A View From A Bridge

On London Bridge, Rosca Onya remembers Jack Merritt, the friend and mentor who was killed in the 2019 terror attack. He tells the story of their unlikely friendship, the programme that helped him rebuild his life after prison, and the devastating loss of a community built around the belief that everyone deserves a second chance.

David is a historian who has travelled all over the world and made a life studying Vietnam. At Hanoi’s Ngoc Son Temple in Hanoi, he talks about the stories places hold, the strange and wonderful things we encounter when we travel alone, and why there’s something worth seeing everywhere — if you know where to look.

Bilndboy is stood on a bridge over the Shannon in Limerick. It's raining. This is the centre of his world. It's a world that blindboy takes the time to explain to us in a way only he can. The starlings flying above; the Japanese knotweed growing below; the river and the rain. Everything is connected. And everything is there to be read. Pre order the AVFAB Book here - Waterstones Amason

Helen has been driving trains for 18 years. Talking to us looking over a canal in London, she lets us into her world: solitude, pigeons, meals cooked in her cab and the inevitable leaves on the line all play a part in her day to day. She's found a job that suits the way her brain works, almost perfectly.

Content Warning: This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault. When Lillian was 18 she was the victim of a sexual assault which changed the course of her life. 10 years later, while standing on Trinity Bridge in Manchester town centre, she reflects on her teenage decision of waiving her anonymity and going public with her story.

While on a trip to Perth, Western Australia we came across Robert, who generously let us into his world, telling us about his experiences with the supernatural, and some of the deep intricacies of his family and personal life.

The right to die bill is yet again being debated in parliament. In todays episode of the podcast, Poppy shares her and her mothers experience of end of life, and what the passing of this bill might have meant for them both.

Richard Gadd discusses leaning on partners, time alone, being single and sober in a married and drunk world, and much more as he shares his View From A Bridge

Father and daughter, Elsie and Jarred tell us a bit about their life after finding our red phone on a bridge in Perth, Western Australia.

Lacey stands on Millennium Bridge and shares her story of having her phone hacked and a sex tape leaked against her will and her following journey of overcoming.

Molly is a Poet and Palliative care nurse who is passionate about caring for people as they approach the end of their lives. Her experience has reshaped her own understanding of love, legacy and the lives we live and leave behind. She talks to us stood on London’s famous Tower Bridge.

On a bridge overlooking Central Park in New York, David Byrne reflects on the unreliable nature of memory and what the blurry lines that run through the stories we tell can reveal about ourselves. This episode was made by Joe Bloom, Jo Barratt, Joshua Whitelaw and Charlie Milner Follow A View From a Bridge on Instagram Follow A View From a Bridge on YouTube

This episode is an exploration of relics. Objects, memories and ideas that exist past their intended end, they hold a significance whether we like it or not. Relics have a life of their own, some we search for, others finding us. One way or another, they hold power. - Kareem Rahma, the host of New York City’s underground talkshow ‘Subway Takes’ opens up about the time he 'threw away a museum' - Kala, an archaeology student, tells us about digging. - Razza waxes lyrical about why he makes time to speak to the older generations. - The first black musician to win the BBC Young Musician Award since its launch in 1978, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, talks to us about his cello - 'Tat Vision', a self proclaimed plastic addict tells us about how his love of plastic triumphs his environmental responsibilities.

Men at work have been romanticised and documented in art, music and literature for millennia, it's about time we feature some of them in a podcast! Alistair works in Hyde Park. Whether it's planting rose gardens, or litter picking, he finds solace and calm in his daily routine. Mo has been a postman for 17 years, and sees it as his job for life. He lets us into the ups and downs of being a London mail man. Andre talks about the stigma attached to homelessness and how he has shrugged off the shame of being a ‘Big Issue’ seller.

This episode is about moments which have provoked the primal instincts reminding us that we are in fact alive. Everyone listening to this podcast is alive, however what that means is entirely different for each and every one of us- it’s a spectrum. Kae Tempest speaks about embracing themselves, their identity and how that freedom has made them finally feel alive. After a fairground ride on the teacups, Junelala found herself faced with existential thoughts on what it means to be alive. During a near fatal car accident, Actress May Elghety saw everything in slow motion and high definition. At a motorway service station on the M6, Craig lets us into his world, and the daily battle he has with life itself.

From birth, our bodies are initiated into a complex web of politics, sexuality, hierarchies and trends. Today, we feature stories about people’s relationships with their form. People can have ever changing relationships with their bodies, some want to be seen while others are simply wanting to be ignored. Adrain, a professional life model, a job which see’s him posing naked in front of multiple people every day reflects on his career after 25 years in the biz. Gwyneth vents about the systemic problems of unrealistic beauty standards, and how they took hold of her relationship with her body and subsequently her life. Su talks about how she’s learnt to deal with strangers' relentless comments about her body. After years of holding on to thinning hair, Leo made the Bold choice to shave it all off. Life was never the same again.

Life sometimes throws us circumstances beyond our control, we can’t change the fact that these circumstances exist, but we can have a say in what comes next, and how we approach what we’ve been confronted with. This is an episode about moments in life where the fabric of what we know to be reality is torn, and we are found in a new situation for which we have no prior training. Camilla receives a shock diagnosis of stage four cancer at the age of 26, her doctor telling her she has a year to live, at best. Elizabeth wanted to be an actor. Now she's a co owner of the toe wrestling federation. Jason Williamson, frontman of the punk duo; Sleaford Mods, talks about his shift into sobriety and how the mornings have become his afterlife. When Brexit happened in 2020, Jose thought he was British, but quickly came to realise how Brexit really did mean Brexit. Mike, known to many as the musician Perfume Genius, revisits the moment where a rattlesnake cut his dog's life too short.

Home can be the house you grew up in. The country you were born in. It can be a person, a feeling, or an unidentifiable sense of safety. Sometimes people leave home because it isn’t safe, sometimes they leave to become who they are supposed to be, and sometimes the decision to leave is made for them. The search for safety, or the decision to leave it behind is something that joins all of today's stories. Dymtro, a teenager confronted with a decision, after the Russian invasion of his home country, Ukraine. Elnaz shares a story about her Mother who, against all odds, took a leap of faith when leaving Iran with her children, to find a new home in the UK. Fleeing Singapore, from a life of transphobia, asylum seeker Yuna explores some of the moral complications which this journey to London has opened up. Bradley, a university student who has left the comforts of his family home, figures out how to run a washing machine and what it really means to be self-sufficient. Matty, who, with the distance of time,…

To be or not to be a parent...That is the question - which everyone in today’s episode has asked themselves. The birth of Alexandra’s first child didn’t go as planned. She tells us about it and why she won’t be doing it again. Jonathan, an Oscar nominated documentary maker, thought he was making a film about Vasectamies. It turned out he was starting a worldwide movement. Lead singer of the band Franz Ferdinand, Alex Kapranos speaks on having his first child at 50. Musician Rebecca Lucy Taylor, otherwise known as Self Esteem, muses on one of nature’s cruelest gender dividers; the body clock.

A View From A Bridge is an audio-first storytelling podcast. Each episode is thematically curated and brings together a handful of different voices, or 'views' recorded outdoors on bridges across the world. Known to millions on Instagram for its powerful short films with the project’s iconic red telephone, the podcast dives deeper into these profound human stories, featuring extended and carefully curated conversations from famous voices to strangers passing by who have decided to pick up the phone. A View From A Bridge is produced and hosted by Joe Bloom.