Geerke Catshoek
Geerke Catshoek is a programme maker for Het Klokhuis (NTR), known for the podcast Onmisbare Uitvindingen (Essential Inventions) and the explainer series Huh?!. For the Rijksmuseum, she created the podcast series Women on the Wall. Essential Inventions was nominated for a Dutch Podcast Award, and Huh?! was a finalist for the Prix Jeunesse International.
Geerke studied philosophy of science and specialised in ‘the public understanding of science’. She began her career as a (science) journalist at DWDD. Her talent was noticed by Maxim Hartman, and she had the dubious honour of being one of his protégés for many years.
Geerke does not limit herself to a single discipline. A self-proclaimed ‘professional dabbler’, she has made documentaries for children, had regular columns in NRC and Het Parool, and was regularly brought in to rescue failed TV projects. Although her heart lies with public broadcasting and quality newspapers, she is also familiar with the commercial world. She was a programme developer at Endemol and co-founded (and became creative director of) the feminist advertising agency Calamity Jane. She is currently working on a book.
Geerke appeared at the NPO Luister Festival with Onmisbare Uitvindingen and spoke about women in art at the Rijksmuseum. She has also given numerous talks on the female gaze in advertising and the female perspective in advertising.
At Het Klokhuis, Geerke has spent years working for the most unforgiving audience there is: children. If they find something boring, they simply move on to something else. There is no second chance. It taught her that you have to turn every turd into a cake. In other words: how do you make complex information accessible by presenting it as a compelling story… without losing any of the substance, of course? But how do you actually do that?
Geerke shows how knowledge can truly reach an audience, and what often goes wrong along the way. She teaches you how to turn dry, complicated material into a story people actually want to listen to. She explores the question of what is actually “true”, and how even facts can be coloured by perspective. And she shows how to turn a mission into a story that sticks — and gets passed on.
Book Geerke if you want your audience not only to listen, but to remember.
Some of her talks:
What Big Companies Can Learn from Het Klokhuis
For decades, Het Klokhuis has been making complex knowledge understandable for children: an audience that immediately notices when something is explained in a boring or condescending way. That skill — making complex material engaging without compromising its substance — is precisely where many large organisations struggle. What if you approached knowledge transfer like an episode of Het Klokhuis?
Target audience: Companies and institutions in the educational, scientific or knowledge-intensive sectors that struggle to reach their audiences.
Beyond Fake News: How True Is Your Story, Really?
Everyone talks about fake news, but even if your information isn’t a lie, it can still be ‘untrue’ in a particular context. Who is funding the research? Which part of the story are you leaving out? What interest determines the framing? Drawing on her background in philosophy of science (specialism: public understanding of science), Geerke shows how layered and relative truth can be, and why being honest about that actually makes you more resilient to criticism, not more vulnerable.
Target audience: Organisations communicating complex, contested or evolving claims to the outside world (R&D, sustainability, tech/AI, crisis communication).
Every Company Has a Podcast These Days… So How Do You Make Sure People Actually Listen?
Geerke takes participants through how she turns a message into an audio story at Het Klokhuis (and at the Rijksmuseum) — with a hook, a narrative arc and a core message that sticks, so that a mission is not only understood, but passed on.
Target audience: Organisations and spokespersons who want to communicate their mission, product or research more effectively.