Launched 04 October 2024
A monthly podcast on writing about Nature and Environment in collaboration with Paperboats Writers and Station House Media Unit (SHMU).
Paperboats is a collective of writers focussed on nature and environment in a time of climate and ecological breakdown. Scotland based but global in outlook, they write to affirm the astonishing life of this planet, and how its future may yet be shaped.
In each episode I meet with a different writer from the Paperboats collective. We discuss their work, and the issues that they write about. If you’re concerned about climate change, want to delve further into the issues surrounding it, and like great writing, follow and subscribe to the Paperboats Podcast to hear from a host of fantastic Nature Writers.
Stream and download for free on Spotify, Amazon, Apple and YouTube.
In ‘An Autumn Equinox Walk’, BBC Broadcaster Helen Needham and I follow the Maiden’s Causeway to the summit of Mither Tap on Bennachie – an iconic hill in Aberdeenshire and the site of a Pictish hill fort.
We talk about our connections to landscape and place, the importance of taking time out to pause and to reflect, and to notice the changing of the seasons. I discuss how, for the Picts, the hill dominated a once sacred landscape, and read extracts from my essay ‘Sacred Mountain’, which was first published on The Clearing in 2022.
‘Uncovering Hidden Histories’ was released as a podcast in 2022 after an interview I did with Helen based around a walk up Barra Hill – another Iron Age hill fort in Aberdeenshire. In this episode we talk about place, about time, and the landscape as narrative.
From January 2022 to September 2023, I was lead host on the University of Aberdeen’s School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture podcast, From the Old Brewery, devised by composer and sound artist Professor Suk-Jun Kim and aimed at highlighting the research and practice of students and staff at the school.
You can listen here or find it on your preferred podcast platform.
In 2019 I was interviewed by Ica Headlam, creator and host of The Creative Me podcast, covering all things creative in the northeast of Scotland and showcasing the work of Aberdeen / shire based creatives.
Ica talked to me and photographer Steve Smith about our joint project Trading Faces: a creative social documentary and exhibition that told the stories of traders at the now demolished Aberdeen Market.
You can listen to our discussion on Soundcloud HERE.
Ica is also behind the We Are Here Scotland podcast and movement, supporting Black and POC creatives in the northeast of Scotland.
Groundings 