It sounds like quite a simple idea. Go to a city and then start up conversations with passing strangers by asking them one straightforward question: Where Are You Going?
And because of the open-ended nature of the question, and the disarming nature of the person asking it, people do seem to open up and the series- called 'Where Are You Going?'- can take you off in all sorts of unexpected directions.
In the process you get presented with a sound-rich parade of tightly edited stories; some funny, some poignant, some profound. And as these scenes unfold, you get some interesting insights into what it might actually be like to live there.
I started listening to it a couple of years ago when the series opened in New York and Amsterdam. Since then host Catherine Carr's visited a total of 11 cities with the latest season covering South East Asia. She spends a few days in each place, records heaps of material, then edits it all down to about 26 minutes.
We play some of the Hanoi edition and speak to Catherine Carr about that central question, how she asks it, and how people respond (and also about all the amazing stories that don't quite make the cut). The Hanoi edition of Where Are You Going? presented by Catherine Carr and produced by Jo Coombs of Loftus Media for the BBC World Service.
