Life In Fractals

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email out of the blue from James Aldred, a producer on BBC Radio’s The Late Show. He had come across my book, Chimera, and read my accounts of what happened during that incredibly intense time through my guest blog post for the charity Young Lives Vs Cancer. He asked if I would be up for recording an interview with the show’s host, Jim Davis, the very next day....

Sian is a vocalist, composer, musical director, and co-founder of NYX Electronic Drone Choir, based in London, UK. NYX is an electronic drone choir and otherworldly electric chorus, re-embodying live electronics and extended vocal techniques. NYX are reshaping the role of the traditional female choir, testing the limits of organic and synthetic modulation to explore the full spectrum of collective...

Charlotte Pulver is a modern-day alchemist and ceremonial facilitator, born into the Pulver lineage of apothecarians. She has a background in natural healthcare, studying and practising various systems of healing – including Tibetan Medicine – for more than twenty years. Her work is rooted in a love for making medicines, which she sells through ‘Pulver’s Apothecary’. She teaches intuitive herbalis...

I first met Gwyn in his native Snowdonia when he was a guest teacher on the Dadeni course. We walked out into the mountains and Gwyn told us tales of the Welsh fairy folk, the Tylwyth Teg, echoes from the past alive but very much in the here and now, connected to the land and the people of the area where these stories are still told and continue to evolve today. If you like stories, then you are i...

Along with his wife Christine, Dr. Stephen Hugh-Jones spent two years in the late 1960s living alongside a village of Yucuna Indians in the Colombian Amazon, learning about their language, their customs, cosmology and cultural traditions. They were even initiated into the tribe and given new names, forever connecting them to this community on the other side of the world. Stephen shares his journey...

I first met Owen Shiers back in 2011 down in Devon where we were both on the same intake of The Journey , the flagship course run by Mac MacCartney and his team at Embercombe. Since that time Owen has moved back to his native Wales and in 2019 he put out his first album, a musical project with a difference. ‘Dilyn Afon’ (or ‘Following A River’) is the result of three years research and work, colle...

If I said the word endometriosis to you, would you know what it meant? March is endometriosis awareness month, a debilitating and difficult-to-diagnoses disease that affects 1 in 10 women. In this episode, my wonderful friend Justine squire, who is a amazing circus artist and performer, goes deep into her own lifelong journey to her diagnosis and unmasks many of the myths around what this disease...

Eric Maddern is a storyteller, an author and the founder and steward of Cae Mabon, a magical eco-retreat and learning centre in Snowdonia, North Wales.  They host all sorts of courses, ranging from singing and voice work, to clowning, herbalism, mythology, yoga, and natural building. It’s a place that is very dear to me having spent quite a lot of time there over the past few years. On this episod...

Dani Tonks is a somatic coach and movement teacher, who runs a variety of body-focused classes, workshops and retreats, both online and in-person. Somatic work is very much about re-connecting us to the innate wisdom of the body, allowing it to guide us to what we need, as you will hear and experience in this very episode. I feel very privileged as this is Dani's first ever podcast. Thanks Dani fo...

Today is the day that my first book, Chimera , is released! Chimera: Living Through Leukaemia, A Memoir – to give it it’s full title – is the alchemical story of my teenage near-death initiation. Here's the blurb: Jody White’s eighteenth year of life filled his heart with young love – only to break him apart. Diagnosed with a rare form of Acute Leukaemia, he was given just two weeks to live After...

Tchad Blake is an audio engineer and producer, primarily known for his creative, world-class mixing. His work on records by The Black Keys, Sheryl Crow and Suzanne Vega have won him several Grammy awards. The list of artists he has worked with is seriously impressive, from Peter Gabriel to Crowded House, Tom Waits, The Pretenders, Fiona Apple, Arctic Monkeys and many more. It just so happens that...

Today we are going to talk about death, because, lets face it, as a culture we really need to. Despite it being an intrinsic part of being alive, something that will happen to everybody, we really don’t like to talk about it. Our medical system will do anything to prevent it happening, sometimes despite the very wishes of the patient themselves. When did you last hear a friend tell you they’d been...

