Tonal - Rivers Beyond Sewage

By Feral Practice

TONAL - Rivers Beyond Sewage explores water issues nationally with a special focus on the River Tone in Somerset. Through riverside conversations with people who have different and profound relatio

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· Society & Culture

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FAQs about Tonal - Rivers Beyond Sewage:

How many episodes does Tonal - Rivers Beyond Sewage have?

The podcast currently has 8 episodes available.

Tonal - Rivers Beyond Sewage episodes:

September 18, 2025 TONAL - On River Connection, Pilgrimage and Healing with Jane Embleton
Jane introduces her work - as a river pilgrim, healer, wise woman, spirit practitioner - through telling the story of how the river called her one Winter Solstice, through the actions of three dogs. As we walk along a disrupted part of the river in Nynehead, Jane offers insights into her path, her profound connection to land and river, and describes the significance of healing work at the level of spirit.

Jane lives in Ashbrittle, at the headwaters of one of River Tone's tributaries that forms a boundary between Somerset and Devon. As a healer and pilgrim she has walked the Tone three times, from source to sea, sea to source, source to sea.

Tonal explores water issues nationally with a special focus on the River Tone in Somerset. Each podcast episode is a riverside conversation with someone who has a specific personal or professional relationship to water and the river, building a broad base of knowledge from many distinctive perspectives.
Love and learn your rivers by subscribing to new episodes :)
Visit the website - https://www.tonal-uk.com/
Follow Feral Practice - https://www.instagram.com/feralpractice/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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31min
September 04, 2025 TONAL - On Legal Personhood and River Guardianship with barrister Paul Powlesland
An inspiring conversation about how DIY action is the driving force behind changes in the law. If you want your river to have legal personhood, to have rights, act as if it already did!

Paul Powlesland is one of the founders of Lawyers for Nature. He fights and campaigns for the rights of nature, especially trees and rivers. He is also a River Guardian for the River Roding in London, and Founder of the River Roding Trust. He acts on the river's behalf by contesting planning applications, planting trees, litter picking, creating habitat for biodiversity, walking the river to find problems such as the influx of Japanese knotweed and the unlisted sewage outflows, hassling the Environment Agency...
Love and learn your rivers by subscribing to new episodes :)
Visit the website - https://www.tonal-uk.com/
Follow Feral Practice - https://www.instagram.com/feralpractice/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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56min
August 22, 2025 TONAL - On Flooding and Community, with Dr Bel Deering
This episode deals with the difficult topic of flooding, and how to build resilience: in people, buildings and communities. Dr Bel Deering is the community engagement officer for Somerset Rivers Authority. Her PhD was on the recreational uses of graveyards, a hint that the conversation contains many flashes of quirky humour alongside the serious stuff. Somerset Rivers Authority is a partnership organisation set up in response to the devastating floods of 2013-14 in the Somerset Levels and Moors. Any errors are the speakers' own.
Love and learn your rivers by subscribing to new episodes :)
Visit the website - https://www.tonal-uk.com/
Follow Feral Practice - https://www.instagram.com/feralpractice/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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37min
August 04, 2025 TONAL - Rivers Beyond Sewage - Watery Wellington with author and activist Anita Roy
Feral Practice goes backyard exploring around the waterways of Wellington in Somerset with Anita Roy, one of the dynamic leaders of Transition Town Wellington. Anita shares her passion for the watery history of woolen cloth making in the town, and the current (and currant) successes and future plans of TTW, including the forest garden in Fox's Field and plans for a new wetland. Don't miss the end, with Anita's concept of 'pond consciousness', which brings self and world into harmony.
Love and learn your rivers by subscribing to new episodes :)
Visit the website - https://www.tonal-uk.com/
Follow Feral Practice - https://www.instagram.com/feralpractice/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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51min
August 04, 2025 TONAL - Rivers Beyond Sewage - Pollution and wild swimming with MP Gideon Amos
MP for Taunton and Wellington Gideon lives in central Taunton and swims most Saturdays after Park Run, so he is passionate about the River Tone. He helped to run the successful campaign to gain bathing water status for the river in French Weir Park. Gideon and Fiona discuss the Lib Dem calls for Ofwat to be abolished, plus a gamut of water-quality issues including sewage, planning, farming, dogs, retrofitting, ecocide and raft racing.
Love and learn your rivers by subscribing to new episodes :)
Visit the website - https://www.tonal-uk.com/
Follow Feral Practice - https://www.instagram.com/feralpractice/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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32min
August 04, 2025 TONAL - Rivers Beyond Sewage - Queerness, neurodiversity and beavers with artist James Aldridge
Feral Practice walks and talks with artist James Aldridge. Exploring an area of recently flooded land to the east side of Taunton, the artists discuss Aldridge's 'Queer River' project and other ideas that intersect in their work - around water, diversity and creativity.Being recently flooded, the Tone was embodying the ‘de-canalisation’ of thinking that the artists discuss - how it is important to loosen ideas around what a river is and what a human is. And how we, through practices that decenter the human, can learn from other creatures.
Love and learn your rivers by subscribing to new episodes :)
Visit the website - https://www.tonal-uk.com/
Follow Feral Practice - https://www.instagram.com/feralpractice/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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28min
August 04, 2025 TONAL - Rivers Beyond Sewage - Dirty Water with Helen Wakeham
A generous and wide ranging conversation about water, mostly dirty water, with Director of Water for the Environment Agency Helen Wakeham. Tackling in detail and giving historical context to the (all too literal) topic of shit in the river, as well as road runoff, farm runoff, PFAs chemicals and plastics. Including practical tips and future ambitions, this is a realistic and well informed deep dive into river pollution, asking what do we want for water, and how much are we willing to change to get it?Helen lives on a boat in Bristol, enjoys several different river craft, wild swims, and has made a thirty year career in water. Water is her obsession. She is delighted that water is finally getting the attention in deserves, but life at the EA is not comfortable.
Love and learn your rivers by subscribing to new episodes :)
Visit the website - https://www.tonal-uk.com/
Follow Feral Practice - https://www.instagram.com/feralpractice/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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49min
August 04, 2025 TONAL - Rivers Beyond Sewage - Otters with Jo Pearse of Somerset Otter Group
Feral Practice learns to spot signs of otters - that is slides and spraint 💩 - along the Taunton-Bridgwater canal and finds out more about otter life from Jo Pearse of the Somerset Otter Group. Question - what does otter poo smell like? The answer may surprise you! Jo goes into delighful detail about the otter's life and habits, including how anal jelly (😳) helps protect the otters gut from fish bones. We learn the different kinds of peril otters are in, and how in death they contribute to river research.
Love and learn your rivers by subscribing to new episodes :)
Visit the website - https://www.tonal-uk.com/
Follow Feral Practice - https://www.instagram.com/feralpractice/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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36min

FAQs about Tonal - Rivers Beyond Sewage:

How many episodes does Tonal - Rivers Beyond Sewage have?

The podcast currently has 8 episodes available.