ELEANOR KIFVEL

What makes us human? The big question answered by the greatest minds on BBC Radio 2.

What Makes Us Human is Radio 2’s flagship philosophy series, which I produced from 2015 to 2017. We ask the most prominent and influential people in Britain to answer the question 'what makes us human?'. What Makes Us Human is Radio 2’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. Interviewees have included the Archbishop of Canterbury, Nick Clegg, Brian Eno, Lionel Shriver and Caitlin Moran.

The Human series archive can be found here.

Songs of Love and Politics is a documentary I produced for BBC Radio 2. 

As Peggy Seeger turns 80, her political commitment is as strong as ever. This programme features the radical folk legend in conversation with Sally Boazman about how politics and love have defined her life and her music. How could she not be political give her half-brother was Pete Seeger and her husband was Ewan McColl? But can music can ever lead to political action? Can songs ever change the world? In her 80th year, Peggy is still writing, singing and fighting for her causes.

The programme page can be found here.

Learning to Listen is a documentary I co-produced for BBC Radio 4 alongside Kirstie Hewlett. You can find the programme here.

As broadcasting took the world by storm in the 1920s, the radio quickly became the hub of many households. For this first generation of radio listeners, the flexible way we listen today didn’t come naturally - many sat silent and fully attentive, just as they would in a concert hall. This programme charts how a new, more informal style of listening gradually evolved through the 1920s and 30s, by delving into the diaries of the Austrian musician Heinrich Schenker.

We follow Schenker's journey as the radio shifts from being something that demanded his rapt attention, to eventually becoming an integrated part of his domestic life.

Presented by Dominic Sandbrook and made in collaboration with Schenker Documents Online, the programme was a TBI Media production. Images reproduced with kind permission of DokuFunk.

I worked as an assistant producer on Simon Mayo's drivetime programme on BBC Radio 2, booking guests, writing notes and editing pre-recorded interviews.

In August 2015, the show broadcast from the Edinburgh Festival for a week, where I directed 12 video packages with performers for the Red Button to give audiences at home more of a feel for the acts on display.

I produced 7 packages for Radio 2’s Children In Need campaign in 2013. Presented by Jo Whiley, and in collaboration with 7 different charities, the packages raised over £15,000.

You can hear extended versions of the inserts here.

(All photos provided by charities.)

When I first started working in radio, I freelanced across BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 & BBC World Service. I worked for the BBC directly, and for indie companies including TBI Media, Wise Buddah and Trevor Dann's Company.

By far the most intense project I’ve ever worked on was monitoring the timing for the Minute by Minute programmes on BBC Radio 2, including D Day: 70 Years On, The Assassination of JFK, Titanic and the Battle of Britain. The programmes were broadcast live, and used actors, singers and an orchestra to recount historical events in real time.  Some programmes were shown in cinemas across the UK.  

My role was to monitor how the live programme’s timing compared to what was scripted, and to communicate how far behind or ahead of schedule we were (to the second) to the show’s director.