Swimmingpod

Tony Forbes and Col Ritchie are regulars at the annual Pierto Pub ocean swim in Lorne, Victoria. This can be a fierce race, when swimming can be a contact sport. Notwithstanding this, this fearsome duo amount nearly a century and a half of life experience between them, and swimming enough Pier toPubs leads to the honour of receiving a shark bait award, two or more if you live long enough and/or you don't get taken by a shark. Tony and Col take it seriously enough to train regularly in their local pool. Which is where I jointhem, one crisp Australian spring morning.

Sarah Quinn taught me to say ‘You never regret a swim' and Ihave been saying it now for decades. And I don't and nor does she and nor does Amenah McDonald. Sarah and Amenah have a beautiful connection through the ocean atOcean Grove, Australia. Amenah plans her week around how the surf is going to be, while Sarah reads the water every morning on the way to dropping her kids off at school. Both live close to the ocean and are in every day if it letsthem – the water is their friend, but sometimes it can be treacherous. Amenah is Captain and Director of Lifesaving Operations at Ocean Grove Lifesaving Club, overseeing safety at this beach. In the summer, there can be up to 10,000people here, and maintaining safety is paramount, while not getting in the way of people's enjoyment of the water. There is a lively group of women who swim and surf here, and they follow their swims with a weekly life debrief – how islife treating you, what's going on, whats troubling you? Life revolves around the water here, and companionship is key. This podcast was recorded at the look-out tower that is the focal point for safety here, the Ocean Grove Lifesaving Club.

Stanley Ulijaszek offers some reflections about swimming in Victoria in Australia on the coast at Queenscliffe. On a beautifulbeach, long and stretching towards a point to the left and another to theright, at Point Lonsdale. A swim with a Hopper-esque sailboat sailing in gentlebut business-like fashion, in front of the lighthouse that signals the pointwhere Australia lost a Prime Minister to the water and to the waves. RustCloud, Richard Serra, rusted iron slabs of sails sculpted by the wind. Strongerout there than here in gentle crawl parallel to the sandy shore. What three wordstell the world where I am? Iterative.underwrite.swimming. A day of sun andswimming to rain and a broken car key. From delight to distress and back again. 

There is a lot of good swimming to be had in the Bristolregion, with several vibrant and active outdoor swimming scenes in the region - in the city itself, but also in the nearby River Avon, in the River Brue, in the Avon estuary, and in the sea at sand point. If you can go a mile or ten out of Bristol there is a lot of choice - at Weston Super Mare there are several lido beaches to choose. River swimming at Bradford upon Avon (the river Avon upstream) is a scenic delight. People really care about their swimming here. Thesetwo accounts of swimming around Bristol are extracts from my book ‘Memories like Water – Swimming in 65 places at the age of 65'. They took place as pandemic lockdowns eased in 2020, which gave them a surreal edge – can wereally swim together again? At Cleveden Marine Lake, and at Farleigh and District River Swimming Club, just south of Bath.

Charlotte Sawyer is a documentary film maker and photographer who captures cinematic stories that cross cultures and boundaries. She has worked in conflict zones and places vulnerable to climate change, notably Iraq, Ethiopia and Nigeria. Aggie Nyagari is a Kenyan film and TV director, who brings the diversity of her life experiences into her work. Charlotte and Aggie both live, swim and work in Bristol. Together they have made a beautiful new film - Rave On for the Avon - capturing the Conham Bathing Group communities love for their river, and their fight for to gain Bathing Water Quality status for it. This podcast was recorded at Conham, where Stanley Ulijaszek, Charlotte Sawyer and Aggie Nyagari talk about the film and its making, and the River Avon and its swimming people.

Tom Kearney is a Hampstead resident of over a quarter of a century and year-round swimmer at the nearby Ponds. He has a life well lived. In this podcast we talk about that life and the very special place that swimming in open water has in it. The late Al Alvarez, poet and author of the book ‘Pond Life', Tom's friend in Hampstead, brought him to swimming at The Ponds, something that he says has saved his life. On the eighteenth of December 2009, Tom was knocked over by a bus in London's Oxford Street, and was in near-death coma for two weeks, making a miraculous recovery subsequently. We talk about how the accident transformed his life, and how daily swimming is central to this transformation. We talk about poetry and The Ponds. About the central importance of family, of living each day to the full. About his campaigning for bus safety in London - ‘If you shut up truth, and bury it underground it will but grow' (Emile Zola). For Tom, campaigning and swimming outside all year round are not dissimilar - they're uncomfortable, require both physical and mental stamina, and every time you do it you achieve something that, in a different life, you'd have thought impossible. We talk about how life is serious business, but there is plenty of time for laughter, especially in relation to the East German Ladies Swimming Team (a Hampstead Men's Pond thing), which Tom is also a central part of. Tom brims with positivity, a Hampstead intellect who swims and appreciates all that life can offer.

