Exeter Stories showcases the changemakers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders transforming Exeter and the Exe Valley. Host Paul Batterham interviews local heroes building a better future across health, culture, business, and social innovation.
Discover inspiring stories from brilliant people doing brilliant things right on your doorstep. From a multi-agency support model, to a volunteer-run theatres, to a vision of the city as a place for everyone, each fortnightly episode showcases the positive impact happening across our region.
Perfect for residents, business leaders, and anyone interested in community development, local innovation, and grassroots changemaking in Devon.
New episodes every other Wednesday on all major platforms.
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This podcast has been made possible by the support of the University of Exeter (https://www.exeter.ac.uk/)'s Innovation team, and the Arts & Culture team.
The idea grew out of civic innovation workshops led by Julie McLaren and Kate Jago in early 2024. Without their work bringing together Exeter's movers and shakers, this podcast wouldn’t exist.
Thanks also go to Adrian Webb at Outcome Path (https://www.outcomepath.co.uk/) for marketing support and for encouraging me to think bigger and bolder.
And finally, to all of the interviewees: thank you for being candid, funny, serious, passionate, and for all the brilliant things you do.
Malcolm Mardon, chairman of Hospital Radio Exeter, tells the story of a station that has been on air since 1974, and reflects on fifty-one years of walking hospital wards, collecting requests, and keeping patients company.
Hospital Radio Exeter was founded by police inspector Terry Roberts, who had spent years trying to persuade hospital management to give it a go. When they finally said yes, the station started with five hundred pounds from the League of Friends, a small mixing desk, two microphones and two record players. Malcolm joined at the founding meeting in December 1974, offered to make the tea, and has never left. He is the only member from that original group still on the station.
The station broadcasts seven days a week to patients at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and to care homes across the area, with a weeknight request show at eight o'clock that has run unchanged since the beginning. Each evening, volunteer ward visitors go out in pairs to chat with patients and collect requests, returning in time for a mad dash to prepare the show. Some patients have not spoken to anyone all day.
Malcolm also supports around twenty hospital radio stations across the country and talks frankly about the challenges facing the sector, and the joy of friendships built around a shared love for playing records.
Get Involved
Hospital Radio Exeter website (https://www.hospitalradioexeter.com)
Hospital Radio Exeter on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HospitalRadioExeter)
Make a request online (https://www.hospitalradioexeter.com/make-a-request/request-music-form/)
Listen free in the RDE Hospital (Wonford) on your bedside TV, Channel 1.
Listen anywhere via hospitalradioexeter.com (http://hospitalradioexeter.com), the Hospital Radio Exeter app (iOS and Android), or Alexa: say 'Enable Hospital Radio Exeter' then 'Play Hospital Radio Exeter'.
To make a request: phone 01392 402020 (reception) or 01392 402019 (studio, 7pm to 10pm); text 07469 979 881; email requestshow@aol.com (mailto:requestshow@aol.com); or use the online request form.
Volunteer opportunities available in presenting, ward visiting, technical support, marketing and social media. Apply via hospitalradioexeter.com (http://hospitalradioexeter.com). Note: joining takes a minimum of two to three months including DBS check and seven mandatory training modules.
12 Aug 2026
Ellie Taylor: What Exeter's Oldest Community Charity Has Learnt About Lasting Change
Ellie Taylor, Chief Executive of Exeter Community Initiatives, traces the thirty-year history of one of the city's oldest charities and explains why the most important outcomes of its work are often the ones that never make it into a spreadsheet.
ECI was founded in 1993 by a coalition of city centre churches responding to homelessness and poverty. Its first two major projects -- what became St Petrock's and Turntable -- grew into independent charities that are still operating today. ECI now runs six projects with a team of thirty-seven, covering community building, family support, adult coaching, arts and health programming, children's preloved retail at Jelly on Fore Street, and the newly opened Custard Town family play space in the Guildhall. In 2024 it welcomed Magic Carpet, a forty-year-old disability arts charity, under its umbrella. D'Arts followed shortly after.
Ellie arrived in Exeter a week before lockdown, spent six months in the garden with two small children, and found her way into the city's voluntary sector through a single job application. She talks about the nine community builders who knock on doors across Exeter's neighbourhoods and help residents turn small ideas into lasting change; the Transitions project that coaches adults through life challenges without doing the work for them; the Family Resource project supporting families across Devon and Cornwall who have experienced serious crime; and the Safer Separation Framework being developed to fill a gap in court-ready family documentation. She is also frank about what it means to run preventative services in a city where the hardest thing to explain is what did not happen.
Get Involved
Exeter Community Initiatives website (https://www.eci.org.uk)
ECI on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ExeterCommunityInitiatives)
Devon Connect -- volunteering opportunities across Exeter (https://www.devonconnect.org)
Jelly children's charity shop: 148-149 Fore Street, Exeter EX4 3AN. Preloved children's clothing, toys, equipment and maternity wear. Volunteer opportunities available in store.
Custard Town family play space: first floor of the Guildhall, Exeter. Open to families with young children. Check eci.org.uk (http://eci.org.uk) for session times and booking.
Transitions workshops: free to attend, open to anyone over 18. Topics include managing money, anxiety, executive function and decluttering. Book via eci.org.uk (http://eci.org.uk) or 07531 870203.
Transitions coaching: one-to-one volunteer coaching matched to individuals. Contact ECI to find out more.
Magic Carpet arts and drama groups: weekly sessions for people with learning disabilities and mental health challenges, in Exeter, Honiton and Exmouth. Contact ECI for details.
Annual volunteer fair at Exeter Cathedral -- usually spring. Sign up to the ECI mailing list for dates.
22 Jul 2026
Nick Hall: Music in Devon Initiative and The Devon Music Scene
Nick Hall and Dave Knox of Music in Devon Initiative (MIDI) share the story of a decade spent building the infrastructure Devon's music scene never had, and reveal the two city centre spaces that are changing what's possible for musicians in Exeter.
Nick came to Devon via Somerset, London's Britpop years, and three years living in Senegal, where he absorbed West African music and met his partner. Back in Exmouth, he built a following playing at pubs and festivals, and set up MIDI in 2016.
Dave arrived through MIDI TV — the live performance platform MIDI built during lockdown to keep Devon artists connected with audiences — and has since co-directed the Devon-wide Battle of the Bands, managed recording projects, and helped grow the organisation's reach across the county.
MIDI has now run nine editions of the Exeter Street Arts Festival, delivered Soundtribe music sessions for children outside mainstream education, and helped over 500 artists take their first steps. In 2026 they have opened two new spaces: Source Studio, a basement recording studio, and the Source, a community music hub on Paris Street designed for open jams, beatbox workshops, and whatever the network brings through the door.
Nick and Dave talk about the day their open house became an all-day jam, why Devon's music scene is richer than it knows, and what the city needs to do to stop it being a missed opportunity.
Get Involved
Music in Devon Initiative website (https://www.musicindevon.org)
MIDI on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/musicindevon)
Exeter Street Arts Festival (https://www.exeterstreetartsfestival.co.uk)
The Source Studio basement recording studio under Concord House, South Street, Exeter (below Casper's Dessert Shop). Contact MIDI via the website to book sessions.
The Source community music hub is at 21 Paris Street, Exeter.
Volunteer opportunities available — stewarding, fundraising and admin. Contact info@musicindevon.org (mailto:info@musicindevon.org).
MIDI TV archive of Devon artists and live sessions available on YouTube. Search MIDI TV Devon.
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