Hackney elders visit students at Petchey Academy for a discussion about ageism.
Recorded 25 June 2019 at Petchey Academy, London E8 2EY, UK.
Helper posts
Posts by volunteers, staff and session workers
Lydia’s Yam Soup – reheated
This episode is part of a series of pilots for an updated Talking Food Radio.
Original Talking Food 2012 description – “Hackney food guru Lydia Bachelor leads a discussion about healthy eating, nutrition, shopping, markets, cooking, recipes – and any other food experience and knowledge that we would like to share”.
It was not a radio production. It was a live event, streaming what would have happened anyway – and considerably longer than this edited version.
Budget: zero.
Production values: everything must be done by older people (even if the result is below BBC standard), use only the most basic equipment (available to everyone), the background hubbub is just as important as the voices close to the microphone (the social context is vital).
Message: “If you are listening to this – STOP. Turn off your computer NOW. Please accept this invitation to join us in the real world – we have food for your body, mind and soul – and none of it is digital. Real World First!”
Identifiable voices: Ayo, Benediccta, Beverley, Bola, Chitra, Gabriella, Josh, Lydia, Myrtle, Paula, Pauline, Peter, Rick.
Recorded 10 May 2012 at ‘The Lawns’, Matthias Rd, Hackney. Remixed June 2019.
The Lawns was a lively (but acoustically-challenged) computer and social centre for older Hackney residents.
The League of Meals was a fun project that did not survive contact with reality.
The drop-in returns
We were closed — entirely for funding reasons — April and May 2019. We haven’t solved the underlying problem, but Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing Association have given us a massive boost.
We started again Friday 7 June, 2 to 5 pm as usual.
That sweet potato
This episode is the first of a series of pilots for an updated Talking Food Radio. We used the same very basic equipment as the old radio show, and the same approach: conversation first, technology last. As the series progresses, we will adapt the recording method to suit the participants as well as the final goal – which requires much improved sound quality.
The pilot podcast track is a sequence of snippets from the 90-minute live recording. The discarded sections were generally the best conversation, but too noisily enthusiastic for the podcast medium.
The voices belong to: Brian, Grafton, Hyacinth, Ian, Mary, Nuala, Patricia and Rick.
Recorded 26 April 2019 at Whitmore Community Centre, N1 5NU.
Outro credit: excerpt from Horizontal Drift, Jared C Balogh – https://www.jamendo.com/track/1122560/horizontal-drift
What we did – 5 April 2019
Forty people were at Whitmore Community Centre, and they didn’t even know it was the final drop-in. Our regular volunteers were helped by four brilliant volunteers from Sidley Austin (via Benefacto).
Goodbye Gene
Volunteer Gene has gone back to the USA 🙁
Gene was with us nearly every Friday afternoon for the last six months — very popular, totally reliable in every way, and uniquely irreplaceable.
What we did – 22 March 2019
Full and very busy. Six volunteers from Financial Conduct Authority (via Benefacto) helped our regular volunteer team deliver more than 30 success stories.
Schooldays
Brief excerpts from a much longer conversation – Hackney elders’ memories of school.
The voices belong to: Brian, Leonie, Megan, Rick, Wadley.
Recorded 18 March 2019 in the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, London E8 3DF, UK
What we did – 15 March 2019
We were full again. Volunteer Mike arrived with six laptops donated by his employer RKH Specialty. We hope to have them set up for the session next week.
As usual, we depended very much on our regular volunteers – Gene, Margaret and Tom were in today
Can you remember 1989?
How has the Web changed your World?
The World Wide Web is 30 years old this week
What difference has it made to your life?
30 years can change everything
The web has transformed our daily lives — from how we communicate with loved ones to how we work to how we learn. But right now more than half of the world’s population remains offline, and those of us who are online see unsettling stories each day about data breaches, so-called ‘fake news’, and other ways that technology is threatening our freedom and privacy. We need to change this by building a better web — one that works for everyone, everywhere.