This podcast is about open water swimming in London – given how urban this global city is, it is not immediately obvious that this is a great place for open water swimming. Indeed, there is a thriving open water swimming scene. More accurately, there are several open water swimming scenes in London - in rivers (usually the River Thames), lakes, ponds, and outdoor pools. Here are four personal accounts of swimming in London in river, pond, lake and pool, respectively. These are: from Teddington to Richmond, in the Thames; in the Ponds at Hampstead Heath; at the Serpentine Swimming Club in Hyde Park; and with the South London Winter Swimming Club at Tooting Bec Lido. These are extracts from the book ‘Memories like Water – Swimming in 65 places at the age of 65', swum in 2019-20. All pre-pandemic swims, the one at Tooting Bec being on the cusp of COVID-19 lockdown.

Sarah Giles lives and swims in open water in Oxford. She is Programme Development Manager at SportExcel UK, a sports organisation working with people with learning disability across the UK in performance/elite sport. She is a passionate open water swimmer all days and all seasons, and a powerful advocate for equality and inclusion. In this podcast we talk about open water swimming in Oxford, and how revitalising Oxford's former river bathing places could help address inequalities in swimming in the city.

There is a strong tradition of outdoor swimming in Oxford. Writer Iris Murdoch said something like this “On hot days in the Oxford summer my husband and I manage to slip into the Thames, a mile or two above the city. The art is to draw no attention to oneself, but to cruise quietly by the reeds like a water rat". A recent exhibition in Oxford showed a map of bathing places in or close to the city centre, and there were many. There was Wolvercote, Black Jack's Hole, Fiddler's Island, Tumbling Bay, the Sheepwash, Boney's Bridge, St Ebbe's. Stump Pool, Sunny Meade, St Clement's, Milham Stream, Deep Martin, Long Meadow Bush, Codger's Island, Astons Eyot, Saunder's Bridge. There was also Parson's Pleasure, Long Bridges, Port Meadow, and Iffley.  In this podcast, there are accounts of swimming in the latter four swimming spots in Oxford, extracts from 'Memories Like Water, Swimming in 65 Places at the Age of 65'.

Darrin Roles started the Lock to Lock a single swim event in the Thames in 2015, and it has grown into a series of events and distances. The first year the event was from Eynsham to King's Lock (4 kilometers), and in subsequent years, swims from Farmoor to King's Lock (6 kilometers) and from Farmoor to Godstow Lock (10 kilometers) were introduced. This Wild Swim series is known for being set in locations of natural beauty in West Oxfordshire. In the course of setting up and running these swims he set up two swim-runs, along the same stretch of the River Thames as the Lock to Lock swims. In this podcast Darrin talks about the Lock to Lock series, and what an amazing stretch of river the Thames is, from Eynsham into Oxford.

This podcast is about my practice of swimming to work, the last of which took place in 2022 when I retired. A swim to work for me was 8 kilometers, from Eynsham Lock to Port Meadow, Oxford. My final swim to work was on a Friday, when I had been accompanied by several friends, to make it a memorable one. While previous swims to work had started early in the so that I could get to work on time – my work place has a shower and I keep a change of clothes there – this one started at the civilised time of nine am, and was followed by a royal welcome by Neil Scott onto his boat on Port Meadow. A red carpet, someone to help me change, pastries and fresh coffee. The extract is from the book, Memories like Water, an account of my swimming in 65 places at the age of 65 years 

Jeremy Wellingham and Mike Harris are both open water swimmers, Jeremy in Oxfordshire, Mike in London. Both swim nationally and internationally too. Both write swim-inspired haiku. In this podcast they talk about their swimming experiences, and what it takes to write this Japanese short-form poetry. Water features widely, and thinking poetically shapes their awareness of the environment as they swim.

