Journalist, youth worker, campaigner and author Ciaran Thapar has launched a new podcast, Safe.

Each episode of the podcast, the second of which was recently released, sees Thapar—who is Director of Public Affairs and Communications at the Youth Endowment Fund and author of Cut Short: Why We're Failing Our Youth, And How To Fix It—discuss youth violence with the people working to stop it.

The first episode featured journalist, charity worker and social work academic Carlene Firmin about how to keep young people safe and the importance of community in that endeavour.

For the second episode, Thapar spoke to Justin Finlayson, whose connections to youth culture and the music industry stretch back decades, including being a mentor to Akala.

Finlayson is the CEO of United Borders, a charity based in Church Road, Harlesden, which runs music workshops for young people as a route out of community violence. They run their projects from a double-decker bus (a second was recently acquired by the charity) as well as their own youth space.

Together, Thapar and Finlayson dig deep into Finlayson's story, his history in music, how youth violence has affected his own family, the complexities of drill music, and the damage done when communities and music scenes are painted with the same broad brush strokes. Most importantly, they also talk about solutions to these myriad problems.

Hit play on Episode 2 of Safe below.