Spotlight on Alex Lewczuk
- Apr 7
- 4 min read
By Mickey Mikkelson
Ever since its inception as part of the Lincoln and Newark book festivals in the first decade of the 21 st century, Southside Broadcasting has been committed to shining the spotlight on creatives across the globe from Academy Award winners in the case of Shirley Jones through to BAFTA award winning television directors. The importance of writers in this process can never be underestimated, and the decision was made early on to encompass creatives from all aspects and genres of the writing world.
Given that as the main producer/ interviewer of the programmes my aim was always to facilitate and celebrate the work of creatives this also dovetailed well with my Academic work at the University of Lincoln.
Time now for a nod in the direction of AI which, when the name Alex Lewczuk is typed into copilot, produces the following: Alex Lewczuk is a respected broadcaster and academic, known for founding Siren Radio and Southside Broadcasting, and for his pioneering work in media education and community radio
Interestingly the other paragraphs the search reveals about me are also factually correct so perhaps organics and computers ARE actually able to work symbiotically!!
With over six thousand podcasts produced over the years the consensus is that the accepted threshold of reaching ten thousand hours to achieve expertise of a skill has been reached. However, each author/creative is unique and has innate gifts to share . Special mention here to Mickey and other premier agencies that have provided a wealth of stellar artists who have featured on the shows over the years.
Author Interviews southsidebroadcasting is a hyperlink which will take you to many of our past features.
Have Faith in the Future and it will have Faith in You was a motto I often used to print out and post on office notice boards and ultimately that`s one of the key life lessons that, despite the many and varied challenges the process of life provides will usually serve the writer or broadcaster well. It sits alongside treating interviewees as one would wish to be treated as a useful and salient lesson for life.
In the multimedia hyperbolic social image saturated world of the second quarter of the 21st century, it's easy to often feel insecure and overwhelmed by the amount of stuff thats out there.
Accordingly, although the vast majority of feature interviews are recorded via Zoom (possibly one of the few technological positives to emerge from the great Pandemic) we tend to focus primarily on audio content - the notion that the scenery is always much better on radio was something I learned from back in the 20th century!!
Insatiable curiosity ( though not the kind that results in feline mortality ) is also a key aspect of the Interviewers` toolkit . There have been many times when an apparently random observation ( if indeed anything is ever `random ` in our Universe ) has developed a conversation along some fascinating and interesting avenues. Similarly listening to the interviewee has proven to be a vital component in genuinely producing entertaining and informative features. Actually, perhaps the original motto of John Reith of inform, educate and entertain is a format which still functions over a hundred years later, certainly as Reith was the first Director General of the BBC the concept seems to have stood the test of time.
Exploring whether a `perfect` interview or `perfect podcast` exists is thought-provoking, though most would agree perfection is an ideal we pursue but rarely attain. Personally I`ve always found that the most rewarding podcasts are those which involve cross-generational contributors as the perspective from young writers contrasted with more chronologically gifted souls can often provide a pleasing dynamic. This ties into another one of my favourite concepts, that of synergy. Its unlikely that when R Buckminster Fuller came up with the concept of putting together a couple of apparently disconnected ideas and seeing what manifested, he had writing in mind but the generation of novel and interesting areas is something which certainly serves as a useful way of seeing how thoughts manifest as plot developments.
Im always fascinated by the opportunities now available for trans-media storytelling – something which has its origins in my role as an external academic supervisor of this topic at the University of Cardiff over a decade ago. The interrelationship between story and text is something which provides some fascinating opportunities for adaptation into online gaming, audio books and stage and more. The notion of collaborative storytelling is also an area worthy of note. There have been many conventions and book festivals where the creativity spark has been ignited by presentations and/or meetings.
In summary perhaps the key takeaway from this series of reflections is that the concept of passion should never be underestimated.
Having just wrapped up Podcast #6025 with Bafta award winning Director Graeme Harper who entered the industry via a chance meeting with Stanley Kubrick and Actor/Producer Hetty Baynes the importance of following ones dream remains key to success in life and the world of podcasting.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and to echo the final two questions we employ at the end of every podcast we hope you Have found it reasonably interesting and will hopefully return in the near future!
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