This podcast is about swims in The Shire - Tolkein's Oxfordshire. I have no idea if Tolkien was a swimmer, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that he liked water. In Lord of the Rings, The Elves have close affinity to water; while Ulmo is the Lord of Water. Ulmo is also the enemy of evil creatures, and therefore water is associated with moral force.  The Shire is a place where hobbits live, hobbits being easy-going, liking a quiet life, but who can also handle a big adventure. Most hobbits can't swim, and most are afraid of rivers. Not me. The three accounts of swimming in The Shire are extracts from my book ‘Memories like Water – Swimming in 65 places at the age of 65'. Swimming the River Thames from Lechlade to Buscot, swimming in a secluded brook by an old ruin at Minster Lovell, and swimming in the River Thames at Day's Lock.

Emma Gibbard and Carl Tysom are both passionate about open water swimming, and both have been involved in overseeing swimming at the West Oxfordshire Sailing Club, where there is a lake with a one kilometer track, and dedicated members who swim on a regular basis, many of them through winter, alongside a thriving sailing community. I am also involved in overseeing swimming here. In this podcast we talk about swimming in West Oxfordshire, and about the issues associated with running open water swimming at a small club. Carl had already swum his distance when we found him recovering, in dry robe, over a cup of tea. Emma and I were yet to swim.

Five years ago, Stanley Ulijaszek undertook 65 swims in different places at the age of 65 years. The book 'Memories Like Water' is a personal account of these swims. A lot of things happened in that year. Going to swim in places known, in places new. Lakes, rivers, oceans. Revisiting places and the memories that have gone with them, revisiting the memories of those places and reinventing them. In this podcast, Stanley Ulijaszek talks about this swimming journey, and describes the first of these 65 swims, which takes place at the West Oxfordshire Sailing Club swimming lake.

Helen Edwards is an ecological artist, dancer, and swimmer. I am with her at her solo exhibition at Oxford's North Wall Arts Centre, entitled Breathing of Life.  She has danced and swum in natural landscapes all her life. Connecting body, breath and imagination, she makes aesthetic connections with environmental images – in paintings juxtaposed with underwater photography, and film. In her work she likes to bridge art and science, culture and community, all with a focus on water and ecology. She takes her approach to the pragmatics of nature restoration and to environmental projects.  In this podcast we talk about all this, as well as her situatedness in the Oxford land and water scape, focusing on her daily water related practices, including swimming.  

Swimming outdoors every day, Stanley Ulijaszek celebrated his 70th birthday recently, obviously with a swim and a song, a picnic and cake. Will his guests still swim at 70? This what they said, in turn: Gemma Ferrier, Jeremy Wellingham, Lizanne Christopher, Blan Walker, Lisa Keeping, Jess Harrold, Steve Banner, Sarah Dilger, Alana Smith, Julie Macken, Kristie Waller, Louisa Maybury, Kath Fotheringham, Darrin Roles, and Alice O'Leary. The music is Noe Noe, and The Zeppelin, from Blue Dot Sessions.  

Sam Millward is a scuba and freediving instructor, fascinated by the mental, physical and experiential benefits that all forms of immersion can give. In this podcast he describes the different world that free diving is a gateway to. He also describes deep diving, with equipment, and the physiology that goes with it - what your body needs to be able to do. Breathing, breath holding and breath work are all hugely important in diving, whether it be free or deep, and Sam discusses the psycho-physiological states that being able to link mind and body in breathing and diving practices. Finally, community - as a medical anthropology student, Sam deeply attuned to how communities are formed around these practices, and when keeps people coming back.

Level water means equal rights. In the case of Ian Thwaites and the charity Level Water, this is right to water, which swimming is a gateway to. He set up this charity with the mission of giving children with disabilities the opportunity to learn to swim, and by extension, empowers them to take part in a range of water-based activities that swimming opens the gate to. From physical development to social and emotional confidence, swimming is a vehicle to change the lives of children supported by Level Water for the better. Level Water has lots of events, which through swimming, raise funds, build community and build relationships. This powerful synergy raises the tide for everyone - the children, the institutions associated with swimming and disabilities, and the swimmers themselves.  

