Hello You - the Shropshire podcast with Jim Hawkins

I don’t want to be part of anything where other human beings are called ‘scum’ … and I nearly was, on Saturday. Instead, I went to a favourite Shrewsbury café for a lemonade, and had something of a rant into the Hello You recorder. Then I sat on a bench in the Square in Shrewsbury and recorded some lovely, uplifting conversations with random people who happened to sit next to me. Hear all about wh...

A better deal for Hello You the Shropshire podcast subscribers At least, I think it is. But do you agree? I’m proposing to cut the annual subscription rate in half, and paid subscribers will receive episodes forty-eight hours before everyone else. Would that work for you? Depending on your reaction, I’ll make the change in about a week’s time … or not, if you hate the idea. Message me with your th...

A music hall star, a WW2 airman and his family, the first Bishop of Japan, a pioneering physiotherapist and more Have you ever explored the Victorian cemetery in Shrewsbury? Do you even know where it is? I went to the recent Open Day at the cemetery, organised by Friends of Shrewsbury Cemeteries and the excellent national burial grounds charity Caring for God’s Acre . When I posted some pictures o...

‘You can come here and stare at the whole environment in awe’ Every so often, I take myself off to sit on a bench somewhere in Shropshire, and record conversations with whomsoever happens to sit on the bench with me. On Whit Sunday (the Sunday of the last bank holiday weekend) I went to Haughmond Hill , a fascinating and beautiful place managed by Forestry England . There are about a dozen picnic...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jimallthetime.substack.com A Sunday soundscape in vivid stereo It’s been a while since I published a ‘soundscape’ episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast. Sunday afternoon, though, presented the perfect opportunity to record one. The afternoon was sunny, if not quite as warm as it at first looked. It was the perfect time to go to th...

It’s the first Bench episode of 2026! Here’s something I started doing on the radio about twenty years ago, and I’ve carried on as part of Hello You the Shropshire podcast. It’s a very simple idea: I sit on a bench, somewhere in Shropshire, and talk with whoever sits on the bench with me. ‘It’s just the nicest feeling in the world’ Every Tuesday evening during British Summer Time dozens, often hun...

‘It really is as though one person is speaking directly to you, saying it’s going to be all right’ Formerly The Emergency Poet , offering poetry on prescription from her vintage ambulance, Deb Alma is now best known as co-founder of the world’s first walk-in Poetry Pharmacy , based in Bishop’s Castle here in Shropshire. In this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, Deborah Alma talks about...

‘There’s something inside you that’s never broken’ Sarah-Charlotte Peace has been through a lot. And I do mean, a lot. In this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, Sarah-Charlotte tells her story and explains how her experiences have fed into her work as Peaceful Warrior Wellbeing . Join in the conversation about this episode in the comments: ‘They’re looking for peace, and it’s my role to...

‘It does stretch …’ ‘Anthrax biscuits’, buses, life after breast cancer and craftivism in action with Jane Hickman from south Shropshire. Also: subversive samplers, village life in All Stretton, and Satan’s sandwich spread, all in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast. Find more about Jane and her work at Gardening Witch Designs , on Facebook and at her Etsy shop too. If you knit, croch...

‘There’s a sewage release into the wild every thirty seconds’ Have you seen Dirty Business on Channel 4? It’s a real-life drama about local people investigating a water pollution scandal affecting their local river, and challenging the people in charge over their greed and negligence. Here in Shropshire, the campaign group Up Sewage Creek is doing something similar with regard to the River Severn....

‘We are not doing a very good job of meeting our young people where they are’ (cw: includes references to suicide) Alongside their work as a brand designer , Shropshire-based G Sabini-Roberts has been part of a team delivering LGBTQ+ inclusion training to schools, corporate clients, networking groups, the public sector and more for a long time. As they say, ‘a lot of us in marginalised communities...

Where to go when the world feels wobbly Wouldn’t it be great if there was somewhere you could go, to talk about ‘the big stuff’ : hope and heart, courage and community, and how we can try to find a way through everything that’s happening around and to us? Jen Deacon is involved in activities at Shrewsbury’s Unitarian Church . For the next few weeks on Tuesday evenings Jen will be leading Meanderin...

