New comedy podcast explores 'surreal' fictional history of Pembrokeshire town
A new comedy podcast has launched, exploring the surreal fictional history of Haverfordwest.
Harford: An Oral History is written and performed by comedy writer Dan Hooper.
The series, which began on February 20, presents a unique take on the town's past through the eyes of its inhabitants.
Each episode is a monologue exploring a different chapter of Haverfordwest's history, from an unsuccessful attempt to build the world's tallest building in the small town to a battle re-enactment that turned into a real conflict.
The stories are accompanied by experimental music to enhance the surreal experience.
The 10-15 minute episodes offer a break from the typical chat format, appealing to fans of absurd, surreal humour.
Mr Hooper said: "My aim was to create something layered and strange—like stumbling onto a late-night radio broadcast.
"I didn't want this podcast to follow the usual chat or interview format.
"Growing up in '90s Haverfordwest, it felt like nothing exciting ever happened.
"This podcast aims to change that, even if none of it is true."
Mr Hooper is an accomplished comedy writer and performer, having written for flagship BBC Radio 4 programmes such as The News Quiz, The Now Show, and The Show What You Wrote.
He was shortlisted for the BBC Wales New Drama award in 2017 and was a semi-finalist for the 2022 Nobbs Memorial Trust.
Harford: An Oral History is available to listen to now.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
In London, the fox has its own ambulance service when it needs help
PADDOCK WOOD, England (AP) — The injured fox is cornered in a cage, teeth bared and snarling at the woman trying to help it. Nicki Townsend is unfazed. Wearing only rubber gloves and an outfit suitable for a yoga class, she approaches with soothing words. 'All right, baby,' she coos as she deftly drapes a towel over his head, grabs him by the scruff of his neck, scoops up his wounded legs and moves him to a clean cage. It's not the way her day typically begins, but there's nothing routine about rescuing foxes. 'You can never predict what you're going to arrive at,' Townsend said. While not as visible as phone boxes or double-decker buses, the red fox is a fixture in London, a city not known for its wildlife. But living on the streets, alleys and back gardens of a dense urban environment can be rough and when foxes need help, they have their own ambulance service — and Townsend may be on her way. The foxes didn't invade London so much as adapt and expand their range inward as the city spread to their habitat in the 1930s and suburbs grew. Love 'em or hate 'em But people and the bushy-tailed member of the canine family have not always lived in harmony, and the species has admirers and adversaries. For everyone enchanted seeing a fox trotting nonchalantly down their street at dusk or basking in a sunny backyard, there are plenty who see them as pests. They poop where they like, tear into garbage and the vixens in heat let out terrifying shrieks in the dead of winter when attracting a mate. 'It's like Marmite with foxes,' Townsend said, referring to the food spread that is an acquired and divisive taste. 'You either love them or hate them.' The divide between the two camps led Trevor Williams to found what became The Fox Project nearly 35 years ago. Once a bass player in the rock group Audience that opened for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, Williams had been active in the campaign to stop fox hunting when he redirected his protection efforts to the city, where foxes were once routinely killed. 'Because of the myths that have occurred over the years, there's still a lot of suspicion about what foxes might be,' Williams said. 'You know, they're going to bite the baby, they're going to eat the cat, they're going to run away with your husband.' The project has since grown from providing information on deterring foxes to rescuing 1,400 a year, including 400 cubs, though only about half survive to be released. City offers cheap eats and unique hazards There are estimated to be 15,000 foxes in London. The project covers a swath of south London and its leafy suburbs while other organizations not devoted solely to foxes handle other parts of the city. While the omnivores survive on small animals, bugs and berries in the wild, they favor easily scavenged leftovers in the city and handouts that make them more dependent on humans. Their main urban menaces are cars, getting snagged in soccer nets or getting stuck in tight spaces. In their effort to get free, they often get nasty abrasions that can become infected. Many also suffer from mange, a parasitic infestation that leads to all kinds of problems. Townsend pilots her VW Caddy on city streets, highways and narrow lanes that roll through lush hills, responding to calls about injured or ill foxes or cubs that have lost their mothers. She's seen a bit of everything since her first humbling call 2 1/2 years ago when the supposedly injured fox bolted. 'In my inexperience, I chased after him, which is comical because you're never going to outrun a fox,' she said. 'I just remember he ran very fast and I looked silly running after him.' Despite many challenging situations — she once managed to rescue a fox that lost its footing atop a fence and ended upside down at eye level with its paw lodged between boards — she's only been bitten once. Heartbreak with hard cases Her van carries the distinctly musky scent of foxes. The odor becomes unpleasant when an anxious passenger in a litter of cubs relieves itself enroute to being delivered to a foster care pen where they will stay until being released in the wild. 