A Life More Wild
by Canopy & Stars
A Life More Wild takes you into the outdoors with fascinating people, to hear how nature shapes their work and lives. Go eagle spotting with Hamza Yassin, strolling on the beach with Jordan Stephens and walking in the woods with Charlotte Church. And hear remarkable stories, like the lady who flew over the Russian tundra to save endangered swans, the Londoners who turned birdwatching into a global movement and the last drystone waller in Wales.
Episodes
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Lucy Campbell on reading waves, burning out and finding a new role in surfing
Lucy Campbell has eight national surfing titles to her name and years of competing on the international circuit. Not bad for someone who once thought running might be her future. She swapped a promising running career for professional surfing, hoping for fewer injuries and a slightly more…
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Charlie Cooper on detecting Roman grots, sleeping on his sister’s floor and the truth about Big Mandy
Charlie Cooper shot to fame when he and his sister Daisy wrote and starred in the hit TV series This Country. While some might see the show as poking fun at rural life in the south west, Charlie’s affection for the countryside in which he grew up, and still lives, is clear. Now an obsessive metal...
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The Sounds of Summer in the South Downs
This year, as well as walks with interesting guests, we’re doing something a little different on A Life More Wild. Working with our charity partner Campaign for National Parks, we’re creating bonus episodes with seasonal soundscapes from some of the UK’s most precious green spaces. In this…
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Matrescence author Lucy Jones on the deeply transformational nature of motherhood, the calm of a graveyard and what she learnt from studying slime moulds
We walk among the headstones of a cemetery with journalist and author of Matrescence, Lucy Jones, as she talks about the struggle to reconcile the societal ideal of a mother with her own experience, how her search for insight led to her book Matrescence and what she learnt by observing slime…
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Emily Chappell on winning the Transcontinental, crying with joy on the streets of Paris and learning how to enjoy non-extreme cycling
Emily Chappell went from being a bike messenger in London to winning the Transcontinental, a 4000km race across Europe, in 2016. But cycling is far more than a physical test for her. Her relationship with the sport has changed many times over the years and it has become a community, a way to...
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Joycelyn Longdon on secret willow rooms and radical imagination
Joycelyn Longdon wears many hats. She works on conservation with communities in Ghana, she speaks and writes about environmental action and she also specialises in something called bioacoustics. It keeps her pretty busy, so we caught up with her to take a break from her desk and a stroll into one...
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The Sounds of Spring in Eryri National Park
This year, as well as walks with interesting guests, we’re doing something a little different on A Life More Wild. Working with our charity partner Campaign for National Parks, we’re creating bonus episodes with seasonal soundscapes from some of the UK’s most precious green spaces. We start with...
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Barney Murray on the wibbly tightness, brutal conditions and surprisingly young demographic of drystone walling
Barney Murray was in his late teens, studying art and hating it. He took a casual labouring job with a couple of guys who ran a drystone walling company. He never looked back. Nine years later and now a certified Master Craftsman, he loves working out in the fields, even when the weather is at…
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Jordan Stephens on fame, heartbreak, dogs and braving the weather
At the age of 20, Jordan Stephens achieved his dream - when Rizzle Kicks’ album Stereo Typical went platinum. He’d always loved music and had seen it as a way he could transform the lives of himself and his mother. With the album’s success, he should have had it all but it’s never that simple. On…
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Tim Key on maybe being a ghost and definitely being a pigeon, but not knowing why
Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival has always been the centre of Tim Key’s professional life. For over 20 years, he’s been bringing shows to the city, honing his craft in the intensity of month-long runs. Every time he visits, he climbs Arthur’s Seat, so while he was in town for some Christmas gigs, we...
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Quick Strolls: Challenging Nature
Welcome to Quick Strolls, shorter walks with the guests from A Life More Wild. In episode ten, we talk to three guests who have taken on incredible challenges in nature, from a six-month trail hike and wandering the Cairngorms in period costume, to a paramotor flight from the Russian Arctic to…
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Quick Strolls: Natural Design
Welcome to Quick Strolls, shorter walks with the guests from A Life More Wild. In episode nine, we examine how design and architecture have been inspired by nature, from a tiny private garden to a London landmark.
