02/08/2020

Available for over a year

Fi Glover presents the longer weekly edition of the programme on the shared experience of being in lockdown and beyond. In this edition two recent university students who have never met compare notes on coming to terms with their 'new normal' -online graduation ceremonies and curtailed plans for the future; strangers from different parts of North Yorkshire – one a bus driver and the other coach driver - share their passion for being behind the wheel and working for the community they live in; two women from different parts of the country talk about the joys of taking up cycling again during lockdown - the first time since childhood; and an older couple who live with a grown-up son who has Down’s Syndrome reflect on how the last few months have been for the 3 of them. 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