Be Open

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New podcast encourages the Bath Spa community to ‘Be Open’

Meg Robertson, Bath Spa Equalities Officer, and Neetu Karwal, Vice President Welfare and Community at Bath Spa Student’s Union, both love podcasts - and they also love talking. So they decided to use their powers for good and have joined forces to promote equality and diversity.

Be Open is a brand new equality and diversity podcast from Bath Spa University and Bath Spa Students’ Union. In the podcast, Meg and Neetu explore their experiences of mental health, race, gender, sexuality, disability and all things equality and diversity.

Talking about what inspired them to make a podcast, Neetu said:

“We both love listening to podcasts because it's a different form of expressing yourself, and anyone can listen to them wherever and whenever they like. We realised it's something that Bath Spa was missing - and we thought it would be a fun way to get our opinions out there!”

Meg (MA Arts Management) and Neetu (BA (Hons) English Literature) are both recent Bath Spa grads. Like Neetu, Meg was also Vice President Welfare and Community, which, along with being a queer, neurodivergent woman herself, is where she found her passion for equality, diversity and inclusion. Neetu’s experience as a South Asian woman living in Bath inspired her to get involved in shaping how English Literature is taught and assessed at Bath Spa, as well as informing her dissertation on co-creating a new podcasting module. 

By sharing their experiences, Meg and Neetu hope to help others find a sense of familiarity and community of like minded people, or teach people something along the way.

“We hope that someone somewhere feels like they can also make a difference by telling their story,” Neetu said. 

Meg added: “And we hope that at least one person will learn something from what we’re saying, and perhaps change the way they act, be more aware of their behaviour, or even call out behaviours when they see them.”  

Creating the podcast has also been rewarding for both of them and something they can be #BathSpaProud of. Reflecting on the experience, Meg said:

“After the first episode came out and we saw ourselves on Spotify, we were suddenly so proud of ourselves. We’ve both gone through a lot with mental health and self-confidence, so putting ourselves out there and getting lots of positive feedback has been amazing.”

The first three episodes of Be Open are available on Spotify now, and new episodes will be released monthly.