The Restart Project Podcast

This month, we spoke to Restart’s Shelini Kotecha and Possible’s Dermot Jones about Fixing Factories. We’ve been working with Possible to open up two Fixing Factories this year, gathering lots of interest along the way. The Brent Factory, based in the Abbey Road waste facility opened in April this year and has been a hub for laptop repair and reuse. At the end of October, we were...

From 30th September – 2nd October, members of the repair community from all over the world gathered together to share their ideas and passion at Fixfest 2022. From fixers and tinkerers, to academics and activists we all had something to teach and learn from each other. It was a chance to explore new ideas, hear different perspectives, and – perhaps most importantly – interact in...

This month, we had a very handy conversation with some friends from our sponsor eSpares. Eleanor Cochrane and Mariya Peynova are the Brand Manager and Social Media Manager for eSpares, respectively. We took this opportunity to properly introduce our listeners to their work and also answer a few questions about household repair and maintenance. In the process, we learned that there is probably a lo...

To wrap up our summer season, we’re giving listeners a proper introduction to Restart’s new(ish) Co-Director, Fiona Dear. You will have heard Fiona’s voice a couple times on Restart Radio in the last few months, and her fingerprints are all over the new projects that we’re working on. Dave spoke to Fiona when she had just joined Restart to have a conversation about how she became the perfect fit f...

It’s a bumper episode this month but how could it not be when we’re celebrating the 10 year anniversary of our first Restart Party! This episode is an auditory snapshot of Restart as we head into our second decade as an organisation.  Earlier in the month, we got together with volunteers, allies, longtime collaborators and supporters to celebrate the last 10 years. While we were there, Dave caught...

This month, we were super excited to talk to Ben Wood. Ben is Chief Analyst at CCS Insight and also the founder of the Mobile Phone Museum. All this to say, Ben is an expert in the field of mobile phone design and history. We talked to him about some of the coolest phone design trends of the past and what innovation is still happening. He also shared some very encouraging statistics from consumer...

We’ve had a busy month here at Restart. On April 23rd, we launched the first Fixing Factory site in the Abbey Road Reuse and Recycling Centre, Brent. It’s a project that we are ecstatic has finally become a reality and we can’t wait to see how it blossoms. For this episode of Restart Radio, Ugo Vallauri is joined by our Co-Director, Fiona Dear and London Network Coordinator, Shel...

This month, we welcomed back Aaron Perzanowski to talk about his new book, The Right to Repair: Reclaiming the Things We Own.  In the book, he explores how we got to this point of companies weaponising the law to make repair inaccessible and how legal reform can help. We discuss the developments in the technological and legal landscape that pushed him to revisit the topic of repair.  What we lose...

With the opening of the first Fixing Factory fast approaching, we spoke to one of the partners we’ll be working with, Ready Tech Go (RTG). Nikos Souslous is one of the Co-Founders of Ready Tech Go. He talked to us about what inspired the organisation’s creation, the importance of digital access, and how RTG is going to evolve.  Recognising the need for digital access The idea for RTG was bor...

Four months after its launch on Repair Day 2021, we spoke to four people involved in the repair network, Repair Café Aotearoa New Zealand. Brigitte Sistig is the co-founder and project lead of RCANZ. Kahurangi Carter is National Coordinator for Māori Zero Waste organisation Para Kore. Sarah Pritchett is Sector Projects Manager for WasteMINZ. And Dr Paul Smith is Product Test Manager for Consumer N...

As 2022 gets on the road, we spoke to Jenni Gwiazdowski, founder and Director of London Bike Kitchen. With cycling taking more prominence in recent years, due to concerns about pollution and safety on public transport, what better time to learn more about maintaining and fixing your bike? Gwiazdowski tells us about her journey from amateur fixer to bike repair savant and sharing these skills.  A d...

Having spent the year talking to many activists, authors and repairers in the UK and Europe, we thought we would hear from somewhere a bit further away from home. We spoke to Mathew Lubari, a repairer from the Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Lubari is the founder and a team leader at Community Creativity for Development (CC4D), an environmental initiative based at the settlement. What we...

