In this special episode of The Outdoors Fix to mark the end of the current run of conversations, I wanted to pick out my highlights from the past year. I’ve had so much fun heading out to record conversations in all sorts of outdoor places — from a hillside in the Howgill Fells in Cumbria, to a reservoir on the edge of Greater Manchester, to a valley in Eryri — or Snowdonia — and a woodland in London. Along the way, I’ve met some extraordinary people whose lives have been profoundly shaped by th...
May 16, 2026•28 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. This week my guest is Francesca Donovan, a hiker, outdoor swimmer and co-editor of The Great Outdoors Magazine. Now, you might expect someone in that role to have grown up immersed in nature… but Francesca’s background is quite different. Her childhood wasn’t outdoorsy— and for a long time, she didn’t see herself as someone who belonged in those spaces. It wasn’t until her mid...
Apr 11, 2026•47 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. Let me ask you something: How well do you know the trees in your local area? Do you have a favourite? One of mine is an ancient sweet chestnut in the Ashridge Estate in the Chilterns, not far from where I grew up. It’s enormous, with beautifully twisted bark, and it’s thought to be more than 400 years old. It’s the kind of tree you can’t help but stop and stare at for a while....
Mar 07, 2026•49 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In this episode, Liv Bolton is joined by Sameed Asghar, who takes her and photographer Frankie Dewar on a hike up to a waterfall in Carding Mill Valley in Shropshire. It turns out to be possibly one of the wettest recordings Liv’s ever done… but also one of the most fun. Sameed is a real force of nature. Despite the rain, he was throwing in handstands and yoga poses along the ...
Feb 07, 2026•40 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In this episode, Liv Bolton goes for a wonderfully atmospheric, mist-soaked walk in Eryri [Snowdonia] with Max Swinhoe. Max’s love for hiking runs deep. She’s completed the 2,200-mile long Appalachian Trail in the US, tackled multi-day routes across the UK, and she’s now a Mountain Leader as well as a Mountain Rescue volunteer. But hiking has also been part of a much more pers...
Jan 03, 2026•56 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In this episode, Liv Bolton is in the beautiful Wythenshawe Park in Greater Manchester with someone who’s truly impacting lives through nature — Beth Craigen. Beth is an Outdoors Youth Worker for the charity Nacro Greater Manchester Outdoor Learning, a qualified Lowland Leader, and a dedicated volunteer who seems to live and breathe the outdoors. The park is her classroom, her...
Oct 11, 2025•46 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. This episode takes Liv Bolton to the beautiful Howgill fells in Cumbria to walk with Angela White, better known as the Running Granny. Angela is a retired doctor and surgeon and now an ultra runner and personal trainer. Over the past 15 years, she’s taken on some extraordinary challenges: 100-mile races, 24-hour mountain challenges, and even a Guinness World Record for running...
Sep 13, 2025•50 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. This episode takes us to the beautiful Dove Stone Reservoir on the edge of Greater Manchester, where Liv Bolton walks with Emily Thornton and Lucy Hird — the duo known as Soft Girls Who Hike. They’re the voices behind the viral #softhiking trend — a social media movement that’s reached millions and is redefining what it can mean to go for a walk in nature. Their message? Hikin...
Aug 16, 2025•49 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In this episode, Liv Bolton is off to Shropshire for a walk — and a bit of a splash — with Fran Pearson. Fran is the founder of Kitsquad, a brilliant outdoors charity that’s already helped nearly 5,000 people experiencing poverty to get properly kitted out for adventures in nature. Think waterproofs, sleeping bags, rucksacks, walking boots — all donated, and all making a world...
Jul 19, 2025•44 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In the first episode of a new series, Liv Bolton goes for a walk in Sydenham Hill Wood in south London with Chantelle Lindsay. Chantelle knows the 23-acre wood extremely well as she’s a wildlife conservationist who works there for the London Wildlife Trust. She’s also a presenter on CBeebies’ Teeny Tiny Creatures and has reported for BBC Springwatch. Chantelle’s mission is to ...
