The Shared Experience brings together people with amazing stories to tell of an experience they all have in common and how it’s affected them. From seeing ghosts to saving a life, people from all walks of life share their powerful stories.
Lost
What's it like to get seriously lost? Fi Glover meets four people who have experienced being lost in a dangerous wilderness, in some cases for days, including Benedict who walked for days in the Amazon rainforest, Geoff who swam down the wrong river in Australia, Bim who wandered off piste in the Himalayas and Lois who got lost in the Sahara.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
12/20/2016 • 27 minutes, 39 seconds
Don't Feed The Trolls
Three people who chose to defend themselves and others against abuse and bullying talk to Fi Glover about their experiences. They include Ashley who defended a woman wearing a hijab from racist abuse on the tube, Jayde who was 'trolled' over her appearance on a business networking site, and Victoria who faces regular abuse because of her facial disfigurement.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
12/13/2016 • 27 minutes, 42 seconds
Shattered
Shattered: "I'm existing, not living" is how one woman describes the effect of the parasomnia that causes night terrors and insomnia, which she says are wrecking her life. Three people tell Fi Glover how they cope with a chronic sleep disorder, something that affects many of us at some point in our lives.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
12/6/2016 • 27 minutes, 45 seconds
Twins
The Wonderful World of Identical Twins: A new series of Shared Experience delves into the lives of twins, the pros and cons of having someone who looks and acts just like you. Twins Gillian and Tracy, and one half of twin sisters, Jasmine share their stories with Fi Glover, from instinctively knowing when the other is in danger, to managing occasional envy and jealousy.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
11/29/2016 • 27 minutes, 45 seconds
Not What We Were Expecting
Three parents discuss how they've readjusted to life with a child with learning difficulties
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
5/31/2016 • 27 minutes, 52 seconds
Don't call us Barry Poppins. We're stay-at-home dads
There's nothing heroic about a man giving up work to look after the children while his wife goes out to work, say Sam, Richard and Josh, and yet as these three Dads tell Fi Glover, people often perceive them as being somehow remarkable for electing to be the primary carer. House husband or Barry Poppins are two terms that annoy them. Why wouldn't any man want to spend time with his children given the choice? Does 'providing for your children' have to mean sitting in an office for 8 hours a day? They discuss the highs and lows and differences of being a stay-at-home-Dad with candour and humour.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
5/24/2016 • 27 minutes, 33 seconds
The Fall
Imagine you're out walking, enjoying the outdoors and beautiful scenery... and then you fall. Down a cliff, off a mountain, into a crevice, into water. Three people whose lives changed forever following 'the fall' discuss the experience with Fi Glover in the new series of Shared Experience
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
5/18/2016 • 27 minutes, 46 seconds
Born in the Wrong Body
When do you know you've been born the wrong gender? Fi Glover meets three people who have made the at times painful decision to become the man or woman they have always felt themselves to be.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
12/15/2015 • 27 minutes, 26 seconds
Was University the Right Choice?
Faced with spiralling debt, few job prospects and having to return to the parental home because they can't afford to rent, a growing number of students question whether university is really the key to success. Would they have been better doing apprenticeships for instance? Fi Glover meets Fran, Jake and Ben to hear their experiences of academic life.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
12/8/2015 • 27 minutes, 48 seconds
What Does Home Mean?
What happens to your idea of home when you're forced to leave your country and resettle in another? Fi Glover meets three people who had to do that to explore the concept of home.
