24/01/2021

Available for over a year

Fi Glover presents friends and strangers in conversation as the nation adjusts to the 'new normal'. In this week's programme includes four lively conversations; between 22 year old Laurie who has begun the journey to transition from female to male, and Helen who is 73, divorced and has a daughter, and who identified as a transvestite before transitioning more than 20 years ago. And between father and daughter Tony and Eve. Tony, a former police offer, is now a mental health activist . He talks about why he switched careers and 15 year old Eve’s burgeoning interest in speaking out about mental health issues. Complete strangers Alan and Anne talk about their shared passion for model railways. And two women who wrote in to the programme and volunteered to talk to a stranger, begin by talking about losing people close to them and discover they shared a surprising family history. 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