Jun 21, 2025•44 min
As there are now more than 60 episodes of The Outdoors Fix, and while I’m working on a new series, I thought I’d help you pick out some of my favourite conversations from over the years with these throwback episodes. In this episode, I’m revisiting my conversation with Carla Khouri. Carla is a qualified mountain leader who’s also the course director for Black Girls Hike, a Duke of Edinburgh assessor, paddlesports leader and Merrell Hiking Club organiser. But she lives in London and she used to b...
Apr 12, 2025•49 min
As there are now more than 60 episodes of The Outdoors Fix, and while I’m working on a new series, I thought I’d help you pick out some of my favourite conversations from over the years with these throwback episodes. In this episode, I’m revisiting my conversation with James Rebanks. James is a shepherd, farmer and the author of the bestselling books The Shepherd’s Life, English Pastoral and The Place of Tides. James lives in the Matterdale Valley near Ullswater in the Lake District and his fami...
Mar 29, 2025•1 hr 3 min
As there are now more than 60 episodes of The Outdoors Fix, and while I’m working on a new series, I thought I’d help you pick out some of my favourite conversations from over the years with these throwback episodes. In this episode, I’m revisiting my conversation with Vicky Balfour. Vicky’s an avid mountain biker, bike mechanic, writer, special needs parent and founder of Vicky Bikes, her business offering bike mechanic and cycling sessions. Her mission is “to enable people of all ages and back...
Mar 15, 2025•43 min
As there are now more than 60 episodes of The Outdoors Fix, and while I’m working on a new series, I thought I’d help you pick out some of my favourite conversations from over the years with these throwback episodes. In this episode, I’m revisiting my conversation with Emma Holland. Emma’s a qualified mountain leader who runs her own mountain leader business, Emma Holland Mountain Training. Having worked for Nottingham City Council since she was 18, it wasn’t until her 40s that Emma took the big...
Mar 01, 2025•49 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. For this episode, Juls Stodel takes Liv for a walk to a bothy in the Scottish Borders. Juls is a hiker and trustee of the Mountain Bothies Association. She journeyed to 104 bothies in Scotland, England and Wales in 2023 - a challenge that took her a year. From bothies on remote Scottish Islands to ones hidden away in the Highlands, it was a unique adventure. On their walk, Jul...
Nov 23, 2024•52 min•Season 9Ep. 6
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In this episode, Liv Bolton goes for a hike up the very steep Leckhampton Hill in the Cotswolds with Robert Finch. An orienteer and trail runner, Rob works for Ordnance Survey as a Field Surveyor. He’s a listener of the podcast and when he heard Liv was looking to speak to someone who works with maps, he got in touch! Liv learnt so much about mapping from the conversation, inc...
Nov 09, 2024•39 min•Season 9Ep. 5
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In this episode, Liv Bolton goes for a walk in the Peak District with Marie Cheng. Marie’s life has been transformed by the outdoors in the last few years. Before the pandemic, Marie used to work as a consultant in London. She loved hiking and skiing, but felt like they were just fleeting moments in her busy, urban life. Just before lockdown she decided to make some big, brave...
Oct 26, 2024•50 min•Season 9Ep. 4
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In this episode, Liv Bolton goes for a walk on Harborne Walkway in Birmingham with hiker, runner, model and founder of We Go Outside Too Marlon Patrice. We Go Outside Too is a group which aims to make the countryside more accessible for the black community and to increase representation in the outdoors. It was set up in 2020 after the tragic death of his son through knife crim...
Oct 12, 2024•30 min•Season 9Ep. 3
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In this episode, Liv Bolton goes for a walk in Swanscombe Marshes by the River Thames in Kent with the adventurer and author Alastair Humphreys. Al’s relationship with the outdoors has changed a lot over the years - he’s been on extraordinary expeditions all around the world, travelling through over 80 countries by bicycle, boat and on foot, but more recently he’s focused on s...
Sep 28, 2024•57 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. In this episode, cyclist, mum and NHS paediatric consultant Phoebe Sneddon chats to Liv Bolton on a walk in the Peak District. Phoebe’s big passion is cycling, and she loves bike packing, cyclocross and gravel biking with a trailer carrying her children. Through her adventures and medical expertise, she hopes to encourage as many women and girls as possible to get outside to b...