Ramin Cyrus has swum a channel relay, the Thames Marathon at Henley and other big swims, all great achievements. Powerful achievements, given that he is visually impaired. While for most open water swimmers, sighting is a matter of looking up, to work out where they are and to set their course, Ramin Cyrus sights without sight, with the help of great friends in the water, Paul Daniels and Anthony Wood, he is having the swimming time of his life. In this podcast, recorded at the Lido café in London's Hyde Park, we discuss his swimming achievements, and what it is like to be a swimmer with visual impairment. We discuss what needs to be in place to undertake such big swims with no sight, how he navigates the water, and how he recruits all his senses to undertake the most sensorial of sports.

Vera Prokopieva and Annie Liddle were undergraduate students at the University of Oxford. They both took up wild swimming together while at Oxford. Annie grew up on a farm in Hampshire while Vera grew up in Bulgaria. Both had a love of swimming before coming to Oxford, and both have taken their love of swimming with them. In this podcast we discuss the value that open water and winter swimming bring to brain work and to everyday student life.  

Paul Atherton is a filmmaker and Londoner. He produced and directed The Ballet of Change, four short films that were projected onto London landmarks, most famously Piccadilly Circus in 2007. His video-diary Our London Lives is in the permanent collection of the Museum of London. He took up outdoor swimming at the Serpentine Swimming Club, London, in the Summer of 2023, barely being able to swim 50 meters. Just a couple of months later, he completed a mile and a meter in the race by that name, at that club. In this podcast, over breakfast at the Serpentine Lido Café, we discuss swimming, building achievements from a modest baseline, and how swimming allows the mental space for creativity.  

Karen Throsby is a swimmer and a sociologist. She is passionate about marathon swimming, and her CV of international distance swims is truly outstanding, taking in the Catalina Channel and Twenty Bridges Swim around Manhatten, as well as the English Channel. In 2008, as she started training for her English Channel solo swim, she took this as a unique opportunity to bring together her combined research and swimming interests. She wrote a very scholarly book called ‘Immersion: Marathon Swimming, Embodiment and Identity', which takes the lid off of the identity and body-shaping process of becoming a marathon swimmer. In this podcast, we talk about what it takes to make a marathon swimmer, through the lens of her own Channel swimming experience.

Access is an important issue everywhere. People of all creeds and backgrounds swim. Georgie Milner is a life-long swimmer and is very keen to improve the inclusivity of sport settings. She graduated in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford in 2022, where she completed her dissertation on the intersection of swimming and social exclusion, alongside working on the Oxford University Sports Council as Inclusion and Access Officer. As well as water and inclusion for swimming as sport, she is passionate about refugee rights and water safety. In this podcast, recorded in August 2022, we talk about Georgie's passion for swimming in both the pool and in open water, about inclusion, about her dissertation, and much more.

Francesca Forno, of Trento University, Italy, gives a presentation entitled 'From grassroots to platform: The reconfiguration of alternative food provisioning in the online world'

The gorgeous rivers of England are sick, and I am sick too. Of the politics, of the discharges into the rivers. Of the effluent, both real and that spoken by the politicians currently in charge of this usually green and pleasant land. A land also full of streams and rivers, veins and arteries of blue space, often blue but also often coloured by raw sewage. The personal is political, and that goes for swimming waters every bit as much as human rights. This podcast is in response to a front page headline in the Guardian newspaper - ‘Tories turning rivers into open sewers' - Sir Kier Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, bringing poop pollution further into UK national politics.

In May 2022, the Serpentine Swimming Club was inducted into the International Marathon Swimmers Hall of Fame (IMSHOF), in Naples, Italy. One Saturday morning following this proud moment, many of the club's marathon swimmers came together to be photographed by Anthony Wood, a fellow Serpentine Club Swimmer who's been photographing life at the club for the past few years, as documented in his Instagram feed @coldwatermornings. This podcast catches the exuberance of the morning's celebration with many of the clubs' marathon swimmers as they assembled by the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, London, with interviews with some of the many, including multiple solo English Channel swimmer Nick Adams, John Coningham-Rolls, Neil Drinkwater, Robert Fischer, Tom Elliott, Gerald Power-athome, Club President Rob Ouldcott, Judith Charman, Mark Johanssen, James Lythe, James Norton, and the legendary Rosemary George. Marathon swimming defined here as 10 kilometers or more, takes, time, persistence, determination and of course - support. James Norton mentions three that supported him; Volker Koch, Alan Mitchell and Kevin Blick, all marathon swimmers themselves giving up their time to play a modest role in another marathon swimmer's challenge. ‘Teamwork makes the dream work' – trite but true.

