Working Hours

Jamie Marshall recorded on 27/10/2022 Jamie Marshall started working in IT part time while completing his A-levels, in ICT, Business studies and Art; dropping out of Art at the end of the first year. After finishing his A-levels he went on to a full-time role at the company and is now a Director there. The company he initially started with part time was based in Roundhay and did both B2C (that’s b...

Jo James recorded on 25/11/2022 Jo James is minister to the congregation of Mill Hill Chapel on City Square in the centre of Leeds. Mill Hill is a Unitarian chapel; with a congregation that was first formed in 1672. There has been 350 years’ continuity of rational dissenting worship in Mill Hill. Jo is interested in what happens next when as a culture we acknowledge that although we’ve abandoned G...

Emma Waterland and Louise Hodgson recorded on 15/12/2022 Emma Waterland joined LEDA in 2021 and is responsible for the planning and implementation of their marketing strategy, working in close collaboration with directors and members to lead a strategic approach to the ongoing development of the business. This includes looking after the brand and communications as well as promotional activities an...

Madihah Hussain recorded on 17/11/2022 Madihah Hussain is a third year journalism student at the University of Leeds. Alongside her studies she is currently completing a Marketing & Communication part-time internship with Open Source Arts in Leeds. Madihah is also hosting a weekly radio show, every Saturday, on Fever FM. Additionally, she freelances as a henna artist on select occasions. Madih...

Open Source Arts recorded on 06/04/2022 Myra Rowland has a background working in Higher Education and joined the Open Source Arts team in autumn 2017. Myra brings her organisational skills and enthusiasm for getting involved and helping great things happen to Open Source Arts. She is passionate about facilitating people and communities to realise, develop and use their power, wisdom and skills in...

Mark Costello recorded on 08/08/2022 Horsforth Brewery is run by innovative brewer Mark Costello supplying the local Horsforth and wider Leeds areas with tasty, quality beers. Starting as a part-time project in 2017 in Mark's garage, the brewery has progressed to its own unit at the end of 2018 and as of March 2020 it is Mark's full-time job. We are a small team so if it takes a little bit of time...

SJ Bradley recorded on 18/11/2022 SJ Bradley is an author, short story writer & creative writing tutor. She has taught short story writing for Comma Press and for First Story a charity in Leeds and Bradford, and recently graduated a PGCert from Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education, which she attended with a bursary from First Story. SJ has been working part time in jobs in th...

Michal Drewniok recorded on 03/08/2022 Michal Drewniok is a Research Fellow in Transforming Foundation Industries at the University of Leeds. His background is in civil engineering and he holds a PhD in concrete technology from Silesian University of Technology in Poland. Prior to his current positions, he worked as a Site Engineer and Concrete and Production Technologist at Precast Concrete Manuf...

Sunyi Dean recorded on 03/11/2022 Sunyi Dean is a biracial fantasy author who was born in Texas, grew up in Hong Kong, and now resides in the UK. She writes speculative fiction with a weird slant, and has both too many books and too many children. Her latest book is a best seller and you should buy it early and buy it often - as they say on Trash Future. The books called the Book Eaters and it sou...

Richard Clarkson recorded on 10/08/2022 Richard Clarkson is a Finance Systems Director who, at the time of recording was 5 months into transitioning through to retirement and only working 1 day a week on a consultancy basis. Prior to that Richard was responsible for the Financial Systems of National World plc the owner of Yorkshire Post and a large number of other media brands in the UK. Richard h...

Caroline Hudson recorded on 28/10/2022 Caroline Hudson has over 30 years’ experience as a Primary school teacher in West Yorkshire, and is passionate about developing the chance, for ALL children to be the best that they can be, and giving them the tools to make confident choices. Caroline believe that by giving parents the knowledge and understanding of up-to-date primary school methods and expec...

Lydia Cottrell recorded on 05/05/2022 Lydia Cottrell is a dancer, artist, black metal make up social media influencer and a social media consultant. At the time of recording Lydia was also the Communications and Engagement Manager at Compass Live Arts. Every two years Compass Festival animates the city of Leeds with interactive live art projects in public spaces. This year they have commissioned f...

