Podcast appearances and mentions of jenny landreth

Danielle McLaughlin lets us in on her love for swimming, and ties the hobby right back in with her love for literature. With books like Swell: A Waterbiography by Jenny Landreth, there is much to talk about around the world of water. Danielle takes us on a literary plunge, and it's nothing less than fascinating.

In a slight shift from our literary fiction focus, we caught up with writer and script editor Jenny Landreth - one of the driving forces behind the brilliant children's animated TV show 'Hey Duggee'. Having both become fathers only weeks apart in the summer of 2018, Hey Duggee was one of the most joyful discoveries in the often barren wastelands of our young daughters' TV choices... We learnt about how script editing works and how a show like Hey Duggee is put together, as well as speaking a little about Jenny's work on the upcoming reboot of the Magic Roundabout. Jenny also spoke about balancing non-fiction writing with children's TV and the feast and famine nature of freelance work. WARNING: for those of you who might want to listen with Duggee loving children around, there is a small sprinkling of the kind of language you wouldn't hear in the Squirrels' clubhouse... Jenny is on Twitter (although she uses it more for her personal life than professional): @jennylandreth Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan Or at jaimiebatchan.com and lochlanbloom.com We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/

Should there be a disclaimer on The Crown that it’s a drama not straight history? It’s just one of the questions about television’s depictions of history that Hannah puts to historian and author Hallie Rubenhold, as they chat accuracy in period dramas. Hazel Davis and Jenny Landreth share their love of amateur dramatics, wonder why some people *cough* are a bit sniffy about it, and talk Break A Leg, Jenny’s book extolling the joys of community theatre. In Jenny Off The Blocks, Tom Allen’s been trying his hand at commentating and Jen’s all for it. She’s also chatting Stonewall's Rainbow Laces campaign, netball outfits and voting for Hollie Doyle in this year’s SPOTY. There’s a lot to love (life-size Jesus doll on a cross) despite a bad taste in the mouth (dated language and some punching down) as the team watch 1999’s Drop Dead Gorgeous. But will they be able to agree if it’s Rated or Dated? Plus there’s gunships, extra cash, elf-wear, and snack revelations in the Bush Telegraph.Lob us a party egg, we’re proper giddy!The audio of Tom Allen and Mark McAdam is from Sky Sports News' Gillette Soccer Saturday Live Scores from Saturday 12 December. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jenny Landreth returns to the podcast this week to speak to Josie about her new book Breaking a Leg. They chat about the wonderful world of am-dram, the negative connotations of the word 'amateur' and how Jenny single handedly invented cold water swimming. For reading lists, past episodes etc head to cosmicshambles.com/bookshambles and support the show at patreon.com/bookshambles

Clive Anderson and Tom Allen are joined by Damon Albarn, Bill Bryson, Jenny Landreth and Mark Radcliffe for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Adrianne Lenker and Tré Burt.

The first guest on Floating: Swimming Stories is Jenny Landreth. Author of Swell: A Waterbiography, Jenny is a regular at Tooting Bec Lido. After a swift (and breathless, for me at least) six lengths, we sat poolside to discuss the joy of lidos, toxic masculinity in the water and the pleasures of a heel breaking the surface in front crawl.

This week’s guest is Lindsey Cole. People in the wild swimming world might be familiar with Lindsey, from her swimming the length of the Thames in November 2018 wearing a mermaid tail to draw attention to the problem of plastic in our rivers and oceans. In February 2019 Lindsey set off from Totnes, heading for Taymouth Marina in Scotland to swim at the Scottish Winter Swimming Championships. She planned to get there by bike, cycling every day, but with no set route or accommodation planned more than a day or two in advance. The direction she took emerged organically each day, as other wild swimmers answered her daily social media appeals for individuals or groups she could stop and swim with. From those people she also sourced accommodation, finding connections with people through wild swimming that enabled her to gain insight into the vast array of paths that can be taken to having a good life. Wild swimming was the common thread through those diverse lives. After the Scottish swimming championships, not yet ready to end the adventure, and without a home as such to return to, Lindsey continued with her daily cycle into the unknown. As this podcast goes live, Lindsey is still on the move, finding new people to swim and stay with each day. Two things struck me from our conversation – what criteria we use to judge how successful our lives are, and what we really need to make us happy. It can be easy to look at other people, to see what they have got or achieved and to compare ourselves unfavourably. Whether it is the job, house, car and kids that are seen as the markers of success, or the lack of them that is assumed to bring freedom, adventure and creativity, we can all get sucked into feeling that we don’t measure up somehow. This can lead us to pursuing the wrong things – not the things that will truly make us happy, but the things that we think will signify success. It can be hard to live a life that feels true for us. There can be so many external pressures, not least on social media, that can make us aspire to things that at best don’t make us happy, and at worst make us really miserable. So how can we bravely make choices that feel congruent with our soul? To follow the path that will bring us the most joy? At the moment, everything in my life is up for question. Where I live. The work I do. Who I spend time with. What I spend money on. Where I travel to. What difference I want to make. What matters. What I can let go of. The answers are coming slowly. Each person I speak to for the podcast unknowingly gives me a gift - an insight which helps me find the answers to these profound questions. Lindsey’s gift was to just get me thinking about how much of life needs to be planned in advance and how much can be left to emerge organically. Things we talk about Thames swim in a mermaid tail, Cold Water Swimming championships, right to roam, Lewis, Skye, Shetland, Orkney, Outer Hebrides, Lindsey on Instagram, Amy Liptrot – The Outrun, free diving, plastic in our oceans, Alcatraz swim, Outdoor Swimming Society Champions, Jenny Landreth

