Verity!

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 Who fans 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]

Verity!
Presentation
Hosted by	Erika Ensign, Katrina Griffiths, L.M. Myles, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Deborah Stanish, Lynne M. Thomas
Genre	Entertainment
Language	English
Length	Every other show is an hour long. The "Extras" are between 20 and 40 minutes. Apart from when they aren't.
Production
Audio format	MP3
Publication
Original release	January 1, 2013 (2013-01-01)

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).
• Tansy Rayner Roberts (Hobart, Tasmania) – author of the Creature Court series and Hugo Award winner.^[11]
• 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]