My first job and my first love was radio. I have launched a series of podcasts strands in my career where I have produced, edited, scripted and organised audio on a variety of topics from politics and history to climate and health. Whether it’s documentary, analysis or convergence with TV to gather extra podcast material on location or even repurposing existing content, I always add extra value on the service of telling the story in the best way possible.
CGTN’s Changemakers series explores those who make a difference, in all walks of life.
In April 2023, Andrea Papi became the first Italian in 150 years to be killed by a bear. Mauled while jogging, he became an unwitting victim of a well-meaning EU-funded rewilding program designed to reintroduce bears to the Italian Dolomites. This podcast explores where responsibility lies for his death and how it has exacerbated a growing divide in Italy and beyond about the wisdom, safety and management of rewilding large carnivores.
Presenter Johannes Pleschberger
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Producers Elizabeth Mearns, Alice Castle
Sound Terry Wilson
Copyright CGTN Europe
Meet Uganda’s first wildlife vet and expert on mountain gorillas, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. She’s not your average vet: her work has brought back Uganda’s wildlife from the brink of disaster and her winning formula is being adopted across Africa. She says: ‘I would like to be remembered as someone who went outside their comfort zone to change the world and somebody who was willing to challenge societal norms and cultural barriers and as somebody who championed a new way of promoting conservation.’
Presenter Paul Barber
Producer Sarah Parfitt
Sound design Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Team Gorilla was written and performed by Gasuza
Gorilla natural sound Nick Penny
Additional audio clip Carla Delaney
Copyright CGTN Europe
Stephen Cole and Mhairi Beveridge couldn't be further apart in age or attitude. But with the help of a few expert guests, they close the generation gap and investigate some of society's biggest questions. The Answers Project from CGTN Europe.
The wars of tomorrow will be faster, more high-tech and less human than ever before. But will robots ever fully replace soldiers on the battlefield?
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
In Northern Ireland, children begin primary school at the age of four - younger than anywhere else in the world. Across the water, in Finland, they start three years later. So who has got it right? Should children be allowed to determine their own futures?
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
Whilst all human life may be priceless, the reality is that putting a price tag on a life is an important part of the job for legislators all over the world. Mhairi and Stephen unpick the messy equation of death vs money, how seatbelts changed the way we value lives and why this question has ugly roots in slavery.
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
The scope for malpractice in the waste industry is huge and often results in rich countries dumping their trash on poorer nations. So should countries be forced to start managing their waste domestically? And is there any real financial benefit for the nations receiving this waste?
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
One world, one currency; it's a nice idea but how realistic is it in practice? The Euro crisis proved how difficult it was to have a single currency that covers a large area containing different economies. In this episode Mhairi and Stephen discuss cryptocurrency, special drawing rights and whether a single currency could bring world peace.
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
Despite the lack of evidence that aliens exist, it’s hard to find an astrophysicist who will tell you they believe we are alone in the universe. Enrico Fermi summed up this sentiment in the 1950s when he simply asked: where is everybody? In this episode of The Answers Project Mhairi and Stephen discuss alien sightings, human evolution and the two equally terrifying possibilities: either alien life exists or we are totally alone in the universe.
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
There are various establishments that could be seen as zoos, not just caging animals but also aquariums, sanctuaries, safari parks and even animal rehabilitation centers. An establishment is usually referred to as a zoo if it is an area where animals are kept for public exhibition for education or commercial purposes, so how easy is it to set one up?
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
We've been talking about poverty for a long time, and it still hasn't been resolved. Furthermore, the pandemic has undone a lot of the previous decades’ progress on poverty alleviation. We talk to a leading expert on poverty and the pandemic. We also look at the role of jobs in relation to poverty.
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
In 2020 and 2021, millions of students around the world couldn't sit their exams because of COVID. The pandemic really has done its best to ruin the examination process but it seems like everyone's managed one way or another so, do we really need exams?
