The Meaning of Home Podcast
In 2022, researchers from Loughborough University launched The Meaning of Home Podcast to dismantle stereotypes around homelessness and amplify unheard voices.
Hosted by Sara Christou and co-produced with Dave Angel, the series discusses the complexities and connections between home and homelessness in the UK. Each episode centres on a new theme with a roundtable of expert guests, including people with lived experience, frontline staff, artists, and activists.
It has been streamed and downloaded thousands of times, not only in the UK but across the world, from Canada to Ukraine. The final episode came-out in August 2024.
There are 17 episodes in the series, exploring a range of themes:
Episode one: Beginnings
Episode two: Empathy
Episode three: Visibility
Episode four: Belonging
Episode five: Voice
Episode six: Youth
Episode seven: Embodied
Episode eight: Choice
Episode nine: Displacement
Episode ten: Resilience
Episode eleven: Discrimination
Episode twelve: Change
Episode thirteen: Inclusion
Episode fourteen: Co-design
Episode fifteen: Disparity
Episode sixteen: Self-expression
Episode seventeen: Final episode
The Meaning of Home Podcast was part of The Harnessing Opportunities for Meaningful Environments Centre for Doctoral Training (HOME CDT). This was a cohort of seven Ph.D. projects at Loughborough University approaching concepts of home and homelessness through a creative lens, to build understanding from multiple perspectives. The transdisciplinary team aimed to rethink the relationships between power, policy and the material realities of home and homelessness, to develop impactful new research.
