The New Podcast Inspired By Missing People During Coronavirus Isolation

Ten days ago I spoke to my best friend Bea, who told me she (almost definitely) had the coronavirus. Bea was really unwell all week, with a high temperature and in a lot of pain - and is currently also pregnant with her third child.

All I wanted to do was to see her in person, but of course I couldn’t. I realised in that moment just how much it means to spend time with friends like her and it felt suddenly like a very frightening world to be in - that something might happen and that I wouldn’t be able to be there. I am very lucky that Bea is young, healthy and now recovered. That’s not the case for everyone, though.

One consequence of this, I think, is that some people are realising - or at least feeling a renewed appreciation for - the immense value of family and friends and what it means to have them in their lives.

For that reason, while we’re still in a state of lockdown, I wanted to find a way to celebrate our most important relationships. Which is how Radio Iso was formed; a new podcast launching this week, made up of conversations with people who are self-isolating and really missing someone in particular.

Of course, we can still stay in contact online via Zoom, Houseparty and all of those things - but it’s not quite the same as physically being with someone. There are no small expressions to read on the face of a person you know intimately well; no hand on a knee when an old friend knows you’re about to cry - and the laughter just isn’t quite as infectious.

I spent a lot of those first two weeks of lockdown online, feeling a strange combination of emptiness and burnout. And then I started getting in touch with friends to ask who they were missing and why. This podcast has been (selfishly) a very welcome distraction for me and a really wonderful excuse to hear people’s stories about those they love. Some of whom I knew and some who I didn’t.

A question I’ve asked every guest so far - and I hope there will be lots more to come - is whether they have anything they would like to say to the person they’re talking about that they’ve never said before. And lots of them want to say thank you. Which is how I feel too about my closest friendships. Knowing that someone else interprets life in the same way and really, truly understands you in a world that can otherwise be incredibly lonely, even in non-pandemic times, is the most precious resource.

Probably what continues to amaze me most about those one-of-a-kind people in our lives, is the knowledge that you could turn up at their door feeling like the world was ending - and somehow still find yourself hysterically laughing five minutes later. That connection is a golden cloak of protection in frightening, impossible, unstable times.

Of course no one can say whether we’ll treat our most valued relationships any differently when we come out of the pandemic, but I certainly feel like I’ve gained a very different perspective on them. And I hope in the meantime, while we’re still in it, this podcast might help to spread a little joy and comfort.

Radio Iso is now available on Acast from April 9 @radioisopod