Fran was a teenager when her father was made persona non grata by the Hastings Banda regime in Malawi. The family fled back 'home' to Britain, but Fran says she has not been able to settle in England in a culture she finds alien. Dragana left suddenly when war broke out in Bosnia, leaving her family in Banja Luka. The Netherlands became home for her as she lived with a host family, learnt Dutch, finished school and did a degree. She still lives there with her husband and children, but is it really home? Abiyot left Ethiopia when his life was in danger because of his political activism. He settled in Britain, took a degree and set up his own business. Britain, he says, is home for him, a place of safety and tolerance.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
12/1/2015 • 27 minutes, 41 seconds
Living with Addiction
People who are being treated for an addiction receive the support of professional organisations as well as family and friends. Many of them say they could not have beaten it without their partner's help. But who recognises the role of close family members in getting an addict through tough times? Fi Glover hears from three people living with partners in various stages of addiction about how they have coped.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
11/24/2015 • 27 minutes, 44 seconds
Taken Hostage
Fortunately, most people will not have the experience shared by Fi Glover's guests this week. Peter spent six years working in Georgia. The day before he was due to fly home from the posting, he was kidnapped at gunpoint and held in squalid conditions for six months. Contrast that with another Peter who surfed and drank beer while his ship was held for three months during the blockade of the Suez Canal. Sarah meanwhile was setting out across Kenya to work in an orphanage in neighbouring Tanzania when the bus she was travelling in was held up by bandits and driven off-road into the bush. The interesting thing that emerges from their conversation is that two of them appear to have coped better with their experiences, while one man subsequently struggled.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
6/16/2015 • 27 minutes, 58 seconds
Bullying at School
"At nights I'd find myself praying to God to kill me" - 13 year old James shares his story of being bullied at school. He and two other teenagers George and Paris tell Fi Glover how they came through some very dark days of being physically and verbally attacked by fellow pupils for being different.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
6/9/2015 • 27 minutes, 42 seconds
After an Accident
Life is going fantastically well and the world is full of promise, and then it takes a dramatically different turn one day when an accident changes things for ever. This happened to the three guests in this week's programme - David broke his neck diving into a shallow ocean pool in Australia, Sian was hit by a taxi on holiday and Kelly suffered severe burns and injuries to her leg following a car crash. Their injuries were life changing. They share their experiences of dealing with the after effects with each other and host Fi Glover
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
6/2/2015 • 27 minutes, 39 seconds
Episode 1
A new series of Shared Experience begins with a listener who responded after hearing the programme in which four mothers talked about the pain of leaving their children. Daniel got in touch wanting to talk about his own experience of being left by his mother at the age of ten. He talks to Fi Glover and meets Sam, the Mum from the original programme who left her daughter while she battled addiction. What takes place is a painfully honest discussion about the emotional damage Daniel and Sam's daughter suffered.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
6/1/2015 • 27 minutes, 44 seconds
Mental Breakdown
Three very different people come together to discuss the experience of mental breakdown, starting with the moment they realised what was happening.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
6/17/2014 • 27 minutes, 52 seconds
Estranged
'I love my son but I just don't like him anymore.' explains one woman in this programme that deals with the subject of family estrangement. Three people share their stories with Fi Glover of how they came to the decision to cut ties with either parents or children.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
6/10/2014 • 27 minutes, 35 seconds
Surviving deadly events
Four survivors of deadly events tell their stories to Fi Glover and how they dealt with the aftermath. Stories include being attacked by a Great White shark, surviving a plane crash, being in Japan when the earthquake struck and surviving an IRA bomb attack on a coach.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
6/3/2014 • 27 minutes, 59 seconds
Falling Off the Wagon
"That first drink and it was like woohoo, a party going off in my head" Three people with different addictions talk frankly to Fi Glover about falling off the wagon. In Lisa's case, one cocktail was all it took to get her back on hard drugs and alcohol. For Richard, it was putting a one pound coin into a slot machine and winning the jackpot, while Simon was in such denial about his addiction that he used drugs as a way of abstaining from alcohol, so that technically he could say he wasn't relapsing.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
5/28/2014 • 27 minutes, 48 seconds
I Saw a Ghost
Shared Experience is a new series. Fi Glover and guests sit round a kitchen table to share strange tales that turn out to be unexpectedly common. In the first programme Fi talks to people who've seen a ghost. Fi's guests have come from different places, with different backgrounds; they live very different lives. But they have one experience they all share - the day they saw a ghost and what happened to them after. In Britain, strange tales are more common than you think.
1/31/2014 • 28 minutes, 4 seconds
Saving a life
Fi Glover brings together a disparate group of people all with one thing in common. This week people who have saved someone's life discuss the experience and how it affects them afterwards.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
1/31/2014 • 28 minutes, 3 seconds
Pest Controllers
More shared experiences discussed in a lively intimate way with host Fi Glover. This week four pest control share their passion for the job controlling bedbugs, rats, maggots and creatures many of us find repellent.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
1/31/2014 • 28 minutes
Mothers Who Left Their Kids
Fi Glover talks to four women who have made the painful choice to leave their children, how they have dealt with separation, and if they can ever rebuild their relationship with them.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.