Jessie Levene

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is the 15-minute feature that I produced for the Creative Radio strand of my MA programme at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Marcel Proust’s novel ‘In Search of Lost Time’ famously describes a universal experience – that involuntary rush of memory when we eat or drink a certain thing. For the narrator of that novel it was a Madeleine cake, and in this documentary we hear from a psychologist, a food writer and two young women as they explore the phenomenon of the Madeleine Moment.

Many thanks to Hatt Reiss, Sarah Giaziri, Simon Parkes and John Morton for talking to me about food, memory and everything in between.

I recorded the London side of this interview with The Guardian’s Michael White about the upcoming Royal Jubilee for NPR’s flagship news programme All Things Considered.

On the day of an epic radio fail, here’s a reminder that I can also do a radio win…

This is the 10-minute feature that I produced for the Creative Radio strand of my MA programme at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

A little introduction: from Elgar to Bach, from pop to Klezmer: all have explored the beautiful and unique sound of the cello. In this montage-style documentary, two professional cellists reflect on sound, music, and their own personal relationship with this extraordinary instrument.

Many thanks to Francesca Ter-Berg and Matthew Forbes for lending their dulcet tones to the piece – and also to Arthur Russell and Edward Elgar for their beautiful music.

Blue plaque at 87 Hackford Road, Brixton

My article for the online magazine GoChengdoo about the sale of Vincent Van Gogh’s onetime London home to a Sichuanese businessman can be read here.