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
Some researchers have suggested that intelligence is a single, general ability. Others believe that intelligence encompasses a range of aptitudes, skills and talents. Is it a philosophical question, a neurological question, or both? If you can pinpoint what intelligence is, can you then measure it? It’s certainly controversial and the question of measuring intelligence has quite a dark underbelly, with IQ tests used by regimes such as Nazi Germany as a justification for sterilisation or eugenics.
Presenters Stephen Cole, Mhairi Beveridge
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Editors Zhu Hua, Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
One of CGTN Europe’s key 2023 projects, The Secret Betrayal told how a brutal policy of forced repatriation caused thousands of Chinese men to disappear from Liverpool at the end of World War II. This policy, orchestrated by the British government, would leave families traumatised and the community broken. The three-part podcast series explained and augmented the TV documentary coverage with extra guests.
From the late 1800s onwards, many seamen and traders working between China and Liverpool settled by the Mersey, and on the eve of World War II the city was home to a thriving British-Chinese community of thousands. But the end of the war brought a mass deportation of Chinese men. We speak to the children and grandchildren of those men whose childhoods were blighted by the loss of their fathers and the secrecy and misinformation around the policy.
Presenter Jamie Owen
Producers Elizabeth Mearns, Mark Ashenden
Series Producer Simon Morris
Copyright CGTN Europe
During World War II, one in seven merchant seamen in the UK was Chinese. When the war was over, many returned to the lives they had built in Liverpool. But instead of the hero's welcome received by British servicemen, they found themselves facing sudden deportation. In this episode, we speak to the families left behind to poverty, stigma and racism and hear how secrecy surrounding the policy from the British government has exacerbated the families’ suffering – and hampered plans to find lost relatives.
Presenter Jamie Owen
Producers Elizabeth Mearns, Mark Ashenden
Series Producer Simon Morris
Copyright CGTN Europe
In this episode, we follow the families, community members and MPs campaigning for justice. We hear Liverpool MP Kim Johnson raising questions in parliament and prompting minister Kevin Foster to launch an internal investigation. We talk to surviving family members about their continuing campaign for an official apology from the British government. We also look at how some family members are still searching for lost relatives in China through new DNA techniques, and discover how the Chinese community in Liverpool is hoping a memorial to the sailors will keep their memories alive – and prevent history from repeating itself.
Presenter Jamie Owen
Producers Elizabeth Mearns, Mark Ashenden
Series Producer Simon Morris
Copyright CGTN Europe
A major multimedia season across TV, video, website, social and podcast, Bridge Builders was CGTN Europe’s prime output of 2022. The six-part podcast series utilised the best interviewees and added further expert voices to deepen the narrative exploring those people who had done most to bring China and the UK closer together.
Businessman Stephen Perry grew up watching his father’s relationship with China - and followed him. Part of a deal that sold the first commodities from America to China, he witnessed ‘opening up’ and China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation and improved cultural relations, taking British football teams and musicals to China and encouraging musicals such as The Red Lantern to travel to the UK.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producers Elizabeth Mearns, Louise Greenwood
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Bridge Builders Series Editor Guo Chun
Copyright CGTN Europe
For more than 40 years, Michael Wood has brought history alive for viewers and readers all over the world. His recent Story of China films and documentary on Chinese poet Du Fu have charmed Chinese and international audiences alike – making him a household name in China.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Bing Ma Yong (Terracotta army) soldier read by Yubin Du
Du Fu poetry read by Jamie Owen
Producers Alice Castle, Sun Lan
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Bridge Builders Series Editor Guo Chun
Copyright CGTN Europe
In this podcast, we meet the Guo family – presented by son and London-based vlogger Toto, who describes himself as "a child of two heritages'. His father Guo Yi grew up in a musical family in China and is a renowned sheng musician and his British mother Manda is a professional garden designer.
