Yarn | A Story Podcast

[Sports documentary] In 2007 the legendary Scottish track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy set out to break the 1km time trial world record. The record and then only sub one minute 1km time was set by Hoy's longtime rival; Arnaud Tournant. Hoy was determined to go sub one minute himself and even more determined to snatch the record away from the French cyclist. Hoy embarked on a journey to the most remote cycling venue on the planet; The Al...

[Audio drama collection]

We've released 25 and a bit stories for Yarn. To celebrate we're going to take a look back in this omnibus episode. Lately most of our episodes have been documentaries so I decided to dig out some of our fiction stories and pull them together into a neat bingable collection for your listening pleasure. I've selected 4 stories and recorded new introductions for each. Enjoy! 

New episodes coming soon.

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[Documentary]

"I had no contact with this man. All I ever said was hello to him. It's stalking. And it builds and builds."

These are the words of my mother, Eileen Byrne. She’s going to recount her ordeal with a stalker. 

I was just a kid at the time. I knew very little about it, until lately when she started talking about the incident. It was a recent Irish news story that triggered her memory. The murder of Aisling Murphy in...

[Special Interview] On Day 6 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine I talked to an old friend of the podcast, our tour guide from the Chernobyl episode. He talks about the Russian takeover of the Chernobyl exclusion zone and what it's like to be staying put in Kyiv during the invasion. If you would like to support Ukrainian refugees and aid organisations working in Ukraine or get protest information here is some information: https://ww...

[Documentary]

Inside stories from the jury room.

I wanted to see inside this secretive world and get a sense of what it feels like to serve.
I talked to 7 former jurors about their 7 separate trials.

I also talked to a practicing criminal law barrister for his thoughts on the jury system.
We’ll explore the selection process, the characters in the courtroom and the atmosphere in the deliberation room.

Then we'll do a deep di...

[Deep Dive Interview] 

The Oklahoma City bombing of 1995… The 2011 Norway attacks… The 2016 Nice truck attack… The 2019 Christcurch, New Zealand shootings… 

What do all these attacks have in common? They were all formulated, planned and executed by a single individual. 

The popular fear of lone actor attacks is that they are completely unpredictable and so almost impossible to prevent. We speak to Dr. Francis O’Conno...

[Documentary]

We visit the Mezhyhirya estate in the Ukraine.

The vast estate covers over 340 acres. That’s just shy of the area of Monaco. The glamorous and opulent principality has a lot in common with Mezhyirya. Except Monaco is home to 38,000 people. Mezhyhirya was most recently home to just one family.

This is the story of the former president of Ukraine - Victor Yanukovych.

His mafia style cartel, nick named ‘the family’, his ...

[3-part documentary]

Episode 3 of 3 - Darkest before the dawn.   

1900s - 2000s   

In this new Yarn Miniseries I’m going to give you a rough history of Disability.   

In episode three things start with one of modern history's darkest ideas, Eugenics. We explore its prevalence, especially in America and some of its most famous proponents. Then we jump over to Post WW2 Britain and we uncov...

[3-part documentary]

Episode 2 of 3

Two Steps Forward. One Step Back.  

1500s - 1800s 

In this new Yarn Miniseries I’m going to give you a rough history of Disability. 

In episode two we will see how the aftermath of the Reformation effected people with disabilities.
We look at the Elizabethan Poor Laws and the Poor houses many Disabled people ended up in.
We enter the massive institutions that were crea...

[3-part documentary]

Episode 1 of 3 - Parallel Worlds. 

Prehistory - 1400s 

In this new Yarn Miniseries I’m going to give you a rough history of Disability. 

The story of Disability runs in parallel with the story of humanity itself and like the story of humanity, some of it isn’t pretty. It involves murder, neglect, segregation and sterilisation but it’s also a story of innovation, determination and love. 

In e...

[Two part Docu-drama] 

Episode 2 of 2
This is the true story of Hermann Goertz. The Nazi spy who landed in neutral Ireland during the Second World War, on a mission to meet the IRA and organise a German-led invasion of Northern Ireland. Goertz’s time in Ireland has become something of a legend. This story is based on his own written accounts and recently declassified British and Irish secret service files. The story is ful...

[Two part Docu-drama] 

Episode 1 of 2 This is the true story of Hermann Goertz. The Nazi spy who landed in neutral Ireland during the Second World War, on a mission to meet the IRA and organise a German-led invasion of Northern Ireland. Goertz’s time in Ireland has become something of a legend. This story is based on his own written accounts and recently declassified British and Irish secret service files. The story is full of...

[Introduction] 

Whether we're spinning yarns or unraveling them, Yarn is what you could call- a storytelling playground. We’re in our 3rd year of bringing you original stories. In that time we’ve released over 20 episodes, we’ve been featured in the guardian, won a best podcast award, appeared on WPEZ radio in Chicago And been selected for the UK audio drama festival. Each of episodes is in a different style and genre . Docume...

[Documentary] 

My friend Dermot has a stammer. He’s had one as long as I’ve known him. Like most people I didn’t take much notice of it. After all, everyone stumbles over words sometimes don’t they? Whats the big deal? I certainly didn’t think about what was happening behind the stammer. The thoughts, the anxiety and all the tricks being employed under the surface of what most would consider a minor blip in someone's speech. I...

[A behind the scenes documentary] 

Welcome to this Yarn Extra.
Our second special edition episode. I thought it might be nice to give you a look behind the scenes into what goes into composing and mixing the music that features on a lot of our episodes. I sat down with Yarn's composer - Drembot. Drembot’s music appears on several of our stories. 

In this episode he’ll take us through the work he's done for the followi...

[A travel and history documentary] 

It’s October 2019 and we're visiting the Chernobyl exclusion zone in the Ukraine. We'll spend two days exploring the zone with a small group of tourists and a guide and we'll stay overnight inside the exclusion zone, in Chernobyl’s only functioning hotel. This year the exclusion zone has received a surge in visitors following the popular HBO TV drama series starring Jared Harris. That series...

[A true crime documentary] 

Modern piracy and the hijacking of the Petro Ranger. - You probably don’t think of pirates as wearing expensive suits and working in high rise office buildings. In the 90’s the biggest pirates of South East Asia were impossible to tell apart from high powered business people. It was hard to tell them apart because they could be both. This is the true story of one of the most sophisticated pirate syndicat...