Sep 13, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Cath Pendleton works full-time in an office in Wales and is a single mum to two daughters. But she’s also swum an ice mile in Antarctica, won Bronze for Team GB in the World Ice Swimming Championships in Russia and completed a swim across the English Channel. Cath’s inspired countless women to get outside and have an adventure, including TV presenter Louise Minchin, whom she persuaded to go free diving under the ice in Finland! Also known as ‘the Merthyr Mermaid’ (referencing Merthyr Tydfil wher...
Jul 13, 2024•48 min
At the age of 60, Siobhan Daniels decided to sell her flat and most of her belongings, buy a motorhome and explore all around the UK. Five years later, she’s fulfilled so many of her dreams, including spending months adventuring around Orkney and the Outer Hebrides, watching beautiful sunsets in the wilderness and writing a book about her journey. Siobhan, who calls herself a ‘pro-age campaigner’, is determined to encourage older women to dismiss age as a barrier to adventure, and to go out and ...
Jun 29, 2024•50 min
David Haze’s story is one of the most extraordinary that I have ever come across on this podcast. He’s a nine-time world record breaking paddleboarder and ocean activist. But five years ago, he was in prison for burglary and handling stolen goods. In the years since his release, he’s grabbed his second chance at life and undertaken some extraordinary paddleboarding adventures, breaking records in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Iceland. Just last month, he paddleboarded across the...
Jun 15, 2024
Having had a very outdoorsy upbringing in Carmarthenshire in South Wales, Carys Rees decided that she wanted to give something back to the outdoors community. She’s certainly doing that - by being a volunteer for the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team, an ambassador for The Ramblers, and encouraging others to explore South Wales through her hiking-route website, This Girl Walks. It’s a busy life for someone who lives in a city, Cardiff, and who works in London for part of the week. I spoke to ...
Jun 01, 2024
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. Hello! I’m currently in the middle of producing a new series of The Outdoors Fix podcast. So in the meantime, I’ve got a special episode for you that I think you’ll enjoy! Some of you will remember an episode I recorded with Matthew Bannister back in 2020 - he’s the founder of the multi-award winning Folk on Foot podcast where he goes walking with leading folk musicians in bea...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 9 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. *10 February 2024 marks 5 years since the first episode of The Outdoors Fix podcast!* To celebrate this milestone, I’ve got a NEW PODCAST EPISODE for you of some of my favourite moments from The Outdoors Fix recordings over the years! I’ve loved speaking to every single one of my guests, but the moments I’ve picked are some of the snippets that have had the biggest impact on m...
Feb 09, 2024•53 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. Tom Burns is the ranger and woodsman at Knepp estate in West Sussex, a pioneering rewilding project led by the estate’s owners and conservationists Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree. But growing up in the town of Crawley and passionate about rugby, Tom never expected that his life would lead him to a career where he’s up at dawn with the birds, coppicing woodland and protectin...
Nov 11, 2023•48 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. Munira Ali discovered the joy of walking in 2019 when she was struggling with her mental health. She’s now attempting to walk in all of London’s 3,000 parks, spreading the message, particularly within her British-Somaliland community, about the pleasure of exploring urban green spaces. Munira’s enthusiasm about walking in London’s parks is utterly infectious so I couldn’t wait...
Oct 28, 2023•46 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. Sarah Banks is a journalist and writer who’s just spent 18 months researching and writing the Wild Guide to North East England. In search of 1,000 different wild spots for the book, Sarah explored all over Northumberland, the North York Moors, the Yorkshire Wolds and the North Pennines, finding lakes and rivers for swimming to hidden meadows, beaches and ancient ruins. That so...
Oct 14, 2023•50 min
The Outdoors Fix is a podcast to inspire you to make the outdoors a bigger part of your life. It’s hosted by Liv Bolton. Katy O’Neill Gutierrez is a mum of two and the founder of Blaze Trails, a network of walking groups all around the UK for parents and their babies. Realising that getting outdoors was crucial to her mental health after a traumatic labour with her first daughter, Katy started organising walks with friends. Those initial walks have led to the creation of a network of 56 walking ...
Sep 30, 2023•50 min
