We’ve had some amazing responses to Episode 1 of the podcast – please have a read below to get a sense of how people from a variety of communities are responding! If you’d like to leave a review in the comments below or on Apple, Google, Spotify, it would mean a lot to us and it means more people will be able to hear it! If you haven’t listened to Episode 1 yet, here’s a couple of clips from the Episode 1 to whet your appetite!
I found myself thinking about things in a new way…what a gift!
Celia North, resident of Newcastle East
It was really great to hear so many different voices from Shieldfield as well as grounding the conversation with voices from those who have been thinking about displacement for a long time.
Lydia Hiorns, Director of Shieldfield Art Works
Really thought-provoking and inspiring.
Professor Robert Song, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University
In a world where people seem to be talking past one another—shouting past one another, actually—it is a delight to find those who give the gift of listening. The folks behind the Real/Symbol podcast know how to listen and it is life-giving and transformative. As our economy unfolds, changes occur, sometimes for blessing and sometimes for curse, even if it is unintentional. Some changes alter the places we live, where people raise families and work and and play and develop community. Listening to them describe what is transpiring in their world allows us all to consider working for the common good so that everyone can have not just shelter but a home among other families who know and care for them. This is beyond politics and sociology, touching instead on what it means to be human and how to help our neighbors flourish. Real/Symbol is a voice of quiet sanity, offering hope and healing in a broken yet beautiful world.
Denis Haack, Founder of Ransom Fellowship
Very powerful and emotive.
Hannah Marsden, Newcastle University
As a pioneer [in the Methodist Church] I found the podcast insightful, it was a timely reminder to look more carefully at my locality. I found the idea of thinking about gentrification as social cleansing really challenging.
Rob Wylie, Fresh Expressions Worker – North Shields and Whitley Bay Methodist Circuit
The tree thing…that really got me. It’s greed disguised as regeneration that is so nauseating.
Anna McCall, resident of Newcastle East
A MUST listen on the lived experience of ‘social cleansing’ caused by demolition & how ‘..these processes have caused not just physical displacement but also emotional and spiritual displacement..”
Neighbours of West Kentish Town
REAL / SYMBOL 