Hello You 89: On a bench in The Square, Shrewsbury

The first thing I need to say is:

Hello, lovely new members of the Hello You family!

I don’t know quite what’s happened, but over the last 24 hours the subscriptions to Hello You the Shropshire podcast have absolutely taken off. If that’s what posting pictures of pancakes on Facebook does, then the crêpes will be hitting the ‘Gram every damn day (saw what I did there?).

Seriously: Whether you’re a new subscriber or you’ve been following this for the year and a half I’ve been doing it, I’m bloody delighted to have you joining me around the Hello You virtual kitchen table. Why not introduce yourself in the comments?

I hope you’ll enjoy listening to the podcast and reading the Sunday Supplement as much as I enjoy recording, producing and writing them. Which is: a lot. And I’m quite proud of what comes out of Hello You World Headquarters every week.

Don’t keep the good stuff to yourself! Share Hello You the Shropshire podcast with your friends, family, colleagues, co-workers … congregation? (That’s a reference to this episode, as you’ll discover …)

The second thing I need to say is:

Two podcast episodes a week from now on!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I have so many amazing people either already recorded or lined up to talk to over the next couple of months, as well as great suggestions for benches I can sit on to record random conversations and places I can go to capture the sounds of Shropshire, that I need to bring you episodes more frequently to keep everything fresh, relevant and up to date.

So for a while, I’ve been thinking about bringing you an episode on a Wednesday as well as a Friday morning.

I nearly did it last week. I contemplated making an episode telling the story of me and the BBC, and why I unknowingly did my last radio show on November 21, 2023. Events overtook me and I didn’t get the chance to record that piece last week, but I will bring it to you before too much longer … now I’m able to. It’ll be well worth the wait.

But yesterday afternoon, I set out to record a ‘bench’ session in the Square in Shrewsbury. As bench recordings go, it turned out pretty well: I met people I’d never met before, listened to what they had to say, came home with plenty of audio to share with you.

However, the experience was also so - unsettling? triggering? infuriating? - that by the end of it, I was physically shaking. I hid in a local café for forty-five minutes, eating pancakes and drinking a lot of tea.

You’ll hear what happened when you hit ‘play’. First, I set the scene, walking down Pride Hill and into the Square.

Then you meet poet-mathematician Michael Carding, who has to go and buy a copy of his own book to read one of his poems!

And then two people come along who are very keen to talk to me. They’re members of Shrewsbury’s Barnabas Church, and on the day before Lent begins, they’re undertaking some street evangelism. That’s where it all goes rather … well, listen for yourself.

Please listen right to the very end of the audio? You’ll hear pretty clearly how I was feeling.

What do *you* think?

I’d love to know what you make of this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast. Leave a comment?

If you want to contact me directly about this episode or anything else - if you have a suggestion for a future episode, whether it’s a potential interviewee or guest, a great bench I could sit on or a place where I could hang out - I’d love to hear from you

And please, if you’ve enjoyed listening, share Hello You with your friends?

Thank you …

… for being there. Please hit ‘Like’ everywhere you can. Spread the word about the Shropshire podcast.

And subscribe? That way you’ll get everything I make, straight to your inbox. Subscriptions are free, but there’s a paid option too. If you like, value, appreciate what I do, maybe you' could help make sure I can keep doing it by taking out a paid subscription?

Have a good week

Hello You 90 will be published on Friday. It’s an interview with Shropshire author Amy Beashel, whose important, startling new novel is out in a couple of weeks. You will not want to miss it.

Take care of yourself …

… and take care of the people around you. They’d sure as hell better be taking care of you, too.