Around the world there are over 100 human names that mean ‘The Sun’; perhaps the clearest evidence of us humans being inspired by, and acknowledging the significance of, a 4.5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star, a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core.

Its benevolence and its destructive capacity affect all aspects of our being, our cultures, our artworks, and take The Sun away and Polar Night makes us sad, detached, without energy, struggling to concentrate, struggling to stay awake. Give us too much of it and we cannot survive its power.

With music from Colin Williams

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

Equinox

Rush

2001 A Space Odyssey

Richard Strauss ‘Sunrise’

Sun Studio

RKO Pictures

Isla Santa Catalina

Helios

U2

Kiribati

Hopi

New Mexico

Mexico FIFA 1986

Serotonin

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Carrington Event

Svalbard

Carl Nielson

A high tide coming

Will eat the land

A tide no breakwaters can withstand.

Act 1 Scene 1 Peter Grimes, Op. 33 Benjamin Britten, libretto Montagu Slater

On a cold winter's day, we go down to a river that becomes the sea and, in an exploration of the complex human relations with the tide, we go with the ‘ebb and flow’, feel the currents, watch the high water mark and study what gets cast up. We are waiting to see what the tide brings and what it takes away; especially at this time in human history.

With music from Colin Williams.

‘JUST AS THE TIDE WAS FLOWING’ BY JON BODEN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST https://www.jonboden.com

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

River Alde

Benjamin Britten

Corhampton

Svalbard

Moby Duck

Wild Man of Orford

Wadden Sea

Just as the Tide was Flowing

Isle of Iona

Dunwich

Woodhenge

Doggerland

Cockles

Julius Caesar; William Shakespeare

We live in the age of the 6th Mass Extinction; one that is human caused. Yet, amidst all this loss, we are still finding so called ‘Lazarus’ species; creatures that we believe we had extirpated but have been re-found. And some that have not been proven, but many fervently believe are still alive, clinging on to existence away from human gaze and knowledge; ready for a second coming.

Why are we so reluctant to let go of that which has demonstrably gone? Why do we hold a desperate desire that some creatures are still there, but we didn’t care enough at the time to stop their eradication? In this episode we explore stories of the Tasmanian Tiger, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and others, and wonder why do so many of us ache for natural loss not to be final.

With music from Colin Williams

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Thylacine

Arthur Conan Doyle

Cottingley Faeries

Sixth Mass Extinction

Yangtze River Dolphin

Passenger Pigeon

Honshu Wolf

Mexican Grizzly Bear

Tasmanian Emu

Tasman Starling

Coelacanth

New Zealand Storm Petrel

Mahogany Glider

Mountain Pygmy Possum

Adelaide Pygmy Blue-tongued Skink

Bridled Nail-tailed Wallaby

Night Parrot

Aldo Leopold’s ‘Sand County Almanac’

Darren Rees

Ghosts of Gone Birds

BirdLife International

Carolina Parakeet

John James Audubon

Galapagos

Lonesome George

Natural History Museum, Tring

Sam Keen