Greater Govanhill’s new co-produced podcast explores women’s experiences of gambling harms

Six women, six weeks of training, and six unique episodes. By taking full editorial control of the new podcast Her Upper Hand, these community reporters are challenging the industry to listen to female perspectives on gambling harm and driving the conversation toward real policy change.

by Eve Livingston | Photos by Anastazia Hart

“What is a podcast”?

When six women sat down together in the Community Newsroom in January for the first session of our community podcasting course, that was one of the questions one participant asked. A little under four months later, we are today releasing our new six-part podcast series Her Upper Hand - entirely developed, planned, scripted and presented by the same women. 

Those women come from all different backgrounds and have had all different life experiences, but they were brought together by one thing: each has been affected by gambling, either their own or that of someone close to them. And all were interested in developing the skills to tell better stories about female gambling harm, in the hope of making change. 

At Greater Govanhill, we have explored the issue of gambling harm before, first in early 2023 when we looked at the proliferation of betting shops on our high street, the hidden cost of this issue, policy solutions and how it affected the Roma community. 

In the same year, research by GambleAware found that women experience gambling and its harms in different ways from men, but their experiences remain under-explored and they face many additional barriers to accessing support, including childcare commitments, additional stigma and domestic abuse. 

So with support from GambleAware’s Improving Outcomes Fund, which aimed to reduce inequalities relating to gambling harm for women and people from minority communities, we ran the first phase of this community reporting project in 2024, training and supporting nine women to produce written articles for a special edition of the magazine. This year’s podcasting course marked the second phase of the project, with some original participants returning and others working with Greater Govanhill for the first time. 

Over six weeks, the women gathered in the Community Newsroom to learn about audio production, interviewing, journalistic storytelling, ethics and more, in a course developed by freelance journalist Eve Livingston and co-facilitated by Eve with audio producer Flora Zajicek, who also edited the series. Throughout that time, the women developed their own ideas about the stories they wanted to tell, and quickly became a close, supportive group – “like a family,” as one participant put it. 

Each woman took responsibility for a single episode in the series, from planning, researching and scripting to interviewing and presenting. Together, they also worked on other key elements of the podcast including the title, description, logo design, the content warning you can hear at the beginning of each episode, and the signposting information you hear at the end.

The result is a series entirely produced by these women, exploring gambling harm from a wide range of different angles. Lindsey’s episode brings together participants from the first phase of the project in a powerful discussion about advocacy and finding a voice. Aisha* takes us inside her home for an intimate conversation with her sister about growing up in a South Asian household affected by gambling. 

Cat goes on a journey of exploration about how menstrual cycles and hormones might affect gambling behaviour, while Wiktoria narrates a mesmerising story, told through the eyes of a child. Jenny shares how her childhood shaped her life, and how now, in her 70s, she is changing the narrative. And Deb revisits the support she received and how she took back control of her life after gambling addiction. 

Together, their stories show how powerful it can be when people are given the time, space, support and resources to tell their own stories in their own words and at their own pace. In a launch event for family and friends, multiple participants spoke about how the project had “changed [their] lives” and made them feel that their voices matter.

It doesn’t end there though - the women are determined that their work should have an impact beyond just the personal, reaching other women affected by gambling to show that they’re not alone, and raising awareness among the general public about how gambling can affect women specifically, and what needs to change. 

You can find Her Upper Hand wherever you get your podcasts. Please consider listening, following and sharing to help our presenters make that a reality. 

*Some names have been changed