The Quarantini

In this episode we celebrate birth with Project Mama! CEO Fiona Mann tells us all about this project that supports pregnant refugees, asylum seekers and trafficked women and how it's been for them during the pandemic.

ALSO - reggae music from Jah Garvey, a singing bus driver from Bristol!

PLUS - our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

Music:

Brand New Day - Jah Garvey

Hot Flu - Seb Gutiez, the Old Bones Collective - opening music

Hosts: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Producer: Pommy Harmar

How do we resolve the tensions between getting out into the countryside with managing the numbers? Given the experience of our national parks last summer, when reluctance to travel abroad and fantastic weather meant thousands more of us flocked to beauty spots, how are they beginning to plan for this spring and summer coming?

Sunita Welch, Public Engagement Manager for the Brecon Beacons gives us her views.

ALSO - we've discovered Sea Shanties and TikTok.... yes they go together and this week we bring you a TikTok sea-shanty mash-up!

PLUS - our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

Music:

The Wellerman - TikTok Sea Shanty Mashup 2021

Hot Flu - Seb Gutiez, the Old Bones Collective - opening music

Hosts: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Producer: Pommy Harmar

Bienvenue dans notre épisode bonus en français!

Dans cet épisode un peu spécial, nous avons une interview depuis Paris!

Et... une liste des meilleures initiatives de l’année depuis le début de la crise... 

Et... un poème de l’artiste et art thérapeute Léonard Pietri: “Terre iodée”. 

Et.... de la musique avec une chanson de la star française: Vanessa Paradis! 

Concernant l'interview, Melissa a dit:

"Je voulais parler de vivre deux lockdown et/ou confinements en un an, du Royaume-Uni et de Paris, ma ville natale, et des industries créatives et surtout de musique… Alors j'ai pensé : qui mieux que la journaliste musique franco-écossais basée à Paris : Marjorie Hache?"

Musique:

Merci Pour Tout, Vanessa Paradis

Hot Flu, Seb Gutiez, The Old Bones Collective

Animateurs: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Productrice: Pommy Harmar

What has it been like to go through the last year and be in lockdown in Paris. Or Scotland! And what has it been like for the music industry. In this episode we talk to Majorie Hache, a Scottish/French music journalist who tells us all about it.

ALSO - we've chosen one of our favourite pieces of music from the year - one which marks the lockdowns we have and are going through - it's called Gotta Be Patient and it's by Stay Homas, a group of musicians who happened to share a flat together in Barcelona and who wrote three or four songs every week which they performed and recorded on their balcony.

PLUS - we bring you our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

Music:

Gotta Be Patient, Stay Homas

Hot Flu, Seb Gutiez, The Old Bones Collective - opening music

Hosts: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Producer: Pommy Harmar

The pandemic has brought home the desperate need for a UK-wide policy to tackle the growing digital divide. The number of households lacking laptops, broadband and/or the skills to use the internet is higher in the UK than we might imagine. Dr Gemma Burgess from the University of Cambridge has been researching digital poverty in Britain and she tells us about it in this episode. You can read her article here. We also hear from Bristol teacher Jason Gillman who is fundraising for laptops for his students who cannot do their school work when self-isolating at home. You can donate here.

ALSO - we celebrate our favourite band The Old Bones Collective who provide every episode's opening music....

PLUS - we bring you our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

Music:

Carlos, Seb Gutiez, The Old Bones Collective

Hot Flu, Seb Gutiez, The Old Bones Collective - opening music

Hosts: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Producer: Pommy Harmar

In the year of the pandemic, of George Floyd's murder and the toppling of slave trader Colston's statue here in Bristol, we ask Aisha Thomas, educator and mother what it means to her to be black and to teach black children.

We are deilghted to have music from Aldous Harding who is over here recording her latest album and has kindly let us play a track from one of her previous albums - Designer.

PLUS - our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

Music:

Fixture Picture , Aldous Harding

Hot Flu, Seb Gutiez, The Old Bones Collective - opening music

Hosts: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Producer: Pommy Harmar

In this first episode of season 4, and as the UK heads back into lockdown, we think about grief.

In the wake of Bristol's Good Grief Festival, we talk to Eva Hibbs author of a picture book called Where is Uncle AL? and together with illustrator Sarah Harrison, they discuss how the book came about, why we need to get better at talking about death in a more straightforward way and how Covid may be changing our approach to grief.

To find out more or to buy a copy of the book, click here.

A donation with each purchase goes to Action for Children

And we have music from Some Bodies, courtesy of Funnel Music

PLUS - our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

Music:

Ain't Over Yet , Some Bodies

Hot Flu, Seb Gutiez, The Old Bones Collective - opening music

Hosts: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Producer: Pommy Harmar

In the final episode of season 3 we celebrate the NHS.

From a We Say No protest and march in Bristol, we hear from NHS nurses including Alex Oldham and Shannon O’Sullivan.

From the Migration Museum, Robyn Kasozi (pictured) talks about the brand new free online exhibition - Heart of the Nation: Migration and Making of the NHS.

And we have poetry from NHS staff, from the book These Are The Hands, Poems from the Heart of the NHS, Foreword by Michael Rosen, Fair Acre Press. (You can buy it here)

PLUS - our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

Music:

The NHS Song (parody SOS, ABBA)

Hot Flu, Seb Gutiez, The Old Bones Collective -opening music

Hosts: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Producer: Pommy Harmar

It's all Clowning and Covid this week with clown, clown teacher, drama therapist, Ted Talker and theatre director Holly Stoppit.

How does a clown approach the pandemic?

Does clowning help?

How do you even become a clown?

Holly Stoppit reveals all...

PLUS - our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

PLUS - a huge thanks to world-famous and Bristol-based band IDLES for letting us use one of the tracks - A Hymn - from their brand new album hot off the press only this week!

Music:

A Hymn, Idles -from their new album Ultra Mono, courtesy of

Partisan Records

Hosts: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Producer: Pommy Harmar

We go to the other side of the planet this week to hear from Green Party candidate and former Mayor of Wellington, New Zealand Celia Wade-Brown. Find out how she feels New Zealand has handled the Covid Crisis and why she thinks The Climate Emergency is more important.

We have our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

Plus, courtesy of Funnel Music, music from Katy Pearson's debut album 'Return', due to be released on 13/11/2020 via Heavenly Recordings.

Music:

Fix Me Up, Katy Pearson

Opening music: Hot Flu, The Old Bones Collective

Hosts: Melissa Chemam and Pommy Harmar

Producer: Pommy Harmar