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the human experience in the non-human world: discussion and experiences on location and in the studio
Episodes
Sunday Jul 07, 2024
Sunday Jul 07, 2024
Around the world there are over 100 human names that mean ‘The Sun’; perhaps the clearest evidence of us humans being inspired by, and acknowledging the significance of, a 4.5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star, a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core.
Its benevolence and its destructive capacity affect all aspects of our being, our cultures, our artworks, and take The Sun away and Polar Night makes us sad, detached, without energy, struggling to concentrate, struggling to stay awake. Give us too much of it and we cannot survive its power.
With music from Colin Williams
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Wednesday Dec 13, 2023
Wednesday Dec 13, 2023
A high tide coming
Will eat the land
A tide no breakwaters can withstand.
Act 1 Scene 1 Peter Grimes, Op. 33 Benjamin Britten, libretto Montagu Slater
On a cold winter's day, we go down to a river that becomes the sea and, in an exploration of the complex human relations with the tide, we go with the ‘ebb and flow’, feel the currents, watch the high water mark and study what gets cast up. We are waiting to see what the tide brings and what it takes away; especially at this time in human history.
With music from Colin Williams.
‘JUST AS THE TIDE WAS FLOWING’ BY JON BODEN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST https://www.jonboden.com
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Wednesday Jun 07, 2023
Wednesday Jun 07, 2023
We live in the age of the 6th Mass Extinction; one that is human caused. Yet, amidst all this loss, we are still finding so called ‘Lazarus’ species; creatures that we believe we had extirpated but have been re-found. And some that have not been proven, but many fervently believe are still alive, clinging on to existence away from human gaze and knowledge; ready for a second coming.
Why are we so reluctant to let go of that which has demonstrably gone? Why do we hold a desperate desire that some creatures are still there, but we didn’t care enough at the time to stop their eradication? In this episode we explore stories of the Tasmanian Tiger, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and others, and wonder why do so many of us ache for natural loss not to be final.
With music from Colin Williams
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Adelaide Pygmy Blue-tongued Skink
Aldo Leopold’s ‘Sand County Almanac’
Monday Aug 09, 2021
Monday Aug 09, 2021
Of all the ways we relate to the natural world it could be said that the human sense of smell is by turns our most powerful sense and yet also our weakest link with the rest of Nature. Scents can transport us, can help us form enduring memories, proves the link between our olfactory system and our limbic system.
The human nose and brain can detect 1 trillion different odours yet we have inadequate language to describe them, often amalgamate them into collective smells (“it smells like a forest”) and struggle to quieten our mind in Nature and become one with the odours. With contributions from Ella Roberts, Sam Lee, Devi Singh and Gina Gow, we attempt to make sense of scents.
Music from Colin Williams
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Jasmine
Tom Robbins
Sam Lee
Nature
Moroccan souk
Herb Robert
Peak District
Patrick Süskind
Freshwater Mint
Meadowsweet
Adam Thorpe
Wiltshire Downs
Hiraeth
Cistus
Wild Thyme
Cairngorms
Cuban cigar
Fern Schumer Chapman
Balsam Poplar
Tamarack Song
Aldo Leopold
Red Fox
Henry Beston
Sagebrush
Yellowstone
Western Meadowlark
White Sage
Bay of Fundy
Bougainvillaea
Fungi
Amanita
Neroli
Rosemary
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Is song connected to even deeper roots than time and place? Can music and song can bring us closer to the non-human world? Does musical meaning arise from the experience of inhabiting the world and is it shared freely between humans and birds and trees and ‘all our relations’?
We explore all this and much more with the wonderful Sam Lee. A highly inventive and original singer, folk song interpreter, passionate conservationist, song collector and successful creator of live events. Alongside his organisation, The Nest Collective, Sam has shaken up the music scene breaking boundaries between folk and contemporary music and the assumed places and ways folksong is appreciated.
And he is the author of the acclaimed ‘The Nightingale’, a book about a bird whose presence and reassurance of nature represents an English totemism, a symbol of a visceral relationship with the natural world, myth and identity. Mixing grief, hope and vision for the future, we explore how Nature projects on to us, not us on to Nature.