'Feel free to open the window,' said Townsend, who is accustomed to the stench. 'This is a stinky job.' On a recent day, she was dispatched to meet a heartbroken couple who found a cub with a puncture wound collapsed on their back lawn. 'We thought he was asleep at first, so we went to go and have a close look because we love them,' Charlotte English said. 'Then he just didn't move, so we knew something was wrong.' That cub had to be put to sleep, as did the adult Townsend transferred at the start of her shift. Cubs that recover are socialized in packs of five until they mature and are then released in a rural location while the adults are freed in the neighborhoods where they were found. The fox does not say 'Thank you' Given a second chance, it's not clear how well the foxes fare, because they are rarely tracked. A 2016 study in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science found that rehabilitated foxes were more likely to behave as if they had been displaced when returned to their original territory. They were tracked wandering farther away, potentially exposing them to more traffic and greater stress. 'It is a gap in the knowledge and there's an assumption that when you release them, they thrive and I think that that assumption needs to be challenged more,' said Bryony Tolhurst, a University of Brighton honorary research fellow and lead author of the study. For Townsend, fox deaths are offset by the joy of seeing little ones venture into the unknown or an adult darting into a neighborhood it instantly recognizes. 'Sometimes they look back and people like to romanticize that they're saying 'thank you,'' she said. 'They're just making sure we're not chasing after them.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Friendship Breakups Suck. Little Simz Turned Hers Into Gold on ‘Lotus'
Since she was a kid, Simbiatu Ajikawo has had a low tolerance for disloyalty. There are quick quips lambasting snakes throughout her acclaimed discography, and even at eleven years old, she spit, 'I'm Little Simz and I set trends/Don't like liars/I hate fake friends,' when her older sister took her to rap at BBC's Radio 1 Xtra. Her real breakthrough as Little Simz came much later, with 2018's Grey Area, which was nominated for the U.K.'s prestigious Mercury Prize, then 2021's Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, which won it. She followed that with No Thank You, which rebuked the music industry she was by all-appearances thriving in as something much darker and more draining than it looked. Inflo – the musician who's been tapped by Adele and Tyler, The Creator, and who's shaped the mysterious collective SAULT with Simz and his wife, Cleo Sol – produced all three of Simz's last albums. Simz has openly coveted her creative partnership with Inflo, a bond they began building when she was 9 years old. Then, in March, The Guardian reported that she was suing him, born Dean Josiah Cover, for allegedly failing to repay a $2.2 million loan – that went, in part, towards SAULT's only live performance in 2023 – which she says eventually left her unable to pay her taxes and subject to penalties. More from Rolling Stone Little Simz Previews Upcoming Album 'Lotus' With Cinematic 'Flood' Video Coldplay Tap Little Simz, Burna Boy for Hopeful Single 'We Pray' Watch Michael J. Fox Join Coldplay on Guitar at Glastonbury 'Why do you steal? Why do you spill blood and then go hide?' Simz raps on 'Thief,' the jarring opener to Lotus, her sixth album and first without Inflo in seven years. 'Why do you take the rule book from people that hurt you and use it as a guide?/I'm lucky that I got out now, it's a shame though, I really feel sorry for your wife.' The song thrashes like 1990s grunge and Simz is absolutely cutthroat on it, evoking the eerie menace of Kendrick Lamar's whopping Drake diss 'Euphoria.' The public nature of her fallout with Inflo and how readily she tackles it on Lotus makes it a distinctly personal entry to her oeuvre – listening feels more like living in her skin than any project she's done before. There's a meta-allusion to the way she refuses to bury her truth under convoluted poetic flourishes when she tells Wretch 32 not to do the same on 'Blood,' where she and her fellow British rapper trade bars as they portray siblings in a fight. Lotus is an excellent album, in part because songs like 'Thief' and 'Blood' are so uncomfortable, like peering at a nasty accident on the side of the highway and feeling more alive because of it. In the aftermath of an imploded childhood friendship, Lotus is a rigorous ode to the trauma and wisdom of truly growing up. Lotus is also an excellent album because of its deeply textured and expansive production, a satisfying victory given the circumstances. On 'Lonely,' she frets, 'Lonely making an album is tackling all doubt/I'm used to making it with [there's censor beep instead of a name], can I do it without?' Yet, under new producer Miles Clinton James, all the album's instrumentals are crisp, careful, and raw, whether they're the rugged rock of the 'Thief,' 'Flood,' 'Young,' 'Enough,' and 'Lotus,' the jazzy R&B of 'Lonely' and 'Free,' the stripped down acoustics of 'Peace,' the softly orchestral lament of 'Hallow,' the vintage Afrobeat of 'Lion,' or buoyant bossa nova of 'Only.' Where Lotus is fun, it's unforced, and where it is grave, it's understated. The album does retain some of the airy, gentle essence of Simz's prior work with Inflo, Cleo Sol, and Sault, a band in which the latter two women were the defining voices amongst mostly shrouded collaborators. The similarities, though, feel like Simz staking her claim to a sound she was integral in pushing forward. Little Simz's hard-earned sense of self-worth courses through the album. Much of her best rapping here blossomed from hardship – that, in fact, is what a lotus is, a flower that can bloom out of mud. 