Hello You - the Shropshire podcast with Jim Hawkins

Shropshire is a welcoming place … and it’s also home to hundreds of Places of Welcome . Places of Welcome is a national network of more than six hundred local spaces. Each offers an unconditional welcome to local people to meet for few hours each week. They’re places where everyone can go for a friendly face, a cup of tea and a conversation if and when they need it. Places where all people can fee...

‘Anything that’s big and frightening, I’ll be there’ Jacqueline Porteous left school as soon as she could, with no qualifications … but with an unshakable belief in herself, and in the power of believing that what you want and need can be yours. That’s taken her around the country, and back to her native Shropshire. It’s taken her from cleaning and factory work to the construction industry, drivin...

More of my conversation with Shropshire-based executive coach Sarah Clein . The first part can be found in Hello You 81: Getting Off the SAD List , and if you - like me - find the darker time of the year difficult to deal with, I hope you’ll check it out. Sarah helps, as she puts it, ‘knackered mid-life women in public service’ to have a better life, either in their current job or elsewhere. As yo...

Anyone who brings other people into an understanding and enjoyment of music is, to my mind, a hero. And anyone who does that whilst teaching them to play an instrument is a superhero. So Gayle chose the right name for her organisation: Shropshire’s Music Heroes . In this episode of my Shropshire podcast Hello You, recorded in their Shrewsbury base, Gayle tells me how Music Heroes came to be, and t...

Do you find it difficult, plodding on through the dark and cold of winter? Your mood plummets, and you struggle to cope with life? You sleep more, you eat more, and you do less, particularly of the things you usually enjoy? You’re not alone. This is Seasonal Affective Disorder , and it clobbers a lot of us, pretty much from Halloween through until the start of spring. ‘Where’s the joy? Find the gl...

Happy New Year! This first Hello You of 2025 was recorded on New Year’s Day, on location at the Severn Valley Railway ’s station at Bridgnorth. The railway was taking part in the opening celebrations of Railway 200 , a year of events marking the bicentenary of modern rail transport. There’s a moment in this episode that’ll properly wake you up! Also, there’s some personal news which I share with y...

Visits to two marvellous groups of wonderful people, in the run-up to Christmas. Includes a knitted chicken, lager shandy, getting the right PVA glue, Mouldy Old Dough, a half-finished Freddie Mercury and plenty of Jingle Bells. Meet the Castlefields Yarn Bombing Crew … and the Telford Men’s Breakfast Club run by Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin . I’ve got lots more amazing people for you to mee...

Can I talk to you for a minute? An unscheduled, off-the-cuff mini-episode. Your comments and messages would - as always - be welcome. Normal service will resume on Friday with two groups of really lovely people, recorded in Shrewsbury and Telford. I really want you to meet them, so watch out for Hello You 78? It’ll be more cheery than this, promise. Subscribe to make sure you get the good stuff I’...

Lots of people leave Shropshire and then come back, either straight away or eventually. Patrick Lappin ’s route back to the county of his birth took in Edinburgh, Norwich and the stand-up circuit in London … but then, despite being afraid of flying and not a natural-born traveller, he found himself living in Mexico, Albania, Bulgaria, and for a truly terrifying few days, Grenada. Enjoy the stories...

Kate Taylor as been on a remarkable life journey, from London ladette to Shropshire-based sobriety influencer. That journey’s taken her to some very interesting places: New York, Italy, Costa Rica … a heroin den in Tottenham … ‘I used girl-power as an excuse to get hammered’ We’ve all had nights where things have got a little out of control. Not many of us have woken up in a different country to t...

Imagine you never encountered anyone else quite like you. And then you find a whole roomful of people you can identify with. Not only that, but they’re proudly being themselves on a stage in front of an adoring audience. If you’ve kept the real you under wraps for years, or if you’ve never had the opportunity to explore who the real you might be, how liberating would that feel? ‘We regularly get p...

Shropshire-based artist, designer, author and filmmaker Sally E K Warner has been creative since childhood. But she didn’t expect a story she wrote whilst in primary school to spring back to life! Hear her story in this episode of Hello You, then check out her books at Waterstones or Amazon , or better yet in your local independent bookshop. ‘Being social causes us stress and anxiety’ You may lack...