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Luke Adam Hawker on etching under a poncho in the rain
Luke Adam Hawker, once a designer and architect, is now a full-time artist, whose work is a deeply emotive exploration of nature, our relationship to it and our connections with each other. As he walks through the woods near his home, he talks about creating a book entirely of etchings, learning...
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Quick Strolls: Coping with Loss
Welcome to Quick Strolls, shorter walks with the guests from A Life More Wild. In episode eight, we talk to guests who’ve leant on nature to help them through some of the most difficult times in their lives. This episode of Quick Strolls deals with the potentially triggering issues of grief…
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Mark Diacono on grounding, growing and momentous soup
Mark Diacono has always grown, cooked and written about food. But despite a life lived in and around nature, he felt disconnected. A simple weekly diary helped him get back in touch with the natural world and himself, and an even simpler soup helped him cope with being “happily heartbroken”. A…
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Quick Strolls: A Space for Everyone
Welcome to Quick Strolls, shorter walks with the guests from A Life More Wild. In episode seven, we look back on the responsibility that many of our guests have felt to ensure that others love and value nature, whether it’s their own family, their community or the whole of the UK.
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Lia Leendertz on the joy of watching the seasons change
Lia Leendertz has revived the tradition of the almanac, charting nature for the coming year. As she walks through Ashton Court, in Bristol, she thinks about how easy it is to shut ourselves off from nature and the joy she’s found in starting a community dedicated to noticing the passage of the…
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Quick Strolls: Creativity in Nature
Welcome to Quick Strolls, shorter walks with the guests from A Life More Wild. In episode six, we meet a musician and two writers who use nature to guide their work and lives, from a wintry metaphor to the call of the sea.
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Adrienne Adhami on navigating the perilous world of wellbeing
Adrienne Adhami was a trained dancer, with a keen understanding of physical fitness. But when a friend suffered a sudden illness, she began to rethink everything she thought she knew about health. She shares her insights on personalised medicine, nutrition, wearable tech and more, drawn from a...
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Quick Strolls: Small Adventures
Welcome to Quick Strolls, shorter walks with the guests from A Life More Wild. In episode five, we meet fearless adventurers and unstoppable hikers, all of whom say something very similar - that getting outside is about what’s right for you, not how far you go or how many mosquito bites you get.
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TJ Power on rebalancing your brain and going with your gut
As a young man, TJ Power developed an addiction to his phone that many of us would find familiar. Using his background in neuroscience, he managed to break that addiction, then go on to help thousands of others to live more connected, healthier, happier lives. Here he is with some simple advice…
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Quick Strolls: Slowing Down
Welcome to Quick Strolls, shorter walks with the guests from A Life More Wild. In episode four, we stop and take a breath, as so many of our guests have done as we walked. From the man who camped on every Wainwright fell but valued a quiet sunrise as much as the extreme challenge, to a writer who...
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Sophie Pavelle on symbiosis, our place in nature and confused crabs
Sophie Pavelle spends her life travelling the British Isles, highlighting the beauty and brilliance of its wild spaces on a mission to inspire people to protect them. We walked with her in the woods near her home to find out how she feels our relationship with nature could be improved and learn a...
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Quick Strolls: Growing Closer to Nature
Welcome to Quick Strolls, shorter walks with the guests from A Life More Wild. In episode three, we talk to a few people whose passion for growing and getting their hands dirty has changed their lives, from a guerrilla gardener who looks at how soil changes our brain chemistry, to a model who...
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Xanthe Ross on cooking, growing and connecting through food
Xanthe Ross went to Wales to get out of London for a while. She pottered around in her parents’ walled garden, trying her hand at growing some herbs and vegetables. A few years later, she’s released her first cookbook on the back of hosting the most sought after supper clubs in the city. Join...
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Quick Strolls: Mental Health
Welcome to Quick Strolls, shorter walks with guests from A Life More Wild. In this episode, we look at how nature has helped some of our guests through the toughest moments of their lives. There's an enormous amount of science surrounding the psychological benefits of being in nature, so much so...
