Simon Preston

Broadcasting, Talks, Chairing & Debates

Simon co-presenting Street Feast with Flora Shedden

RADIO

BBC Radio Scotland

Simon co-presents the Street Feast series with Flora Shedden, records, edits and reports for food magazine programme Kitchen Cafe  and has also presented features for Personal Best

BBC Radio 4

Simon has presented and co-presented three episodes of BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme, including an episode about Secret Paladares in June 2009, a feature on EAT! NewcastleGateshead in June 2010 and a profile of the Newcastle food scene broadcast in January 2016.

In 2017 Simon produced and recorded a feature (listen at 43:40) for BBC Radio 4’s PM about The Screen Machine cinema, visiting Arran after 20 years touring the highlands and islands of Scotland.

LIVE-STREAM FILM BROADCAST

In September 2017 Simon hosted the live-stream performance and post-show discussion of Rosie Kay Dance Company’s acclaimed 5 Soldiers: The Body is the Frontline from London. The live-stream was broadcast via BBC Arts, Facebook, Forces TV and YouTube.

PODCASTS

Since 2019 Simon has produced and presented 6 podcasts for Festival of Thrift covering subjects including Rewilding, the controversy around Seaspiracy movie, Sustainable Architecture and Fashion and interviews with author and environmentalist Ben Okri and Thrift Festival Director Stella Hall.

Since 2018 Simon has presented and produced a series of podcasts for Rosie Kay Dance Company.  The Future-Proof Artist brought together interesting, successful and diverse figures of the arts and sciences to talk about success, failure, resilience, barriers and how to succeed. The series is designed for dance and culture professionals and students to view future-proofing through the lens of dance.

INTERVIEWING & CHAIRING

Scotland Food and Drink : The Power of Food Tourism

In 2023 Simon hosted the inaugural Scotland Food and Drink : The Power of Food Tourism conference at the SEC (Scottish Event Centre) in Glasgow.

Dandelion

In 2022 Simon chaired four talks events in the Dandelion Hothouse at their Glasgow and Inverness festival, covering subjects from Vertical Farming to Gardening for Mental Health. 

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Between 2017 and 2022 Simon has chaired numerous author discussion events; Gary MacLean (Kitchen Essentials); Eleanor Ford (Indonesia); Tom and James Morton (Shetland); (Maryn McKenna (Plucked! The Truth About Chicken); Prakash K Sivanathan and Niranjala M Ellawala (Sri Lanka – The Cookbook); Fuchsia Dunlop (Land of Fish and Rice); Davy Zyw (I Love Champagne and 101 Champagnes To Try Before You Die), Ghillie Basan (Taste of the Highlands), Mo Wilde (The Wilderness Cure).

Cove & Kilcreggan Book Festival

In 2017 Simon hosted book events with author and cookery writer Sue Lawrence and with broadcaster and food expert Rachel McCormack.

Rosie Kay Dance Company

Simon has chaired numerous post-show discussions following performances of 5 Soldiers at the Edinburgh Fringe, MK Ultra at the Southbank Centre, London and 10 Soldiers at Birmingham Hippodrome and Edinburgh Festival Theatre.

TALKS AND DEBATES

Simon has delivered lectures at Sunderland, Newcastle, Northumbria and Napier Universities.

His recent talks and panel discussions have included:

  • A talk on ‘Food & Art’ followed by panel discussion at the Lumiere Durham Conference, part of the UK’s largest light festival  (November 2013)
  • A talk and Q&A on ‘Food Innovation – the Future of the Culinary Experience’ at #foodfutures, a Design in Action chiasma (October 2015)
  • Simon devised, curated and chaired the TALKS programme for Festival of Thrift (2015 – 2022)