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Jeannie Robertson - MacCrimmons Lament
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Bernard Butler
Buzzard
Totem
Anthropomorphism
Heron
Kestrel
Ornithology
Totem Pole
Ray Mears
Shamanism
Music Declares Emergency
Wembley Stadium
Hans Christian Andersen
J M W Turner
Hawthorn
Supermoon
Ecology
Solastalgia
Caroline Lucas MP
Benedict MacDonald - Rebirding
Monsanto
Siren Calling
Fridays for Future
Saturday Jun 12, 2021
Saturday Jun 12, 2021
An archetype, a creature that we impose human ideas, ideals, values and characteristics upon? A real, spectral being, visiting us from the demonic world? Or simply our domestic companion for thousands of years that we have venerated, commemorated and depicted in myriad ways? Hounds have been - and continue to be - all of these for us humans.
As a denizen of the wild around them, humans have encountered wolves, jackals and dogs dependent upon geography, and those cultures have found ways to bring those relationships into myth, legend, worship, movies and more. In this episode we ponder Anubis in Egypt and the Beast of Bray Road, Robert Johnson’s ‘Hellhound on My Trail’ and the legend of East Anglia’s ‘Black Shuck’.
THEME MUSIC BY COLIN WILLIAMS
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh
Black Shuck
East Anglia
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Flag Fen
Caldicot
Shamanism
Saint Christopher
New Testament
Bog bodies
River Styx
Spanish Water Dog
Anubis
Sirius
Tutankhamun
Werewolf
Dogman Encounters Radio
Beast of Bray Road
Jung
Archetypes
Jackal
Osiris
Sumarian Goddess Bau
The Omen
Lycanthrope
Beowulf
Grendel
Scucca
Hellhound on My Trail
Robert Johnson
Delta Blues
Gospel music
Caerwent
Staines
Leiston Abbey
Felixstowe
Gorleston
Long Island
Ipswich
Sunday Mar 07, 2021
Sunday Mar 07, 2021
The power of place, our fascination with what is not human . . . these have been cornerstones of Beneath the Stream since we began. But so too is the power of the human mind, our perceptions, our telling of stories and perhaps, most of all, the telling of stories to ourselves through culture and memory and the tricks and truths we encounter.
The work of author Ed Parnell is a powerful illustration of all of the above. His acclaimed book Ghostland has been described as “Parnell’s moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – and what is haunting him. It is a unique and elegiac meditation on grief, memory and longing, and of the redemptive power of stories and nature.” Ghostland was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley 2020 Award for memoir.
Speaking in the book of his memories he says, “All of it was real, I think”.
Ed Parnell’s website https://edwardparnell.com
INTRODUCTORY AND INCIDENTAL MUSIC: Colin Williams singing ‘Breaths’ by Sweet Honey in the Rock
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
M R James https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._R._James
Algernon Blackwood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algernon_Blackwood
Stonehenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Marenghi%27s_Darkplace
Boston, Lincs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston,_Lincolnshire
Holbeach Marsh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holbeach_Marsh
New York - Lou Reed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_(album)
Fata Morgana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)
Pilgrim Hospital https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim_Hospital
Illustrated London News https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illustrated_London_News
The Willows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Willows_(story)
The Danube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube
Lakenheath Fen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakenheath_Fen_RSPB_reserve
Golden Oriole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_golden_oriole
Arthur Machen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Machen
Alan Garner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Garner
Weirdstone of Brisingamen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weirdstone_of_Brisingamen
The Moon of Gomrath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_of_Gomrath
Hemmingford Grey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemingford_Grey
Robert Lloyd-Parry http://www.nunkie.co.uk
Waterland, Graham Swift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterland_(novel)
The Wash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wash
Jodrell Bank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodrell_Bank_Observatory
E F Benson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._F._Benson
Borth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borth
William Hope Hodgson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hope_Hodgson
Folk Horror https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_horror
The House on the Borderland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_on_the_Borderland
The Blood on Satan’s Claw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blood_on_Satan%27s_Claw
The Wicker Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wicker_Man
Witchfinder General https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchfinder_General_(film)
Psychogeography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography
The Blair Witch Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blair_Witch_Project
Lapwing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_lapwing
Bella Lugosi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bela_Lugosi
An American Werewolf in London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Werewolf_in_London
Tolkien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien
Harry Potter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter
The X-files https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X-Files
Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Oh,_Whistle,_and_I%27ll_Come_to_You,_My_Lad%27
Watership Down https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down
Sunday Nov 08, 2020
Sunday Nov 08, 2020
“There are many songs in the landscape”, says Ed O’Brien, guitarist and member of Radiohead, “it roots you in what it means to be a human being; what are we doing walking on this planet”. In this podcast it’s our delight to have time with Ed as he describes the making of his solo album ‘Earth’ in retreat in mid-Wales, amidst a timeless, rich vein of Celtic tradition, and in Brazil amidst the polyrhythms of insects that are at the heart of samba.