Sam Gandy is a an ecologist, writer, speaker and researcher whose special interest lies in examining the capacity of psychedelic substances to dramatically and radically shift our interactions with the natural world for the betterment of all. In this episode, Sam shares his journey from his early forays into consciousness exploration and the wonders of nature, through his academic studies into soi...

I first heard the name Manda Scott many years ago from the wonderful Mac Macartney down at Embercombe in Devon (where co-incidentally Manda is teaching this November). He was talking about how her historial fiction books, the Boudica series, had been dreamed into being. A shamanic author? I was intrigued and made a mental note. Manda is an award-winning novelist as well as an experienced shamanic...

Ian Marchant lives five minutes walk from my house in Presteigne. I'd heard his name mentioned here and there, and after meeting Bob Rowberry a few months ago (and learning about Ian's book based on Bob's adventures) it felt like a very natural progression to pop round to Ian's for a chat. In this episode you'll hear about his life as a writer, what it's like to reinvent contemporary British train...

Deep in a wood in a valley in the Marches of Wales, by an abandoned railway line, there lives a 75 year old man called Bob Rowberry. His home is an ancient school bus whose engine has died and whose wheels have fallen off. A Hero For High Times is the story of how he ended up in this broken down bus, on this abandoned line, in this forgotten part of the world. It tells of how, along the way, Procu...

Deep in a wood in a valley in the Marches of Wales, by an abandoned railway line, there lives a 75 year old man called Bob Rowberry. His home is an ancient school bus whose engine has died and whose wheels have fallen off. A Hero For High Times is the story of how he ended up in this broken down bus, on this abandoned line, in this forgotten part of the world. It tells of how, along the way, Procu...

A bit of backstory for you… I first met Sophia years ago at what was then Wildheart Gathering where she was leading a singing workshop and I went along to participate. That experience touched me and we kept in touch. As life would have it, a couple of years later she move into the shared house I lived in, nestled in the shadow of the South Downs, and we spent a couple of years bonding over all the...

Hello listeners, I do hope you are navigating through these vibrant times with a sense of inner balance and a kindness of heart. As I'm sure we all know, that's not always possible and for a multitude of reasons we all go through periods of struggle, both inner and outer. Whenever life knocks me off-kilter I find immense worth in making a little space for myself. Time to feel into which areas of m...

Thanks for tuning in to The Lumieres Podcast fellow humaniacs! If you enjoy pondering how exactly technology and the evolution of human perception is really tied together then this episode will delight your imagination. I was lucky enough to sit down with a man who really does embody the phrase “a gentleman and a scholar” – I'm of course talking about Carl Smith, Director of the Learning Technolog...

Well hello there people of good taste! Happy Autumn Equinox, for it is that time in the annual cycle once again when the Sun begins to dip down a little lower in the sky each day, the trees are bearing their ripe and juicy fruits and dreams are beginning to turn to cosy woollen jumpers and hot cider. Autumn is a beautiful season here in the UK; it’s not too cold, we still get those bright sunny da...

A deep bow and many thankyous for joining me once more as The Lumieres Podcast resumes activity after a strangely subdued summer break. As I mention in the intro, the summer break began as an enforced rest period, coming after I was attacked by a dog in late May. To cut a long story short, I was walking my partner's dog Chester in the local park when an English Bull Terrier ran towards us from acr...

Greetings listeners, I hope everyone is well and coping with the twisting, turning, leaping, bounding avenues of life. I've been away for slightly longer than usual due to this kind of ebb and flow but I'm here for you, right now, with a fantastic episode featuring a spirited conversation with the wonderful Carolyn Cowan. I've been aware of Carolyn's work for a number of years and find her to be a...

Greetings everyone, Thanks for checking in once more with the Lumieres podcast. I deeply appreciate your attention, such a rare and priceless commodity as it is these days. On today's episode my guest is Martin Thomas – aka Mahdi Mu – artist and chief co-conspirator in all things Zu. From it's foundation as an artists collective it evolved to a performance space and community hub. Having sadly clo...

I first met Mark Golding in Brighton as a young man probably ten years ago, when my friend Guy and I went to his home to discuss making a website for his antiques business. I was enchanted then by the weird and wonderful decor and the palpable feeling of magic which Mark imbued the space with. I've since enjoyed following Mark's path from afar as he's evolved his being into the magical artist, tea...