Today we’d like to introduce you to Lesley-Anne Beadles.
Hi Lesley-Anne, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Unsinkable: The Titanic Podcast is a collection of human stories filtered through history, the micro and the macro, and I’d been working toward it for twenty years (without even realizing). I fell in love with the Titanic story as a young teenager when the 1997 film came out, and it’s been a personal through-line my whole life. But more importantly, in college I discovered the power of oral history through two projects I headed in Louisiana and Arkansas–one with paper mill workers and their families and another with those involved in the early rock and rockabilly music scenes in the South. The rich complexities you unearth when you interview someone, even the most “ordinary” of people, are astounding. I followed this trail to graduate school, where I cut my academic teeth; I took coursework in nineteenth- and twentieth-century history, taught courses myself, and earned a PhD in American history with a dissertation on industrialization.
To be frank, I felt a bit lost after graduate school, as the academic job market is scant and also not the most advantageous for women. I worked in public history for a bit, had my kids (who are 5 and 7 now and know way too much about Titanic), took a little break from academia, thought a lot about what kind of history I wanted to write and share. And during the early stages of the pandemic, it all came to me; I have spent the past two years meticulously researching the passengers and the cultural history of Titanic, and this podcast is a way for me to connect not only with other Titanic enthusiasts but also other historians, other women in podcasting and history, and just those people who love history and want to know the gorgeous details of the lives of those on Titanic and of those who built her. The cultural history of the ship ties in with every theme of American and global history you could imagine, and I want to explore them all.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As a young woman in academia (I went to graduate school at 21), it was anything but a smooth road, but I’ve learned that advocating for myself and pursuing my own unique road in the historical realm is what works. In terms of the podcast, yes, I’ve been so lucky for a smooth start. I’m a one-woman show: I write, produce, record, edit, run my social media; but it’s all fun and each week I hear from so many listeners all over the world and feel, even six months in, that I have some remarkable connections.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I view myself as a writer first and foremost. Podcasting is a creative platform, and there’s room for humor and improv, obviously, but my episodes are largely scripted pretty meticulously. I take great pains to find primary and secondary sources for each topic. Sadly there are a lot of history podcasts out there that don’t embrace actual research, and what you get in that scenario is just misinformation. I think what sets me apart is not only the emotive nature of my writing (I also love to write fiction sometimes, so I think it all melds together as far as my style) but also the quality of my content. I want to be moved and I want my listeners to be moved.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I’ve learned in my education, in my career, in my life has been that for your content/finished product to be truly quality and authentic and worthwhile, you have to follow your gut. It sounds cheesy, I know, but I never felt fulfilled as a historian or a writer until I embraced the thing I’d been dying to research and immerse myself in since childhood–Titanic. I feel like we all have the things we actually obsess over and then the things we present outward to try and impress those around us. I say forget the latter. I think we feel successful when we get that surge of adrenaline of chasing what we actually, unabashedly love.
Contact Info:
- Email: unsinkablepod@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.unsinkablepod.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unsinkablepod/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/unsinkablepod
Image Credits
All personal photos were taken by my family and we have rights, obviously. The Titanic images are from the Library of Congress digital collection and are accessible on their website/free to use with credit.
