Wodcast

For our Season One bonus episode, we return to the question at the heart of so many of our conversations: what can a single word reveal about the way we live, the way we relate to one another, and the world we share? This season, we’ve explored where words come from, what they carry, and how their meanings shift through the people who use them. Now, thanks to Sarah Ogilvie, Professor of Language a...

What if words can never mean exactly what we want them to mean? Stephen Fry has spent a lifetime exploring language: writing it, performing it, studying its history, and delighting in its strange contradictions. In this final episode of Season One, we sit down with Stephen to explore what words can and perhaps cannot do. We begin with “happy”, a word Stephen traces back to hap, meaning chance or w...

Today, Wodcast sits down with Sir Tim Rice one of the world's most celebrated lyricists and one of only a small number of people to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, for a wide-ranging conversation about words, songwriting, storytelling and the strange alchemy of turning language into something that lasts. From Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Chess to The Lion King and Aladdin, Tim has w...

What does freedom really mean when you have spent part of life without it? Today, the Wodcast sits down with Waad Al-Kateab journalist, filmmaker and activist for a deeply personal conversation about freedom, home, family, language, community and the power of imagining a different future. Waad grew up in Syria under the Assad regime and began documenting life in Aleppo during the Syrian revolution...

What if surrender isn't the opposite of creation, but part of it? Today, the Wodcast sits down with musician and songwriter Nick Mulvey for a wide-ranging conversation about words, music, faith, creativity and the things that can only be felt beyond language. Nick arrives with the word “yield” a word that can mean both to produce and to surrender. From this apparent contradiction, the conversation...

What lies in the silence between who we have learned to be and who we are becoming? Today, the Wodcast sits down with Remi Olajoyegbe, founder, female empowerment coach, business leader, co-founder of Medicine Festival and founder of the Isumataq Collective, for a deeply personal conversation about success, transformation, grief and what it means to live and lead from a place of wholeness. Having...

What does it take to become Frequently Happy? Today, the Wodcast sits down with David Larbi, poet, bestselling author of Frequently Happy, and one of the UK's most thoughtful voices on joy, creativity and emotional wellbeing, for a deeply reflective conversation about poetry, presence and the courage it takes to live authentically. Together they explore why happiness begins with contentment, the r...

What happens when language becomes more powerful than evidence? Today, the Wodcast sits down with Professor David Nutt, one of the world's leading neuropsychopharmacologist, psychiatrists and consciousness researchers, for a thought-provoking exploration of language, consciousness and the extraordinary power of words to shape how we think, feel and act. Together they discuss the origins of the wor...

What if romance wasn't just about falling in love? In this conversation of the Wodcast, musician, songwriter and poet Hak Baker joins Benjamin Aston and Mabel Evans for a wide-ranging exploration of romance, brotherhood, community and the courage it takes to change. Together they discuss the forgotten meaning of romance, why transformation is rarely a solitary act, and the idea of slaying the drag...

What happens when faith and doubt learn to dance together? In this opening conversation of the Wodcast, bestselling novelist Elif Shafak joins Benjamin Aston and Mabel Evans for a wide-ranging exploration of language, love, storytelling and the search for wisdom in a noisy world. Together they discuss the ancient meanings hidden inside words, why different cultures understand love in different way...

In Season One of the Wodcast, we sit down with novelist Elif Shafak, musician Hak Baker, Professor David Nutt, writer David Larbi, founder and coach Remi Olayjoyegbe, musician Nick Mulvey, filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab, lyricist Tim Rice, and writer, actor, and broadcaster Stephen Fry. Across nine conversations, we explore the words that have shaped their lives, the language that has influenced their t...

Welcome to the Wodcast where every word carries a world inside it. The Wodcast is a podcast exploring the words that shape our lives, cultures, relationships, and imagination. Hosted by Benjamin Aston and Mabel Evans, each episode unfolds into conversations, stories, ideas, and perspectives from writers, thinkers, artists, and cultural voices. From love and belonging to courage, grief, joy, identi...