Have your say ahead of this weekend's Mosen At Large, more on education, your favourite speakers of all shapes, sizes and protocols and more

Kia ora Mosen at largers. As always I can’t wait to spend some time talking with you about all manner of things on the next show.

As you know, last week we heard at length from listeners around the world with a variety of views and experiences on being educated as blind people. Some were mainstreamed, some attended a school for the blind, some spent time both in a mainstream and blindness-specific school. All had views on whether they feel their education set them up for success, both academically and socially. It was a fascinating discussion, proving that there is no “one size fits all” solution on a topic like this. I am pleased to say we have received many more contributions on this topic for the coming show. If you’ve not had your say yet, there is still room for yours. With so much misunderstanding about the capabilities of blind people, a quality education is absolutely critical, so there are few topics more important. Please feel free to share your opinions and experiences.

A few weeks ago, one of our listeners was shopping for a Bluetooth speaker, and a few of you gave your recommendations. I thought we’d open this topic up a bit, because I’ve been doing a bit of shopping in this area myself. Bonnie and I are about to head off on holiday. We have a pair of UE Megaboom speakers that are about 7 years old now and their batteries have seen better days. So we wanted a portable speaker to take with us. My partner in tech Heidi Taylor and I listened to a range of options and brought a speaker home. Despite being a Sonos household, I chose the Bose Portable Smart Speaker. I’ll review a few of the options we heard and we’ll unbox the lucky winner, whose app unfortunately has a few accessibility challenges. If you have a Bluetooth speaker you really like, please let us know. But let’s go even further than that. When you’re not listening to content on your smartphone or headphones, how do you listen? At Mosen Towers, we are deeply committed to the Sonos ecosystem and like it a lot. But there are other options. If you have a soundbar, smart speaker or something else that you think sounds great for serious listening, let us know what you like and why.

There are plenty of other interesting contributions coming in, so if you’d like to raise something completely different, feel free.

You are very welcome, and in fact encouraged, to get contributions in ahead of time. Please don’t be shy, I’d love to hear from you. To contribute, send an email with an audio attachment or just written down to Jonathan at MushroomFM.com, or call the listener line, +18646066736, that’s 1-864-60Mosen.

The best way to hear Mosen At Large is when it airs live and in full on Mushroom FM at 2 PM Eastern, 7 PM UK on Saturday. It will then be available in abridged form on the Mosen At Large podcast, available anywhere you get podcasts.

Thank you so much for listening and contributing to the show, and see you soon for Mosen At Large.