Character Study

Hope Tala: Passage Reading – A Story To Tell

Singer-songwriter Hope Tala reads from her debut album Hope Handwritten in this passage episode of Character Study. Hope reads the lyrics to A Story to Tell — a song she wrote on a sunny day in Los Angeles when the music wasn't coming and she felt completely stuck — and reflects on why writing has been a solace since she was a teenager, the quiet resistance of making things purely for yourself, and why creativity isn't something reserved for artists. She and Freya talk about half-finished diaries, the 13-year-old boy on a ferry with headphones and a notepad writing songs, and why somewhere along the way we start to feel embarrassed by the urge to make things. This is a conversation about what it means to have a story to tell — and why all of us do. 🎥 WATCH the full episode HERE [https://youtu.be/GTaCRIQgY_4] 📘 Buy Freya's novel: A Real Piece of Work [https://www.foyles.co.uk/book/a-real-piece-of-work/freya-bromley/9781529155433] 💛 Follow @freybromley [https://www.instagram.com/freybromley/] on Instagram for updates and to ask your questions 📚 Join Freya's newsletter at freyabromley.substack.com [http://www.freyabromley.substack.com/] for behind the scenes thoughts 🎙️ And hit subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/character-study/id1896655831] wherever you get your podcasts ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Hope Tala: The Art of Feeling Everything

Singer-songwriter Hope Tala, one of the most exciting voices in British R&B, whose debut album Hope Handwritten charts three and a half years of heartbreak, new love and coming of age. As if writing an acclaimed album wasn't enough, Hope is also in the process of writing a debut novel, Maelstrom which sold in a heated seven-way auction. She joins Freya for this week's episode of Character Study to talk about writing a coming-of-age album over three and a half years, what it feels like to watch strangers sing your most intimate songs back to you, and what happened when Hope took her album to her label and they told her it was only 60% there. They also talk about being a big feelers in a stiff-upper-lip culture, Hope's artistic journey and why openness has been the making of her, sending a song to your partner very early in a relationship to say this is how I feel, and what it means to release art into the world and let it stop being yours. This is a conversation about feeling things deeply — and why the best things in Hope's life have happened because she let herself. 🎥 WATCH the full episode HERE [https://youtu.be/b8OhxhcM7G0] 🎶 Listen to Hope's music [https://open.spotify.com/artist/74CcYmmNeHKe5PrZaISk8e] 🤳 Follow Hope on insta [https://www.instagram.com/p/DVqtoUnlI0q/] 📘 Buy Freya's novel: A Real Piece of Work [https://www.foyles.co.uk/book/a-real-piece-of-work/freya-bromley/9781529155433] 💛 Follow @freybromley [https://www.instagram.com/freybromley/] on Instagram for updates and to ask your questions 📚 Join Freya's newsletter at freyabromley.substack.com [http://www.freyabromley.substack.com/] for behind the scenes thoughts 🎙️ And hit subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/character-study/id1896655831] wherever you get your podcasts ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Ben Pope: Listener Q+A

Stand-up comedian, writer and Peckham bookseller Ben Pope answers listener questions in this Q&A episode of the pod Listeners ask Ben whether inspiration comes in sparks or from hard work, how you know if your joke is original or just unconsciously borrowed from someone you admire, and what the best knock knock joke he's ever heard is. Ben reflects on the years he spent writing material that came out sounding entirely like Dylan Moran, why comedians freely give each other punchlines after gigs, and why sitting in a café with a notebook is genuinely the pleasure of his life. This is a conversation about creativity, originality, and why the thing that makes your work truly yours is simply that you wrote it — even if someone gave you the ending. 🎥 WATCH the full episode HERE [https://youtu.be/ZYghjs1Mp_k] 🎟️ Buy tickets to Ben's Book Club [https://assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/bens-book-club] comedy show at the Fringe this year, or his WIP standup [https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ben-pope-work-in-progress] also in Edinburgh this summer 📘 OUT NOW Freya's novel: A Real Piece of Work [https://www.foyles.co.uk/book/a-real-piece-of-work/freya-bromley/9781529155433]. 💛 Follow @freybromley [https://www.instagram.com/freybromley/] on Instagram for updates and to ask your questions 📚 Join Freya's newsletter at freyabromley.substack.com [http://www.freyabromley.substack.com/] for behind the scenes thoughts 🎙️And hit subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/character-study/id1896655831] wherever you get your podcasts ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Ben Pope: Passage Reading — Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

Comedian Ben Pope reads his mischievous short story, Tomato Mozzarella Salad. A recipe that is also, somehow, an entire relationship contained in a single dinner. The story begins as a set of instructions and ends as a meditation on love, choice and the specific friction of spending a life with someone. Ben and Freya discuss what it means to make the choice right rather than the right choice, why the arguments you have with a partner are often the same argument on repeat, and why the grass on the other side looks greener only because you haven't spent enough time standing in it. This is a conversation about commitment, and why the smell of basil might be all the answer you need. 🎥 WATCH the full episode HERE [https://youtu.be/ZYghjs1Mp_k] 🎟️ Buy tickets to Ben's Book Club [https://assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/bens-book-club] comedy show at the Fringe this year, or his WIP standup [https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ben-pope-work-in-progress] also in Edinburgh this summer 📘 OUT NOW Freya's novel: A Real Piece of Work [https://www.foyles.co.uk/book/a-real-piece-of-work/freya-bromley/9781529155433]. 💛 Follow @freybromley [https://www.instagram.com/freybromley/] on Instagram for updates and to ask your questions 📚 Join Freya's newsletter at freyabromley.substack.com [http://www.freyabromley.substack.com/] for behind the scenes thoughts 🎙️And hit subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/character-study/id1896655831] wherever you get your podcasts ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Ben Pope: There's Less of Me Now. But In Some Ways There's More.

Ben Pope is a comedian, bookseller and writer based in south London. He manages Review bookshop in Peckham, has been doing stand-up for over a decade, and has taken a string of critically acclaimed shows to the Edinburgh Fringe — most recently The Cut, a narrative show that begins with a very personal medical decision and opens out into something much bigger about grief, fathers, and what it actually means to look after yourself. In this conversation, Ben and Freya talk about what it's like to build a creative identity in public when your work resists easy categorisation, the difference between performing vulnerability on stage and exposing it on the page, and why comedy is one of the best coping mechanisms humans have — as long as you're honest about what it's actually doing. They get into the real economics of Edinburgh Fringe, why Ben didn't have a smartphone until 2020, and the strange experience of performing something deeply personal in front of strangers and having them come up afterwards and say: me too. This is a warm, funny and quietly moving conversation about what happens when the most honest story you can tell also turns out to be the funniest one. 🎥 WATCH [https://youtu.be/EFa2hWVyqRk] the full episode on YouTube 🎟️ Buy tickets to Ben's Book Club [https://assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/bens-book-club] comedy show at the Fringe this year, or his WIP standup [https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ben-pope-work-in-progress] also in Edinburgh this summer 📘 And remember you can now pre-order Freya's novel: A Real Piece of Work [https://www.foyles.co.uk/book/a-real-piece-of-work/freya-bromley/9781529155433]. 💛 Follow @freybromley [https://www.instagram.com/freybromley/] on Instagram for updates and to ask your questions 📚 Join Freya's newsletter at freyabromley.substack.com [http://www.freyabromley.substack.com/] for behind the scenes thoughts 🎙️And hit subscribe [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/character-study/id1896655831] wherever you get your podcasts ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.