9 August 2019

CFNZ information coordinator Sarah Cahill reviews the podcast Straight from the Lungs.

I’m relatively new to listening to podcasts regularly, possibly because I can find it slightly overwhelming and time consuming sifting through the thousands of podcasts available to listen to. But in July while trying to add to my podcast library I stumbled across William Marler’s 'Straight from the Lungs'.

William is a 24-year-old from the UK who has CF. After two years spent working on his 14 episode podcast, he launched his first episode in September last year. In his podcast, he shares stories from real people, including himself, about what it’s like living with CF. He also talks with health professionals and friends and families of people with CF.

Each episode focuses on one CF-related topic, such as diagnosis, school, work and love, told by many different people of many different ages. There are also extra episodes, aptly titled ‘Extra Breaths’, which are short pieces of content that didn’t make it into the full episode.

After listening to episode one, I was hooked. I binge-listened to the first eight episodes and I was disappointed when I reached the end of episode eight and realised the remaining six episodes hadn’t been released yet.

William, and everyone who features in the podcast, present a very balanced view of life with CF. I found it incredibly interesting listening to people talking about how they manage their CF in very different circumstances. As William puts it on his website, “You'll hear their unique experiences dealing with CF to build a fair, balanced picture of the disease. Some people are bodybuilders, some people are on the transplant list, and some are in the middle. Listen to all the stories, not just the best or worst”.

As a caveat, I don’t have CF and no one in my family has CF, but as someone who’s worked with, and for, people with CF in New Zealand, I hope I've developed enough empathy of the challenges of CF to recommend people to listen to 'Straight from the Lungs'. I know everyone’s experience of CF is different, depending of if it’s you, a family member or a friend who has CF. Family and friends of people with CF, I think you’ll find this podcast a fantastic resource to help understand more about life with CF, and for parents, or PWCF, I hope listening to the many young adults talk about their achievements and life inspires hope.

And another great thing. I’m a bit addicted to podcasts now and my favourite time to listen to them is while I’m walking. I get notifications on my phone when a new episode of one of the podcasts I’ve subscribed to has been uploaded, and it’s a massive motivation to get outside and exercise. Always a bonus!

I’d love to hear your thoughts about the podcast, and I know William would love it if you subscribed and left a rating. Visit the Straight from the Lungs website to find out where you can listen to the podcast, episode transcripts and lots more.

Do you have a podcast, video, blog or book you think would be good for other people to learn more about CF? Get in touch with me at sarah@sayline.co.nz, I’d love to review it.

Photo credit: Vicky Neville