Guardian podcaster’s role in doubt after episode fails to appear
Absence of Pop Culture weekly thought to be linked to Chanté Joseph's posting of pro-Hamas tweets to personal account following 7 October attacks
The future of Guardian presenter Chanté Joseph’s relationship with the newspaper looks in doubt after a new episode of her Pop Culture podcast failed to appear this week.
The Guardian has told Jewish News the weekly podcast was “taking a break” but declined to say whether or when it would return.
It is thought that the absence of the episode, scheduled to appear on Thursday morning on the media group’s website, is linked to her posting of pro-Hamas tweets to her personal account following the 7 October attacks.
In March, the Guardian had announced a second series of the podcast, which says it “digs deep into the stories we can’t stop talking about”, and the series celebrated its return (“Pop Culture with Chanté Joseph is back!”) on 14 September after a summer break. At the end of September, Joseph appeared live at Kings Place in central London, where the media group has its offices, as part of the London Podcast Festival.
After Joseph’s offensive tweets were revealed, a Guardian spokesperson said they were “completely unacceptable social media posts by a freelance contributor. Senior managers are taking this very seriously and have spoken to the person concerned, who is deeply regretful at their lapse in judgment and has immediately deleted the posts.”
The following week she was asked to step down from the panel at a Stylist Live event on 10-12 November.
Joseph was the host of a documentary series on Channel 4 called How Not To Be Racist.
Her first book, A Quick Ting On: British Black Power, part of a series by publisher Jacaranda Books dedicated to black British culture, was scheduled for publication last month and is available to pre-order. Publicity for the book says it will take the reader through “the formative, radical histories of Black British activism”. Jewish News has contacted Jacaranda for comment.
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