‘If you’re a mayor, put your hands in the air!’ While national politics and politicians make the headlines, much of the day-to-day work of providing the services we need and making decisions about the local issues that affect us takes place at grassroots level. No-one’s more aware of that than Cllr Alex Wagner. Alex is the Liberal Democrat deputy leader of Shropshire Council. He’s also a Shrewsbur...

‘This is life-changing. He’s never going to walk again’ Andrew Clayton had lived an active outdoors life in south Shropshire until an accident befell him about eighteen months ago. Just as he and his wife Carole were thinking of winding down and taking things easier, their lives changed in the blink of an eye. What happened? How have things been for them since? And how does celebrant and funeral d...

‘If you can make a difference for one person, it’s worth it’ Candlemas greetings, Imbolc blessings, and for me: Happy New Year, again! After a fairly s**t January, I’m starting 2026 again today. And it’s going quite well so far! I took myself to Attingham Park today to see the snowdrops in the rain. It’s the kind of thing I’ve promised myself I’ll do more of this year. And I’ve got this episode of...

In this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast: What - or who - gives you hope? I explain why I’m asking and unpack my answers in the audio, but I really want to know what gives you hope . Tell me in the comments or by sending me a message, and I’ll share your response in the next episode, anonymously if you prefer: Shropshire Welcomes! There's more positivity in Shropshire than there is nega...

Celebrating 150 episodes with a new look, a half-price offer, and some questions … How was your Christmas? Mine was lovely, the best for years. And New Year is a few days away, which means we’re stuck in this weird limbo period between the two; the Humber Bridge of the calendar. The perfect time to serve you a brand-new celebration slice of Hello You the Shropshire podcast! Take out a paid subscri...

Thank you! Thank you so, so much … I need to show you these figures because I’m very excited and hugely grateful to you for making this happen. Here’s how Hello You the Shropshire podcast is performing on Spotify: Thank you so much for your support, for your interest and for your attention. I’m thrilled that you’re a member of the Hello You family, and that the family is growing. Why not subscribe...

Thank you! Thank you so, so much … I need to show you these figures because I’m very excited and hugely grateful to you for making this happen. Here’s how Hello You the Shropshire podcast is performing on Spotify: Wow. Just over two years ago, I started this podcast by mistake. And now look! Thank you so much for your support, for your interest and for your attention. I’m thrilled that you’re a me...

Shrewsbury’s Labour MP answers questions from listeners to Hello You the Shropshire podcast Back in July, around the time of her first anniversary as an MP, I interviewed Dr Julia Buckley for Hello You about how her first twelve months had been. I felt it went well, so I was happy to agree when Julia’s team suggested we record another conversation. And for this one, I asked beforehand on social me...

This morning I’m angry, sad and fearful for the future of this country and one of its great institutions. I’ve worked for the BBC for most of the last forty years. I’m bloody glad I don’t anymore, for a large number of reasons. The resignations last night of the Director-General and the head of BBC News should’ve come a long time ago, but not for the reason that forced them out. We’re seeing a con...

‘We could be so great, we could be great to people and do great things’ Displaying a national flag and saying that you love your country can be quite loaded gestures at the moment. But why? Shrewsbury artist Jonny Thaw tackles these issues head-on in his new show at the town’s Swan Hill Studios. And if you’d never normally go to an art show, he’s particularly keen to know what you think of it! So...

‘I look at nature and it takes my mind away from my problems’ What do you notice in the world around you? Artist and educator Sara Bellis - ‘I identify as geek’ - is building a community of people who are reviving the lost art of noticing. Under the banner of Get Out And Get Arty they gather in a couple of special places in Shropshire to practice nature journalling. #INIWIRMO - I notice, I wonder,...

‘Sometimes I was absolutely freezing, but there was so much warmth around’ How do you feel when you encounter Shrewsbury’s street people? Walking down Pride Hill a year or two ago, you might’ve seen a young woman habitually sitting on the ground with her back to the wall, outside Holland & Barrett. Sometimes she’d be nursing a bottle of vodka. That was Emily Jayne. ‘When you drink a lot of vodka,...

‘I want to be as woke as possible, and I’m not ashamed to admit it’ What is it that takes Shrewsbury-based Methodist minister Rev Richard Hall - shown above with members of the ‘Sanglier Dynamique’ scout group in Gahanga, Kigali - to Rwanda, a country of which he says ‘the fact that there’s any kind of functioning society at all there is remarkable’? And what is it about Rwanda that means Richard’...