"You're more engaged when you're listening to somebody tell their story": A qualitative exploration into the mechanisms of the podcast 'menopause: unmuted' for communicating health information.

Objective: While health podcasts can be effective in reducing stigma and increasing knowledge, we know little about their mechanisms of action. This qualitative study explored the mechanisms of how women connected with the podcast 'menopause: unmuted', which presented menopause information in a storytelling format.
Methods: A diverse sample of 30 women aged 40-60 years were interviewed after listening to the podcast. Interviews covered participant's views and perceptions of the stories presented. Transcripts were analyzed thematically.
Findings: Two overarching themes were identified. 'Openness and authenticity' describes the value of personal stories told in an authentic way by real experts-by-experience. 'Relatability and representation' explores participants' emotional reaction to the podcast, influenced by the extent to which they identified with the stories and storytellers on the podcast.
Conclusions: Authenticity and relatability were identified as key mechanisms through which participants connected with audio stories, consistent with Fisher's narrative theory. These findings have important implications for the application of storytelling in podcasts designed to influence health behaviors.
Practice Implications: Diverse stories representing a range of demographic characteristics and experiences are needed when creating podcasts about health information to increase listener's relatability and connection.
Competing Interests: Competing interest statement Philippa Shaw was remunerated for the current project through funding provided by Pfizer to the University of Westminster. Philippa is also a freelance researcher at Studio Health, which has received consultancy fees from Pfizer, Roche, Takeda, MSD, and AstraZeneca. Amy Sumner was remunerated for the current project through funding provided by Pfizer to the University of Westminster. Amy is also a freelance researcher at Studio Health, which has received consultancy fees from Pfizer, Roche, Takeda, MSD, and AstraZeneca. Candida Halton is a director at Studio Health which has received consultancy fees from Pfizer, Roche, Takeda, MSD, and AstraZeneca. Stacy Bailey reports that she has received personal fees from the University of Westminster related to the conduct of this study. She also receives grants (via her institution) from Merck, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Lundbeck. She has received personal fees from Sanofi, Pfizer, and Luto outside the submitted work. Michael Wolf reports that he has received personal fees from the University of Westminster related to the conduct of this study. He also receives grants (via his institution) from Merck, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Lundbeck. Michael has received personal fees from Sanofi, Pfizer, and Luto outside the submitted work. Emma Andrews receives salary and stock from Pfizer Inc., where she is an employee. Tina Cartwright reports that she has received research funding (via her institution) from Pfizer for this study. She has previously received research funding from Takeda.
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