'I know my mind is a textbook they can learn from even though I ain't got a diploma,' she says on 'Blue,' in the middle of a calm but relentless flow full of empathetic reflections on poverty, incarceration, family, and death. 'Free' is a particularly moving trove of wisdom, expertly crafted with subtle foreshadowing between a cunning first verse on what love really is and a second on how fear threatens it. 'I think that shit is a lethal weapon,' she says. Though Lotus finds Simz rapping as victim and survivor, it's filled with empathy for just how hard the human experience is, even for her tormentor, whose own pain she acknowledges. 'I don't expect you're not flawed person/But thought you was good at the core person,' she says on 'Hallow,' before reiterating an idea from 'Thief,' that the real resolution she needs is internal: 'I'm tryna forgive myself,' she says there. 'I don't need to forgive you so I can heal.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Geek Vibes Nation
2 hours ago
- Geek Vibes Nation
What Every Startup Can Learn From The Gaming Industry's Epic Business Model Evolution
By Matt Lhoumeau, CEO of Concord I'll never forget the first time I played World of Warcraft. It was 2005, I was working at a telecom company in France, and I couldn't understand why anyone would pay €13 every month just to play a game they'd already bought. Fast forward to today, and that 'crazy' subscription model generates billions annually. The gaming industry didn't just change how we play – it revolutionized how businesses think about customer relationships, revenue models, and long-term value creation. As someone who's built a company serving over 1,500 businesses, I've watched countless startups struggle with the same challenges game developers faced 20 years ago: How do you create sustainable revenue? How do you keep customers engaged? How do you scale without losing your soul? The answers, surprisingly, come from an industry that turned 'Game Over' into 'New Game+'. From One-and-Done to Games as a Service The gaming industry's transformation mirrors what every modern business needs to understand. In the 1990s, game developers had one shot: ship a cartridge, hope it sells, move on to the next project. Sound familiar? That's how most businesses still operate – one transaction, one customer interaction, hope for the best. Then everything changed. Games became services. Relationships became ongoing. Revenue became recurring. This shift didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't without casualties. For every Fortnite generating $5 billion annually from a free game, there's an Anthem or Babylon's Fall that crashed and burned. The difference? Understanding that the business model is as important as the product itself. The Free-to-Play Revolution: When Giving Away Your Product Makes You Rich Here's where it gets interesting for startups. The gaming industry discovered something counterintuitive: sometimes the best way to make money is to give your product away for free. League of Legends, one of the most profitable games ever created, costs nothing to play. Yet it generates over $1.5 billion annually. How? By fundamentally rethinking the value exchange. Instead of charging for access, they charge for enhancement. Instead of one big payment, they enable thousands of micro-transactions. Instead of hoping customers stay, they continuously provide reasons to engage. This isn't just about games. When we built Concord, we applied similar thinking. Instead of charging huge upfront fees like traditional enterprise software, we made it accessible to small businesses with flexible pricing. We learned that lowering barriers to entry while providing continuous value creates stronger, more profitable relationships than any one-time sale ever could. The Contract Behind the Controller What most people don't realize is that every modern game is essentially a complex web of contracts and agreements. When you download Fortnite, you're not just getting a game – you're entering into terms of service, privacy agreements, content licenses, and potentially hundreds of micro-contracts for every in-game purchase. This is where my world intersects with gaming in fascinating ways. Modern game companies need sophisticated procurement contract management software to handle relationships with: Platform providers (Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox) Payment processors for multiple currencies and methods Cloud service providers for massive multiplayer infrastructure Content creators and licensing partners Localization and distribution partners globally One AAA game studio we work with manages over 3,000 vendor contracts just for a single game launch. Miss a renewal with your cloud provider? Your game goes offline. Mess up a licensing agreement? Your soundtrack disappears. The stakes are massive, and manual management