I have news! Exciting news! Today I’m launching Girl on the River, the Podcast – a brand new podcast to go side by side with Girl on the River the blog.

At Girl on the River the Podcast I’ll be interviewing cool and interesting people from all around the rowing and sporting world. Among the guests I’ve already got lined up are Olympic and Paralympic medalists, an Atlantic rower, a BBC presenter and a high-profile campaigner for women’s sport. I’ll be interviewing sleep experts, dietitians and physios about keeping ourselves fit and healthy, and asking technical experts for advice on technique. And I won’t be forgetting those indoor rowers amongst you – there’ll be plenty of erg monsters appearing on the podcast as well.

So far I’ve uploaded a trailer, and the first interview (which I promise you, you will NOT want to miss) drops next Wednesday, 25th November. Episodes will come out on a Wednesday (earlier if you’re a Patron – see below) and I’m aiming to make most of them about an hour long so you can listen to them during your steady state sessions on the erg / bike / run.

As I say in the trailer, Girl on the River the Podcast isn’t just about my guests and me – it’s just as much about you, the listener. If we’ve learned one thing this year, it’s the importance of community in rowing and in sport, and so I’m hoping you’ll all jump in and get involved. I’ll have regular Q&As and listener debates and I want to hear your voice on there!

So, where can you find the podcast? Well, the easiest way (especially if you don’t have a podcast app) is just to come straight here to the blog, where you can find it under the Podcast tab which takes you straight to the podcast site – you can listen to episodes directly there – the trailer is already up. In addition you can listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and all of the major podcast providers. Just search for Girl on the River and up it pops. If you feel inclined to subscribe / follow, that would be even better, and if you enjoy what you hear, a review would be incredibly welcome.

One more thing – you can also get hold of extra perks and early episodes. Having discovered how much it actually costs to set up and run a podcast (a lot, it turns out!), I’ve launched a Patreon scheme which enables you, for a modest monthly sum, to access everything from bonus episodes and videos to invitations to Zoom workouts and shout-outs on the show. For more information, either click on the little heart symbol you’ll see at the top right hand side of my podcast page or go straight to my Patreon page where you’ll find all the information you need.

I’m ridiculously excited about launching Girl on the River the Podcast as it’s the obvious next step for me – I founded the blog back in 2011 as a place to chat about everything to do with the sport. If there had been such a thing as a podcast back then (or at least if I’d known about them), I’d have surely started one then. And it would have happened two or three years sooner if life hadn’t intervened.

Before you go scooting off to subscribe and to listen to the trailer, I’d like to give a hat tip to a few people who have been absolutely key in bringing my early ideas to actual fruition. The first is Mike and Bethan of Low Key Audio who mentored me through my first tentative steps and patiently answered all my dumb, newbie questions. If you are thinking of starting a podcast yourself and are confused by all the information out there, they’re a great place to start. Then there’s Illya Derigs who designed the artwork and translated my vague ideas into something rather lovely. Finally ENORMOUS thanks to Aaron Jackson of Broken Oars podcast (a brilliant rowing podcast which has been a huge inspiration to me) who composed the beautiful music. If you haven’t listened to the Broken Oars podcast yet, it’s well worth a listen.

So all that remains is for me to let you go and have a listen to the trailer and subscribe to the podcast. Let me know who you’d like to hear on there and what topics you’d like to see discussed.

Happy listening!