“Is homelessness something we need to recover from?”: new podcast series

Is it possible to fully recover? What aids recovery? Is recovery only about addiction? How do the views of others impact recovery? What does recovery look like? Can we recover on our own?

These questions, and others like it, were pondered when Listen Up!’s community reporters met in 2022 to think about Recovery Month which takes place every September. As we launch our series of podcasts, ListenUp! Project Officer Tess Tainton shares how the community reporters have explored the topic of ‘recovery’.

Recovery is a topic that everyone had an opinion on, and direct experience of, and yet everyone was approaching it from different directions – some were thinking about recovery from addiction, others from mental health difficulties; some thought about their recovery from physical health, others from experiences of domestic abuse. And, finally, we wondered:

“is homelessness something we need to recover from?”

Following the meeting a reporter approached me and said it would have been great if we had recorded the conversation we had had and set into motion the podcasts you find below.

There are three podcasts. The first features Karen and Laura. The second, Mat and Mahesh. Finally, Nawshin (Nel) and Miles. All three approach the topic of recovery differently and yet there is much that ties them together – there is a sense of recovery being life-long; of requiring recovery from anything and everything we have to endure; of the need for community and others who have experienced similar; and of finding something to recover for.

I was fortunate to be involved in all three podcasts – asking questions and, occasionally, talking about my own experiences. The seven of us all talked about some difficult experiences yet I never felt awkward or unsafe – there was something freeing in knowing that who I was talking to understood and wouldn’t judge what I said.

Content warning: That said, these podcasts can be hard to listen to – we touch on addiction, mental health difficulties, grief and feeling suicidal. Please take this into account before you listen.

More information

Listen Up! is a Groundswell and On Our Radar project, supported by Comic Relief.

These podcasts were produced by Chris Walter from On Our Radar, and Leo Schick from Feast Collective. You can listen to them via Mixcloud, Anchor, Spotify and many more.