Podcasts about Lampeter

One of the most distinctive aspects of John's gospel is his presentation of Jesus' miracles as semeia – 'signs'. To get to the bottom of why John is so fond of semeia, Helen and Lloyd enter the time machine with leading Johannine scholar Catrin Williams. They discuss whether there are really seven signs in the gospel, how John's signs relate to scripture, and whether they are history or fiction.  Catrin H. Williams is Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter. A Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, she has published extensively on the Gospel of John, including a 2025 co-edited volume The Semeia Narratives in the Gospel of John. Support the showTheme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. 

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-8605Written by: HarryBlankSummary: An emotional and philosophical side-quel to SCP-7005, focusing on a Foundation Director trying to find where Lampeter manuals are coming from.Support the Patreon to see Exploring videos early and vote on new ones!: http://bit.ly/1U9QkPhJoin the Discord!: https://discord.gg/beRYZgbbgPSupport the Series with official Merch!: https://t.co/aH0HApXp7vFollow me on Twitter for updates!: https://twitter.com/TES_ManggListen on Podcasts: https://anchor.fm/theexploringseriesExploring SCP Foundation Playlist: https://bit.ly/2whu8NAExploring Dungeons and Dragons Playlist: https://bit.ly/348IZZuExploring Warhammer 40k Playlist: https://bit.ly/2DoFZguExploring Celtic Mythology Playlist: https://bit.ly/2rTuHLmExploring Norse Mythology Playlist: http://bit.ly/2EAHTdaExploring Elder Scrolls Playlist: http://bit.ly/2fgqQoYExploring Star Wars Playlist: http://bit.ly/2lNtlN0Exploring Middle-Earth Playlist: http://bit.ly/2cGNctyExploring the Cthulhu Mythos Playlist: http://bit.ly/25OI9jYExploring History Playlist: https://bit.ly/2w7XMqMVideo Game Stories Playlist: https://bit.ly/3hhgbqKMy Gaming Channel: youtube.com/user/ManggsLPsThumbnail: Eddie Mendoza: https://www.artstation.com/eddieMusic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSBDVY0i0xwContent relating to the SCP Foundation, including the SCP Foundation logo, is licensed under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0 and all concepts originate from http://www.scp-wiki.net and its authors. This video, being derived from this content, is hereby also released under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0.

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-8605Written by: HarryBlankSummary: An emotional and philosophical side-quel to SCP-7005, focusing on a Foundation Director trying to find where Lampeter manuals are coming from.Support the Patreon to see Exploring videos early and vote on new ones!: http://bit.ly/1U9QkPhJoin the Discord!: https://discord.gg/beRYZgbbgPSupport the Series with official Merch!: https://t.co/aH0HApXp7vFollow me on Twitter for updates!: https://twitter.com/TES_ManggListen on Podcasts: https://anchor.fm/theexploringseriesExploring SCP Foundation Playlist: https://bit.ly/2whu8NAExploring Dungeons and Dragons Playlist: https://bit.ly/348IZZuExploring Warhammer 40k Playlist: https://bit.ly/2DoFZguExploring Celtic Mythology Playlist: https://bit.ly/2rTuHLmExploring Norse Mythology Playlist: http://bit.ly/2EAHTdaExploring Elder Scrolls Playlist: http://bit.ly/2fgqQoYExploring Star Wars Playlist: http://bit.ly/2lNtlN0Exploring Middle-Earth Playlist: http://bit.ly/2cGNctyExploring the Cthulhu Mythos Playlist: http://bit.ly/25OI9jYExploring History Playlist: https://bit.ly/2w7XMqMVideo Game Stories Playlist: https://bit.ly/3hhgbqKMy Gaming Channel: youtube.com/user/ManggsLPsArtist: https://www.artstation.com/aenamiartMusic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSBDVY0i0xwContent relating to the SCP Foundation, including the SCP Foundation logo, is licensed under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0 and all concepts originate from http://www.scp-wiki.net and its authors. This video, being derived from this content, is hereby also released under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0.

