S1E5–Krassimira Hendry: Resilience

In Episode 05, we asked the BBC World Service’s broadcast journalist and World Duty Editor, Krassimira Hendry, what is her special word, and she chose: resilience.

As Krassimira contemplates on what the word “resilience” means to her, she tells us her story of how she left her native Bulgaria in 1998 for political reasons and arrived in the UK with poor English and no job. Her professional path then led her to various jobs as a journalist in CNN, Al Jazeera English and BBC. Currently, alongside her career as a journalist, she is a qualified hypnotherapist who runs her own clinic in London.

In her open and real conversation with Paul, Krassimira reflects on what does it mean to be resilient not only through the eyes of a journalist, but also through the lenses of a hypnotherapist. Does resilience come uniquely from experience? What skills do we need to develop to be resilient in a corporate world? Can we be both vulnerable and resilient at the same time?  As Krassimira and Paul share their thoughts on these and many more questions, they touch on topics like war, Brexit, the pandemic, bereavement, life changes, religion and travelling: such wide is the use of the word “resilience” in our everyday lives.

Following the interview, our Language Detective Balnur talks about the use of the term “resilience” in the English language and shares a story, which many people in her native Kazakhstan can relate to.

Later, our producer Yuliya takes us on a captivating journey through the arts and culture, recollecting inspiring songs, documentaries, and films, as well as movie and literature characters who deal with adversity and display great resilience and perseverance. And for the finale of the podcast, looking at a different angle, Yuliya prompts us all to look at the twisted interpretation of the word “resilience” at our workplaces, and how we can all change this negative narrative.

Our podcast is for all of you, language professionals, arts, and culture lovers, and not only. If you are curious to find out more about the use of the word “resilience” in our everyday lives, or simply want a bit of insight, inspiration, and entertainment, then do have a listen.

 

Hosts: Paul Mangell, Yuliya Stancheva, Balnur Zhexeni

Producer: Yuliya Stancheva

Sound Design: Alpha Studios

Sound engineers: Gerard Rodriguez and Mikosh Nanasi

Art design: David Stanley

Vocals: Stancho Stanchev

Guest: Krassimira Hendry

Krassimira Hendry is a journalist currently working for the BBC World Service as a World Duty Editor responsible for managing the work of the bi-lingual correspondents in the corporation. Her work as the Europe region Planning Editor covered the work of the Russian, Ukrainian, Azeri and Serbian Services at the BBC. She ran the most successful BBC talent recruiting apprenticeship scheme “Future Voices" looking for the next generation British born bilingual reporters for the corporation. Currently alongside her BBC career, she is running a hypnotherapy clinic and free journalism master classes in 2 universities in Bulgaria, teaching disinformation and social media behaviour to young Bulgarian journalists.