So many cold water swimmers are non-conformists, but who would have thought of it as a political act? Grace Wright-Arora carried out social research on cold water swimming for her undergraduate dissertation at the University of Bristol. She interviewed outdoor swimmers in London and near Bristol, and found that for many, swimming was a way of resisting norms and structures that confine them in everyday life. Like size-ism, that people have to fit bodily norms dictated to them by health authorities or the fashion industry (strange bedfellows, it seems to me). And linked to that, pool-ism - that you need to have a certain type of body to swim in a pool or run the risk of being judged by others. Or the physical structure of the pool itself, dictating how you can swim –up, then down, then up again, and again and again. Or the political-economic structures that deem it OK to dump raw sewage into rivers. In this podcast, she describes her own cold water swimming history, what took her to study the often personal politics of cold water swimming, and discusses with Stanley Ulijaszek her findings.

It is winter, and there are many winter swimming briefings out there – this is a good thing, people are aware of winter swimming safety. This podcast is a raw recording of the briefing given and embellished by Stanley Ulijaszek and prepared by Jeremy Wellingham, at the annual winter swimming event at Oxford's Port Meadow, the Dodo Swim. It takes the swimmer or dipper through a chronological sequence, from preparation on the day, to immersion and swimming, to ending and getting changed.

Swimming in moonlight is one of life's un-buyable treasures. There are twelve full moon opportunities a year, and although the clouds or the rain can sometime put a spoiler on things, you can come away having experienced at the very least a change in routine, and more often than not, a sense of wonder of the world. All it takes is a full moon and some open water to swim in, and of course some friends to share it with. In this podcast, Stanley Ulijaszek describes three very memorable moon-swims: his first ever, in the Thames at Dorchester, Oxfordshire; a recent strange dip at Port Meadow in Oxford; and at the Lido in Venice (which is really a beach). Each is different but all three share a strange enchantment.

Juliet Turnbull has set up a group called ‘Open Water – Share the Knowledge', which is about sharing the open water experience that she and others have, with people newly entering open water swimming. As she puts it, promoting positive use of open water. This is needed, after a hot summer of rising water-based fatalities in the UK. Juliet is otherwise known as the Thames Mermaid, and she swims in the River Thames at Molesey and Thames Ditton almost every day. She has swum the length of the non-tidal Thames across two years, and has many swimming achievements under her belt. A very experienced swimmer indeed. There are several organisations in the UK whose remit is the prevention of anti-drowning, so what makes ‘Open Water- Share the Knowledge' different? Most importantly, builds on the growing expertise in open water among local users, about open water swimmers and paddle boarders sharing their experience, their local knowledge. In this podcast we talk about river swimming safety, and her ideas for developing ‘Open Water – Share the Knowledge' alongside other organisations, and with meetings and social media. Music is Noe Noe and Watercool Quiet, from Bluedot Sessions

The Wild Open Swim Blog is the brain child of Kath Fotheringham, Darrin Roles and Fiona Undrill. This now sits under the Swim Oxford banner, the organisation run by Darrin, who created the Wild Swim series, known for being set in locations of natural beauty in West Oxfordshire. The blog is a celebration of open water swimming all year and the photographs, words and artwork that it has inspired. Kath lives and works and swims in and around Oxford. Originally from South Africa, she has embraced swimming in the UK. She is a designer by profession. Fiona Undrill is an Oxford-based primary literacy specialist, publisher, author, researcher, and teacher. She writes books to help with young children's learning to read, and writes compelling blog posts. Darrin, well, he was born in the village of Eynsham, has travelled widely and returned, making this his home for life. He is a man who sees beauty in the local, and the Lock-to-Lock series of events show-cases the River Thames as it flows by this village and on to Oxford. For this podcast, I meet with the three of them in a cafe in Eynsham, to talk about their collective swimming passion, how it has shaped them, and how it drives their collective project. The music is 'Noe Noe' and 'Watercool Quiet' from Bluedot sessions. Additional music is Darrin Role's own.