Landscape, belief, aliveness, quantum physics, spirituality, and reading poetry aloud in the mountains, the interview dances through concepts, connections and contrasts, from a man who continues to be creating contemporary music that is a record of time, place, resonance and emotions. “Nature and landscape are not always easy places to be but you couldn’t feel more alive”.
Ed O’Brien and ‘Earth’ https://www.eobmusic.com
INTRODUCTORY AND INCIDENTAL MUSIC: Colin Williams
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Led Zeppelin
Bon Iver
Jack Kerouac
Snowdonia
Radiohead
Brazil
Oxfordshire
Vale of the White Horse
Mid-Wales
Cambrian Mountains
Jay Griffiths - Wild
Rhayader
River Wye
Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass
William Blake
Dylan Thomas
Celtic Nations
The Shard
Plynlimon
Rebecca Solnit - Wanderlust
Barry Lopez
Aberystwyth
Ezra Pound
Dead Poets Society
Atheism
Agnosticism
Buddhism
Aldous Huxley - The Perennial Philosophy
Sufism
Kabbalah
Hinduism
Samba
Laura Marling
Nick Drake
New Mexico
Arizona
Dehli
Rajasthan
Bhutan
Sámi
Aretha Franklin
Quantum physics
Paul McCartney
Saturday Oct 10, 2020
Saturday Oct 10, 2020
Gillian Burke is a biologist, TV presenter, public speaker, voiceover artist, writer and mother, and she joins us to discuss how people can relate to, and tell stories of, the human and non-human world. At a critical time for our environment scientists and artists can tell stories, especially when every single person and every single organism has a story to tell, about staying alive.
With her African, Asian, European, Native American, Oriental and Polynesian ancestry she uses different perspectives is to push past boundaries and discover greater empathy and connection with each other and the world we live in. A passion for science and storytelling reside in the universal themes of defeat and victory, endurance and resilience, the light and shade of being alive.
Gillian Burke’s website http://www.gillianburkevoice.com
INTRODUCTORY AND INCIDENTAL MUSIC: Colin Williams
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Kenya
Nairobi
University of Bristol
Blow Flies
Power lifting
Cool Earth
Professor Wangari Maathai
Green Belt Movement Kenya
Survival International
First Nations
Celtic
Cornwall
Beltane
Stonehenge
Matt Chatfield, The Cornwall Project
Medieval
Druids
Saturday Aug 08, 2020
Saturday Aug 08, 2020
Entering wild water we have the chance to become one with the river, the kingfisher, the sea, the seal. Or instead the visceral thrill of breaking the surface ice can leave us, in Karen’s words, “screamy flappy and trying to quieten the survival part of your brain”. It all depends it seems on what intention you set out with - a personal wild experience with no safety forms to complete.
With Karen of the glorious Swim Wild podcast as our guide, we explore how everyone comes to wild swimming for different reasons. How magical places and times of day are enhanced simply by being held by the water. As she says, each wild swim is unique and once it trickles through your fingers it’s gone, you can’t hold it, and there its no other recourse than to plan your next one.
Swim Wild podcast
~ the podcast for the wild swimming community. Interviewing members of your tribe about iconic swims, personal challenges, the friends they have made, the impact on their health and well being and finding a deeper connection with the natural world. Testing out the theory that, whenever and wherever we swim outside, we "emerge from the water better versions of ourselves".
INTRODUCTORY MUSIC EXPLORING THE BLUE BY LUKA BLOOM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST
Luka Bloom https://www.lukabloom.com
Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:
Lake District, Cumbria UK
Great North Swim
Gilly McArthur
Jini Reddy, Wanderland
WhaleFest
Sunderland
Terns
Kingfisher