My guest this week is Stephen Willoughby, who studied Theology at Lampeter between 1984 and 1987. After university, Stephen's path took a technical turn – he became a computer operator and later completed an MSc in Computer Science at Aberystwyth, a journey that reflects a broadening of Stephen's skills. Stephen now works in quality assurance and holds a PhD in a related field. Originally from Orpington in Kent, he now lives in Derbyshire. Stephen has had a lifelong passion for radio, sparked on his 7th birthday when he received his first radio set. He was captivated early on by classical music and Radio 3, but it was Radio 2 in the 1980s that gave him a window into the wider world. He's steeped in the station's history and recalls listening to Alan Dell on Sunday afternoons, including the public reaction when there was talk of Dell leaving the airwaves. We discuss the magic of live radio, the days when Radios 1 and 2 shared the FM frequency, and the role of DJs like David Hamilton—who used to include the pop charts in his Tuesday afternoon Radio 2 shows. Stephen also shares which stations he listens to today, including Boom Radio, and reflects on whether he's more of a looking back or a forward-looking person.

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-8605Written by: HarryBlankSummary: An emotional and philosophical side-quel to SCP-7005, focusing on a Foundation Director trying to find where Lampeter manuals are coming from.Support the Patreon to see Exploring videos early and vote on new ones!: http://bit.ly/1U9QkPhJoin the Discord!: https://discord.gg/beRYZgbbgPSupport the Series with official Merch!: https://t.co/aH0HApXp7vFollow me on Twitter for updates!: https://twitter.com/TES_ManggListen on Podcasts: https://anchor.fm/theexploringseriesExploring SCP Foundation Playlist: https://bit.ly/2whu8NAExploring Dungeons and Dragons Playlist: https://bit.ly/348IZZuExploring Warhammer 40k Playlist: https://bit.ly/2DoFZguExploring Celtic Mythology Playlist: https://bit.ly/2rTuHLmExploring Norse Mythology Playlist: http://bit.ly/2EAHTdaExploring Elder Scrolls Playlist: http://bit.ly/2fgqQoYExploring Star Wars Playlist: http://bit.ly/2lNtlN0Exploring Middle-Earth Playlist: http://bit.ly/2cGNctyExploring the Cthulhu Mythos Playlist: http://bit.ly/25OI9jYExploring History Playlist: https://bit.ly/2w7XMqMVideo Game Stories Playlist: https://bit.ly/3hhgbqKMy Gaming Channel: youtube.com/user/ManggsLPsThumbnail by Andrew Averkin: https://www.artstation.com/andrewaverkinContent relating to the SCP Foundation, including the SCP Foundation logo, is licensed under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0 and all concepts originate from http://www.scp-wiki.net and its authors. This video, being derived from this content, is hereby also released under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0.

Toxic leadership stems from the burdens of unresolved trauma and difficult life experiences. When you don't do the work to regulate your nervous system, the parts of you that protect you through mico-managing, shaming, blaming, not trusting anyone, or worse will eventually wreak havoc on your career, those you lead, and your own capacity for discomfort.So, what does it look like for you to commit to doing the work?Maybe you go to therapy or coaching, or adopt practices to deepen your self-awareness and reflection. The trouble is, “doing the work” can easily turn into navel-gazing or intellectualizing. The same tools that might help you unburden can also be used to numb out. We so often are sold the idea that we will overcome and be done with it that we bypass doing the real, deep, lifelong work.Today's guest illustrates–literally–what it looks and feels like to commit to doing powerful work. Her gorgeous new graphic novel, Past Tense, shares her windy and beautiful journey of doing the work through the lens of Internal Family Systems.Sacha Mardou was born in Macclesfield in 1975 and grew up in Manchester, England. She began making comics after getting her BA in English Literature from the University of Wales, Lampeter. Her critically acclaimed graphic novel series, Sky in Stereo, was named an outstanding comic of 2015 by the Village Voice and shortlisted for the 2016 Slate Studio Prize.Since 2019 she has been making comics about therapy and healing. Her graphic memoir Past Tense: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself in Therapy is out now. Since 2005 she has lived in St Louis, Missouri with her cartoonist husband Ted May, their daughter and two disruptive cats.Listen to the full episode to hear:How going to therapy for what she thought was just anxiety became a journey of unpacking her past How her therapist helped her “correct the picture” she'd been holding of people and events of her childhoodHow Sacha adapted her private sketched therapy notes into the comics she shares publiclyHow working with IFS to process her childhood has impacted her present-day relationshipsHow the IFS process has helped Sacha recast her difficult experiences as gifts and strengths and her story as valuableHow Sacha approached writing her book wholeheartedly, while still protecting her boundariesLearn more about Sacha Mardou:WebsitePast Tense: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself in TherapyInstagram: @mardou_drawsFacebook: @sachamardouLearn more about Rebecca:rebeccaching.comWork With RebeccaSign up for the weekly Unburdened Leader EmailResources:Family Secrets with Dani ShapiroEP 72: Identifying and Addressing the Burdens of Individualism with Deran Young & Dick SchwartzEP 101: Transforming the Legacy Burdens from Relational Trauma with Deran YoungCompassion Prison ProjectCece Sykes LCSWRalph De La Rosa, LCSWDoris LessingEric MaiselElizabeth GilbertSitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body, Rebekah TaussigLove Is a Burning Thing, Nina St. PierreTeenage Fanclub - Mellow DoubtThe FranchiseThe Office

