Episode description

How have we shaped the landscapes around us, and how have landscapes shaped us? From flooding in Cumbria to community groups in Staffordshire, how can understanding the history of a landscape help planners, council policy, and current residents? Do we need to rethink the way we archive information about changes to landscapes? Professor Neil Macdonald has explored the history of relationships with landscapes, whilst artist and scientist Nicole Manley is delving into hidden knowledge to discover what people know about landscapes without realising.

Professor Neil Macdonald is a Professor of Geography at the University of Liverpool. He is currently focussing on floods, droughts and extreme weather in projects taking place in the Hebrides, Staffordshire and Cumbria. https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/geography-and-planning/research/clandage/

Artist Nicole Manley is a mixed media artist, researching the influence of environmental art. She is also know as Dr Nicole Archer and is a a soil hydrologist from the British Geological Survey. https://www.nicolemanley.org/

Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Durham.

You can find a new podcast series Green Thinking: 26 episodes 26 minutes long in the run up to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI, exploring the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency. New Generation Thinkers Des Fitzgerald and Eleanor Barraclough will be in conversation with researchers on a wide-range of subjects from cryptocurrencies and finance to eco poetry and fast fashion.

The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on mushrooms, forests, rivers, eco-criticism and soil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2

For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: Responding to climate change – UKRI or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast.

Producer: Sofie Vilcins