We spend around a third of our lives asleep, yet for so many of us, getting a good night’s sleep can feel like a real struggle. Could our homes hold some of the answers to sleeping better?

In this conversation, leading sleep expert and Oxford Professor of Circadian Neuroscience Russell Foster rethinks the rules of sleep and explores how we can create a home environment that supports our natural rhythms. 

We discuss why getting outside in the morning is one of the best things we can do for sleep, how to navigate a partner's different sleeping habits and why sleep trackers often do more harm than good.

But perhaps the most reassuring idea of all is that we need to stop trying so hard. As Russell points out, the more we worry about sleep, the more elusive it can become. Sometimes the best thing we can do is create the right conditions and let it take care of itself.

Please note: the views expressed in this episode are those of the guest and are not intended as medical advice.

To hear more from us:

Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, HomingWithMatt

YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt

Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt

Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic

Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office

Produced by @podshoponline

Matt Gibberd visits writer and creative consultant Charlene Prempeh at her home in North London. 

Charlene is the founder of A Vibe Called Tech, a creative studio that champions Black culture. She’s a columnist for the Financial Times, and curator of an upcoming exhibition at the Design Museum called The Nue Black Aesthetic.

Charlene grew up in a small council house in Canning Town that was, in her words, "teeming with people". She was the youngest of four children, raised by a single mother, with cousins, friends and members of the Ghanaian community constantly coming and going.

In this conversation, we talk about how that crowded childhood left her with a love of solitude. We explore why she doesn't believe that more space necessarily makes a happier home, and how, despite having very little money growing up, the dinner table always felt like a place of abundance.

We also discuss why she found herself shape-shifting when she arrived at Oxford University, the importance of books and beautiful objects, and what it means to be truly at home with yourself.

Join us over on Patreon to watch the full home tour.

Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt

To hear more from us:

Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, https://www.patreon.com/HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline

Lemn Sissay is a poet, playwright and broadcaster. Few people have thought more deeply about the meaning of home than Lemn. 

As a baby, Lemn was separated from his Ethiopian mother and placed into foster care with a white family. He grew up believing he had been abandoned, not even knowing his real name. From the age of twelve, he was placed in a series of children's homes, where he remained until adulthood. 

In this conversation, we explore how those early experiences shaped Lemn’s understanding of family, belonging and identity.  

We talk about how poetry gave him a sense of place when nowhere else could, and what it means to build a sense of home inside yourself after losing it so young. 

These discussions are intended for general information and should not be considered medical, psychological or professional advice. If you have concerns about your health or wellbeing, please consult a qualified professional.

Lemn Sissay:
See Lemn on tour: https://www.fane.co.uk/lemn-sissay#event-listing
Share your family story on Lemn's global storytelling website: https://tellmesomething.family/

To hear more from us:

Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline

Anna Jones is a cook, food writer, and one of the leading voices in modern vegetarian cooking. For Anna, making food for someone is the ultimate act of care.

She began her career working alongside Jamie Oliver, before becoming one of Britain's best-loved food writers in her own right with bestsellers like A Modern Way to Eat and One: Pot, Pan, Planet.  

Anna grew up in a close-knit family where food was central to everything and, for a shy child, cooking became a way to express herself. She also shares how losing close family friends in the Lockerbie air disaster instilled a lifelong instinct to be the dependable one.

We explore motherhood, postnatal depression and what happens when caring for other people leaves too little room to care for yourself. 

This episode was recorded in Anna's Victorian House in Hackney.

Join us over on Patreon to watch the full house tour.
Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt

More of Anna:

Books - https://annajones.co.uk/books
Website - https://annajones.co.uk/
Weekly newsletter - https://substack.com/@annajonesfood
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/we_are_food/

To hear more from us:

Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, https://www.patreon.com/HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline

Martha Beck is a sociologist, bestselling author and one of the world’s leading life coaches. She grew up in the Mormon community in Utah, in a home that was a source of shame for her and her siblings.

Her childhood was one of profound anxiety and depression, and she’s written openly about the abuse she experienced from her father. Those traumatic experiences led to a lifelong search for safety – and what it really means to feel at home.

In this conversation, Martha shares why beauty became a lifeline during the darkest periods of her life, how she learned to meditate despite finding it almost unbearable at first and why she believes our homes reflect our psychological state.

These discussions are intended for general information and should not be considered medical, psychological or professional advice. If you have concerns about your health or wellbeing, please consult a qualified professional.

Martha’s Work:

Martha Beck, PhD, is a Harvard-trained sociologist, world-renowned coach and New York Times bestselling author. She has published nine non-fiction books, one novel, and more than 200 magazine articles.

Inspired by the ideas in her latest book, Beyond Anxiety, this conversation explores how play can be a powerful antidote to anxious thinking. 

To hear more from us:

Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline

Jinny Blom is one of Britain's leading landscape designers. She has created over 700 gardens – and each one begins, in some way, with a search for security.

Jinny trained as a psychologist and psychotherapist, working for many years in mental health, before a prophetic dream prompted her to devote herself to her lifelong interest in natural landscapes and gardens.

Since then, Jinny has created spaces that promote the relationship between nature and health – from her sky garden at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital to a healing garden she created with King Charles.

