A Life More Wild

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 of her favourite places - Paradise Nature Reserve in Cambridge. On the way, she explains how all her w...

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 The Sounds of Spring in Eryri National Park. You’ll follow Rhys, a shepherd from Dolgellau, as he tak...

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 its most challenging. Join him as he works to patch a gap in the wall of a sheep field, a more technical...

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 a walk along the shores of the Isle of Sheppey, he talks about the problems with selling young people...

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 joined him on the ascent. He talks about the city’s place in his heart, the unfortunate year of 2002, b...

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 the UK.

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.

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 from his non-verbal son and the challenges of work in situ in all conditions. A Life More Wild is an 18...

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, death and suicide right from the outset.

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 Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock...

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.

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 year the world over. A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Product...

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.

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 15-year career in the wellness industry. A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Can...

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.

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 on rebalancing your tired brain. A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & S...

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 takes “mind meals” and a tv presenter who writes to his pet rock.

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 little about symbiosis through her stories of confused crabs and tricksy barnacles. A Life More Wild i...

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 became a food writer and a chef who’s leading his own vegan revolution.

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 Xanthe now, back in that same walled garden, as she picks up some ingredients, makes a simple bruschetta s...

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 that at times it can feel as if the whole idea has become over complicated. But as we found from so man...

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 finding new ways to create that connection and how the contrast between those two worlds has inspired her a...

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 Ollie Olanipekun of Flock Together, on the challenges they faced from the traditional culture of the outd...

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 Nene Park, a place that holds fond memories for him, as he looks back on an incredible journey that to...

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 year.