What do you do?
Western Studios, Leeds presents Working Hours: a podcast series surveying the people of Leeds on their thoughts and feelings on the topic of work. I want to talk to my city about work. Why do we do it? Do we like it? What could we do differently? What will we? How does work change and how does it change us?
Leeds, the largest city in the largest county on the UK mainland, is a former imperial textile centre and is now a major UK financial centre. This series will document the city’s experiences through Lockdown, Brexit, creeping technological unemployment, new and continuing resource wars, the ongoing dismantling of the welfare state and our accelerating ecological emergency.
If you are in Leeds or from Leeds then help me to reach my target of interviewing 1000 Loiners over the 2020s. Let me ask you, what do you do?
Recorded on 26/06/2026
Sonja Woodcock has co-ordinated FoodWise Leeds, the city’s sustainable food partnership, since its inception in 2017. With a strong commitment to cross-sectoral collaboration, she applies a systems-based approach towards improving community food security, expanding urban agriculture, and driving awareness and action around food and the climate and nature emergency. She works closely with partners across Leeds to monitor and deliver the Leeds Food Strategy and Good Food Action Plan (2023-30).
Sonja has a longstanding interest in public procurement as a lever for food system transformation and collaborates with colleagues at the University of Leeds on action research in this area. She also works at a regional level with food partnership colleagues across West Yorkshire and is an active member within the national Sustainable Food Places Network, recently supporting the development of a strategic framework for representation and justice across the network.
Want to be on Working Hours? Click the link to get your own episode or buy an episode for someone else. https://western-studios.com/be-on-a-podcast/working-hours-podcast-the-paid-plan/ (https://western-studios.com/be-on-a-podcast/working-hours-podcast-the-paid-plan/)
Listen to Nathan Atkinson and Kevin Mackay from Rethink Food: https://the-working-hours-podca.captivate.fm/episode/rethink-food/ (https://the-working-hours-podca.captivate.fm/episode/rethink-food/)
Listen to Dom Charkin from Zest: https://the-working-hours-podca.captivate.fm/episode/dominic-charkin (https://the-working-hours-podca.captivate.fm/episode/dominic-charkin)
Listen to Helen Underwood from Underwood Training: https://the-working-hours-podca.captivate.fm/episode/helen-underwood (https://the-working-hours-podca.captivate.fm/episode/helen-underwood)
Buy Ghost Signs here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/ghost-signs/stu-hennigan/9781910422960 (https://www.waterstones.com/book/ghost-signs/stu-hennigan/9781910422960)
You can find out more about Sonja’s work at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonja-woodcock-3316751/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonja-woodcock-3316751/)
World Food Day on Oct 16: https://www.fao.org/world-food-day/en/ (https://www.fao.org/world-food-day/en/)
Find out more about FoodWise:
https://foodwiseleeds.org/ (https://foodwiseleeds.org/)
https://www.linkedin.com/company/foodwise-leeds (https://www.linkedin.com/company/foodwise-leeds)
https://bsky.app/profile/foodwiseleeds.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/foodwiseleeds.bsky.social)
https://www.instagram.com/foodwiseleeds/ (https://www.instagram.com/foodwiseleeds/)
https://www.facebook.com/foodwiseleeds (https://www.facebook.com/foodwiseleeds)
https://www.youtube.com/@foodwiseleeds (https://www.youtube.com/@foodwiseleeds)
8 Oct 2026
Work is a Bio Blitz
Recorded on 21/08/2026
Michael Howroyd has spent more than 30 years working across a diverse range of disciplines, from landscape gardening and green-keeping through to sustainability leadership and environmental management.
During his 21-year career at the University of Leeds, he has helped establish and lead several of the University's flagship sustainability initiatives, including its Environmental Management System, Blueprint programme, reuse@leeds and most recently, its biodiversity programme.
Now serving as Biodiversity Programme Lead, Michael is focused on rethinking how organisations approach nature recovery. Rather than seeing biodiversity as something delivered solely through habitat management, he champions a people-centred approach that encourages communities to become active participants in creating positive change for nature. His ambition is to demonstrate that lasting environmental impact comes not only from improving places for wildlife, but from inspiring people to value, understand, and champion their natural world.
Want to be on Working Hours? Click the link to get your own episode or buy an episode for someone else. https://western-studios.com/be-on-a-podcast/working-hours-podcast-the-paid-plan/ (https://western-studios.com/be-on-a-podcast/working-hours-podcast-the-paid-plan/)
Michael’s trying to get organisations across Leeds to record the wildlife they encounter over a particular weekend in April 2027 for The City Nature Challenge. Leeds is one of the few UK cities not participating and Michael wants to put us firmly on the map!
