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Inspired by Audio

I produced the second edition of the Inspired by Audio Podcast,  a collection of creative radio from around the world, curated by the radio collective In The Dark, with support from D&AD and RAB. My episode, ‘Inside My Head’, features stories from WNYC’s Pejk Malinovski, The Truth’s Jonathan Mitchell and RTE’s Ronan Kelly. You can hear it, right at the bottom of the page and on the right, here.

Recent Tape-Syncs

Over the past 6 months I’ve recorded four tape-syncs/simul-recs/double-enders/whatever-you-call-ems for two radio programmes in the US.

For America’s Test Kitchen, I recorded an interview with Mrs Patmore (aka the delightful Lesley Nichol) from Downtown Abbey. The interview with Lesley starts at about 26’30” and you can hear it here. Also for America’s Test Kitchen, I travelled to Cambridge to record an interview with food writer and Sunday Telegraph columnist Bee Wilson. The interview with Bee begins at about 20’05” and you can hear it here.

And for WUNC’s The Story, I recorded an interview with David Cundall, the British farmer digging for WWII planes in Burma. You can hear that story here. Also for The Story, I recorded an interview with the writer and campaigner Victoria Brittain, about her book ‘Shadow Lives’. You can hear that interview here.

Chinatown Food Tour in new guide to multicultural London

My Chinatown Food Tour is featured in a new e-book, ‘Kiratiana’s Travel Guide to Multicultural London’, by American writer and journalist Kiratiana Freelon. Kiratiana found me via Google and a few months ago we sat down to an epic Skype conversation, some of which you can read in this blog post; my deepest thanks to Kiratiana for including me in her book.

If you’d like a food tour of London’s Chinatown, please email me at jessielevene AT gmail DOT com.

The Listening Project – BBC Radio 4

Four conversations that I co-edited for the BBC Radio 4 series The Listening Project are now available to listen to online.

The first, ‘Reluctant Retirement’, which was also broadcast on the Radio 4 programme, is an intimate conversation between sisters Lynn and Anna about Lynn’s recent, difficult decision to retire from her job as a primary school deputy head. It was recorded and submitted by my comrade in radio freelance-land (and Lynn’s daughter) Kirsty McQuire.

The second, ‘Life Changing Decision’, is a beautiful, emotional conversation between Janette and her daughter Helen, about the events that led to Helen entirely losing her hearing at the age of 19 months.

The third, ‘Wise Women’, is a chat between partners Sylvia and Alison and their friend Jenny, who is also a lesbian, about their thirty-year battle to have their sexuality accepted.

And in the fourth, ‘Unexpected Gift’, husband and wife Alan and Anne recall how a WWII bomb blast left Anne an unexpected gift and just how different their experiences as evacuees were.

If you’d like to record a conversation and be part of The Listening Project, please click here.

Shambala Festival Podcast

I contributed three short segments to the marvellous new Shambala Festival Podcast, produced by the lovely and very talented lady that is Mair Bosworth. It was a very happy moment early this summer when I got an email from Mair asking if I wanted to be a ‘roving food reporter’ at Shambala in August. I certainly did, and the weekend kicked off brilliantly with my following the arrival of the Sustrans-led bike rides to the festival on the Thursday afternoon. You can hear all about that in the first Shambala podcast (my bit starts at about 1’15”), as well as the stag do who dressed up as Tories, some fabulous music, and this woman.

In the second edition, you can hear my segment (starting at about 4’50”) about a wonderful wild food walk led by the legendary Mike Feingold, sample some beautiful music from the marvellous Hannah Williams & The Tastemakers, and have a chuckle at the infamous Shambala Cock Drawing Club.

And in the third edition, you can hear my segment (starting at about 7’54”) about the brilliant Surplus Supper Club, a project of the utterly inspiring charity Fareshare, listen to the inspiring words of Tony Benn, and hear the sounds of the infamous Big Burn.

Showreel 2012


My radio production showreel for 2012. A mixture of work produced for BBC Radio 4, NPR, Making Contact and also for my MA at Goldsmiths.

Short Cuts – ‘Into the Wild’ – BBC Radio 4

The latest edition of BBC Radio 4 series Short Cuts (made by the wonderful Falling Tree Productions) features a piece that I produced, about a woman who gave her daughter the surname ‘Wild’. It’s available to listen to on iPlayer until Tuesday 9th October.

Recent and upcoming work on BBC Radio 4

With my Radio MA complete I have now entered the (slightly scary) world of freelancing.

To kick things off, in September I recorded a simul-rec with writer, journalist and all-round nice person Caitlin Moran for weekly BBC Radio 4 programme Feedback, made by Whistledown Productions. The episode that my simul-rec was used in is unfortunately no longer available to listen to online, but I was told by the programme’s Executive Producer that, and I quote, “it’s the best recorded simul-rec that I’ve heard in 20 years” !

And as if that wasn’t enough excitement for one month, I also recently produced a feature for the second series of Short Cuts, the fabulous programme of creative radio documentaries made by Falling Tree Productions for BBC Radio 4. Back in January when I was still a student I was lucky enough to have my work featured in the first series of Short Cuts; my piece for the new series is an interview with a woman who gave her daughter the surname ‘Wild’, and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 3pm on Tuesday 2nd October.

World Brunch Club on Monocle 24

World Brunch Club, the pop-up restaurant co-chefed by myself and Francesca Ter-Berg, was featured recently on The Menu, the weekly food show from internet radio station Monocle 24. Our slot in in Episode 39, starts at 32’10”, and you can find it here.

Making Contact – ‘The Olympic Games: Who Wins?’

For the latest edition of US-based radio programme Making Contact, I produced a segment about the policing of London 2012. Featuring the voices of playwright Dominic Taylor, Newham Monitoring Project‘s Estelle du Boulay and many others, you can hear it as part of the whole programme, or listen to the segment individually via Soundcloud.