Presenter Toto Guo
Producer Sarah Parfitt
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Bridge Builders Series Editor Guo Chun
Copyright CGTN Europe
Frances Wood studied Chinese at Cambridge and in 1971 visited China with a pioneering British youth delegation. She returned to China in 1975 on a year’s British Council scholarship – and the pinnacle of her subsequent career as a librarian and historian was to restore the revered Diamond Sutra manuscript.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Diamond Sutra extract read by Quan Chenchen
Producers Alice Castle, Sun Lan
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Bridge Builders Series Editor Guo Chun
Copyright CGTN Europe
London-born and Eton-educated, Alex Hua Tian was China’s first ever Olympic eventing rider. In this podcast, Hua Tian talks candidly about his dual-heritage upbringing and how it has shaped who he is today.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producer Sarah Parfitt, Luo Chen
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Bridge Builders Series Editor Guo Chun
Copyright CGTN Europe
Renowned guzheng player Zi Lan Liao is one of the leading exponents of Chinese music. Her work includes Oscar-winning scores and modern fusion music – but her real passion is passing on her musical heritage to the British Chinese children of the Pagoda Arts Centre in Liverpool.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Bridge Builders Series Editor Guo Chun
Copyright CGTN Europe
Zoë Reed’s English mother met her Chinese father at college in the late 1940s. A two-year affair ended when he returned to China... not knowing she was pregnant. Initially told her father was dead, Zoë eventually met him in her forties. Having built a personal bridge, she now helps others to do similar – as chair of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producer Sarah Parfitt
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Bridge Builders Series Editor Guo Chun
Copyright CGTN Europe
Released in May 2021, the six-part Trash or Treasure podcast series investigates which European countries are the biggest waste creators, which are leading the way in waste disposal and recycling – and mets the people coming up with some surprising, innovative solutions to a Europe-wide problem.
Our correspondents across Europe get up close and personal with their own garbage bins and make uncomfortable revelations about their own consumption. Then we take them on a journey of discovery to ask: If it isn’t recycled, where does our waste go? The answers take them to illegal dumps, incinerators and landfills across Europe. From the innovations in waste disposal which have earned Vienna the title ‘Greenest city in Europe’ to the eco disaster unfolding at a Bosnian dam, we look at the best and worst of Europe’s waste disposal solutions.
Presenter Natalie Carney
Producers Alice Castle, Sarah Parfitt
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Trash or Treasure Series Editor Zhu Hua
Copyright CGTN Europe
Taking a closer look at where our waste goes when we’re hoping it’s going to be recycled. When we throw our plastics, metals or paper into a special recycle bin, we expect it’s going to end up being reprocessed and ultimately reused… we hope. But waste disposal is a lot more complicated than many think – especially when it comes to plastics. For decades, plastics have been changing the way we live; we now see it all around us, but we also hear a lot about the destruction it causes if not disposed of properly.
Presenter Natalie Carney
Producers Alice Castle, Sarah Parfitt
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Trash or Treasure Series Editor Zhu Hua
Copyright CGTN Europe
We scour the continent to bring you some of the most ingenious new solutions for reusing and recycling waste as we unveil the best ideas for turning trash into treasure – from firehoses being turned into handbags, via PPE being used in road surfacing, to the band that has played the Albert Hall making music with waste materials.
Presenter Natalie Carney
Producers Alice Castle, Sarah Parfitt
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Trash or Treasure Series Editor Zhu Hua
Copyright CGTN Europe
We speak to zero-waste consumers, change-seeking chefs and 'dumpster divers' who save good food from supermarket dustbins; investigate apps which redistribute restaurant-surplus food; and visit the anaerobic digestion plant turning waste food into fuel and fertilizer.
Presenter Natalie Carney
Producers Alice Castle, Sarah Parfitt
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Trash or Treasure Series Editor Zhu Hua
Copyright CGTN Europe
Clothes. We all wear them. That's billions of items being worn every day, billions of items being made each year – and billions of items being thrown out. The environmental impact is huge – in the UK alone, 300,000 tonnes of textile waste ends up being sent to landfill each year. And that is a small fraction of the worldwide figure. Less than one percent of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing at the end of its life. In this episode, we meet all sorts of innovators, entrepreneurs, campaigners and businesses that have dedicated their lives to raising awareness, reusing or recycling clothes.
