25/10/2020

Available for over a year

Fi Glover presents the longer weekly edition of the programme in which strangers and new friends share their experience of lockdown and 'the new normal'. In this edition two young people who live in Wales, Amira and Beth, talk about having mental health issues and the impact of the pandemic on their lives; Yorkshire-based Donna and Jon talk about how the pandemic has affected their working lives; a return to head teachers Ciran and Chris - based in Slough, Buckinghamshire and Wisbech, Cambridgeshire respectively - with an update on what it’s been like to run a secondary school since September and what effect it’s had on their personal lives; and Kieran and Sue, two people who met in their local park in Glasgow, describe how they formed an unlikely and lasting friendship in lockdown. The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moments of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in this decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject Producer: Mohini Patel