Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I want to tell you why I love podcasting.

Hi, my name's Tommy Dixon, and I make podcasts for the BBC.

I'm a big fan of stories, always loved a good book.

But when I started commuting for my first job, I discovered podcasts.

I was blown away by how a creative idea and the right mixture of sounds could take you into

a whole new world full of incredible stories. You know, the type that make you go, wow. And that kind of inspired me to

give it a go myself, which to cut a long story short led to a BBC training scheme and a whole

new career giving other people that exact same feeling. So if you want to hear amazing stories

that make you go wow like I did, they're just a tap or click away on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds Music, radio podcasts. Hello and welcome to a special edition of Life Changing

that we're recording in front of a live, small, but perfectly formed audience here at the Hay Festival. It's a beautiful morning and I'm

very glad you're here so give yourselves a round of applause. Now for those of you not

familiar with life changing it's a place where we talk to people who have lived

through transformative moments that mean life will never be quite the same again. Today, it's

all about the power of words. Language give shape to our thoughts, but sometimes it's quite

hard to know what to say. And that was certainly the case for Connor Allen, who lost his way

and found his voice. Let's welcome him. Connor. Now, we normally do these interviews in the intimacy

of a BBC studio, blissfully unaware of anyone listening in.

So it's quite terrifying.

See the whites of your eyes, hey, audience today.

There will be an opportunity at the end to put your questions to Connor.

For those of you listening at home, you'll be able to hear that in a longer version of the program on our podcast on BBC Sounds. But Connett's so good

...