FYM Podcast Takes Comedy to Radio

Namibia’s favourite comedy company lost its real-life stages but gained the airwaves in The Free Your Mind Podcast on Eagle FM.

Hosted by Free Your Mind co-founder Ndemufayo ‘Chicken’ Kaxuxuena and Justin Hango, the show is designed to “crack you up and make you think” every weekday between 09h00 and 10h00.

Taking shots at Namibia’s wealth of characters, criminals, politicos, scenes and scandals, The FYM Podcast is a hybrid talk, comedy and current affairs show underscoring the hilariousness of the day’s headlines while providing perceptive commentary on the state of the nation.

Tuning in on a Monday morning, the topics include praise for local Olympians Beatrice Masilingi and Christine Mboma, a sobering exchange about Namibians’ toxic love affair with alcohol, the return of Paulus Noa and a segment on the rumoured plot against Chinese residents, unwise as any one of them could be “Jet Li’s brother”.

Also fielding a host of calls from wisecracking listeners, The FYM Podcast regularly features comedians Mr Slick, Tapiwa Makaza and Helmut Mahongo adding spice to the week’s top stories.

“The FYM Podcast is a good space to discuss topics without limits in a more informal setting. If you look at Eagle FM, it is a very serious radio station. It’s mainly talk. They talk politics. They talk current affairs so we just join in every morning but our discussions are usually light,” says Kaxuxuena.

“We try to keep it as funny as possible but we also want to talk about things that are of national interest. We really wanna dissect them and air our views. Our audiences, our guys that call in, I think they see it as an opportunity to talk about something without limitations, without diplomacy and having to be too politically correct.”

The podcast is also the next step in Free Your Mind’s digital migration, which has had to be considerably accelerated due to the prohibitive nature of the pandemic. While the pressure to design products suited to the new normal is considerable, the challenge is not without discovery.

“One of the things that we are currently really enjoying is reaching out to a new, older, more serious audience, although we bring out the funny in them as well,” says Kaxuxuena.

“Being on a platform that reaches so many people and they can give you feedback in real time by calling in, we are learning so much about ourselves and our platforms,” he says. “The podcast is really good at keeping us active, keeping us interactive with our audience, reaching out to new audiences and, at the same time, we earning a little bit of funds.”

On the hunt for sponsorship and urging far more investment in the arts from the government, private sector and wider community, The FYM Podcast also hopes to inspire new narratives about contemporary Namibia.

“We want the listening community to think for themselves. We want to inspire people to create and be active participants in their democracy,” says Kaxuxuena.

“We want to inspire people to manufacture things, to grow more food, to produce content that is Africa conscious and to drive a narrative that propels Africa forward.”

Often solutions seeking, topical but not beyond discussing such pressing issues as why Namibians are sharing cigarettes during Covid-19, whether Namibia Breweries should be investing in alcohol rehabilitation centres and if you can trust a bornfree with a smartphone, The FYM Podcast invites you to tune in for your daily dose of comedy and conversation.

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