Verity! is a weekly podcast about the television show, Doctor Who as seen through the eyes of a rotating cast of six women. Verity! has a female-centered format and is a feminist podcast.[1] It was nominated for the "Best Fancast" at the Hugo Awards in 2014 and 2018.[2] The Verity! contributors are all Doctor Whofans and live in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. The show has been described as "intelligently fannish"[3] and referenced as a recommended podcast.[4]
History
Verity! first aired January 2013.[5] 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.[1] 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.[1] The format of having only women on the podcast made it stand out among the many other Doctor Who-related podcasts.[6]
The podcast's name is a homage to Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who.[7][8]
Content
Verity! shows consist of a discussion of various topics touching on and about Doctor Who among the cast members.[9] 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.[6] The other episodes are shorter, about twenty to forty minutes and can be on any topic the women choose.[6] Erika Ensign and Stanish participate in most episodes: Stanish is the moderator and Ensign does the technical work.[1] The other four cast members rotate, except for large celebratory episodes where all six come together for the show.[1] 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 call.[10]
Verity! is not scripted, except for some contributors, like Ensign and Stanish, who use occasional notes in order to stay on topic.[6] Overall, the show is not heavily edited and is meant to sound like a natural conversational flow.[6]
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, and the Doctor Who Christmas special in December, in a series of winter podcast episodes.
Five of the six members of the Verity! podcast team, in February 2023: from left, Kat Griffiths, Deb Stanish, L. M. Myles, Lynne M. Thomas, and Erika Ensign
Cast members
Erika Ensign (Edmonton, Alberta) – Former producer of the Apex Magazine Podcast,[11] current co-producer of the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, and technical editor of Verity![3]
Katrina (Kat) Griffiths (Edmonton, Alberta) – fan and writer.[12]
Liz (L.M.) Myles (Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland) – contributor to Chicks Dig Time Lords, co-editor of Chicks Unravel Time[9] and co-editor of Companion Piece (2015).
Deborah (Deb) Stanish (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) – co-editor of Whedonistas (2011) and co-editor of Chicks Unravel Time[13] who moderates the panel discussion on Verity![9]
Lynne M. Thomas (Urbana, Illinois) – a co-editor of Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It (2010),[14]Whedonistas (2011), and Chicks Dig Comics (2012), and a contributor to Chicks Unravel Time.[9] She is also the former editor-in-chief of Apex Magazine, moderator of SF Squeecast, and current co-publisher and co-editor-in-chief of Uncanny Magazine.[11]
