Swimmingpod

Toronto-based Dylan Friedmann is an inspiration. She undertook, January 1st, 2021, to swim (or dip) in Lake Ontario every single day of the year to raise money for the charity Kids Help Phone, helping with adolescent mental health in Canada right now when help is needed. Air temperature on some of her dips dips to minus thirty Celsius, the water close on zero. She completed her daily swims in 2020, all 365 of them, and she continues on, swimming and dipping, even when in February she has to dig through the ice for water.

I was hospitalized with leptospirosis, Weil’s Disease, in August 2021. The risk of this disease sits at the back of the mind of many river and lake swimmers, but it very rarely materialises. It did so in my mind too, until. Until the intense burning and body chills, head and body aches, falling and falling blood pressure took me to hospital and intensive care. The clinical descriptions of the disease do not do justice to the metabolic and physiological roller-coaster I went on. This took me to some strange places in my head, and subsequently made me revisit the risks of contracting this vile disease. This podcast is an account of my treatment-seeking experience, real and hallucinatory, as my condition worsened, into sepsis, and out again, with the expertise and integrated hard work of the medical staff of the University of Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital. Heroes all. I have called it my night at the opera, a hospital drama with music. 

The cover image is a copper engraving by Wilhelm Jury (after Johann Heinrich Ramberg) of Tamino chased by a deadly serpent from the opening of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute".  

The music in a 'Night at the Opera' is Nubya Garcia and “Source”; Mozart and “The Queen of the Night’s aria” and “Ihr gotter, was ist das?” from “The Magic Flute”(Cheryl Studer as the Queen of the Night); David Bowie and “Space Oddity”; Diana Krall and “I love being here with you”; GoGo Penguin and “Kora - remix”. Opening music is 'Noe Noe' by Castro, and the ending music is ‘Vienna Beat’ by Radio Pink, both on Blue Dot Sessions.

Juliet Turnbull is a very accomplished swimmer, and an artist who turns ideas that churn in her mind as she swims, into art-textiles and embroider-work, works that evoke the sensorial nature of being in the water. She lives on the Thames and swims in it. She is swimming the length of it in sections with her friend Fiona Irwin; she also sings under bridges. This podcast was recorded in January, when we were both in dry robes, recovering after swimming in a snow flurry, she near Hampton Court, London, me at Eynsham Lock, Oxfordshire.     

The Thames, right now is not the universally clean and sparkling river of my dreams. This podcast is about trying to understand, as a swimmer, the problems surrounding rivers in the UK right now – the dumping of raw sewage, of pollution. How did we get into this watery mess? If it were simple, it would have been solved - so what is going on? 

This podcast, with German nationally-acclaimed playwright, essayist, dramaturge and prize-winning novelist John von Düffel and acclaimed film-maker James Norton, considers Charles Sprawson’s classic book about the history and cultures of swimming, some thirty years after it was first published. Both John and James are passionate about this book,  John having adapted it for a German-speaking audience in 2002. The discussion ranges from swimming heroes, to romanticism, and to environmental degradation, as well as James' and John's own swimming passions. The book remains as current as ever, but is about so much more than the issues we discuss. Had we recorded the podcast on another day, it might well have been different. Like open water swimming itself – each day is different.

Haunts of the Black Masseur can be found at - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/103/1032355/haunts-of-the-black-masseur/9780099577249.html

Duncan Goodhew is a life-long swimmer and champion of swimming in more ways than one. He won Olympic Gold and Bronze in the 100 meters breaststroke and 100 meter medley relay respectively, in the Moscow 1980 Olympics. He has promoted swimming at all levels ever since.

He is President of Swimathon, the swimming charity that brings together swimmers of all ages and abilities with two simple aims: to spread the joys and benefits of swimming whilst raising money for some of the UK’s most needful charity work. He was awarded the Humane Award for administering life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to Lord Sheldon – he learned CPR as an adolescent, with the Learn to Swim Programme. He is one of the founding trustees of what is now SportsAid, a charity which enriches the lives of talented young athletes by recognizing and nurturing their abilities through and beyond sport. He was awarded MBE in 1983 for services to sport. Ever since struck gold and bronze in Moscow, he has been very keen to give back - swimming saved him, gave him direction, from being a wayward and headstrong teenager, to being a champion in every sense of the word, across his adult life. 

In this podcast we talk about those early years, about his achievements, and about the important and good work he has done ever since.

The opening music is Castro and "Noe Noe", and the music ending is Radio Pink and "Vienna Beat", both of Blue Dot Sessions.  

Anette Frisch lives in Dusseldorf, Germany. She swims in pools and the ocean, but mostly she is a pool swimmer, one that swims crawl because breaststroke is too slow for her. Which is not to say she is in a hurry. She is not; she is one of the most mindful swimmers I know, and this podcast very much became about exactly that – mindful swimming. It wasn’t planned that way, it just happened. Which is part of the magic of mindful swimming – it just happens.

She is passionate about swimming, and her website blog ‘bahnenziehen.de’ captures this well. Her writing is eloquent, beautiful, and she captures some of the many stories that people have of the water, of swimming, of places to swim, of swimming moods, captures them before they evaporate. In this podcast, I try to capture Anette’s story before it evaporates. 

Pauline Barker talks about the origins of the Polar Bear Challenge, and how it has expanded. She describes how many people got through the UK COVID-19 winter through swimming, dipping or equivalent challenges. Most importantly, she talks about what’s in store for the coming winter of 2021-22. Winter swimming has probably never been so popular in the UK as it is now, and Pauline Barker, one of the most experienced people in this field anywhere. 

Ben Cousins is 72 years old and is passionate about the ocean – he has surfed it, swum in it, and now free dives in and around the ocean kelp forest south of Simonstown, south of Capetown, South Africa. At the start of our conversation in this podcast. Ben quotes poet Emily Dickenson - ‘That it will never come again - Is what makes life so sweet’. Ben lives life to the full, and strives to understand this mysterious world by keeping a diary for every swim - shark, octopus, sting ray, and all the creatures big and small that make up this unique ecology. 

Judith Holder is a bestselling comedy writer, TV producer and speaker, who originated the BBC series and stage shows 'Grumpy Old Women' which have sold worldwide. She is passionate about outdoor swimming. In this podcast she talks about her love for swimming, comedy, and her podcast series with friend and comedian Jenny Eclair.