LISTENERS get the chance to meet the people behind the athletes thanks to a Peeblesshire podcaster.

Now going into the second season of his podcast, former Peebles High School pupil Sam Mathews is giving sports fans the chance to see a different side to athletes.

Over in 80 Minutes podcast lets sportspeople share their personalities with listeners in a new way, something which Sam felt they weren't able to do in traditional interviews with parts of the media.

"I've been very fortunate to meet many athletes through volunteer work or playing when I was younger," Sam said, "and I remember watching interviews of them all and they were getting asked these prying questions and you could see the answers they were giving were from a media team or PR team and it wasn't them talking.

"And I was thinking I know these people, and I know how interesting and funny they are.

"That's how it [podcast] came about, I wanted to help people tell their own stories while having a laugh and not having to worry about how the headlines are going to be perceived by a person from a more conventional media outlet."

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Sam, 25, who lives in Cardrona, created 16 episodes in his first season – with an addition four montage episodes – where he welcomed a number of interesting guests on to the podcast, including Grand National winning jockey Ryan Mania from Galashiels, motorbike racer Roddy Taylor and Scottish international rugby players Rhona Lloyd and Sarah Bonar who run the Women Who Sport podcast.

The media executive at Space and Time Media Ltd. in Edinburgh said: "There are a lot of stories that they [sportspeople] don't get to talk about.

"One of the guests I had last year was an older motorcycle rider and he's 58 and he has this whole incredible backstory about tragedy within his family, family upbringing and three generations of motorcycle riders.

"The part that makes it fun for me is I learn while I'm doing it, so I had Ryan Mania on and he was telling me about how jockeys are so superstitious in terms that they'll never wear new riding gear on a big race or nervous day.

"And these are the things that you'd never know."

Sam hopes to launch the second season of Over in 80 Minutes at the start of next month.

After releasing the first 10 episodes of season one, Sam's podcast had been downloaded more than 1,500 times.

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Looking back to when he first started the podcast, Sam told the Peeblesshire News about the differences he'd noticed since his first episode in June last year.

"I don't think I was expecting the response I got [to the first season]," he said. "In terms of the people that came on and how willing people were to help me in every avenue.

"I love each one of my episodes in different ways, I love the first episode because it is, in terms of my presenting ability, it is the worst by far.

"I had a good friend of mine who I've known for a long while, George Taylor who plays for Edinburgh, on there and I was asking him all these boring questions.

"I feel a lot more confident.

"I hope the interest stays in terms of the people listening and I hope the variety shows people that they can find interests in different things.

"It's an hour for them to hear about something different that they may never have thought to wonder about."

To listen to the podcast, search for Over in 80 Minutes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Youtube.

You can also find Over in 80 Minutes on Twitter and Instagram.