Ron Wiener recorded on 24/08/2022 Ron Wiener is a semi-retired community theatre director, socio-dramatist and grandparent. Born in London, brought up in Australia he has lived in England for the past 67 years and in Leeds since 1975. He has worked all over the world as a socio-dramatist. Ron is a founder member of ISCAN - the International Socio-drama and Action Methods Network which runs course...

Bruce Davies recorded on 02/08/2022 Bruce Davies is an Artist / Writer and Curator of Basement Arts Project. His work looks primarily at the relationship between artist, gallery and viewer; how environments can shape the perception and understanding of an artwork and how a space can alter the nature of the work itself. It has been this line of enquiry along with four years as the organiser, curato...

Anna Bland recorded on 17/08/2022 Anna Bland is Team Leader for Leeds Sanctuary. Leeds Sanctuary is a city centre project focusing on reflection, wellbeing, activism and creativity. Leeds Sanctuary creates spaces and resources on and offline for people to connect more deeply with themselves, one another and important issues of social justice. They are also exploring craftivism, meditation, mindful...

Peter Spafford recorded on 14/06/2022 Peter Spafford has written for theatre, radio, musical theatre, TV and opera. His plays have been performed in theatres, cathedrals, museums, arts centres, day centres, prisons, schools, piazzas, and in the woods. Peter is currently Director of Words at Chapel FM Arts Centre. He is also a songwriter and musician, having just produced Unsung Sports, a project c...

Sophie Greenwood recorded on 11/07/2022 Sophie Greenwood is a printmaker and the owner of a company called Ink & Bear that focuses on creative workshops, organising events and supporting other makers. Sophie has lived in Leeds since 2005 when she moved here to go to University, fell in love with the city and has been here ever since! Sophie runs creative workshops across Leeds - she strongly b...

Kevin Pratt recorded on 05/09/2022 Kevin Pratt has worked successfully in property development and land acquisition, succeeding with the acquisition of a project building several town houses in south Leeds. Then he discovered Passive Haus and began Leeds based eco builder Purehaus. Purehaus has a mission to build homes with reduced energy demand allowing them to provide homes that rely on the cons...

Bonnie Milnes recorded on 29/04/2022 Bonnie Milnes is an actress and musician living in Leeds. She says that there’s no money in either so she also works as a carer. At the beginning of the pandemic, her band stopped performing and she lost her business (a rehearsal studio in the centre of York). Living on her own and finding her work as a carer harder than she’d ever experienced before it was a p...

John Stewart recorded on 22/08/2022 John Stewart joined the railway in 1969 and became a union rep in 1975. Starting as a signal box register lad he moved on to Signalman, relief signal man, freight guard and passenger guard. John has also had various positions within LEEDS CITY RMT BRANCH, he is the current branch secretary, and took voluntary redundancy from work in 2017. To find out more about...

Laura McCullagh recorded on 04/05/2022 Laura McCullagh has worked for 15+ years in the voluntary sector – starting her career in Leeds, then Edinburgh, London and back to Leeds again. Laura has worked in a range of organisations and roles, generally advocating for the rights of groups that are often regarded as vulnerable and experience exclusion, discrimination and unfair treatment – e.g. people...

Neil Walshaw recorded on 12/05/2022 Neil Walshaw is currently a Leeds City Councillor representing the Headingley and Hyde Park Ward. Neil chairs the Climate Emergency Advisory Committee and the Development Plan Panel. So his working life is filled with terrifying data and models about our present and future plus lots of time nerding out with planners of all kinds. Combining three serious roles wi...

Ellie Harrison recorded on 01/08/2022 Ellie Harrison is a performance maker and artist living in Leeds and working internationally. She is artistic director of the Grief Series, a sequence of seven arts projects that open up spaces to talk about bereavement and end of life. The Grief Series is multi-sensory with audiences being engaged as participants and co-creators. Informed by rigorous research...

Lianne Marie Mease recorded on 18/05/2022 Lianne Marie Mease, aka Butterflump is an ethical marketing consultant. This means she only works with people and companies that are genuinely doing some good in the world. Her clients are soul-led businesses who care about their impact on the environment and their impact on our society. She has 23 years’ experience in her field and began working in digita...

David Williams recorded on 19/05/2022 It's episode 50! On this episode I chat to David Williams, the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union. David didn’t send me a bio text to use for the show notes, so I’m going to let you find out about him as we go for this episode. It's a good episode, another example of how these interview can get more relevant with time. Since...