Conversations that flow through the water, from mother to daughter and back again, almost dream-like. In this podcast I am in conversation with Tess and Judy Bird, both in New England, daughter and mother, both swimmers, sometimes together, most often not. Judy is a life-long swimmer, former life-guard, with an early excitement about open water that has stayed with her since forever. Tess too is a life-long swimmer. They share swimming stories with me. Judy – of being in the ocean beyond the breakers, floating, between air and water, where there is a lot of peace. Of swimming in Hawaii with a mother whale and her pup. Of swimming in the Farmington River, going fast and slow all at once, slow on the surface and fast when looking down, an acceleration and deceleration that is completely of the senses, in the mind. Tess talks of a nearby swimming hole by the side of the road in Connecticut where she went with her brother for a spontaneous winter dip, ice cold but before it completely iced over, recovering in the car afterwards. And in childhood of a snake in a deep-nature pond full of pond-life, getting out of the water so quickly to save herself from this creature. Of a water-loving labrador who towed her and her brother around the pond when they were very young. Both Judy and Tess muse on what it has meant to them across the years, swimming, and swimming together, sharing the dreamlike conversations that you have sometimes when in open water. Swimming across a generation. The music is Noe Noe and Watercool Quiet, by Blue Dot Sessions.

I am truly humbled by Sophie Etheridge, and will never ever complain again about the aches and pains in my joints. Sophie is an adaptive athlete, who developed complex regional pain syndrome after a car knocked her off her bike as she was travelling to triathlon training. Now a wheelchair user, Sophie is tough, determined, an achiever, who won back her swimming identity stroke by stroke, swimming through the pain. In 2021 she swam the Two-Way Windermere, all 21 miles of it. She set up the Adaptive/Disabled Open Water Swimmers (ADOWS) group on Facebook and was astonished by the demand for open water swimming community among those with disabilities. She has only recently started writing about this life-changing accident and how it felt, and about the huge importance of swimming in her life now. I am honoured that she has been open to sharing her experience here on Swimmingpod. Additional music 'Electricity' by Elton John; sound from the movie 'Billy Elliott'.

Tom Elliott and Danny Longman swam all the lakes of the Lake District in four days, and Richard Flint filmed them. In this podcast, Richard, maker of the film ‘As You Lake It', talks about the process of filming them do it, and Tom talks doing it - swimming the lakes of the Lake District.

Toronto-based Dylan Friedmann is an inspiration. She undertook, January 1st, 2021, to swim (or dip) in Lake Ontario every single day of the year to raise money for the charity Kids Help Phone, helping with adolescent mental health in Canada right now when help is needed. Air temperature on some of her dips dips to minus thirty Celsius, the water close on zero. She completed her daily swims in 2020, all 365 of them, and she continues on, swimming and dipping, even when in February she has to dig through the ice for water. The additional music links are Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams and "Bang the Drum" from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games; Alex Baranowski and “Constellations”.

I was hospitalized with leptospirosis, Weil's Disease, in August 2021. The risk of this disease sits at the back of the mind of many river and lake swimmers, but it very rarely materialises. It did so in my mind too, until. Until the intense burning and body chills, head and body aches, falling and falling blood pressure took me to hospital and intensive care. The clinical descriptions of the disease do not do justice to the metabolic and physiological roller-coaster I went on. This took me to some strange places in my head, and subsequently made me revisit the risks of contracting this vile disease. This podcast is an account of my treatment-seeking experience, real and hallucinatory, as my condition worsened, into sepsis, and out again, with the expertise and integrated hard work of the medical staff of the University of Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. Heroes all. I have called it my night at the opera, a hospital drama with music. The cover image is a copper engraving by Wilhelm Jury (after Johann Heinrich Ramberg) of Tamino chased by a deadly serpent from the opening of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute". The music in a 'Night at the Opera' is Nubya Garcia and “Source”; Mozart and “The Queen of the Night's aria” and “Ihr gotter, was ist das?” from “The Magic Flute”(Cheryl Studer as the Queen of the Night); David Bowie and “Space Oddity”; Diana Krall and “I love being here with you”; GoGo Penguin and “Kora - remix”. Opening music is 'Noe Noe' by Castro, and the ending music is ‘Vienna Beat' by Radio Pink, both on Blue Dot Sessions.

