The Listening Project

Fi Glover hears what Professor Dorothy Sheridan of the Mass Observation Archive thinks of the value of The Listening Project to oral historians of all types.

Conversations between people helped by Children in Need-funded charities, ranging from theatre groups to those offering support for victims of domestic violence.

Fi Glover with conversations about Nepal, love, death - and spaghetti bolognese for breakfast. All uploaded by listeners themselves.

Conversations between those who have suffered from psychosis and depression, and those who have stood by them.

Fi Glover features men's conversations exclusively in this Edition and proves that, when you listen, it's surprising how far from stereotypical expectations they can be

Surprising conversations about dead pets, plastic surgery, retirement, and the impact of disability on family relationships.

Two is stronger than one when it comes to meeting life's challenges.Couples talk about how they've survived family crises together.

A marriage proposal and conversations about sex, Romany mourning traditions and the weather prove that it's surprising what you hear when you listen as Fi Glover eavesdrops on The Listening Project nationwide

Encounters from Scotland, Cheshire and a British Library view of the Project. we meet former Olympic athlete Mark, who remembers his experiences in Moscow and Los Angeles for his daughter Sophie, and civil partners, Nick and Philip from Scotland, who reflect on how attitudes to homosexuality have changed. Jonny Robinson explains how the British Library is saving such conversations for posterity.

Fi Glover presents the Sunday edition of Radio 4's series capturing the nation in conversation. Today's programme focuses on the residents of the east London borough which is the focus of BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend - Hackney, with its diverse and colourful community. We hear from Oby and Rebekah about the consequences of their childhood as Jehovah's Witnesses, from Ashley and Raj about friendship in childhood and beyond, and from Gabin and Paul, Kerry and Duncan and Victoria and Nathaniel about their lives - all lived in Hackney. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Fi Glover presents the Sunday edition of Radio 4's series capturing the nation in conversation:we meet Sarah Jane and Philip, a brother and sister from Wales who talk frankly about the pressures and problems that Philip's period behind bars caused the family; from London Margaret and Barry, whose son Jimmy was murdered in a knife fight, remember their beloved boy; and a chance to meet David Isay, the award-winning American documentary-maker who came up with the idea of these intimate conversations in the first place. StoryCorps is so successful that the BBC has, with David's blessing, brought it to Britain as ...The Listening Project. Many of the conversations are being archived by the British Library which they will use to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Fi Glover presents the Sunday edition of Radio 4's series capturing the nation in conversation: today's programme covers the vital support offered by friendship, and also family life in all its rich variety. Betty, a retired cook from Hull, chats with her daughter, Elaine - a cleaner - about bringing up ten children with lots of love, but not much money. Catherine tells her friend, Liz, about the impact the fact that her parents met when they were a priest and nun had on her childhood, and on her current relationship with the Catholic church. And friends Anne and Steve talk about how each has supported the other through the serious dramas of life: bereavement and the suicidal despair caused by childhood abuse.

Fi Glover presents the Sunday edition of Radio 4's series capturing the nation in conversation: today we meet Jasmit and Jaswant from Lincolnshire, still happily married 34 years after it was arranged. From Scotland mother and son, Lily and Francis, on Francis' addiction to heroin and its terrible consequences. And from Berkshire the dilemma facing dairy farmers,as Michael and Don decide whether to sell their herds. Also, the first User Generated Content to be uploaded to The Listening Project: Sophie wanted to ask her brother Oscar about his experience of living with autism. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Fi Glover introduces Joan and Ray from Merseyside, who only recently discovered they shared a father, farming brothers Gerald and Roland from Lincolnshire, and Michael and Jill, friends from Hull who both lost family members in the 1968 triple trawler tragedy. And she hears from producer David Reeves who recorded two of the conversations.

Fi Glover presents the Sunday edition of Radio 4's series capturing the nation in conversation: today encounters from Cardiff, Lincolnshire and Reading - via Northern Ireland. The Listening Project is a new initiative for Radio 4, offering a snapshot of contemporary Britain. Conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Many of the long conversations are being archived by the British Library which they will use to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Fi Glover presents the Sunday edition of Radio 4's series capturing the nation in conversation: in today's programme we meet 19 year old Afshan, who has left her traditional Muslim home in Manchester for university in London, and her mother, Flavia, who is unhappy that her daughter also seems to have left behind all plans for an arranged marriage. And from Radio Merseyside, a conversation through bars - not prison bars but those of an enclosed convent. Here brother and sister Peter and Mary, priest and nun, discuss their lives and religious vocations. And the producer who recorded this extraordinary Listening Project encounter gives his personal account of the meeting. The Listening Project aims to offer a snapshot of contemporary Britain Learn more by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

In today's programme, we meet Ciaron and Brendan, Irish brothers whose fraternal bond was tested to the limit when Brendan fell ill; from Radio Berkshire, the story of Jim and John who touchingly remember the biscuity pleasures of working at the Huntley and Palmers factory in Reading which closed in the 1970s, while from Stoke on Trent, the agonising tale of Stevie, the brother to Chris and son to Norman, who vanished while on holiday in Crete. And there's a chance too to hear just how the magic of these Listening Project encounters actually works from one of the team gathering the interviews across Britain.

Barbara talks to her best friend Becky about her compulsive disorder and how it's affected her life; Humberside transsexual Michelle discusses living as a woman with her friend Cilla; Bob talks to his son-in-law James about his life of crime and Jim and Joan from Northern Ireland share an intimate conversation about growing old together and the end of life.

Mike talks to his adoptive son about how he rescued him as a baby from South Vietnam; Jayne talks to her mother Sally in Liverpool about their life together and the father she never knew; from London, Jamaican-born Monica discusses with her gay son Rikki how coming out as gay was difficult for her too; and in Stoke on Trent Marc discusses with his foster dad Colin about how he's managed to turn his life round after a very difficult beginning.

Beryl is a twice married grandmother who talks with her grandson about love, loss and how she lost her heart late in life to the man who gave her a lift home in his Reliant Robin; Jean and her daughter Rebecca talk about the difficulties of facing up to failing health and death; Cy tells his granddaughter Lucy about his life as a musician in Liverpool's glory days and Alan and Christine from Stoke on Trent talk about the magnetic hold the town's Spode porcelain factory has had on their lives.