As 2021 draws to a close, Janet and Ugo reflected on this precarious but successful year. Despite many setbacks, we have made great strides towards the Right to Repair in both the UK and the EU – even though there is still a long way to go. In London, Restarters have also done a fantastic job supporting each other and their communities in many new ways.  This year’s top stories The ann...

This month we talked to author and activist, Alice Bell about her recent book entitled, Our Biggest Experiment: An Epic History of the Climate Crisis. Bell’s extensive research into the topic along with her work as a director at Possible, made her the perfect person to join us in the month of COP26.  In November, we were thinking a lot about carbon emissions and who is most responsible for t...

We hear a lot about carbon emissions in the news and they are a major culprit in the climate crisis. Sometimes, it can be difficult to track where these emissions are coming from. Manufacturers are rarely thorough or honest in accounting for their output. As individuals, it can be frustrating to not have control over this.  In celebration of Repair Day 2021, we held a webinar alongside the Europea...

We revisit an episode from 2018 with photographer and friend of Restart, Mark Phillips. Phillips has an exciting exhibition, ‘Repair is Essential’, co-produced with Alex Horn of West Central London Fixers, currently showing at The Tabernacle in London. You can check it out through Sunday 17th October! Phillips’ portfolio is expansive and immersive. In this interview, he tells us...

This month we spoke to Dr Karen Patel from Birmingham City University about her work on Craft Expertise, a project researching inequalities in the craft sector and documenting experiences of makers from marginalised backgrounds. Dr Patel interviewed over 20 women on their experiences in craft. Her research pertains specifically to the craft sector but we found that there are many similarities to t...

Our summer podcast season has come to a close and what a time it’s been! We revisited our archive and picked some of the episodes where our discussion touched on the pandemic and the events of the last eighteen months.  Throughout the episode, we hear select clips from nine recent guests and situate these discussions. We cover healthcare,  from patents and barriers to medical device repair....

Happy August, listeners! We’re on our summer break but there will be a special podcast episode in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, we have a simple ask for your help. Please take a couple of minutes to complete the Restart Radio listeners survey. The last time we conducted a survey of listeners was in 2019 and we found it incredibly helpful and took action based on many of your suggestion...

In our final episode of the summer season, we talk to Kate Edwards about building with cob and why it is a really sustainable way forward. Please fill in our 2021 listener survey at https://therestartproject.org/radiosurvey. Whether you are a long-term or new listener of the podcast we would love to hear your thoughts on what you like and what we could improve. ⁠

Before we get into the news and our Summer Reading List, here’s a plea to respond to our listener survey. We last did one of these in 2019 and found it really helpful in improving our work and making sure that our listeners enjoy the content that we produce. F ill it in here ! Right to Repair  – in the UK and abroad Has the news in the UK surrounding Right to Repair been giving you deja vu?...

This month, we had the pleasure of talking to repairer and activist, Jessa Jones. Jones is the founder of iPad Rehab and has carved out her own space in the repair world as a self-taught microsolderer and logic board repair teacher. We found out what makes her approach to repair and teaching unique, why she is so impassioned in her work, and what tools repairers in the US have to advocate for them...

As businesses and community spaces are able to pick up operations again, we talk to Alys Penfold about her work with Library of Things. Penfold is currently the Borrower Support Lead at Library of Things and tells us about their mission, their impact, and exciting new locations that are opening soon.  While we were regularly going into the office, Restart shared an office with Library of Things. I...

This month, we talk to fellow podcasters Abby Rose and Jo Barratt from Farmerama. Farmerama is a monthly magazine show that aims to share the voices and experiences of regenerative farming. By combining their experience in farming, tech, and podcasting, they have managed to create an award-winning podcast that brings the farming community closer to each other and the listener. Last year, our podca...

This month, we are revisiting the topic of medical repair and reuse. Our interview was originally published more than a year ago but the issues at hand have not been fixed. We spoke to Dr Tarek Loubani and his colleague, Reidun Garapick about how perspectives need to change so that reuse of medical equipment is the norm. An example of this is the reusable face shield they developed. Loubani and Ga...