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Dame Jo da Silva, engineer

Dame Jo da Silva, engineer, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item she would take with her if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.

Dame Jo da Silva is a structural engineer and disaster relief specialist. Her humanitarian work has taken her from Sri Lanka in the wake of the Tsunami to Pakistan and Haiti to help with their post-earthquake recovery.

Jo was born in Washington DC where her father was a diplomat. As a child she enjoyed making things including buildings for her brother’s train set. After graduating from Cambridge University she joined design and engineering firm Arup where her first assignment involved working with Lord Norman Foster on a design for bus shelters.

She went on to work on the Ondaatje Wing at the National Portrait Gallery and Hong Kong’s International Airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok.

In 1994 she went to Tanzania where she worked in the refugee camps which had sprung up after the genocide in Rwanda. She devised a road system which transformed the delivery of food, water and medical supplies. After this experience she decided to devote her energies to crisis and disaster projects and in 2007 she founded Arup International Development, a not-for-profit business which designs buildings and infrastructure to help vulnerable and displaced people around the world.

In 2021 she received a Damehood in the New Year’s Honours list for her contribution to humanitarian relief.

DISC ONE: Sound And Vision (Remastered) by David Bowie
DISC TWO: Clarinet Concerto in A, K.622:2 Adagio, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, performed by Jack Brymer (clarinet), Allegri Quartet (string quartet), London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Sir Colin Davis
DISC THREE: All The World is Green by Tom Waits
DISC FOUR: Weird Fishes / Arpeggi by Radiohead
DISC FIVE: Shudder / King Of Snake by Underworld
DISC SIX: Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell
DISC SEVEN: Not Dark Yet by Bob Dylan
DISC EIGHT: Crying Shame by Jack Johnson

BOOK CHOICE: β€˜The Boardman Tasker Omnibus’ by Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker
LUXURY ITEM: A charpoi (traditional Indian rope bed)
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: All The World is Green by Tom Waits

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Available now

35 minutes

Last on

Sun 2 Jan 2022 11:00
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Music Played

  • David Bowie

    Sound And Vision (Remastered)

    • A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982).
    • Parlophone.
    • 4.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Clarinet Concerto in A, K.622:2 Adagio

    Performer: Jack Brymer. Conductor: Colin Davis. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Ensemble: Allegri String Quartet.
    • Mozart: Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet.
    • Philips.
    • 2.

  • Tom Waits

    All The World Is Green

    • Blood Money.
    • Epitaph Europe B.V.
    • 4.

  • Radiohead

    Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

    • In Rainbows.
    • XL Recordings Limited.
    • 4.

  • Underworld

    Shudder / King Of Snake

    • JBO.

  • Joni Mitchell

    Big Yellow Taxi

    • Ladies Of The Canyon.
    • Reprise Records.
    • 10.

  • Bob Dylan

    Not Dark Yet

    • Time Out Of Mind.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd.
    • 7.

  • Jack Johnson

    Crying Shame

    • In Between Dreams.
    • Universal-Island Records Limited.
    • 9.

Broadcasts

  • Fri 19 Nov 2021 09:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Sun 2 Jan 2022 11:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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