John Lloyd was producer for TV’s Spitting Image, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy and all four series of Blackadder. He is the creator of the News Quiz on Radio 4 and BBC2’s iconoclastic comedy series Not the Nine O Clock News. He is the host of Radio 4’s Museum of Curiosity and creator of the long-running TV comedy panel show QI. He even once shared a flat with Douglas Adams. John has won numerous awards for his work and has a happy, stable loving relationship and three children. Despite th...
Nov 05, 2024•14 min•Season 3Ep. 6
The self-styled entertainer philosopher Alan Watts wrote his first book on Zen in 1936 when only nineteen and grew to become a world expert on Eastern philosophy. A prolific author, public speaker and radio presenter he wrote over twenty books, gave hundreds of public lectures and sought out a life in which (in his own words) he could ‘swing’. Watts had a rare genius for expressing with clarity and humour complex and challenging ideas about reality and how we came to relate to the world in the w...
Oct 29, 2024•42 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Search Google for the ‘most intelligent’ people who ever lived and the names most commonly thrown up are Galileo, Da Vinci, Einstein, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawkin. All men, all western, all united by their contributions to science. Why is our idea of intelligence so skewed? How did IQ come to be our standard measure for intelligence? Is there a deep intelligence in the more-than-human world of animals, plants, fungi and bacteria? What about AI? Or politicians? Big questions for one episode bu...
Oct 22, 2024•51 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Lucy Cooke’s Bitch tells a wildly different story of reproduction, gender and sexual habits in the animal kingdom to those passed down to us by Darwin, Dawkins and other highly influential male scientists. Bitch challenges outdated preconceptions and biases around the female of the species being sexually coy, monogamous and passive and males being sexually dominant and promiscuous. It also challenges broader expectations around male and female roles and why binary ways of looking at the world an...
Oct 15, 2024•49 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Is mind contained within us, or us within it? When it comes to what science calls ‘the hard problem’, we still have no understanding about the nature of consciousness. That it could be a field, rather than isolated within us, might explain what appear to be the group minds of termites, ants and bees or the pulsating murmurations of starling. It could even help explain the pervasive global practise of prayer and magic, and non-contact forms of healing like Reiki. This episode is not setting out t...
Oct 08, 2024•57 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Alan Turin’s ‘automatic machine’ remains the blueprint for nearly all of our modern computer systems. In an early paper however Turin wrote: ‘of course another type of machine is possible. This is the Oracle Machine and I will not speak of that.' Our guest for this mini episode however, will. James Bridle is the author of Ways of Being and an artist whose work deals with the ways in which the digital, networked world reaches into the physical, offline one. James shares their thoughts on why comp...
Oct 01, 2024•20 min•Season 3Ep. 1
In S2E1 we met Rogan Taylor, author of The Death and Resurrection Show a book which traces a path from popular entertainment to the darkened yurts of our nomadic ancestors. After writing this book Rogan went on to pioneer the world’s first post-graduate ‘football’ degree and write many books on the subject. During our conversation he talked about football in relation to myth, ritual, suffering and community. It’s a unique and fascinating perspective on the sport that will stay with you.
Nov 14, 2023•4 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Are our listening habits changing? What effects can sounds like drones and sine tones have on us physically and emotionally? Can we imagine a future in which we might receive audio prescriptions for wellbeing? Why does music played badly make us laugh? Does beetroot really taste better if serenaded with sound? And what might the national anthem of Nutopia sound like? With guests Richard Norris, Paul Devereux, Fiona Miller, Jude Rogers, David Velez and Harry Sword. https://pauldevereux.co.uk/ htt...
Oct 20, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Our ancestors invested great importance in the power of dreams. Across traditional, indigenous and pre-industrialised cultures – including the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians – they were an integral part of the healing process and a tool for divination. So why do most of us give so little consideration to them now? What is hypnagogia? What techniques can help us lucid dream? What might precognitive dreams tell us about the nature of time? This episode dives into the poetic realms of dreams and even...
Oct 13, 2023•58 min•Season 2Ep. 3
If our capitalist economic model of perpetual growth was presented as a myth it would read something like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. As for our economic unit of measure, in a speech in 1968 Robert Kennedy described GDP as ‘measuring everything except that which is worthwhile’. Are there economic models out there that might allow for a paradigm shift from the need for constant growth to a system that is more sustainable, regulated, and nurturing of life? In this episode David attempts to get his ...
