This is not my... Interview
 |
Paul Goodwin, Creator and editor, Planetary Voices
"a green radio audio site featuring environmental issues, human rights, peace work and life affirming interviews." |
How did Planetary Voices come about?
It started a couple of years ago but there was a year or so building up and putting together material before that.
I was quite involved with community radio and I used to do programmes for other peoples local projects but through that time I was also thinking about my own vision and idea.
I was feeling a bit at odds with the commercial radio in general and feeling that it wasn’t particularly inspiring.
At the same time I was involved with my local Amnesty International group and learning about green issues.
I thought that there were a lot of things going on that were fascinating and inspiring which didn’t get much attention. I wanted to do more to tell some of the stories I was hearing and I wasn’t going to be able to do it through the traditional routes.
I had an idea that there could be a radio station that wasn’t run on commercial lines.
There are some of those types of station in America, such as the Pacifica Radio network, which you can listen to on the internet. This focuses on things in some depth. It has one programme called Democracy Now that certainly takes a different look at what is going on in America. I suppose you could say it is left of centre, a bit radical and community based.
Being inspired by other people and their stories made me want to share that inspiration with others.
Being able to hear the passion about something in someone’s voice is very important to me. All my life I have felt that the radio is a fabulous medium for hearing stories and one through which powerful stories can be told. It can be a very personal form of communication.
The stories on the site are moving and emotive. People are really bearing their souls.
One good example on the site would be of a lady called Jo Berry, whose father was killed in the Brighton bombings. I had been struck by a documentary I had seen where she met one of the bombers. She doesn’t say she has found total forgiveness but the way in which she has dealt with all of the anger and how she faced up to this catastrophic event is just incredible.
That is the kind of inspiration that I wanted to share.
Do you usually just come across people you would like to interview or do people come to you?
There has been a bit of a snowball effect behind the interviews that I have done.
Initially I was very close to the subject matter. Many of the first interviews are about the way people cope with death as they were recorded in a period following the loss of my parents. More recently though the focus shifted into two main areas: human rights and the environment.
There are always such interesting things going on and incredible people visiting the country so the hit list gets guided somewhat by events that are happening at the minute.
For example, I have just recorded a talk by Shirin Ebadi –
Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
But busy people are often hard to get hold of. I was very lucky in that I had personal introductions to people that allowed me to interview some very well known individuals.
Getting to meet Suzanne Vega early on really opened a lot of doors. She does a lot of campaigning for human rights. It was the head of the UK office of Casa Alianza, an organisation working with street children in central America, that put me in touch with her, as I had done an interview with him.
I was also able to meet Anita Roddick at a function where she agreed to do an interview. She also valued the work of other people I had spoken to.
As they don’t get paid it is wonderful when prominent individuals identify with what I am trying to do and agree to an interview.
I think people appreciate that I want to focus on the positive. A lot of recent news concerning Anita Roddick is centred on recent events with the Body Shop takeover but we have forgotten just how pioneering the Body Shop was.
Before it no one had campaigned for anything in a shop. There was no focus on the supply chain and creation of goods.
Anita Roddick started all of that.
It was an incredible thing to do.
When I got to meet her I was really pleased to be able to focus on the things she really had a passion for.
There is such a huge list of people that I would love to interview the only thing in shortage is time!
It takes a while to arrange an interview, do it and then edit it all out.
I also find it important to make time to listen to everything that is going on so that I stay inspired with the work myself. There are a lot of things I hear about on Radio 4, or US stations, that spur me to keep going with this.
What is the biggest challenge with a project like yours?
Initially there was the worry of whether anyone would listen to it or find value in it.
Now it is a constant challenge to spread the word further.
I can see that it would make sense to start to market the site but I need to think about how I want to do that a bit more.
I suppose if I had dwelt on the outcome of the website or the difficulties involved then I would never have done it. You have to go for it, be positive and see what happens.
The site is meant to be an antidote to all of the terrible things that are going on – by looking at the positive.
The planet may be in the shit but there are things that we can do and are doing. It is along the lines of Positive News (a paper that shows the good things that are going on in the world - S).
It took a while to collect the material for the site – I had a lot of interviews under my belt before I launched it but once I had some good interviews I had a duty to get them out there.
I first felt it getting serious when I met a guy called James Mawdsley who had been campaigning in Burma.
He felt so strongly about what is going on over there that he had been imprisoned 3 times for his protests. He had written a story about his experiences.
I recorded an interview with him and realised that there are some incredible people doing incredible things that people can connect with and which will inspire them.
I needed to spread those stories.
It was really an idea that I felt I had to try out regardless of how it would be received.
It was perhaps a creatively indulgent approach but I hope that the intention, to allow other people to have access to those who have inspired me, continues to be received well.
If you want to listen to some of the interviews that Paul has collected please check out www.planetaryvoices.org.uk
Previous Interviews
 |
Co-founder, West Hampstead Local Food Festival
"a unique collaboration between West Hampstead cafes and restaurants, London Farmers’ Markets and the Camden Friends of the Earth Voluntary Group." |
 |
Founder, National Downshifting Week |
 |
Creative Director, Futerra |
 |
Author of '365 Ways to Change the World' |
 |
Co-founder of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4's
Which leads "a growing campaign uniting environmental, consumer, road safety groups and concerned individuals all over the UK." |
 |
Founder of slowlondon
"a community of people and ideas, to celebrate, inspire, bring everyone that little bit closer together (and have fun along the way)..." |
 |
Co-founder of: We Are What We Do A movement to" inspire people to use their everyday actions to change the world. Whoever they are. And wherever they are." |
 |
Author of "A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World; For Tibet, With Love"
Founder: Act for Tibet |