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Claudia Robalino on art, architecture and the Amazon
Artist and architect Claudia Robalino grew up in Ecuador, with volcanoes, the ocean and the Amazon giving her a powerful connection to nature. It was only when she moved to London however, that she realised how much a part of her it was. Join Claudia now in Battersea Park, as she talks about...
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Quick Strolls: Access to Nature
One thing that comes up time and again on A Life More Wild is access to nature. Something that many of us take for granted was, to a lot of our guests, a complex social and cultural issue that had shaped their lives and work. On this Quick Stroll, we hear from Mya Rose-Craig, Lira Valencia and...
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Dwayne Fields on becoming Chief Scout and the misunderstanding that changed his life
Dwayne Fields moved to London from Jamaica when he was just a child. The contrast between the two places was almost too much for him to handle until a chance encounter gave him hope, a sense of belonging and eventually a purpose that would see him becoming the UK’s Chief Scout. Join Dwayne now in...
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Series five…coming 20th March
It’s time to step back outside. A Life More Wild returns for season 5, when we’ll be taking a walk with more fascinating people and chatting about their connection to nature. Episode one will be out on 20th March and we’ll be bringing you a calm stroll and a chat every month for the rest of the...
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Ollie Olanipekun and Nadeem Perera on building a global movement out of a love of birds
Ollie Olanipekun first met Nadeem Parera on Instagram, where they bonded over a love of birds. Realising how rare it was to see people of colour engaged with nature in the UK, they formed a walking group. One terrible flyer and a few years of enormous effort later, Flock Together has branches...
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James Wong on the full flat, ruined movies and inspiring insight that a love of plants has brought him
When James Wong first visited Kew Gardens, he asked his mum if this was what heaven looked like. The ethnobotanist, born and raised in Singapore, can barely remember a time when he wasn’t fascinated by plants, a love which has led him around the world, onto TV and into a flat that looks like a...
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Venetia La Manna on fighting the fashion industry and the power of community
Venetia La Manna loves clothes, but knows more than most about the evils of fashion. For years, she’s been campaigning to change one of the most unregulated industries in the world - fighting over production and underpayment of garment workers around the world. Join Venetia now on a walk through...
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Lise Wortley on walking in the footsteps and clothing of historic female adventurers
When she was 16, Lise Wortley read a book by the explorer Alexandra David-Neel, who had undertaken a 14-year journey through Asia. The idea of it stayed with her until ten years later, when she was searching for a way to improve her mental health. It dawned on her that David-Neel and other female...
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Gaz Oakley on growing food and rediscovering his love of the land
Gaz Oakley was an intensely energetic, sporty person, who pursued fitness by loading up on carbs and protein, and hitting the gym. He was also a chef, so it’s fair to say his life was quite intense. When health problems made him go looking for dietary solutions, he began a journey that would end...
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Hiker Athena Mellor on introducing the fourth generation of her family to the Lake District
Athena Mellor never dreamed of writing a guidebook, but the knowledge of a lifetime hiking, a passion handed down by her father and grandfather was just too extensive to stay in her head. Now a successful writer and YouTuber, she’s making sure her daughter will follow in the family footsteps.…
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Conservationist Sacha Dench on tracking swans 7,000km across 11 countries
When she dropped out of the sky in front of Russian hunters in the Arctic, Sasha Dench wasn't quite sure how she'd be received. She was on a mission to understand and halt the decline in the numbers of the Bewick Swan by following their epic migration route from the Arctic to the UK on a…
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Julius Roberts on nature-first farming and looking his food in the eye
Julius Roberts was exhausted and overworked, as chefs often are. He couldn’t help but compare himself to the happy, healthy-looking farmers who delivered produce to the restaurant he was working in. So, he decided to become one of them. It was a huge leap of faith that encompassed a commitment to...