Juliet Turnbull is a very accomplished swimmer, and an artist who turns ideas that churn in her mind as she swims, into art-textiles and embroider-work, works that evoke the sensorial nature of being in the water. She lives on the Thames and swims in it. She is swimming the length of it in sections with her friend Fiona Irwin; she also sings under bridges. This podcast was recorded in January, when we were both in dry robes, recovering after swimming in a snow flurry, she near Hampton Court, London, me at Eynsham Lock, Oxfordshire.

The Thames, right now is not the universally clean and sparkling river of my dreams. This podcast is about trying to understand, as a swimmer, the problems surrounding rivers in the UK right now – the dumping of raw sewage, of pollution. How did we get into this watery mess? If it were simple, it would have been solved - so what is going on? The music links are ‘Love is All Around' by The Troggs; ‘Twelve Days of Christmas' sung by the choir of wells Cathedral; ‘Feeling Good' by Nina Simone.

This podcast, with German nationally-acclaimed playwright, essayist, dramaturge and prize-winning novelist John von Düffel and acclaimed film-maker James Norton, considers Charles Sprawson's classic book about the history and cultures of swimming, some thirty years after it was first published. Both John and James are passionate about this book, John having adapted it for a German-speaking audience in 2002. The discussion ranges from swimming heroes, to romanticism, and to environmental degradation, as well as James' and John's own swimming passions. The book remains as current as ever, but is about so much more than the issues we discuss. Had we recorded the podcast on another day, it might well have been different. Like open water swimming itself – each day is different. Haunts of the Black Masseur can be found at - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/103/1032355/haunts-of-the-black-masseur/9780099577249.html Music links are: Glenn Miller and ‘In the Mood'; The National Anthem of Russia; and David Bowie and ‘Heroes'

Duncan Goodhew is a life-long swimmer and champion of swimming in more ways than one. He won Olympic Gold and Bronze in the 100 meters breaststroke and 100 meter medley relay respectively, in the Moscow 1980 Olympics. He has promoted swimming at all levels ever since. He is President of Swimathon, the swimming charity that brings together swimmers of all ages and abilities with two simple aims: to spread the joys and benefits of swimming whilst raising money for some of the UK's most needful charity work. He was awarded the Humane Award for administering life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to Lord Sheldon – he learned CPR as an adolescent, with the Learn to Swim Programme. He is one of the founding trustees of what is now SportsAid, a charity which enriches the lives of talented young athletes by recognizing and nurturing their abilities through and beyond sport. He was awarded MBE in 1983 for services to sport. Ever since struck gold and bronze in Moscow, he has been very keen to give back - swimming saved him, gave him direction, from being a wayward and headstrong teenager, to being a champion in every sense of the word, across his adult life. In this podcast we talk about those early years, about his achievements, and about the important and good work he has done ever since. The music is Simple Minds and "Moscow Underground"; Gorillaz and "Tranz"; Sky and "Toccata". The opening music is Castro and "Noe Noe", and the music ending is Radio Pink and "Vienna Beat", both of Blue Dot Sessions.

Anette Frisch lives in Dusseldorf, Germany. She swims in pools and the ocean, but mostly she is a pool swimmer, one that swims crawl because breaststroke is too slow for her. Which is not to say she is in a hurry. She is not; she is one of the most mindful swimmers I know, and this podcast very much became about exactly that – mindful swimming. It wasn't planned that way, it just happened. Which is part of the magic of mindful swimming – it just happens. She is passionate about swimming, and her website blog ‘bahnenziehen.de' captures this well. Her writing is eloquent, beautiful, and she captures some of the many stories that people have of the water, of swimming, of places to swim, of swimming moods, captures them before they evaporate. In this podcast, I try to capture Anette's story before it evaporates. And because music is so important to her, it is inevitable that it sneaks into the podcast. The additional music links are Neneh Cherry and "Synchronised devotion"; Kae Tempest and "People's faces"; Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and "Push the sky away"; Jan Garbarek and "Brother wind March"; Alice Coltrane and "Oceanic beloved".

Pauline Barker talks about the origins of the Polar Bear Challenge, and how it has expanded. She describes how many people got through the UK COVID-19 winter through swimming, dipping or equivalent challenges. Most importantly, she talks about what's in store for the coming winter of 2021-22. Winter swimming has probably never been so popular in the UK as it is now, and Pauline Barker, one of the most experienced people in this field anywhere. The additional music links are Tom Rugg's Polar Bear Song, and the Jedi Theme by John Williams.