is impossible. Data: The Real Power-Up Gaming companies were among the first to truly understand the power of analytics. Every click, every purchase, every rage quit – it's all data that drives decisions. Riot Games processes 500 billion events monthly from League of Legends alone. That's not just impressive; it's instructive. Modern contract analytics software applies the same principles to business operations. Just as game developers track player engagement to optimize experiences, businesses can track contract performance to optimize relationships. Which vendors deliver on time? Which contracts generate the most value? Where are the bottlenecks in your approval process? The gaming industry learned that data without action is just expensive storage. The same applies to any business. It's not enough to collect information – you need systems that surface insights and enable rapid response. The Subscription Economy: Lessons from the MMO Masters Remember when buying software meant getting a box with CDs? Gaming killed that model first. World of Warcraft proved that players would pay monthly for ongoing value. Xbox Game Pass took it further – why buy games when you can access hundreds for $15/month? This shift required fundamental changes in how companies operate: Continuous Content Creation : You can't charge monthly for a static product. Game developers learned to ship updates constantly, creating reasons for players to stay engaged. Every business needs to think the same way – what's your content strategy? Community Management : Subscription models live or die on retention. Gaming companies invest heavily in community managers, moderators, and engagement specialists. Your customer success team is your guild leader. Predictable Revenue Operations : When players subscribe, you can forecast revenue months in advance. But this requires sophisticated systems to manage billing, renewals, and churn prevention – exactly the kind of operational excellence that modern contract management enables. The Platform Play: Building Ecosystems, Not Just Products Perhaps the biggest lesson from gaming is the power of platforms. Steam didn't just sell games – it became the place where PC gaming happens. Epic Games leveraged Fortnite's success to launch a competing store. Roblox turned players into developers, creating a $45 billion ecosystem where users generate the content. For startups, this means thinking beyond your immediate product. How can you create a platform that others build upon? How can you turn customers into partners? How can you enable ecosystem growth? This requires sophisticated partner management, clear agreements, and scalable operations – challenges that multiplayer game developers have been solving for years. The Dark Side: Lessons from Loot Box Controversies Not every gaming innovation should be copied. The loot box controversy teaches valuable lessons about customer trust and sustainable practices. When EA's Star Wars Battlefront II locked progression behind randomized purchases, the backlash was swift and severe. The game that was supposed to print money became a cautionary tale. The lesson? Short-term monetization tactics that exploit customers will eventually backfire. Building sustainable businesses requires balancing value creation with value capture. Your pricing model should feel fair, transparent, and aligned with customer success. Your Next Level Awaits The gaming industry's evolution from product to service, from transaction to relationship, from single-player to massive multiplayer, offers a masterclass in business model innovation. But these lessons only matter if you can execute on them. Here's your quest log for applying gaming wisdom to your startup: Rethink Your Revenue Model : Are you still selling products when you could be providing services? Consider how subscription, freemium, or platform models might transform your business. Invest in Infrastructure : Just as modern games require robust backend systems, your business needs operational excellence. Automate what you can, starting with critical processes like contract management. Embrace Continuous Delivery : Ship early, ship often, respond to feedback. The days of 'fire and forget' are over. Your product should evolve constantly. Build Community, Not Just Customer Base : Your most engaged users are your greatest asset. Invest in tools and processes that enable community growth. Make Data-Driven Decisions : If game companies can analyze billions of events, you can track your key metrics. Start with the basics and scale from there. Prepare for Global Scale : Gaming went global because digital distribution made borders irrelevant. Is your business ready for international growth? The gaming industry transformed because it had to. Faced with technological change, shifting consumer expectations, and intense competition, developers either evolved or disappeared. Every industry faces similar pressures now. The question isn't whether you need to transform – it's whether you'll learn from those who've already blazed the trail. Game Over? Not even close. For smart startups willing to learn from gaming's epic evolution, it's just the beginning of a whole new adventure. Ready Player One? Matt Lhoumeau is the co-founder and CEO of Concord, a contract management platform trusted by over 1,500 companies. A lifelong gamer turned entrepreneur, Matt discovered parallels between gaming's digital transformation and the operational challenges facing modern businesses.
