Speak Up Sunderland

Feels like it's been AGES since Betty & Stevie properly caught up. It must be, because apparently Betty "misses Stevie's face".

Yeah, right!

Betty & Stevie share their experience of receiving the "li…

How can you capture the mood of a country at war in a documentary?

With a uniquely poetical, musical filmmaking style, artist and filmmaker Prof. Esther Johnson was commissioned by 14-18 Now to creat…

This is Len Gibson, BEM.

He’s reading from his collection of poetry, which he’s compiled over the past hundred years of his life.  You heard that right, Len Gibson turned 100 years old on the third o…

"Oh my God. OH MY GOD! It's Betty and Stevie!! [Unintelligible.]"

From across the pond, living in Traverse City, Michigan, meet Mark Whitley - the self-proclaimed number one fan of Speak Up Sunderlan…

Meet "Wor Vera", a.k.a. singer Deborah Taylor-Smith, who's donating her time and her voice by performing songs from throughout the decades outside care home residents across the North East.

As care h…

Our hosts Betty Ball and Stevie B get together for a call after a really intense week.

Now with his job as a deep cleaner classifying him as a "key worker", Stevie B shares his experience of deep cle…

Happy New Year from Betty and Stevie at Speak Up Sunderland!

Together we chat festive memories, play a stupid game, and tell you all about a couple of new projects we're launching next year:

• A speci…

Meet two of the volunteers who take the calls that help save lives, and hear what it's like on the other end of the phone line at the Sunderland Samaritans.

Sandy Shearer and Katie Mitchell share why…

Red Riding Blood.  Witches put to trial.  The monsters behind the screen.  This is the Speak Up Sunderland Halloween Special.

Spooky stories for Halloween, read by 6 members of Spectral Visions Press…

Work on a £11million new music venue in Sunderland's city centre has just begun, alongside the redeveloped Fire Station.

When it opens in 2021, the "Auditorium" promises to be Sunderland's answer to …

40 days at sea.  6 metre waves.  A diet of 10,000 calories a day.  And four men in a rowing boat, battling all kinds of waves, wind and weather to cross the Atlantic.

Meet John Adams - he's taking on…

Cut the cake, put on a "cheap and nasty tat" foam hat, and celebrate our first birthday with us! ONE YEAR OLD, BABY!

Betty, Stevie, and a gathering of local listeners at the Fire Station in Sunderlan…

"Every patient is a person, an individual, a human being. And we've got to make sure, no matter what age and how far on they are in their dementia, that they have that dignity right up to the end."

J…

"We've done something that the BBC have noticed. That's a pretty big statement, isn't it?" - Stevie B

"I'm proud to be getting out of this car, and being the voice of Sunderland. Big love to everyone…

This episode of the Speak Up Sunderland podcast carries a trigger warning:  Our guests talk about attempted suicide, depression, panic attacks, and lived mental health experiences.

Another bumper epi…

This episode of the Speak Up Sunderland podcast carries a trigger warning:  We talk about attempted suicide, post traumatic stress, substance abuse, and mental health issues - with people who have li…

Meet the Sunderland woman who's working to put herself out of a job...

Alreeet! We're proud to launch a new project as part of Speak Up Sunderland...  It's called "Stars of Sunderland".

It's all abou…

Alreet! We're back, live from the Peacock in Sunderland city centre on Wednesday, with Sunderland-based singer & songwriter Marty Longstaff (a.k.a. The Lake Poets).

You may know Marty's song "Shipyar…

Alreeeet!

Welcome to our very first Speak Up Sunderland Live podcast!  This is part one.

We're so thrilled to have recorded in front of a live audience - huge thanks to our friends at the Peacock in …

Alreet! A bit of a hard-hitting episode from the outset this week.

Craig Hilton, the Manager of the Salvation Army's Swan Lodge Lifehouse in Sunderland, and Deb Fozzard, Director of the Sunderland Co…