Arts & Ideas

Green Thinking: Climate Change and Literature


Listen Later

Poets Yvonne Reddick and John Wedgewood Clarke are using poetry and creative writing to explore our, and their, relationships with the environment. John is focusing on a small polluted river in Cornwall, while Yvonne explores her family relationships. And they aren’t the first poets to do so - she also shares her research into how previous poets, including Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney, were concerned about the climate emergency.

Dr Yvonne Reddick is Research Fellow at the University of Central Lancashire and an AHRC Leadership Fellow specialising in poetry of the Anthropocene. You can read here poetry here: https://yvonnereddick.org/poems/ She researches writers’ engagement with environmental issues, and edits Magma poetry magazine https://magmapoetry.com/

Dr John Wedgewood Clarke is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter and an AHRC Leadership Fellow. His current project, Red River: Listening to a Polluted River (AHRC-funded), uses poetry and writing to explore our relationship with the environment and pollution: https://redriverpoetry.com/ The project involves a number of local walks in Cornwall which you can join here: https://redriverpoetry.com/events

Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Durham.

We hear Maya Chowdhry’s poem ‘It’s Official: Drought Spell Doom For Mango Trees’. You can find this poem, and others, in Magma magazine.

You can find a new podcast series Green Thinking: 26 episodes 26 minutes long in the run up to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI, exploring the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency. New Generation Thinkers Des Fitzgerald and Eleanor Barraclough will be in conversation with researchers on a wide-range of subjects from cryptocurrencies and finance to eco poetry and fast fashion.

The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on mushrooms, forests, rivers, eco-criticism and soil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2 For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: https://www.ukri.org/our-work/responding-to-climate-change/ or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast.

Producer: Sofie Vilcins

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Arts & IdeasBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3

4.3

278 ratings


More shows like Arts & Ideas

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,389 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,839 Listeners

Start the Week by BBC Radio 4

Start the Week

162 Listeners

Front Row by BBC Radio 4

Front Row

125 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,894 Listeners

Thinking Allowed by BBC Radio 4

Thinking Allowed

308 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,791 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,046 Listeners

Books and Authors by BBC Radio 4

Books and Authors

365 Listeners

Witness History by BBC World Service

Witness History

962 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

1,926 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,080 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

597 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

864 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

292 Listeners

London Review Bookshop Podcast by London Review Bookshop

London Review Bookshop Podcast

124 Listeners

The TLS Podcast by The TLS

The TLS Podcast

186 Listeners

Backlisted by Backlisted

Backlisted

577 Listeners

The Week in Art by The Art Newspaper

The Week in Art

199 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

740 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,964 Listeners

The Art Angle by Artnet News

The Art Angle

331 Listeners

Close Readings by London Review of Books

Close Readings

55 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

316 Listeners