Will O'Beirne talking about Joule - LNJ016

For this Up Close podcast we have Cowboy Junkies in session. Over the past 18 months Cowboy Junkies have been busy releasing a series of albums called the Nomad Series. Each album based on a theme. The fourth album from that series has just been released and is called The Wilderness. As a recap on the series we asked the band to come in and perform one song from each of the four albums.

Lightning by INDIGO CHILD

By lightning storm I don’t mean an ordinary thunderstorm with random bursts of thunder and lightning, but a unique phenomenon I’ve only seen a couple times where there is almost constant lightning going on inside the clouds, without actually hitting the ground… “There’s a lightning storm, I remember lightning storms. There’s a lightning storm, I remember lightning storms. I’ve been so many places, I’ve been so many people, Now I will transform… I’m a lightning storm, I remember lightning storms, I’m a lightning storm, I remember lightning storms.”

Is it possible to get power from lightning? This was the first CrowdScience question posed by listener John Emochu in Kampala, Uganda, in November 2016. We revisit John’s story as presenter Marnie Chesterton goes hunting for answers at a lightning lab in Cardiff, Wales, where she discovers just what lightning lab is, and how to make a tiny – but very loud – lightning bolt. And we tackle the best of the many questions that came into our inbox about thunderstorms after the original broadcast – from how many types of lightning exist to whether antennae in the clouds could gather electricity. Finally, we head to Kampala to meet listener John to hear just what he thought of the programme and what life is really like in one of the lightning capitals of the world. Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.ukPresenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Jen Whyntie(Image: Artist impression of lightning inside a conical flask. Credit: Getty Images)