 what I'd learnt from doing the right thing is, you know, put something in front of an audience is quite hard because you have to market it. Anything with a script is quite hard. Anything that needs a lot of research. And so I was thinking, what's the antithesis of research? And also I genuinely felt that there was a gap in the market for, I want to be able to know about subjects. I want to be able to ask someone cleverer than me about something. And as a comedian, I am given license to act the fool. So I'm allowed, like I'm not a journalist. I don't have to pretend that I know everything all the time. And so the idea of having an expert who could explain things like Brexit or Northern Ireland or sectarianism. I really want to do Scottish sectarianism in the next series or transport or school systems or all these sorts of things. You have a handle on and I know a bit about because I work in, you know, I write the news quiz and things like that. But I don't know, there's like, there's definite gaps in my knowledge. I thought, if I get comedians to ask these questions, we are allowed to ask stupid things but still get to something interesting. I think it's a brilliant format. I think it's a really good idea. I think it's exactly the sort of thing that BBC Three should be making. But I know that if I took it to them, A, they'd do something weird where everybody's got to stand up and put an egg up their arse or something. You know, we've got to have people moving like League of their Own on Sky when it's just meant to be people talking and also they'd make someone else host it. And I knew if I did it as a podcast, I was allowed to host it myself because it's my idea. So this podcast is called Any Stupid Questions. Any Stupid Questions. Do you have for a regular co-host? No, that's just me, that one, yeah. It's got producers, produced by Ed Morish, who again is someone I've worked with on radio for quite a lot. Rather than having guests because it is more about the expert. So it is about who we've invited in with their knowledge. It doesn't rely on any sort of comedy dynamic between me and someone else. And if it was in front of a live audience, maybe I'd want someone else there to kind of be sparking off but I sort of feel that, I don't think it needs it. I mean, I was saying earlier about the chemistry between people but because this is about an actual thing, this isn't just us trying to be funny. It's about, it's genuinely about trying to inform people. It does have this element of, I think people should know stuff. The one in the British Empire was the most fascinating one because I knew so little about it and especially with all the Brexit stuff going on and people saying, oh, it can be Empire 2.0 and then you talk to someone who's an expert on the British Empire and you realise what an awful, awful thing that is because we're not taught about it in schools. And so that was a real eye-opener for me. You managed, in that one in particular, you managed to get into the subject in the way that a dead-eyed factual programme because all the contributors feel they need to be on the game and catching people out, you get nothing said. Whereas if you come in with these innocent questions of I really don't get how, why is it that the railways are always held up as a good thing? And to have an expert say, the British didn't even build the railways. You actually get to deeper truths than a so-called factual show would. Absolutely. And I think that the fact that it's not combative is why it's so good. I think it was our, the very first one we did actually, which we did in front of an audience because it was at the London Podcast Festival, but we had an expert on the NHS come in and he was saying like, I wanted it to be, you see, you know, like when people go in question time and the audience member asks a question and they already have their agenda and they know what they want to hear. And basically it's framed as a question, but it's you are a terrible person, why are you doing these terrible things and everybody's got their agenda and their party line, whether they're a politician or whether the audience member with an axe to grind. No one says anything. You learn nothing watching question time. Absolutely nothing because no one gives anything away. And also one of the other things that we say is, if there's anything that you say and you want it edited out, we'll edit it out. Like there's never any, we're not trying to trick you into saying something that you don't want to say. I think the one on the, on parliament, there are a couple of edit points just because the guests that we had in, I think she's like, oh, you know, I shouldn't really have said that all. You know, I don't really want to be naming politicians. And we're like totally fine, we'll cut it out. It's not, we're not here to trick you. We really want to know. I haven't got a clue how the parliamentary system works. Please tell me. There's something you said a few minutes ago, which was I want people to know stuff because I wanted to ask you, why do you podcast? Yeah. I suspect that might be just the reason right there. Well, yeah. I mean, like both of those podcasts and even the film one in fact, and I guess this is why I'm a writer on a stand up. It's about sharing your perspective of the world with other people. And so we do the right thing, even though it's ridiculous. There is some information in there. You do learn how to spot an antique or how to cross shark infested waters or how to land a plane if the pilots died. You learn in a ridiculously frivolous way, but there is genuine information being imparted. And any stupid questions takes that even further. It is about, in an era where we sneer at experts and wanting opinion rather than fact, it's about asking people their expertise. One of the things that we looked at doing with any stupid questions was having both sides of the political spectrum represented. And we were like, no, that isn't what it's meant to be. It's you, we have chosen you as an expert. You tell us what you know. And if someone decides to disagree with you, and we're not the BBC, we can put out, or we won't be, if someone disagrees with you, then maybe we'll get them on as an expert. And most of the time people are really balanced. That's sometimes Brexit expert. And I was trying to get him to say that Brexit was a stupid idea. And even he was like, actually, if you look at why it happened, it's because people felt marginalized and it was the only bit of change that they ever felt they could enact. And you can keep going. We are gonna do another Brexit episode, yeah. So we're planning to start up again in the new year. And I would like to get Brexit done really quickly because there's loads of stuff about the deal. I don't understand. There's loads of stuff about, I don't get why, what is Canada plus, plus, plus? What is Norway plus? What do these things mean? Because everybody now talks about it as if we already know what that means. I haven't got a clue from a, so wanky, I just, I am learning stuff. And that's why I love doing it. I can go in and I can say, because it's my show, I can A, decide what subjects we're doing. And then I can go, I've always wanted to know why our house is so expensive? What is going on with the housing system? Why aren't people building more council houses? All of that. I'm allowed to ask that to an expert. That's great. If I wasn't interested, I probably wouldn't even do the podcast. But I get to learn things. And the amount of effort I have to put in is just turn up, really. I mean, I don't even, I can go in with no research and go, I haven't got a clue what this is. Can you tell me about it? Danielle, where can we find you? And where can we find your staff? I have a website that's hideously out of date. Feel free to go and explore that. I have a SoundCloud account, Daniel Ward. So if you search Daniel Ward and SoundCloud, on that is some weird things that I've never done as podcasts because it's not a continuation of anything. Because you know, you also have to update things for them to be podcast. It's me playing with different audio. So I've got both of my musicals are on there, recorded just live, wild in a room. There's little short stories set to music. There's some weird sketches set to music. That's all on SoundCloud. There is also Do The Right Thing, Any Stupid Questions, and Film Fandango, all of which are available through your normal podcast providers. So the best thing for us to do would be to subscribe to Do The Right Thing and Any Stupid Questions. Subscribe, listen, review, do all that sort of stuff. And in all honesty, if you want to follow me in a day-to-day way, then it's at Captain Ward on Twitter. Brilliant. That's probably the best way of doing it. High five. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for listening. That's the Podcast Producers podcast. There's a link to all the episodes in the description. And if you've reached this far in the episode, why not leave me a comment? It'd be lovely to hear from you. Or even maybe a thumbs up. And if you subscribe, you will be really helping me to keep this thing going. So I really appreciate it. And I'll see you on the next episode of the Podcast Producers podcast. Can you please help my daddy get 1,000 subscribers? Just click on his face. Thanks. Bye.