In this conversation, Jinny speaks openly about a childhood marked by abandonment and abuse, and how those early experiences shaped the way she experiences architecture and landscape. 

We talk about the childhood hiding place that still influences her work today, the unusual rules she follows when designing a garden, and how creating beautiful landscapes became a way of making sense of a very difficult start in life.

This episode was recorded in Jinny's converted sixteenth-century threshing barn in Oxford.

Join us over on Patreon to watch the full home tour.
Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt

Jinny's Current Work:

Jinny’s studio has projects across various continents as well as in the UK.

Her most recent book ‘What Makes a Garden’ won Garden Book of the Year in 2024 published by Frances Lincoln/Quarto. The accompanying self-made podcast series launched in October 2023, with guests as varied as Tim Walker, Skye Gyngell and Brian Eno.

The studio has won prestigious awards for large, completed estates, some of which appear in her new book.

Jinny has launched a bespoke range of English ‘landscape colours’ designed by her specifically for use outside. She has teamed up with Dominic Myland, the owner of the family run paint maker and Royal Warrant holder Mylands. It is a unique plant-based formula for wood, metal and masonry.

To hear more from us:

Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, https://www.patreon.com/HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline

Jackie Kay is an acclaimed poet and novelist, who was previously the national poet of Scotland – a role known as the Makar. She’s the author of Red Dust Road, a memoir that chronicles a twenty-year search for her birth parents.

Jackie was adopted as a baby by a white Scottish couple and grew up in suburban Glasgow. Throughout her life, she's had to explore questions of identity, belonging and family – themes that run through some of the most celebrated writing of the past forty years. 

In this conversation, Jackie reflects on how the love of her adoptive parents helped her navigate racism, what it means to feel at odds with your national identity, and whether it's ever possible to feel completely at home in yourself.

These discussions are intended for general information and should not be considered medical, psychological or professional advice. If you have concerns about your health or wellbeing, please consult a qualified professional.

Jackie Kay is an award-winning Scottish poet and author of Selected Poems 1991-2006, May Day and Red Dust Road.

To hear more from us:

Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline

Architecture critic and writer Phineas Harper believes that good design and heritage belong to all of us.

Phin lives on Vanbrugh Park, a post-war council estate in Greenwich designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, the architects behind the Barbican. It's a home that completely reflects Phin’s ethos: architecture doesn’t have to be fancy to enrich our lives.

Phin is deeply woven into the fabric of the neighbourhood. Together with their neighbours, they've transformed neglected corners of the estate into gardens and trained vines up the old washing posts. Every March, they all come together for a celebration called "Unlocking", where they plant a tree and share some of Phin's homemade rhubarb ice cream.

In this conversation, Phin reflects on growing up on a generic new-build estate, what it felt like to be an outsider and why they've become so passionate about repair.

Phin also reflects on the end of their long-term relationship, and how that experience transformed their understanding of what home really means.

This episode was filmed inside Phin Harper’s Greenwich Estate Flat.

Join us over on Patreon to watch the full home tour.
Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt

More from Phin:

Phineas Harper is a roving reporter for The Modern House and Inigo. Each month, they share a digital "postcard" that celebrates the "friendly, playful, warm, cosy, squishy and joyful" side of architecture.

Follow Phin's escapades at https://www.youtube.com/@themodernhouse_films.

To hear more from us:

Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, https://www.patreon.com/HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline

Does modern design shelter us, or is it cutting us off from the world? Architect Stefan Behling believes that many of today's buildings have turned us into what he calls "humans in captivity”. They keep the temperature constant, shut out the sounds and smells of the outside world, and misunderstand what it really means to be comfortable. 

As a senior partner at Foster + Partners, Stefan has spent more than thirty years exploring sustainable architecture and human-centric design, working on projects ranging from Apple Park in California to experimental habitats for NASA.

In this conversation, we explore what the science of the senses and evolutionary biology can teach us about creating spaces that genuinely support our wellbeing.

We discuss why constant comfort isn't always good for us, what space travel reveals about our need for nature, and why design should prioritise the psychological over the physiological.

These discussions are intended for general information and should not be considered medical, psychological or professional advice. If you have concerns about your health or wellbeing, please consult a qualified professional.

To hear more from us:
Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline

Sophie Hicks has helped fashion brands like Paul Smith, Yohji Yamamoto and Acne Studios translate their vision into built form.  

But before becoming one of Britain's most respected architects, she was immersed in the world of fashion.

She worked alongside Grace Coddington and Azzedine Alaïa, styled shoots for Vogue and Tatler, and became an iconic face of the early Eighties after appearing on the cover of i-D magazine in a portrait by David Bailey. 

In this conversation, we explore her childhood between London and the Sussex countryside, why she pivoted from fashion to architecture, and the story behind her austere personal style.

We also discuss what makes a house feel calm, her belief that spaces should do as little as possible while meaning as much as possible, and why she's fascinated by the challenge of creating a hotel that feels like home.

This episode was recorded in Sophie’s house in West London. 

A full tour of Sophie’s home is available to our Patreon community.

Patreon: http://patreon.com/HomingWithMatt

Contact Sophie:

www.sophiehicks.com

To hear more from us:

Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, https://www.patreon.com/HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at [email protected]

Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496

Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline