Episode 53: Helena Merriman

Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Kat Rulach

Kids & Family, Arts, Music, Parenting

4.8 • 527 Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2022

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Helena Merriman is a radio and podcast producer who discovered she was going deaf when her second child was 4 months old and she realised she wasn't being woken up by him crying in the night. She was working on her podcast Tunnel 29 at the time and found great solace in her work. She now has a BBC Radio 4 series 'Room 5'. It's based on her conversations with other people who have gone into an anonymous consultant's room, where they have received a shock diagnosis which has changed their lives forever.

We talked about how pregnancy fast-tracked her otosclerosis, how an operation to improve her hearing left her with extreme tinnitus, and how her children have adapted to her hearing loss. She also shared some tips about living with tinnitus, which will be very welcome in our household where my husband is also adapting to living with tinnitus.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Sophia Lysbexter and welcome to Spinning Plates, the podcast where I speak to
0:09.6	to busy working women who also happen to be mothers about how they make it work.
0:14.4	I'm a singer and I've released seven albums in between having my five sons aged 16 months to 16 years,
0:20.4	so I spin a few plates myself.
0:21.6	Being a mother can be the most amazing thing, but can also be hard to find time for yourself and your own ambitions.
0:27.6	I want to be a bit nosy and see how other people balance everything.
0:31.6	Welcome to spinning plates.
0:41.9	Those are Gecko and Owlett.
0:46.1	Hi guys, this is actually really risky and I'll probably regret this.
0:48.3	I really said not Gecko.
0:49.8	It's definitely Gecko.
0:51.9	No, this is Gecko.
0:52.3	Okay.
0:54.4	But I don't know when, I haven't really managed to find any time to myself.
0:56.2	So I'm trying to do the intro of the podcast while I build...
0:59.1	Oh my gosh, Mommy!
1:02.0	Somebody killed me!
1:03.8	Sorry, Jesse.
1:05.6	That's a game he's playing.
1:07.7	While I build a train track and while I name characters to PJ Mosks.
1:11.3	I'm going to keep this fairly brief because I think your tolerance for this.
1:15.9	This is okay.
	...

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