A Life More Wild

Lira Valencia grew up in Croydon, surrounded by the kind of urban sprawl that keeps the natural world at a distance. However, thanks mostly to the snails in her grandma’s garden, she developed a passion for nature and forged a path to a career in the overwhelmingly white world of conservation. We join her for a walk around Walthamstow wetlands, where she’s a ranger who helps preserve the habitat and encourage others to enjoy it.

Follow Lira on Instagram to see what she spots outside as the seasons turn, or ourselves to see us working on the podcast and discovering great new places. 

A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock and recorded by Marnie Woodmeade. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.

Alastair Humphreys spent four years cycling round the world. He’s rowed across the Atlantic, run a marathon in the Sahara and taken part in an expedition to the arctic. But we’ve caught up with him on an industrial estate on the edge of the city, to talk microadventures and the power of thinking small.

See more of what Alastair's been up to or follow us on Instagram to see us out and about working on the podcast and discovering great new places.

A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock and recorded by Marnie Woodmeade. Our theme music is by Billie Marten. 

It’s time to get outdoors again… In season 4 of ALMW you’ll walk with more fascinating people as they take you to some of their favourite spots and talk about their connection to nature.

We'll be talking to adventurer Alastair Humphreys, activist Mikaela Loach, the lady known as The Human Swan, and many more.

Episode one will be out on 6th June and we’ll be bringing you a calm stroll and a chat every couple of weeks for the rest of the year.

While we were working on series 4 of A Life More Wild, which launches in June, Joe Wilkinson and David Earl shamelessly name-dropped us on their podcast, Chatabix. We got in touch to see if they’d like to record at one of our spaces and they said they’d love to, so here they are (or at least one of them is) at Humble Bee, a giant beehive in Devon, chatting with owners Ron and Yvette.

This episode is a little different from our normal format (there’s no way we could get Joe Wilkinson to hike) but we’ll be out walking with some great guests soon.

Sarah Wilson is always on the move. Her work as an author, presenter and speaker takes her all over the world. In the course of her wandering, she’s learned a couple of things. How to ground yourself in a new place by hiking, how getting people to love something is how you get them to fight for it… and how long is too long to wear the same pair of shorts. 

We’d like to thank everyone who’s taken us walking over the past few months and we hope you’ve enjoyed the company of astrophysicists, wild swimmers, activists and more. We’ll be back next year, but in the meantime you can always revisit series 1 and 2, or follow us on instagram to see what we get up to at Canopy & Stars when we’re not wandering about outside. 

Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next year for series 4 of A Life More Wild.

A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten. 

Being a wildlife cameraman wasn’t something Hamza Yassin wanted to do. It was THE ONLY thing he wanted to do. Inspired by the attenborough documentaries he learnt english from after his parents moved to the uk from Sudan, he gave everything to make his dream a reality. What he never dreamt about though, was ending up lifting the glitterball on Strictly come dancing...

Join Hamza now, for a hilly hike to a spot from which he's watched the same pair of eagles for eight years, where the Ardnamurchan Peninsula stretches away beneath you. And the sea sparkles, a bit like a secret waistcoat. 

A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten. 

Despite having a passion for animals and farming, Mike Duxbury received only one offer from all the agricultural colleges he applied to. The rest dismissed him instantly because he was blind. After graduating with an impressive array of qualifications, he became an accessibility consultant in London, but his heart was always with the land. He decided that rather than telling people how to run an inclusive business, he would show them instead.

Join Mike now on Inclusive Farm, the working farm in Bedfordshire that he designed and built himself, as he describes his mission to welcome students of all abilities, talks about the importance of connecting with the land, and explains the different coughs of pigs.

A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock and recorded by Marnie Woodmeade. Our theme music is by Billie Marten. 

You often hear people talk about how getting out into nature gives them a change of perspective. But what happens when your profession is nature on the biggest possible scale? Dr Becky Smethhurst is an astrophysicist, author and YouTuber who studies supermassive blackholes and galaxy formation, but says that rather than making her feel small, it does exactly the opposite… 

Join Becky now for an evening stroll around a nature reserve near the South Downs, as she gives a few pointers on spotting planets, explains what the movies get wrong and dodges a swan…

A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten. 

When Freya Bromley first discovered tidal pools, she was dealing with the turmoil of grief. Those patches of calm water, surrounded by volatile seas, felt like places of refuge. From a single experience came a mission to swim every tidal pool in Britain, but while she went looking for healing, she found so much more. 

Join Freya now for a dip in Margate’s two tidal pools and a discussion of connection, community and underwater screaming on the walk between the two.  

A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten. 

A few years ago, a walk on the south west coastal path opened Katharine May up to a whole new world.   She began to think about reconnecting with nature, and how it was the antidote to everything from anxiety to writer’s block. She even shaped her best selling book, Wintering, around the elements.

Join Katherine now on the seafront in Whitstable, as she talks about inspiration, how much she would like to buy a beach hut, and why we should all love winter.  

A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Sound recording by Marnie Woodmeade, production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.