The stress research podcast – a cultural podcast about stress and health
Stress is a reoccurring topic in media today, probably due to the fact that sick leave caused by stress-related disorders has increased and that many people experience stress in their everyday life. Because of this, stress is a relevant and important topic that attracts many readers and listeners. While it is good that stress problems gain attention, there is an obvious need of balanced information which does not exaggerate or underestimate the risk associated with stress.
The overall theme of the project is stress and the overarching aim is to provide a well-needed, nuanced source of knowledge about stress to the public. The specific aim is to produce a podcast based on international stress research, which can educate the public in a comprehensive and enjoyable, but knowledge-based, way.
Every podcast episode will start with a cultural expression, related to the topic of the episode. Thereby, we believe that we can allow new lines of thoughts from the researchers, as well as making the podcast more enjoyable for the listener and attracting new listeners. The themes of the first eight episodes will include the definition of stress, stress as a positive force, sleep and shift work, work-family conflict, treatment of stress related disorders, and sickness behavior (sickness stress).
Final report
The project's theme is stress in a broad sense and the overall aim is to offer a nuanced understanding of stress based on scientific knowledge. The specific aim is to produce a podcast in order to spread a knowledge-based picture of stress to the public, based on international stress research. By using a cultural expression connected to the current theme as a stepping stone in each episode, we try to attract researchers to talk from new angles, while at the same time making the episodes easy to listen to and able to appeal to a larger audience.
We have built up an organization led by Sandra Tamm and Mats Lekander, with recordings made in a studio or with our own equipment in another environment. Suggestions for editing and sound processing are made by others after brief instructions, after which Sandra and Mats validate the results. The episodes are planned and prepared jointly by Sandra Tamm and Mats Lekander. Sometimes interviews are conducted with researchers in other countries at conferences, to be included in sections on current themes which are then completed at home. The cultural elements that each episode is based on are based on the fact that both Mats Lekander and Sandra Tamm are active musicians and can use a wide network of contacts. This mainly applies to music, but elements and participation from those active in other cultural domains, such as theatre/film or literature, can also be included.
Because we believe that the project's goal of reaching a more nuanced picture of the stress area than is often the case has been successfully achieved, we continue to produce the podcast beyond the eight episodes outlined in the application, with the active support of the Stress Research Institute's management, who view the approach as successful. With the podcast format, we can control the content of the communication of research in a different way than when we more passively answer journalists' questions. We therefore reach out with an in-depth message of higher quality than is often otherwise the case, while the format is easily accessible. One example is that we often refer students to the podcast when they want to deepen their knowledge, for example in response to questions during lectures. This also applies to external lectures, such as to patient organisations, clinics or in other contexts. We recently tried a live recording format, in which the singer Isabella Lundgren was a guest at the Stress Research Day at Stockholm University, where in addition to participating in a conversation, she also sang three pieces together with the guitarist Mats Bergström. Overall, we think that the purpose of the podcast has been well achieved and that the usefulness of the podcast shows itself on a broader level than we expected.
In June 2023, we have had 24,500 listening sessions, but with statistics from Spotify (which we expect to be the largest platform) not available. We have a relatively low production rate of about one episode a month, now with a total of 26 episodes published.
Over time, we have been able to develop an efficient production method that saves time for the presenters, and where it turned out that external people can make editing suggestions that are then approved or refined. This is not only time efficient, but also means that the editing is done from a perspective that suits listeners without deeper prior knowledge. With the right preparation, the cutting work and post-production can also be minimized. Work remains to better spread awareness of the podcast via suitable platforms.
The stress research podcast is published on the usual major platforms.
We have built up an organization led by Sandra Tamm and Mats Lekander, with recordings made in a studio or with our own equipment in another environment. Suggestions for editing and sound processing are made by others after brief instructions, after which Sandra and Mats validate the results. The episodes are planned and prepared jointly by Sandra Tamm and Mats Lekander. Sometimes interviews are conducted with researchers in other countries at conferences, to be included in sections on current themes which are then completed at home. The cultural elements that each episode is based on are based on the fact that both Mats Lekander and Sandra Tamm are active musicians and can use a wide network of contacts. This mainly applies to music, but elements and participation from those active in other cultural domains, such as theatre/film or literature, can also be included.
Because we believe that the project's goal of reaching a more nuanced picture of the stress area than is often the case has been successfully achieved, we continue to produce the podcast beyond the eight episodes outlined in the application, with the active support of the Stress Research Institute's management, who view the approach as successful. With the podcast format, we can control the content of the communication of research in a different way than when we more passively answer journalists' questions. We therefore reach out with an in-depth message of higher quality than is often otherwise the case, while the format is easily accessible. One example is that we often refer students to the podcast when they want to deepen their knowledge, for example in response to questions during lectures. This also applies to external lectures, such as to patient organisations, clinics or in other contexts. We recently tried a live recording format, in which the singer Isabella Lundgren was a guest at the Stress Research Day at Stockholm University, where in addition to participating in a conversation, she also sang three pieces together with the guitarist Mats Bergström. Overall, we think that the purpose of the podcast has been well achieved and that the usefulness of the podcast shows itself on a broader level than we expected.
In June 2023, we have had 24,500 listening sessions, but with statistics from Spotify (which we expect to be the largest platform) not available. We have a relatively low production rate of about one episode a month, now with a total of 26 episodes published.
Over time, we have been able to develop an efficient production method that saves time for the presenters, and where it turned out that external people can make editing suggestions that are then approved or refined. This is not only time efficient, but also means that the editing is done from a perspective that suits listeners without deeper prior knowledge. With the right preparation, the cutting work and post-production can also be minimized. Work remains to better spread awareness of the podcast via suitable platforms.
The stress research podcast is published on the usual major platforms.