshops and producing podcasts and live shows for them.