I’ve spent all week thinking about swimming through winter, after talking to my latest podcast guest. While the title of Kirrilee’s book is literal – she is approaching her second winter wild swimming - it is also a metaphor for wild swimming being a way to help us get through tough times. We can all find ourselves stranded deep in winter, at any time of the year, at any time of our lives. This kind of winter can be dark, cold and lonely. I can conjure up images of ploughing on, head down, not sure where I’m going. Knee deep in snow or mud. Every step being an effort. No sign of anything up ahead to make me hopeful that the end was in sight. No one around to ask for help, or to even reassure me that I was going in the right direction and wouldn’t be lost forever. Trudging. Struggling. Tired. Depleted. Thinking about giving up. Worrying what that will mean. I then think about swimming through it. Being lifted up by the water. Supported. Buoyant. Carried along by the current. It may still be dark, cold and lonely, but at least I’m moving more quickly and effortlessly. The water is helping me. Throw in a few swimming buddies and the loneliness disappears. See the moon reflected in the water, or the lights from nearby cars or buildings, and the dark is a gift creating a magical world of multicoloured reflections. And the cold. Oddly, for most of us who decide to swim through winter, rather than battle on on foot, the cold becomes a friend. Medication. Reinforcement that we are going to be ok. We are stronger than we ever imagined. The cold is part of what gets us through to spring. We embrace the cold. Harness its ability to awaken chemical reactions inside us. The way it strips our skin’s surface so that we can really feel, it drags our mind into the immediate now and away from the winter that has stopped us in our tracks. We find ourselves waving not drowning. Swimming through winter, instead of being stuck inside it, frozen and immobile. This episode is for anyone who has ever swum through winter, in a literal or metaphorical sense, and to everyone still swimming. Things we talked about Leap In by Alexandra Heminsley, Turning by Jessica Lee, The Lido by Libby Page, Swell by Jenny Landreth, Swim Run, Wanaka, Windermere swim, Women’s Swimming Collective Photo by Peter Steele  Photo by Peter Steele 

This week’s podcast guest Nikki describes wild swimmers as a non-judgemental group of people, who all have their own reason for swimming. I really hope she is right. Next week I’m meeting up with four of them in the Lake District, with my newly rescued greyhound. He farts when he stretches. He also wakes up anytime between 3.20am and 4.45am and cries his heart out just because he’s lonely. He licks unmentionably filthy things when he is out, then tries to lick your face when he gets in. I really hope they can extend their non-judgementalness to him. Or it’s going to be a long week for all of us in a small caravan. In wild swimming, being non-judgemental prevents any barriers between those in neoprene and skins, the fast, driven folk and the dippers. It makes us blind to size and shape, and turns on its head expectations of what an athlete might look like. Nikki and I talk about the non-competitive edge we share. How it makes us nicer people! She also shares that wild swimming was a way back from the grief of losing her brother. No judgement. No questions. Just an acceptance, and an awareness of the ways in which the cold water can help with the stuff life throws at us. Cake, coffee and chat also seem to be part of the cure. Here’s to hanging out with non-judgemental folk, and welcoming imperfect dogs into the pod. Things we talk about Big Bala Swim & Big Welsh Swim medals, Mad Hatters, Cornwall, St Austell, Clevedon Pier, Fausto Bathing Club, Swim Trek, Forty Foot, Dublin, Turkey to Greece Swim, Polkerris swim festival, the Vico, Dublin, Brockwell lido, Bude sea pool, Chester Frosties, Tinside lido, Charlestown to Porthpean, Dry Robe, Swell by Jenny Landreth, The Lido by Libby Page, Maldives

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are musician NICK HEYWARD (Haircut 100) and writer and cold-water swimming enthusiast JENNY LANDRETH (Swell). In this episode, the postcards take us to a Canadian mountain, an English seaside town left high and dry, and Selma, Alabama. Nick and Jenny reveal the personal stories behind postcards that they have kept hold of. Public erection is prohibited. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jenny Landreth is a writer, a script editor and a swimmer. She is also very generous with her time and sat down with me to talk about her involvement with one of best shows on television - Hey Duggee - as well as her own writing about trees and swimming! Apologies for the sound quality on this one - but you can still hear Jenny, it's just my ramblings which sound awful!

Author and avid swimmer Jenny Landreth joins the show to talk about her latest book Swell: A Waterbiography. She also brought along a bag full of her favourite books about swimming including works by Al Alvarez, Tanya Shadrick and Leanne Shapton. Stewart Lee is still around at the start of the episode for a lovely bit of synchronicity and Josie Long was still off with norovirus so Michael Legge is sitting in again to enjoy the chat and recommend some Spiderman comics. It'll all make sense when you listen to it, we promise... You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/bookshambles and not only help the show keep getting made, but also get yourself lots of rewards and goodies! For instance, this week, there's an extra 15 minutes of chat from this episode and you'll get plus a bonus episode with Phill Jupitus too.

Water, water, everywhere. 2017 has been awash with books about people connecting with nature and finding peace through swimming. With open water swimming on the rise, Jenny Landreth and Joe Minihane talk to Phoebe Smith  about why they are so passionate about swimming and they share their best spots for swimming in the UK. Swell … Continue reading Wild Swimming: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2015

Water, water, everywhere. 2017 has been awash with books about people connecting with nature and finding peace through swimming. With open water swimming on the rise, Jenny Landreth and Joe Minihane talk to Phoebe Smith  about why they are so passionate about swimming and they share their best spots for swimming in the UK. Swell … Continue reading Wild Swimming: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2015