Rob Hopkins

Sven Birkerts is an American essayist and literary critic of Latvian ancestry. He is best known for his book 'The Gutenberg Elegies', which posits a decline in reading due to the overwhelming advances of the Internet and other technologies of the "electronic culture." More recently he wrote the brilliant 'Changing the Subject'. Both books are utterly brilliant, and I can't recommend them highly en...

Alex Schlegel is a cognitive neuroscientist, which he describes as being about “trying to understand how the structure and function of the brain creates the mind and the consciousness we experience and everything that makes us human, like imagination”.  He recently co-published fascinating research which identified what the authors called “the mental workspace”, which they identify as the network...

Deborah Frances-White is a comedian and writer who also delivers seminars to women in business on subjects including charisma, diversity and inclusion. She is co-author of 'The Improv Handbook', produces 'The Guilty Feminist' podcast, and is co-founder of The Spontaneity Shop. She chatted on Skype.

Felix Beltran is a translator, a festival organiser, and a member of Barcelona en Comu, the remarkable bottom up movement that is bringing new democracy to the city, part of the wider municipalist movement across Spain and elsewhere.

Josiah Meldrum is one of three founders of Hodmedods British Grains and Pulses (https://hodmedods.co.uk/), founded in 2012 to source and supply beans and other products from British farms. They are brilliant, and have somehow harnessed the imagination of British people to start eating again beans and pulses that had almost been consigned to history. How did they do that, and how did they appeal th...

In September 2017 I attended a weekend workshop run by the Spontaneity Shop, their Level 1A Improvisation training. It was taught by Jeremy Finch, and so in this short podcast, I talk to Jeremy and to some of my fellow improvisers, to get a sense of what improv is, and how people found a weekend of learning to play. http://www.the-spontaneity-shop.com/workshops/

What would you do if you were appointed to run a museum, with very little budget, a very small team, and a sense that the place had run out of direction and vision?  If you’re Hannah Fox, and you’ve just been asked to come up with ideas for the future of the Silk Mill Museum in Derby, you turn to the imagination, in particular, to how best to enable the people of the city to apply their imaginatio...

The Proper Ornaments brought our New Lion Brewery Sessions at Sea Change Festival to a close. Their brilliant short set is recorded here in full. What a great way to bring a perfect day to a close! https://theproperornaments.bandcamp.com/

Our second New Lion Brewery Session was Jim Ghedi. Here is his brilliant set in full. Jim Ghedi is a 6 & 12 string guitarist and folk singer from the outskirts of Sheffield, England. He spent a good proportion of the last 2 years touring the UK & Europe in support of his debut album ‘Home is where I exist, now to live & die’ (Cambrian Records, 2015), gaining radio play in the US, Australia, Belgiu...

Our 2017 New Lion Brewery Sessions, part of Drift Records' brilliant Sea Change Festival, brought 4 very different artists in to play in the Brewery. The first was Seamus Fogarty and his band. Here is the full audio of their brilliant set. Seamus' new album, 'The Curious Hand', is out on October 6th.

As part of the Sea Change Festival in Totnes, New Lion Brewery hosted 4 performances. Ryley Walker packed the brewery out for his set, which was, as we will hear, celebrated with the launch of a new beer, a rye NEPA called 'Ryeley Walker'. Here is the lightly edited recording of his set in full.

On Sunday 16th July 2017, Transition Town Tooting held their 'Tooting Twirl' event, and rather wonderful it was too. I popped along to see what was happening, and spoke to some of the key people involved, including Lucy Neal, Hilary Jennings, Richard Couldrey, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (MP for Tooting), Jeni Walker as well as some of those visiting the Twirl.

Julian Dobson is a writer and facilitator specialising in regeneration, placemaking and social change. He is author of 'How to Save Town Centres'.

JR calls himself “an artist until I find a real job”. His work, around the world, is amazing. I was fortunate to get to speak to him, as somehow, on the phone, he cycled across Paris to get to a meeting without sounding even slightly out of breath. At least, that's what he told me he was doing. With artists you can never be too sure... http://www.jr-art.net

Bruce Alexander has spent his whole career as a psychologist working on the topic of addiction, and wrote the seminal ‘The Globalisation of Addiction: a study in the poverty of the spirit’, one of the most remarkable books I’ve ever read.  He lives in Pender Island, British Columbia, in Canada.  I wanted to explore with him any overlaps between his work and the imagination. It was a fascinating co...

On Sunday 18 June I visited the Institute of Imagination's 'Imagination Lab'. It was called 'Lab Live: Metropolis', and was an interactive, family event. The event was designed for children aged 3 – 12 and their parents and carers to create, play and tinker with different materials, shapes, sounds and functions. It aimed to bring cities to life through a host of interactive activities that enable...

Hill Farmstead are one of the most imaginative breweries in the world. Rooted in Shaun Hill's family farm in Vermont, home of his family for over 230 years, they are brewers of remarkable beers that have pioneered 'farmhouse style' beers. Here he talks to Rob Hopkins via Skype.

Tony Whitehead works for the RSPB and runs regular dawn chorus walks. He is also a sound recordist, specialising in recording nature, particularly bird song. After a dawn chorus walk as part of Soundcamp 2017 on the Dartington Estate, we sat under a tree to talk bird song, imagination and the need for quiet.

The 2017 Local Entrepreneur Forum was the sixth, and the best yet. Pitching this year were The Apricot Centre, Woodland Presents CIC, Black Bee Coombe, Yew Media and The Potting Shed, Studio 45. About 150 people packed into the Ballroom, and the event was hosted by Jay Tompt and Hal Gilmore from REconomy, and local singer/performer, Katie Tokus. This podcast gives a flavour of the buzz at the even...

In May 2017, I visited a street in Bristol where a 'Playing Out' session was underway. I spoke to some of the parents, the kids, and also to Daniella Radice of Playing Out.

On the weekend of International Dawn Chorus Day, I attended Soundcamp on the Dartington Estate. After listening to a stunning dawn chorus, I talked to Tony Whitehead, ornithologist and sound engineer, who led the walk, and also to Shelley, Robert and Laura who joined me on the walk.

Martin Shaw is a mythologist, author and storyteller. He is regarded as one of the most outstanding new teachers of the mythic imagination. He is a Visiting Fellow at Schumacher College, and has devised and led the Oral Tradition course at Stanford University in the U.S. Any exploration of the imagination, its current state of health, and how we might best interact with it should include beating a...

What does it look like when the pieces of a local food economy start to fall into place? Saturday 29th April 2017 saw the official opening of the premises of Grown in Totnes. I popped along to this fascinating event, and interviewed Holly and Emily from Grown in Totnes, as well as John Letts, an expert on localised grain production who has supported the project. Find out more at https://www.facebo...

Sunday 23rd April 2017 was the day of the Totnes Street Games Festival. In the recently-renovated Rotherfold square, parents and children gathered to remember, relearn and encounter street games. The square was filled with laughter, children dashing around, skipping ropes, bouncing balls, chalk drawings. In this podcast, I speak to the organisers, children and parents to capture a sense of the day...

My reading of my blog, 'Why we need The Yellow House more than ever', published at robhopkins.net on 7th April 2017.