If I could choose just one thing I learnt from my time in radio that I'd share as a talk, it would be the realisation of one of the most the fundamental things that drives us all: A desire to be heard and acknowledged. https://twitter.com/DrJessTaylor/status/1320477042060742657

I was doing my breakfast show then, and I had this little segment after the 7am news that I called "The Breakfast Boost."

The idea and execution was simple: A 10-minute(ish) window. Three tracks. You choose. Text or tweet. As long as it was positive / uplifting in its message.

I did this every day. Without fail.

One random morning, a text flashes on the computer screen. This person says how they had been, at some point in the weeks prior, on the verge of suicide.

They sent a text, making a request.

I happened to see that text and play their song. Pure chance on my end.

That song saved a life that day.

But it wasn't just about the song.

It's that someone somewhere listened to them. And followed through.

It's that in that moment, they mattered.

That's what song requests are, in my view. Acknowledgement. "I hear you."

It's been 8 years since that text. It's never left me.

**one of the most fundamental