Today on my radio show I interviewed a bunch of people from around the world about how they are coping with the cornavirus pandemic. These days my shows are all pre-recorded as I can’t go into the studio, but Miranda and the back office team at Ujima do a great job of getting me on air. Here’s the list of people that I interviewed:

• Kevin Standlee (Nevada, USA)
• Tansy Rayner Roberts (Hobart, Australia)
• Celia Neri (Nice, France)
• Sabrina Mittermeier (Munich, Germany)
• Rhonda Garcia (Port of Spain, Trinidad)
• Mihaela Perković (Zagreb Croatia)
• Maria Turtschaninoff (Helsinki, Finland)
• Juliet McKenna (Oxford, England)

Of those I think the government of Trinidad has probably come out of it best. Celia’s stories of teaching school kids on line, Sabrina’s need to flee the USA, and Mihaela’s story of the Zagreb earthquake stand out.

I tried to make the music choices fit as best I could with our current circumstances. Here are the songs I played.

• Heroes – Janelle Monáe
• Say a Little Prayer – Aretha Franklin
• May the Force Be With You – Bootsy’s Rubber Band
• 4 Leaf Clover – Erykah Badu
• A Little Help from My Friends – Ike & Tina Turner
• We Are Family – Sister Sledge
• When You’re Lonely – Labi Siffre
• Dancing in the Streets – Boney M

The show will be available via our Listen Again service for a few weeks. You can find it here.

As I have a bit of free time on my hands thee days I am planning to do more shows to help keep our listeners entertained over the period of lockdown. If anyone has anything Bristol-related that they want to feature, please let me know.