About this podcast
Lo-fi clip-clops and bleats to relax/study to. Welcome to the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. Based at the University of Reading, we explore the past, present and future of the English countryside. Hosted by Joe Vaughan and Dr Ollie Douglas. Chaotic Good.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 41 episodes
- Why aren't there beavers in the Bayeux Tapestry? (with Dave Musgrove) · 1 h 22 minSend us Fan Mail The Bayeux Tapestry is the iconic story of the Norman conquest of England. But what else does it show us about land, farming and access in medieval England and…
- People who like saving things (with Hannah Silver and Jen Patterson) · 1 h 5 minSend us Fan Mail In 2013, we acquired a collection of over 1,800 rural films that had been carefully assembled, preserved, and frequently shared by a Nottinghamshire farmer…
- Big sheep, little labels (Joe and Ollie) · 1 h 0 minSend us Fan Mail Sorry we missed a week! We're catching up after both being out on leave. In this episode, Joe and Ollie chat about what they've been up to lately with many…
- So you want to make a time capsule (with Rosy Scholes and Ellen Knight) · 60 minSend us Fan Mail What will farming look like in 100 years time? That's the question asked by a group of University of Reading PhD students, managed by Rosy Scholes and Ellen…
- 21st-century MERL (with Kate Arnold-Forster) · 43 minSend us Fan Mail How do you lead a rural history museum in 2026? What does that look like in practice? And how does our contemporary work vary to the vision of our founders back…
- How to move a museum down a hill (with Kate Arnold-Forster) · 40 minSend us Fan Mail So far we've spoken a lot about The Museum of English Rural Life's earliest years. Yet so much of what we are today results from a radical rethinking of what The…
- Bad Bunny, Star Wars, and Stardew Valley (Joe and Ollie special) · 1 h 0 minSend us Fan Mail What have we been up to lately? What's coming up? And what's the rural significance of Bad Bunny's performance at the Superbowl? In this episode, Joe and Ollie…
- What can we learn from the T-rex? (with Tom Oliver and Marzia Briel) · 1 h 1 minSend us Fan Mail We're back with our second episode with the University of Reading's Tom Oliver and Marzia Briel! We continue talking about their Nature-centric Catalyst project…
- Ego vs eco (with Tom Oliver and Marzia Briel) · 56 minSend us Fan Mail How does humanity fit into nature? How long have we viewed ourselves as being apart from it? And what are the problems that creates? This time, we chat with Tom…
- Radical Rural Revisited (Joe and Ollie special) · 60 minSend us Fan Mail Okay. Take 2. Last month we drew to a close two major installations at The MERL: our gallery trail Radical Rural, and our exhibition Voices of the Countryside…
- The art of accessible spaces (with Anahita Harding) · 42 minSend us Fan Mail 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…
- 50 Million Pheasants Later (with Guy Shrubsole) · 50 minSend 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…
- Who owns England? (with Guy Shrubsole) · 1 h 0 minSend 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…
- Quick schedule update · 1 minSend 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…
- Celebrating 1 year of Absolute Units + listener questions · 54 minSend 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…
- Life on Marsh (with Adrian Lawson) · 1 h 21 minSend 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…
- The Fight for Wild Camping on Dartmoor (with Ruth Webb and Lisa Schneidau) · 46 minSend 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…
- Old Crockern Awakes (with Ruth Webb and Lisa Schneidau) · 56 minSend 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…
- Rural Britannia (with Ollie Douglas) · 51 minSend us Fan Mail Content warning: This episode contains references to antisemitism and prejudice. Listener discretion is advised. --- Last episode we talked about the founding…
- Making The MERL (with Ollie Douglas) · 54 minSend us Fan Mail On 1 January 1951, on the same day that the first episode of iconic radio drama The Archers aired on the radio, academics at the University of Reading officially…