Presenter Natalie Carney
Producers Alice Castle, Sarah Parfitt
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Trash or Treasure Series Editor Zhu Hua
Copyright CGTN Europe
Death is the final act of our lives, and it can be environmentally devastating: every cremation uses the equivalent of about 40 backyard-barbecue propane canisters and creates one tonne of carbon dioxide, while traditional burials eat up the land and can leach chemicals into the soil. In this episode, we explore the increasing choice of alternative methods that are appearing for disposing of our mortal remains – from chemical-free 'natural burials' through organic reduction and 'water cremation' to burials at sea and even freeze-drying. But what are the ethical and ecological pros and cons of each method?
Presenter Natalie Carney
Producers Alice Castle, Sarah Parfitt
Sound Editor Terry Wilson
Series Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Trash or Treasure Series Editor Zhu Hua
Copyright CGTN Europe
As we moved into 2021, our CGTN Europe correspondents talked to us about an unprecedented year of change. COVID-19 changed our lives forever, and across Europe each country experienced it differently. We spoke to five reporters who were on the frontlines reporting on the virus, and asked them how they tried to make sense of an epidemic that would change the world forever.
Presenter Lincoln Van der Westhuizen
Editor and Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Copyright CGTN Europe
A three-part podcast series released in autumn 2020, exploring the fascinating world at the roof of Europe.
Join native Alpiner Johannes Pleschberger on his journey through this incredible mountain range at the heart of Europe. In this episode, he investigates some of the extreme changes facing the Alpine landscape – from shrinking glaciers and disappearing pasture to melting borders… and fallen timber repurposed into violins and harps.
Presenter Johannes Pleschberger
Producers Alice Castle, Sarah Parfitt
Sound Terry Wilson
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Copyright CGTN Europe
Johannes Pleschberger highlights the Alpine natural world – going mushroom-hunting with his mum before introducing the majestic golden eagle, the worrying bark beetle, the region’s most famous indigenous flower – and the only 100% Alpine country.
Presenter Johannes Pleschberger
Producers Alice Castle, Sarah Parfitt
Sound Terry Wilson
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Copyright CGTN Europe
Johannes Pleschberger introduces the incredible people who live and work in the mountains - from the sixty-something Slovenian mountain runner to the classic cheese made by shepherds as a token of love for their sweethearts. And then there’s the terrifying Krampus… the anti-Santa sent to punish naughty children.
Presenter Johannes Pleschberger
Producers Alice Castle, Sarah Parfitt
Sound Terry Wilson
Editor Elizabeth Mearns
Copyright CGTN Europe
A six-part podcast series produced in summer 2020 examining the effects of COVID in a variety of spheres, from science to the workplace.
Since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, the world has looked to the scientific community to find an effective treatment. The top minds in the pharmaceutical industry have been working at full speed on possible medical solutions - and the hunt for a vaccine that would normally take years has been fast-tracked to a matter of months.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Producer Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
As Europe slowly emerges from lockdown it’s becoming clear the pandemic has left a legacy that will mean long-term changes to business, the world of work and the global environment. But despite the devastating toll COVID-19 has taken, might it also have handed us the opportunity to build a fairer, more sustainable future, based on innovation, cooperation and technological progress?
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Producer Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
In the third episode, CGTN Europe examines how workplaces are adapting to the new culture of social distancing.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Producer Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
Whether you are the boss in a company employing thousands or the newest hire in the office, COVID is changing how all of us earn a living.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Producer Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
Travel and tourism has felt the full impact of the COVID-19 crisis. In this episode we examine what holidays in the future may look like, and how better to balance the needs of supply and demand as tourism continues to rise along with income in new markets.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Producer Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe
Climate experts speaking to CGTN say the COVID-19 outbreak was in part caused by environmental damage. They point to the believed origin of the virus and the breakdown of natural boundaries between humans and animals. In this final edition of Notes on a Pandemic, we look at the impact the coronavirus has had on the global environment.
Presenter Louise Greenwood
Producer Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Terry Wilson
Series Producer Duncan Hooper
Copyright CGTN Europe