Absolute Units

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How do museums engage with accessibility, both as spaces that welcome visitors and as collections of human stories?

On this episode, we're joined by the brilliant disability activist and performance artist Anahita Harding. 

We discuss Anahita's work in agricultural museums (both the Food Museum and The MERL), the histories of disability in our collection, and how we can improve access and representation for disabled people in the future.

Relevant links:

• Anahita's website: https://anahitaharding.com/
• Len's Leg: https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/newshow-a-false-leg-inspried-a-farm-safety-campaign
• Curating Visibility: https://curatingforchange.org/

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/

Send us Fan Mail

Turns out delays come like London buses. First Joe got the flu. Then we accidentally re-shared the first episode with Guy rather than the new one. If you listened before we caught it, we hope you enjoyed that episode even more the second time.

Anyways, we're back! We return in full strength, with the right episode to boot, to pick up once more with the brilliant environmentalist, author, and campaigner Guy Shrubsole.

Where last time we charted a potted history of land ownership and access in England, from the Normans to the present day, this time we're honing in on one specific case study: hunting and more specifically grouse shooting. What does hunting teach us about how land gets used and shared? How has hunting changed? And what are the disastrous ecological impacts of unleashing 50 million pheasants each year into the English countryside?

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/

Send us Fan Mail

Oops, sorry folks, we accidentally uploaded our first conversation with Guy twice! We will fix this as soon as possible and share the actual episode either tomorrow or Monday. Thank you for bearing with us.

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Thanks for waiting for us, as we return with a second episode with the fantastic author, environmentalist, and campaigner Guy Shrubsole. 

Where last episode we spoke broadly about the history of land ownership in England, revving up to almost a thousand years an hour, this time we're lasering in on one specific part of rural English life that speaks to much of the complexities and tensions invoked by Guy's work as well as our collections: hunting. And more specifically, grouse shooting.

We discuss the modern invention of grouse shooting, the transformative impact of shooting culture on rural landscape and ecosystems, and the diabolical experiment we're all living through wherein 50 million pheasants get released into the countryside each year.

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/

Send us Fan Mail

Turns out scheduling breaks are like London busses! Joe's come down with the flu, so we haven't had the chance to produce this week's episode in time for Thursday release. We'll be back with regular programming and return for our second episode with Guy Shrubsole in two weeks' time.

Meanwhile: are there topics you'd like to hear about? Do you have a burning question? We've re-enabled our fan mail link, so please send anything that you'd like to share with us, and we'll be sure to cover them in future episodes!

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/

Send us Fan Mail

It's a simple three-word question. Yet the answer is extremely complicated, expensive, and concealed behind paywalls that run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

How did we get here? And how do we get out of it?

In this episode, Joe and Ollie are joined by the remarkable author and campaigner Guy Shrubsole (co-founder of Right to Roam) to explore the question of who really owns England. We chart the course of land management in England from the Norman conquest, through to the Tudors, and right up to the present day, with policy changes coming out as recently as 2026.

Learn more about Right to Roam: https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/

Send us Fan Mail

Hi folks! We're closed tomorrow for Easter (which is when we'd usually release our next episode). Ollie and Joe are also in and out of the office at the moment, so we're going to use this as a chance for a brief hiatus and we'll then be back to regular programming in 2 weeks' time. See you very soon!

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/

Send us Fan Mail

Content warnings: infant mortality (indicated in the chapter list!) - skip from 14:38 to 19:33

Today we turn 1 years old! A fine age for a growing podcast. Thanks to everyone who has tuned in, joined us in the booth, and supported us in these last 12 months.

To celebrate, we decided yesterday afternoon to record an impromptu anniversary episode, taking listener questions via Bluesky. We talk about a range of topics, including: our favourite museums, what we're reading, spookiness, the definition of an oat, more haunting, cookbooks, horses, hogs, and hovercraft.

Should we do more listener question episodes? Do you have any burning feedback? Can you shed any light about an oat? Please leave us a review to let us know what you think!

Links:

• JC Niala's new book (congrats JC!): https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/jc-niala/the-new-eden/9781856755887/
• Nicola Chester's new book (congrats Nicola!): https://nicolachester.com/book/ghosts-of-the-farm-two-womens-journeys-through-time-land-and-community/
• Apotropaic objects: https://theconcealedrevealed.wordpress.com/

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/

Send us Fan Mail

In 2022, a report by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences analysed 14 European countries and ranked them for nature connectedness, bio diversity, and wellbeing. Britain ranked last in all three.

So how do we better protect nature, care for wildlife, and look after each other? 

Adrian Lawson is an environmentalist, author and activist whose career and campaigns have been defined by these questions - whether in council meetings or camping out with Extinction Rebellion. Adrian is also a pivotal figure in a major community ecological project here in Reading, turning an abandoned meadow into the thriving Fobney Marsh, as a lead organiser of the Fobney Marshians.

In this episode, we speak with Adrian about his love of land, wildlife, and humanity, and how we can do better better by all three. We also talk a lot about Reading and the joy of building a home and finding community. You should definitely visit Reading btw. Come for the marsh, The MERL, and the memes.

Links:

• Adrian vs the IMO: https://oceanrebellion.earth/imo-omg-get-a-grip-poseidon-lectures-the-imo/
• Join the Fobney Marshians: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/absolute-units/qr-code-for-the-fobney-marshians/
• Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You, by Nick Hayes and Jon Moses: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/wild-service-9781526673299/
• Book your tickets for our Spring LATE: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/spring-late/
• Come and visit us: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit/

This episode features additional audio from Epidemic Sounds. The opening song is 'Journey to Mars' by Sayuri Hayashi Egnell. The song for the LATE is 'Pity Party' by Gamma Skies. The wetlands ambient sound was recorded by Lars Edenius and reused from xeno-canto.

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/

Send us Fan Mail

Old Crockern returns! We're back for a second episode with the legendary giant of Dartmoor, plus giant maker and dancer Ruth Webb (of The Lost Giants) and storyteller and environmentalist Lisa Schneidau.

Last time, we set the scene of Crockern's story and introduced a repetition of history, as Alexander Darwall sought to restrict wild camping on Dartmoor. This time we delve deeper into that story, coming almost right up to the present day, as we explore Crockern's return and what that meant for those who love Dartmoor and England's green spaces.

View more video of Old Crockern at The MERL, plus Lisa and Ruth, via our Instagram or TikTok. Search 'The Museum of English Rural Life' across your chosen social media.

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/

Send us Fan Mail

There's an ancient spirit who rules over Dartmoor, an uplands region in South West England. His face is granite grey. His eyes are dark as peat pools. His name is Old Crockern. And right now, he's at The Museum of English Rural Life.

In the first of two episodes, we're joined by environmentalists and activists Ruth Webb (of The Lost Giants) and Lisa Schneidau (storyteller and author). We explore the mythology of Old Crockern, his 19th century origins, and what's brought him back in recent years to defend access to Dartmoor.

Old Crockern arrives at the Museum as part of Radical Rural, our new gallery trail celebrating the people, movements, and forces defending access to rural England and championing England's green and wild spaces. Plan your visit on our website.

• Radical Rural
• Voices of the Countryside: 100 Years of the Campaign to Protect Rural England
• Crockern arrives at The MERL
• The Lost Giants
• Lisa's website

This episode uses audio from Epidemic Sounds and Freesound.

Special thanks to Philip Goddard for the clip 'In Fernworthy Forest, on Dartmoor — ambience in a stand of Sitka spruce' from https://freesound.org/s/671088/ (License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0)

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Theme tune by Tai Dawson. This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

• Shop MERL merch: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
• Support the pod: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/