Ben Cousins is 72 years old and is passionate about the ocean – he has surfed it, swum in it, and now free dives in and around the ocean kelp forest south of Simonstown, south of Capetown, South Africa. At the start of our conversation in this podcast. Ben quotes poet Emily Dickenson - ‘That it will never come again - Is what makes life so sweet'. Ben lives life to the full, and strives to understand this mysterious world by keeping a diary for every swim - shark, octopus, stringray, and all the creatures big and small that make up this unique ecology. The music links are 'On Still Waters' by John Surman, Nelson Ayres and Rob Waring; 'A Breath Away' by Ralph Downer; 'Blue in Green' by Miles Davis.

Judith Holder is a bestselling comedy writer, TV producer and speaker, who originated the BBC series and stage shows 'Grumpy Old Women' which have sold worldwide. She is passionate about outdoor swimming. In this podcast she talks about her love for swimming, comedy, and her podcast series with friend and comedian Jenny Eclair. Linking music is Andy Grammer's 'Gotta Keep Your Head Up'; linking dialogue is from Judith Holder and Jenny Eclair's 'Older and Wider'.

Caitlin Kraemer is a graduate student in Berlin and has written an article 'Swimming in the City'. In this podcast we talk about Berlin as an outdoor swimming city, and city swimming in general. A citizen-swimmer, she knows a lot about the Flussbad Berlin, which will open up the Spree Canal to open water swimming right in the heart of the city. Music links are: Froboess ‘Pack die Badehose ein'; Jaye Jayle 'The River Spree'; Tommy Guerrero 'Sun Rays Like Stilts'. As well as 'Noe Noe' by Castro and 'Vienna Beat' by RadioPink, both on Blue Dot Sessions.

Anna Deacon is co-author, with Vicky Allen, of the book 'Taking the Plunge', She is a photographer of considerable repute, and has a number of swimming-oriented projects on the go. She talks about these, and more.

Darrin Roles started and runs, with acknowledged support from many friends and family, the Lock-to-Lock events in the River Thames upstream of Oxford. These swims are variously from Eynsham to King's Lock (4 kilometers), from Farmoor to King's Lock (6 kilometers) and from Farmoor to Godstow Lock (10 kilometers). In the course of setting up these swims, he revived the Oxford Mile (renamed the Oxford Classic Mile) and set up two swim-runs, along the same stretch of the River Thames as the Lock-to-Lock swims. The Lock-to-Lock events are now regular features in the swim calendar, and they show-case the River Thames as it flows through Eynsham and towards Oxford, this little corner of paradise. Darrin's paradise – a man who sees the beauty of the local, of the thing before him, rather than chasing a far-off butterfly. And the local, the Thames at Eynsham, is astonishingly beautiful, growing more so the more you look at it. In this podcast, we discuss Darrin's swimming life history so far – he is in his fifties and has much swimming him yet. We discuss the Lock-to-Lock events, their origins and their development, and his plans for future swimming events in the River Thames in Oxfordshire.

Sian Richardson, Founder of The Bluetits Chill Swimmers, talks about how this social enterprise, with now more than 6,000 members across three continents, started and grew. From Wales, at the beach near the farm where Sian has lived all her life. Sian has style, panache and a passion for winter swimming which she is taking to the world. Link music in the podcast is John Rutter's 'Deep Peace' sung by Aled Jones.

Alex Foster spent the winter months of 2019-2020 learning about winter swimming and cold water immersion at the Serpentine Swimming Club, in Hyde Park, London. This is podcast is about his immersion in the club and its waters, and his MPhil thesis in Medical Anthropology on this topic. The thesis is available at www.lxvswim.org. Additional music is James Blake's cover of Don McLean's 'Vincent', and Glenn Gould's 1981 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations.

A nostalgia conversation between Jeremy Wellingham and Stanley Ulijaszek about the Lake Bled Winter Swimming World Championships which took place a year ago, February 2020. We could not have anticipated how the year would unfold, so full of optimism was this event. Helped by the full-to-the-brim enthusiasm of the thousand-plus participants and their friends and family, there was seriousness, friendliness and fun in equal measure. ‘It's wonderful to be here, it's certainly a thrill…' Music link is Brian Eno's 'Music for Airports' performed by the Alaska Orchestra, live-streamed from the Sydney Opera House 2020.