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Writer and broadcaster Emma Gannon on the regenerative value of doing nothing
Emma Gannon had been writing books for ten years, almost solidly. She hosted podcasts, spoke at numerous events and maintained one of the most popular substacks on the internet. Having decided not to have children, she began to wonder how and when her life would significantly change. She decided…
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Activist Mikaela Loach on finding the power to fight global corporations
Mikaela Loach remembers the moment her grandmother told her that their local beach had disappeared. Years later, she would place that emotional conversation in the context of the wider problem - rising seas caused by climate change, in turn caused by global capitalism - and decide to dedicate...
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Lira Valencia on barriers to inclusivity, common terns and “London dolphins”
Lira Valencia grew up in Croydon, surrounded by the kind of urban sprawl that keeps the natural world at a distance. However, thanks mostly to the snails in her grandma’s garden, she developed a passion for nature and forged a path to a career in the overwhelmingly white world of conservation. We...
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Alastair Humphreys on building adventure into your life wherever you live
Alastair Humphreys spent four years cycling round the world. He’s rowed across the Atlantic, run a marathon in the Sahara and taken part in an expedition to the arctic. But we’ve caught up with him on an industrial estate on the edge of the city, to talk microadventures and the power of thinking...
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Series four... starts 6 June
It’s time to get outdoors again… In season 4 of ALMW you’ll walk with more fascinating people as they take you to some of their favourite spots and talk about their connection to nature. We'll be talking to adventurer Alastair Humphreys, activist Mikaela Loach, the lady known as The Human Swan…
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Bonus Episode - Chatabix meets Canopy & Stars
While we were working on series 4 of A Life More Wild, which launches in June, Joe Wilkinson and David Earl shamelessly name-dropped us on their podcast, Chatabix. We got in touch to see if they’d like to record at one of our spaces and they said they’d love to, so here they are (or at least one…
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Sarah Wilson on her favourite hike and nature as a coping mechanism
Sarah Wilson is always on the move. Her work as an author, presenter and speaker takes her all over the world. In the course of her wandering, she’s learned a couple of things. How to ground yourself in a new place by hiking, how getting people to love something is how you get them to fight for…
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Hamza Yassin on watching the same eagles for eight years and how Strictly changed his life
Being a wildlife cameraman wasn’t something Hamza Yassin wanted to do. It was THE ONLY thing he wanted to do. Inspired by the attenborough documentaries he learnt english from after his parents moved to the uk from Sudan, he gave everything to make his dream a reality. What he never dreamt about...
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Mike Duxbury on life as a blind farmer, pig coughs and goose cuddles
Despite having a passion for animals and farming, Mike Duxbury received only one offer from all the agricultural colleges he applied to. The rest dismissed him instantly because he was blind. After graduating with an impressive array of qualifications, he became an accessibility consultant in...
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Dr Becky Smethurst on stargazing, Saturn and what nature and the night sky have in common
You often hear people talk about how getting out into nature gives them a change of perspective. But what happens when your profession is nature on the biggest possible scale? Dr Becky Smethhurst is an astrophysicist, author and YouTuber who studies supermassive blackholes and galaxy formation…
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Author Freya Bromley on tidal pools, grief and screaming underwater
When Freya Bromley first discovered tidal pools, she was dealing with the turmoil of grief. Those patches of calm water, surrounded by volatile seas, felt like places of refuge. From a single experience came a mission to swim every tidal pool in Britain, but while she went looking for healing…
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Katherine May on disappearing shipwrecks, the rhythm of walking and why we should all love winter
A few years ago, a walk on the south west coastal path opened Katharine May up to a whole new world. She began to think about reconnecting with nature, and how it was the antidote to everything from anxiety to writer’s block. She even shaped her best selling book, Wintering, around the elements....
About this show
A Life More Wild takes you into the outdoors with fascinating people, to hear how nature shapes their work and lives. Go eagle spotting with Hamza Yassin, strolling on the beach with Jordan Stephens and walking in the woods with Charlotte Church. And hear remarkable stories, like the lady who flew over the Russian tundra to save endangered swans, the Londoners who turned birdwatching into a global movement and the last drystone waller in Wales.
Hosted by
Canopy & Stars