Jessie Levene

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.

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.