In this episode, we’re joined by Diana Whitmore, CoCEO of Growing2gether, for a powerful, hopeful conversation about young people, belief, and what happens when we stop trying to “fix” kids and start trusting them instead.

Diana shares the story behind Growing2gether, an early-intervention programme that brings together two groups often labelled as “vulnerable”: disengaged young people and children with additional support needs. The result? Something quietly transformational.

We talk about how mentoring younger children helps teenagers rediscover their own self-worth, why positive psychology and coaching sit at the heart of the programme, and what Diana has learned from over 40 years working in the third sector. She reflects on the influence of her lifelong mentor, Laura Huxley, the widow of Aldous Huxley, and how a belief in human potential became the foundation for everything that followed.

This is a wide-ranging, deeply human conversation about education, mental health, community, resilience, and why every young person needs at least one adult who sees their potential before they do. We also explore funding challenges, working with schools across the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeen, and Diana’s hopes for how this work could shape Scotland’s future.

At its heart, this episode is a reminder that belief is not a “soft” skill, but a catalyst for real change.

Chapters:

• 00:00 Introduction & welcome
• 01:25 What is Growing2gether?
• 03:00 Mentoring vulnerable children - why it works
• 05:23 Diana’s journey into youth development
• 07:40 Positive psychology & believing in young people
• 10:28 Building trust, not fixing behaviour
• 13:03 Leadership, third sector lessons & turning points
• 15:33 Evidence, outcomes & positive destinations
• 17:17 Coaching vs telling young people what to do
• 19:06 Early champions & support in the Highlands
• 22:20 Funding challenges & system change
• 25:40 A day inside the Growing2gether programme
• 29:25 Why mentoring younger children matters
• 32:32 “All young people want to feel they matter”
• 34:18 Training teachers & spreading the approach
• 36:24 How schools and communities respond
• 39:31 What young people have taught Diana
• 42:03 Resilience, self-empathy & leadership
• 44:40 The role of Growing2gether in Scotland’s youth ecosystem
• 48:26 Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond
• 52:14 How communities can support the work
• 54:26 Messages for young people and adults
• 56:14 Closing reflections

In this festive episode, we sit down with Nicholas Ralph, best known for playing James Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small on Channel 5 and PBS Masterpiece.

What unfolds is not an “overnight success” story (Nick laughs at that headline), but a deeply human conversation about perseverance, patience, and following a calling when the path isn’t obvious — especially when you grow up somewhere that doesn’t quite show you the map.

We talk about Nick’s Highland upbringing, discovering acting almost by accident, being told it was a “terrible career choice,” and finding his way from Eden Court Theatre to drama school, to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and eventually onto one of the most beloved TV shows of recent years.

Along the way, Nick opens up about:

• The unseen years behind success
• Why theatre was the best training ground for television
• What it’s really like on a TV set (hint: not glamorous, very muddy)
• The importance of teamwork and kindness on long, freezing shoot days
• How playing James Herriot has quietly shaped his own values
• Why community, compassion, and doing things “with a smile” still matter

We also get festive - from joyful behind-the-scenes chaos filming the Christmas episode, to favourite Christmas films, to what Nick is taking into 2026 (and what he’s happily leaving behind).

It’s an honest, generous, quietly inspiring conversation about craft, character, and keeping your feet on the ground — with a lot of laughter along the way.

Chapters:

• 00:00 Christmas Special intro & welcome
• 02:08 “An Overnight Success, Ten Years in the Making”
• 05:27 Growing up in the Highlands & finding acting
• 09:38 “You’ll End Up Living Out of the Back of Your Car”
• 13:52 Discovering drama school & The Royal Conservatoire
• 19:34 The showcase, agents & getting signed
• 23:58 Auditioning for All Creatures Great and Small
• 29:12 Theatre vs TV (and birthing a calf to nothing)
• 34:06 What life on a TV set is really like
• 38:42 Where the love of performing began
• 43:26 Perseverance, passion & self-belief
• 48:11 What playing James Herriot has taught Nick
• 53:02 Christmas episodes, traditions & favourite films
• 56:48 Looking ahead to 2026
• 58:32 Final thoughts & Christmas wishes

From all of us at The Nairnshire Community Newspaper - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - and thank you for listening. Here’s to more meaningful stories in 2026.

For our very first episode of The Nairnshire Community Newspaper Podcast: Stories from Land to Sea, we sat down with conservationist Mark Bradfield, who moved from Oxfordshire to the Highlands purely out of love for wildlife… and somehow found himself knee-deep in marram grass on Nairn’s Central Beach.

In this episode, Mark takes us on a fascinating tour of the Dune Resilience Project, a pilot scheme designed to protect one of Nairn’s most cherished places - the dunes many of us stroll through daily, often without realising how essential they are in keeping the sea out of Fishertown.

We cover everything:

• Why Nairn’s dunes are more fragile than they look
• How rising sea levels, stronger storms, and even our own footprints affect the coastline
• The surprising role of marram grass (it’s basically the unsung hero of the Highlands)
• How butterflies, bees, and even moths depend on healthy dune ecosystems
• Why fencing matters, and why Mark really hopes we don’t step over it
• What the community can do right now to help protect the dunes
• How citizen science - and a couple of good apps - can turn all of us into naturalists
• And what’s next for the project as monitoring and data collection begin

Mark’s passion is contagious, his explanations wonderfully grounded, and he left us seeing the dunes with completely fresh eyes.

Honestly - you might never look at marram grass the same way again.

Chapters:

• 00:00 Intro: Meet conservationist Mark Bradfield
• 02:00 Moving to the Highlands & first impressions of Nairn
• 05:00 What conservation really is
• 09:00 Water voles, mink, and how ecosystems fall out of balance
• 14:00 What the Dune Resilience Project is trying to achieve
• 17:00 Why dunes matter more than you think
• 20:00 Climate change, storms, and the future of Nairn’s coastline
• 25:00 Marram grass: the quiet superhero of coastal defence
• 29:00 Wildlife on the dunes: butterflies, moths, bees and more
• 33:00 What’s threatening the dunes - and how we can help
• 37:00 Clearing scrub, planting grasses, and volunteer power
• 42:00 Citizen science and the apps that make it easy
• 46:00 What’s next for the project & how to get involved
• 50:00 Closing thoughts: patience, hope, and nature’s pace