Michael provided me with an MS Form that you can complete to get involved Leeds City Nature Challenge 2027 – Fill in form (https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=qO3qvR3IzkWGPlIypTW3y-CfFzLhVNxBuEwQ3L--WfJUMFhSQ0UzWEhGVVBJMTFCRjY0WjlCWkdESC4u)
Share it around, if that’s okay.
You can find out more about Michael’s work at:
Uni of Leeds Sustainability Service on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/university-of-leeds-sustainability-service/posts/?feedView=all (https://www.linkedin.com/company/university-of-leeds-sustainability-service/posts/?feedView=all)
Uni of Leeds Sustainability Service on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uol_sus (https://www.instagram.com/uol_sus)
You can contact Michael at:
Sustainability Service email: sustainability@leeds.ac.uk (mailto:sustainability@leeds.ac.uk)
Biodiversity email address: biodiversity@leeds.ac.uk (mailto:biodiversity@leeds.ac.uk)
Sign the petition and join the campaign against the Leeds Hyperscale Datacentres: https://noleedsdatacentre.wordpress.com/ (https://noleedsdatacentre.wordpress.com/ )
Donate £3 or more to the podcast and help this project keep going: https://ko-fi.com/workinghours (https://ko-fi.com/workinghours)
Become a regular supporter of the project by getting a Patreon subscription to fund the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/WorkingHoursPod (https://www.patreon.com/c/WorkingHoursPod)
24 Aug 2026
Work Spins Us Right Round Baby
Recorded on 19/05/2026
Chris Black left school in 1986 intending to become a painter-decorator but ended up joining his dad’s growing company instead. Starting as a factory lad and then working his way up through the departments of installation, service, sales, and then spending 25 years as managing director before becoming the joint chairman of the business. Sound Leisure today is a global specialist selling their Jukeboxes in more than 40 countries around the world.
Chris explains how the jukebox business has shifted during his time from 1950s Americana to becoming a global lifestyle product. We discuss how the industry moved from more accessible wide spread models to specialist high-end custom builds and the industry’s move to a much stronger emphasis on advising buyers about their products and providing long-term excellent service to their customers.
Chris emphasis the vital importance of providing world class customer service and the benefit of having a family culture in business. We reflect on sustainability and discuss the pragmatic business constraints of making and shipping products. Chris tell us how Brexit is a major ongoing disruption for EU trade and we talk about the operational upheaval of COVID, when the businesses pivoted to coffin-making to help out in a time of national crisis.
We also talk about Chris and Sound Leisure’s involvement in the Leeds Manufacturing Festival as well as his and his business’ support of apprenticeships, and we speak to the importance of social media for giving a modern business worldwide credibility.
You can find out more about Sound Leisure at:
https://soundleisure.com/ (https://soundleisure.com/)
https://www.facebook.com/ClassicJukeboxes (https://www.facebook.com/ClassicJukeboxes)
https://www.instagram.com/soundleisurejukeboxes/ (https://www.instagram.com/soundleisurejukeboxes/)
www.linkedin.com/company/sound-leisure-ltd/ (www.linkedin.com/company/sound-leisure-ltd/)
And Leeds Manufacturing Festival at:
https://leedsmanufacturingfestival.co.uk/ (https://leedsmanufacturingfestival.co.uk/)
Also metioned
https://www.familybusinessunited.com/ (https://www.familybusinessunited.com/)
https://www.utcleeds.co.uk/ (https://www.utcleeds.co.uk/)
https://leedscitycollege.ac.uk/ (https://leedscitycollege.ac.uk/)
Also check out
https://www.leedsforlearning.co.uk/ (https://www.leedsforlearning.co.uk/)
If you’d like to find out more about buying your very own Working Hours episode, then you can go to:
https://western-studios.com/be-on-a-podcast/working-hours-podcast-the-paid-plan/ (https://western-studios.com/be-on-a-podcast/working-hours-podcast-the-paid-plan/)
If you want to get in touch with me about this episode or any other free episode of Working Hours or anything Working Hours related, then you can email me about this show at workinghourspod@western-studios.com (mailto:workinghourspod@western-studios.com).
You can send a tip to me for all the work I have done and any value you have got from the show by going and donating at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/workinghours (https://ko-fi.com/workinghours)
It’s a £3 minimum and anything you do donate is very much appreciated.
Or you can give a regular donation towards paying for the creation of new future episodes of this show by joining the Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/c/WorkingHoursPod (https://www.patreon.com/c/WorkingHoursPod)
Memberships start at £6 a month so you will pay for a new episode every 50 months - or less - if more people join - or if people pay a higher subscription rate.
Thanks for listening to Working Hours
Who has been a guest on Working Hours
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Dr Reem Ameri
Simon Williams
Holly Thompson
Seth Mowshowitz
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
2,042
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 54 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
54
Social presence
0
YouTube
68
Engagement
68
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