Oct 06, 2023•58 min•Season 2Ep. 2
As the lights dim and performers take to the stage, is it mere escapism for us or is there something deeply profound about our need to be entertained? Why do we get so fanatical and idolatrous about musicians and film stars, wanting them to be something more than us mere mortals? Might the whole entertainment industry have learned its trade from an ancient shamanic journey of the soul known to some as the death and resurrection show? With guests Rogan Taylor, journalist Jude Rogers, Dr. Marissa ...
Sep 29, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 1
While Series Two edges a little closer to completion here’s a short appetiser serving up some words of wisdom from The Eden Project’s founder, who we’ll meet properly in a future episode.
Jun 12, 2023•10 min
Comedian and ‘anarchist chef’ George Egg was planned for inclusion in Series One but we just couldn’t work out where to put him. So instead he gets a mini episode all of his own exploring his own concept of snack-hacking, sharing ways of being creative with ‘scraps’ and demonstrating how to cook a full meal in such unlikely places as a hotel room and garden shed.
Feb 14, 2023•8 min•Season 1Ep. 7
While western medicine excels at repairs and crisis management it remains, for many, too mechanical and reductive in its approach to important issues such as mental health, diet and lifestyle. With health practitioner Peter Deadman and Dr Laura Marshall Andrews we’ll explore new (and very old) alternative approaches to health, from social prescription to the Chinese system of yangsheng and the magic of tea. We’ll also meet tech pioneer Sarah Ticho, championing the use of VR for tackling our phob...
Dec 05, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In 2019 artist Daisy Campbell led 69 seekers on a pilgrimage from the Cerne Giant to CERN in Switzerland and back. Their intention? To ‘immanentise the eschaton.’ David was there to see them off, dressed in a gold robe for a ritual to awaken the sleeping giant. Why did they do it? Did they succeed? What is the eschaton? Daisy shares the full adventure and the processes involved in creating a pilgrimage from scratch. We’ll also meet scientist Rupert Sheldrake and Guy Hayward of the British Pilgri...
Nov 28, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 5
We delve into the nature of rituals, why they’re important and how to create our own meaningful ones. With chief druid of Anglesey Kristoffer Hughes we’ll learn about the power of death rituals and the pagan eightfold wheel of the year; we’ll experience the May Day ritual of Jack in the Green in Hastings, spend a night with musician Sam Lee singing with nightingales and end with a discussion of the film with the most chilling ritualistic finale ever: The Wicker Man. https://druidry.org https://w...
Nov 21, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Recorded live at the agro-ecology festival Groundswell, this episode explores different ways that we could be radicalising global agriculture and reversing biodiversity loss through regenerative farming, hemp, mob grazing, the no-till movement and precision fermentation. Donning wellies, sun hat and a nose peg for a dung beetle safari, along the way David meets Farmerama Podcast creator Abi Rose, Regenesis author George Monbiot and ecofarmer and publisher Daphne Astor. https://druidry.org https:...
Nov 14, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 3
What makes people fall for conspiracy theories like QAnon? Is it possible to ‘change’ our minds? Might the idea of reality tunnels be the single most important thing to teach the next generation? Counter-culture philosopher Robert Anton Wilson certainly thought so, as do our guests: authors John Higgs, Journey to Nutopia co-founder Michelle Olley and theatre director Daisy Campbell. With their help we’ll reveal experiments to challenge our own belief systems, learn more about Robert Anton Wilson...
Nov 07, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 2
If myths are the means by which we make sense of ourselves and the world around us, how did we become so fixated on stories and systems built around greed, selfishness and competition? How did we come to perceive nature as an unintelligent machine, a mere resource to be plundered? With the help of philosopher Alan Watts we’ll unpick the past two thousand years before meeting guests George Monbiot, Jeremy Lent, mythologist Sharon Blackie and non-binary artist Brooke Palmieri, to learn about some ...
Oct 31, 2022•53 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Adventures in Nutopia is a documentary-style series exploring new stories, movements, myths and ideas to help steer us into a more inclusive, networked and ecological future. In Nutopia all are welcome. We’re just as excited to share the ideas of pagans, panpsychists and psychedelic pioneers as we are of scientists, economists and cognitive historians. Though, if we’re honest, we do find the pomposity of men like Richard Dawkins a bit of a drag and may prefer to pack them off to clown school fir...
Oct 11, 2022•2 min
