A podcast by Rachael Clerke and Danny Prosser
A six episode series released every Tuesday
Episode 1 Out Now
Rot! Leaks! Administration fees! Emails!
A podcast about private renting and housing activism featuring all of the emails exchanged between Danny, Rachael and their estate agent Teresa over the course of a farcical six month tenancy in Bristol.
Each week Danny and Rachael interview a different ‘guest Teresa’ – renters, activists and change-makers – to explore a host of experiences from across the housing crisis. Guests include China Blue Fish; Yaz Brien; Louise Mothershole & Becca Biscuit (Sh!t Theatre); Linzy Na Nakorn; Esme Roslin & Dani Wijesinghe (ACORN).
The six episode podcast grew, originally, out of Danny and Rachael’s experience and a zine Rachael created for Subscription Business (2019). The zine ‘Letters to Teresa’ was a bleak, and sometimes darkly comedic example of the entrenched problems in the rental market – which add up to a huge component of the UK’s Housing Crisis. As COVID-19 has widened the gap between owner and tenant – with stark and unjust examples across the UK of mistreatment of tenants and evictions based on completely uncontrollable issues arising from the pandemic, this is a timely dive into the system that is complicit in this abuse of tenants.
Rachael and Danny commented:
“In 2019, immediately after handing in our notice for an averagely bad house, we downloaded all of the emails we had exchanged with our estate agents over six months. Reading back over this 11,000 word document – we realised that we had unwittingly collaborated on a dissertation about the state of private renting in the UK. In Letters to Teresa: the podcast, we return to these emails whilst delving further into the conversation about housing, activism and precarity in 21st century Britain.
“We decided to make this podcast, not because our experience was extraordinary or exceptional, but because sadly it’s very very common, and we don’t really talk about it. We just accept it as the norm, and get on with our lives. But we want things to change, and we are starting with talking about it, on a podcast, with other people who have had more exceptional experiences. And hopefully we will radicalise some of the listeners along the way!”
Join your local community or tenants union!
A new episode of Letters to Teresa will be released every Tuesday until July 13.
Listen on: Acast, spotify, google podcasts, amazon podcasts, tune in, stitcher. Apple podcasts & deezer coming soon or visit https://www.rachaelclerke.com/Letters-to-Teresa-The-Podcast.
