''Verity!'' is a weekly podcast about the television show, ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' as seen through the eyes of a rotating cast of six women. ''Verity!'' has a female-centered format and is a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

podcast. It was nominated for the " Best Fancast" at the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

s in 2014 and 2018. The ''Verity!'' contributors are all ''Doctor Who'' fans and live in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The show has been described as "intelligently fannish" and referenced as a recommended podcast.

History

''Verity!'' first aired January 2013. Deborah Stanish, the moderator of the podcast, met most of the other participants at conventions or other ''Doctor Who'' events or by working with them on non-fiction, ''Doctor Who''-related books. Stanish wanted to hear the female and minority voices of ''Doctor Who'' fans and decided to start a podcast where several women could lend their view to the show and issues surrounding it. The format of having only women on the podcast made it stand out among the many other ''Doctor Who''-related podcasts. The podcast's name is a homage to

Verity Lambert Verity Ann Lambert (27 November 1935 – 22 November 2007) was an English television and film producer. Lambert began working in television in the 1950s. She began her career as a producer at the BBC by becoming the founding producer of t ...

, the first producer of ''Doctor Who''.

Content

''Verity!'' shows consist of a discussion of various topics touching on and about ''Doctor Who ''among the cast members. There is a "proper" episode every other week that is about an hour long and is based on a theme that the podcasters follow all year. The other episodes are shorter, about twenty to forty minutes and can be on any topic the women choose. Erika Ensign and Stanish participate in most episodes: Stanish is the moderator and Ensign does the technical work. The other four cast members rotate, except for large celebratory episodes where all six come together for the show. Each contributor to ''Verity!'' lives in a different part of the world, so they record in their own locations and are connected via a

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

call. ''Verity!'' is not scripted, except for some contributors, like Ensign and Stanish, who use occasional notes in order to stay on topic. Overall, the show is not heavily edited and is meant to sound like a natural conversational flow. In a January 2023 episode, the podcasters announced a hiatus. The podcast returned in November 2023, with all of the original cast discussing the three ''Doctor Who'' specials featuring

David Tennant David John Tennant (; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the Tenth Doctor, tenth and Fourteenth Doctor, fourteenth incarnations of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction series ''Docto ...

, and the ''Doctor Who'' Christmas special in December, in a series of winter podcast episodes. VerityPodcast2023

Cast members

* Erika Ensign (

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

) – Former producer of the ''Apex Magazine Podcast'', current co-producer of the ''Uncanny Magazine Podcast'', and technical editor of ''Verity!'' * Katrina (Kat) Griffiths (Edmonton, Alberta) – fan and writer. * Liz (L.M.) Myles (

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ) or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the Counties of Scotland, historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

) – contributor to ''Chicks Dig Time Lords,'' co-editor of ''Chicks Unravel Time'' and co-editor of ''Companion Piece ''(2015). * Tansy Rayner Roberts (

Hobart, Tasmania Hobart ( ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent (Tasmania), River Derwent, it is the southernmo ...

) – author of the ''Creature Court'' series and

winner. * Deborah (Deb) Stanish (

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

) – co-editor of ''Whedonistas'' (2011) and co-editor of ''Chicks Unravel Time'' who moderates the panel discussion on Verity! * Lynne M. Thomas (

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents i ...

) – a co-editor of ''Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It (2010)'', ''Whedonistas (2011)'', and ''Chicks Dig Comics (2012)'', and a contributor to ''Chicks Unravel Time''. She is also the former editor-in-chief of ''

Apex Magazine ''Apex Magazine'', also previously known as ''Apex Digest'', is an American Horror fiction magazine, horror and science fiction magazine. This subscription webzine, ''Apex Magazine'', contains short fiction, reviews, and interviews. It has been ...

'', moderator of '' SF Squeecast'', and current co-publisher and co-editor-in-chief of ''

Uncanny Magazine ''Uncanny Magazine'' is an American science fiction magazine, science fiction and Fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy online magazine founded by publishing editors Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas. History First issued in 2014, the pu ...

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Verity! Audio podcasts Science fiction podcasts Feminist podcasts Works about Doctor Who Doctor Who fandom Film and television podcasts 2013 podcast debuts Independent podcasts