Motivational Monday – Producer and Book Author
Alumna Emily Kasriel talks to us about her career as a BBC television producer, and how her South Hampstead bursary award allowed her to unlock unexpected opportunities.
Emily Kasriel’s career journey is one marked by curiosity, the exploration of new ideas, and an interest in facilitating human connection. Emily joined South Hampstead on a bursary award, giving her the opportunity to engage with a community that valued intellectual curiosity. She developed a love for analysis at school and was particularly inspired by the twentieth century contemporary O Level History course. School clubs run by older students offered creative freedom, and music lessons with her supportive piano teacher, Miss Noble, were joyful despite what she says is her ‘limited musical talent’. She fondly recalls Miss Noble playing ‘English Country Garden’ and the Sixth Formers throwing sweets from the Waterlow Hall balcony at the end of term – moments that stayed with her.
Emily went on to read Geography at Oxford, followed by a Rotary Scholarship to Syracuse University to do a Master’s in International Relations. She then worked in television in New York and reported from South Africa before securing a job with the BBC’s Africa service as a broadcast journalist. Her BBC career grew into a leadership role, producing ambitious, cross-disciplinary programmes featuring Nobel Prize winners and thought-leaders, and running the arts and religion departments at the BBC World Service. She is based in London, where she raised her two children; her daughter Maya, another South Hampstead alumna, is now an expert on biodiversity for an energy company in Germany.
Emily spoke of the warm friendships at South Hampstead, in particular with fellow bursary student Lara Fielden. Their friendship continued from school through the decades, attending Oxford University together, both landing jobs at the BBC (albeit in very different departments), and through the experience of motherhood, until Lara’s untimely passing a few years ago. This tragic loss of a dear friend and wonderful listener has informed Emily’s new book, Deep Listening.
Emily has always been passionate about bridging divides – telling stories of negotiating conflicts across divides of race, class, religion and nationality, leading the BBC Crossing Divides season – which ultimately led her to her pioneering work, Deep Listening. Her research included leading a wide-reaching Deep Listening project with 1000 participants in 100 countries, while a Practitioner in Residence at the London School of Economics and then as a Senior Visiting Fellow at King’s College, exploring how we can truly hear one another despite differences. In the book, she argues that the practice of Deep Listening enables people to become more open, to sit with challenging ideas, and to build authentic trust within our relationships as parents, partners, colleagues and citizens.
As a researcher and author, a mother of two, and an advocate for lifelong learning, Emily encourages today’s students to explore, experiment, and remain open to new possibilities: ‘We are all in the process of becoming… not limited to be the person we were last year, last month or even last week.’
Deep Listening by Emily Kasriel was published by HarperCollins in May 2025 in the UK, and in June 2025 in the US.