Annabel Cresswell and Sumudu Thode also discuss how COVID-19 prepared them for the challenges of recording at home
Last week, Criminal Bar Association Vice Presidents Annabel Cresswell and Sumudu Thode told NZ Lawyer how their That’s Just Criminal podcast was conceived. This week, they drop a few hints about what’s next, and talk recording around three different schedules.
Thode: It's just us talking and going, “look, this is our topic, and then suggesting yes, that we can have on board”. To me, it doesn't feel like there's a formal process; we just talk and we go, “oh, we'll get this person”.
On the episode where we had Rishi Nathwani [SC] from Melbourne (the second episode). We had to do a bit of research, find somebody, and the episode outlines how we found him, which is kind of funny in itself. But it's more us just talking and going, “yep, sweet, we're on the same page. Let's get this person”.
Cresswell: We've only had two guests on it [as of September], and it's been one email: “will you be on the podcast?” And they've both been like, “yes” immediately. So that's been really nice. We haven't had to try very hard so far.
Cresswell: Scheduling is an issue because our producer, Jane, is in Japan, so we have to work around when she's awake. She's also got children, so we have to work around her children's activities, our children's activities, and our working day. So far, we've done [the podcasts] at eight o'clock at night.
I'd love to see one that we could record in the morning, because I'm like, 10 times sharper in the morning.
Thode: We did the first one at seven, eight o'clock at night, and it was like, “OK, this time works for everyone”. It'll be interesting to do a different time and see how we go.
But it's been really easy in terms of going, “let's do this on Tuesday night” or “let's do this on Thursday night”. And it's worked out –we haven't really had any drama.
Cresswell: A little bit – we've had some children walking in, but it's edited out. And [we record] when they should technically be in bed. So it’s not been too much of a problem – mainly just the tiredness of that hour.
Thode: We held meetings and even made court appearances from home, especially through COVID, when the kids were at home. It's definitely no worse than trying to do a court appearance as parents when kids are hiding under the table. And like Annabel said, it's edited so if the little one walks in to say goodnight to something, the producer would just cut that out.
And that's part of the reality of our life, it brings the humanity to it.
Cresswell: We're recording one about the election by a judge or a jury for a trial. And we've also got the secret barrister episode coming up.
Thode: A funny one.
Cresswell: For the last one, it is subject to change, but we think we'll do a “war stories” one – get a couple of different barristers on to tell stories of things that have gone terribly wrong or terribly right in court.
In the next part of this interview, Cresswell and Thode tell us why they chose criminal law, and debunk an assumption about criminal lawyers.
