"Stripped" - Project Purpose, Aims and Ambitions

Soul Searching Audacious Podcasts

Thomas W E Budge, formerly detained as a teenager for objecting to South African conscription in the apartheid army, reflects on why he produced the audio drama podcast "Stripped." Old apartheid South Africa and the Watchtower Society both exerted control over the young Jehovah's Witness boys growing up in the country in the early 1970s. "Stripped" isn't about self-pity or heroism, but is about helping others trapped in similar systems. Societal changes allow this story to be told now, and the themes are as relevant today as they were for the youth back then who, as young individuals, fought bigotry and had difficulty navigating a non-inclusive world. "Stripped" is a story of self-advocacy, and is also a reminder to the world of an almost forgotten chapter in South Africa's apartheid history.