Resistance and bias in The Lemming
The Lemming is an independent, anti-profit magazine that’s made with a strong DIY ethos, and an even stronger sense of social justice and political activism. It was started by creative director Gabriel Carr and his friend Dylan Hatton while they were both studying at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the team has grown since then, transforming the magazine into a publication with a strong political identity.
I spoke with Gabriel at the end of last year, along with editor Beth Jones, and political editor Joseph Conway, and I hope our conversation gives a sense of the magazine’s tone. Because while The Lemming includes lots of serious storytelling, it’s also full of cartoons, and there’s a cryptic crossword, and a story about human statues, and one about furries, and the whole package maintains a general sense of fun amongst the difficulty.
It’s all unified by a sense of grassroots reporting, which amplifies voices that aren’t always heard, and doesn’t pretend to impartiality. Because as Joseph explains, while they will always attempt to tell the truth, they’re not trying to tell two sides of a story: “It’s trying to ground it in a sense of resistance… a reporting that is biased, and a reporting that has a particular political opinion…”
I hope you’ll enjoy this episode with Gabriel, Beth and Joe, and if you’d like to hear more conversations with independent magazine makers, check our archives for loads more episodes of the podcast. And of course if you follow us wherever you get your podcasts, we’ll be able to deliver all our future episodes to you as soon as they’re ready.
