Soho Radio

January 14th, 2017

I can't believe I'm saying this but I've just been on the radio for my first ever radio interview with Soho Radio! I was invited to the Science Mixtape show which airs every Saturday at 10am and lasts for an hour. It aims to find out more about the science and musical taste of an expert guest. So, I not only got to talk about fusion, MAGPIE (the experiment I am working on) and women in physics but also got to choose 6 of my favourite songs to air on the radio! 

Song list (for anyone that wanted to know):
Kygo ft. Maty Noyes - Stay
Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You
Sean Paul ft. Dua Lipa - No Lie
Nicky Jam - Hasta El Emanecer
Ne-Yo - Closer
Christopher & Matoma - Take Me Back

So I woke up this morning at 5 am, brought my notepad with me with all my notes and made my way to uni - probably the earliest I've been into uni ever! I went down to the lab to get my demo, a baloon-popping-laser called the POP-O-MATIC, all ready for the show! I got into an Uber with the Pop-O-Matic (obviously got weird looks from the driver as I was carrying this huge and probably suspicious science equipment) and made my way to Soho Radio HQ. When I walked into the studio the first thing I noticed was the amazing cacti collection near the front of the room - it was pretty epic! 

Kyle Major, one of the presenters of Science Mixtape, was waiting for me in the studio which was full of radio equipment - microphones, headphones and all! I started to set up the Pop-O-Matic and almost immediately I found out that it wasn't working - I was so disappointed! I had checked it before I left university and it was working fine so I guess it must of got knocked in transit - what a shame! It's such a cool demo and I really wanted it to work but I suppose that is the nature of science - sometimes your experiments just don't do what you want them to do. Oh well :(

After that, I went through a sound check, put my radio headphones on (where I could hear my own voice - weird!) and before I knew it we were LIVE ON AIR!!!! I was so nervous! All I could think about was that my friends and family were all listening in. This was my first time on the radio so I didn't really know what to expect and I didn't want to mess up. 

The hour flew by and in no time at all it was over. We touched upon so many different topics and we even squeezed in some recent science articles too. During the song breaks I was trying so hard not to laugh because I was finding it so hard to believe that I was actually on the radio! All in all, it was great fun and I loved it SO much - so much so that I wanted to do it all over again!

You can check out some of my live videos from the day on Facebook and Twitter. 

Here are some pictures from the day:

Pop-O-Matic (balloon-popping laser demo)

Soho Radio HQ/Studios

Pre-radio interview nerves showing through here (Photo courtesy of Yasmin, Soho Radio)

Mid-radio interview vibes (Photo courtesy of Yasmin, Soho Radio)

Post-radio interview smiles - that's a wrap!

Soho Radio (loving the neon lights - that's a plasma!)

Check out the Soho Radio Instagram page and Facebook page for a video of my failed demo :( 

Check out the video below of the Pop-O-Matic in action and how it should have worked on the radio show:

You can check out the podcast version of the show online here and here. Hope you enjoy it! :)

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I'd like to thank Luke Robert Mason for introducing me to Matilda Hay, Science Mixtape presenter, and making my time on Soho Radio a reality. A huge thank you to Kyle Major and Yasmin for making me feel relaxed during the show! Thanks Soho Radio for having me - I'd love to do it again!