BBC News, West Midlands
Chyaz Samuel“I don’t think there’s really a blueprint for how it should feel when something like that happens, but it was probably one of the most surreal moments of my life.”
YouTuber, turned TikToker, turned podcaster Chyaz Samuel has always loved strange-but-true stories, ever since she was a child.
Following the pandemic, the freelance presenter decided to put that passion to good use and, from her spare room in her south Cheshire home, created the Things Are About to Get Weird podcast in 2022.
Since then, the 71 episodes combined have been downloaded more than a million times and it also had a stint at the top of Spotify’s true crime chart and broke into the top 10 of all UK podcasts.
“I was just at home on my own when I found out, which is kind of fitting as I’m a one-woman band and do this all on my own,” she said.
“I shed a tear – I’m a very emotional person anyway but it just felt incredible and I didn’t really know what to do.”
Chyaz SamuelSamuel was no stranger to online attention – she began her content creation career on YouTube in 2009, specialising in alternative music and fashion.
A video she made in 2010 on how to recreate Avril Lavigne’s look from the Girlfriend music video garnered 1.2m views.
She would later continue that style of content on TikTok, where she has more than 180,000 followers, before she began her podcast journey.
The stories she has covered on Things Are About to Get Weird included her first episode on Ursula and Sabina Eriksson – the twins who came to national attention following an incident on the M6 in 2008.
Samuel said she comes up with the ideas, does the research, writes the scripts, records the podcast, edits the audio and handles the social media by herself.
She said the amount of work and type of research “varies from topic to topic” and highlighted her episode exploring sleep paralysis.
“I actually talked to people who experienced it and read scientific papers about it,” she said.
“Other times it will be historical documents, if it’s a story that’s really steeped in history. It’s always nice to do something different every time.”
Chyaz SamuelSamuel said she would often get suggestions for episodes from listeners eager to hear her cover little-known tales.
“There’s always going to be stories that you haven’t heard of and I love to cover those – the ones that are slightly off the beaten track,” she added.
She makes her podcast alongside her freelance work as a presenter and content creator, which has previously included interviewing Game of Thrones actor Maisie Williams for TikTok.
Despite the workload and suggestions from followers, Samuel said she would “never use” artificial intelligence as part of her process.
“For me, as a creative, that just completely defeats the purpose,” she said. “I started this podcast because I love the stories and I love the research.”
Samuel has temporarily scaled back the frequency of her episodes to one per month but hopes to return to her previous fortnightly schedule in the near future.
She encouraged anyone else who was thinking about starting a podcast to “give it a go”.
“My biggest piece of advice is, before you click record, sit down and make sure that you have your concept, so you know exactly what you want to do and what you want to achieve,” she added.