It’s not just a full moon right now. It’s the Beaver Moon. The what? The Beaver Moon is a time related to survival in many cultures. It marks the turn towards winter, breaking free from old habits to start something new. In traditional North American cultures, it is a moment to consider hard work and readiness to face difficult times, related to beavers preparing for winter. I’m very aware of the...

Hello You is about people, and stories. Particularly people in, from and connected to Shropshire. People who are doing good things, people with interesting stories to tell and thoughts to share, that you can listen to and then share with others as well. If you know someone who fits that description - maybe it’s you - get in touch with me? A future episode of this podcast could be built around them...

One year, seventy episodes … wow I’m not sure I can quite believe it. This podcast - my podcast! - has just passed its first anniversary. My friend Georgy, whose professional experience in what’s now apparently the audio industry means she Knows A Lot About Podcasts, says this is good going, as most pods fizzle out quite soon after launch. Like Victorian families having loads of children to increa...

A few months ago, I went to the GP surgery for a routine review. I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary. But the HCA handed me an orange envelope, the contents of which took me somewhat by surprise. I mentioned this on that week’s episode of Hello You, and Karen - Dr Karen Stringer - responded. She knew much more about the background to my orange envelope, and said it related to important...

Ever wish you could just take off? Alison and Mark, a Shrewsbury couple in their 50s, decided to do exactly that. Their two-year odyssey’s almost over, but where has it taken them? And what will they do next? If you enjoy listening to Alison and Mark, why not share this with a friend? And to see for yourself where they’ve been, here’s their Instagram ! ‘The changing of the seasons’ I’ve heard that...

Almost a year ago, in Hello You 7 , we met Clare and her young son Harry. They told me their family’s remarkable story. All seemed to be going really well. But soon after we recorded that interview, Harry fell ill. Eleven months on, the ramifications of that illness have put the family through the mill. Here, Clare and Harry, this time joined by dad Simon, explain what’s happened, where they are n...

Remember Hello You 48 , when back in June I recorded a ‘bench’ at Mumma’s Emporium on Pride Hill in Shrewsbury? One of the people I met there was Annie, who’d come along with a suggestion for somewhere else I could go to record random conversations. Annie’s a volunteer at Shrewsbury’s Repair Café , and she thought it would be a good venue for a bench session. Well, she was absolutely right! This m...

My guest on this episode of Hello You is Samaa Al-Moussalli . She’s the founder of Rising Brains , which is based in Telford and works to support and boost people’s cognitive skills. Samaa tells me how she went from a Masters in educational psychology in Saudi Arabia, to bringing this approach to the UK … and why she chose Telford as her ideal base. Why not share this episode with someone? Samaa m...

In this episode: * the Hello You Sunday Supplement - success! * vertical video - result! * Bench - fail! * lessons learned from some of the above * monotasking is the way forward * fun with family, including … * corrugated iron ! * The Marches of Time history festival * Shrewsbury’s Repair Café * next (hopefully more successful) Bench location Want to pass this on to your friends and family? Just...

I’m often asking people, Where do you find your joy? This episode is about one of my own answers to that question. Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2024 took place last weekend. Every August Bank Holiday weekend, I and thousands of others find our joy on Shrewsbury’s County Showground, watching and listening to four days of wonderful music, dancing and performances of all kinds. Hanging out with lovely pe...

Where do you find your joy? What brings you joy? I’ve been asking that question of various people since I started doing interviews on Hello You. If you want to share your answer with me, I’d love to hear it. Maybe we could talk about what brings you joy on a future episode of Hello You. I could even share in what brings you joy, as I do in this episode. A couple of weekends ago, Hello You listener...

One of my very favourite TV programmes is Pilgrimage . Every year, a short series of episodes go out around Easter. I explain in this episode why I enjoy it so much. And in this episode you can meet Alex, from Little Drayton. He’s going on a pilgrimage of his own, next weekend. He told me why, and about the events in his life that have led up to it. He’s had a lot going on for someone who’s only s...

Meet the wonderful people of one of Shrewsbury's most special places. It’s transformed lives. Some say it’s saved theirs. ‘It strangely felt like home’ It’s somewhere that’s really important to so many people in Shropshire. ‘It’s the connection that makes the change’ And it needs your help to survive. ‘I can’t imagine having a functioning community without this place’ Join me to explore The Hive,...