The Underground Podcast

Conversations with the people shaping the garden industry

The Underground brings together people from across the garden sector to share their experiences, challenge assumptions and talk about what’s changing.
Hosted by WrightObara’s Phil Wright and horticultural consultant Kate Turner, the conversations range across retail, brands, products, sustainability, consumer behaviour, marketing and the wider forces shaping the future of gardening.

It’s curious, candid and deliberately broad. Because some of the most interesting ideas appear when you bring together people who see the industry from very different perspectives.

Staying close to the industry

For WrightObara, The Underground gives us something particularly valuable: the opportunity to listen.

We talk regularly with garden-centre leaders, manufacturers, growers, marketers, journalists, trade organisations, entrepreneurs and specialists from across the sector.

Those conversations help us understand the pressures businesses are facing, where attitudes are changing and the questions people across Garden are asking.

It doesn’t mean every conversation becomes a marketing lesson. Nor should it. But spending that much time listening to people throughout the industry inevitably gives us a richer understanding of the sector we work in.

The Underground is also the official podcast partner of Glee, bringing us even closer to the people and ideas shaping the industry.

Phil & Kate with The Underground Podcast

From The Underground

Sometimes a conversation stays with us. An idea deserves exploring further. An observation connects with something we’ve experienced in our own work. Or a guest raises a question that has much wider implications for brands, retailers and marketing teams.

From The Underground is where we take those ideas further. These aren’t episode summaries. They’re WrightObara articles inspired by conversations on the podcast, bringing together what our guests have said with our own experience and point of view.

Illustration of a new product being checked to see it it's retail ready
A finished product isn’t always ready for retail

A finished product isn’t always ready for retail

Illustration of where a brand could confuse attention with authority
Don’t confuse attention with authority

Don’t confuse attention with authority

Photo showing a stack of magazines next to a mug of coffee
Why print still matters in garden retail

Why print still matters in garden retail

Listen to The Underground

New and archive episodes of The Underground are available on theunderground.fm, where you can also watch episodes, read the show notes and explore the conversations in full.