On this week's episode of Local Legends, Martin is chatting about Cambridgeshire, paganism and much, much more with one of the nation's most prominent and celebrated folklorists, author and historian Dr Francis Young.In case you're unfamiliar with his work, such as his frequent appearances on BBC radio, as well as his writing for magazines including History Today and BBC History Magazine, Francis specialises in the history of religion and belief. He is the author, editor, or co-author of over 20 books, including the award-winning Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic, as well as Twilight of the Godlings and Magic in Merlin's Realm. His new book, just out, is called Paganism Persisting: A History of European Paganisms since Antiquity, which he co-authored with Robin C. Douglas. Born in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk – the same place as Eleanor – Francis studied Philosophy at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Classics at University of Wales, Lampeter, before receiving his doctorate in History from Cambridge University. He is a well-known authority on the religious history of Britain and the Baltic region, and is a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as well as numerous textbooks and anthologies. We first encountered Francis in relation to his scholarship about witchcraft, magic, and paganism, but for our purposes today he's gathering round the Three Ravens campfire to chat about the history and folklore of Cambridgeshire, a county about which he is a bit of an expert. As a Cambridge-based academic who has written books about the county's folklore, and that of neighbouring counties, he is the perfect person to guide us through its murky earthy fenlands on the one hand, and its world-famous university town on the other.So, settle in for a chat which encompasses fairies, wild hunts, ghostly knights, fenland drainage, some very nice cathedrals, and anecdotes about Isaac Newton, M.R. James, Edith Porter and much else too!To learn more about Francis, his work, and his books, do check out his website at drfrancisyoung.com, and we'll be back on Monday with an episode all about the history and folklore of Worcestershire!The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's guest is Yvonne Howard, an educationalist, creative practitioner, and artist-writer. Yvonne grew up in Leeds in a challenging environment and turned to writing to process the events from those days. Yvonne left school at 15 with no qualifications. She returned to education in her late 20s, building into her first degree personal experiences on diversity and exclusion issues. She then worked in conflict resolution, adult education and community relations in east London. I first met Yvonne in the 1990s when she was studying for a British Academy-funded PhD in Lampeter on mediation, social inclusion and community cohesion. Yvonne worked extensively in equity, diversity, group dynamics and interpersonal communication. More recently, Yvonne's Diversitree.Wales won an award for its representation of nature, art, photos, and poems in Wales. She also appeared on Dare to Dance with Amy Dowden. Yvonne is readying a book for publication in 2025. We talk about how a return to education later in life as an access student impacted her perspective, especially when it centred on aspects of lived experience. We discuss how Yvonne's background subsequently influenced her students, encouraging them to follow their dreams and return to education. We discuss how art can be a creative tool for transformation and provide moments of escape when faced with difficult realities.  We explore autobiography, journal writing, and the pros and cons of returning to places of oppression from the past. We talk about processing personal insecurities, self-help, overcoming personal fears, and the power of positive thinking in educational and professional journeys. We discuss the evolution in education over the years in terms of how we fit into a mould, and the benefits of a neurodivergent perspective on the world. We talk about how the belief and understanding of a teacher from 40 years ago resonated with Yvonne when she contacted him again shortly before he passed away. We also learn about Yvonne's involvement with community interest groups in Wales, including the Women's Institute, mental health advocacy groups, and organisations associated with diversity and inclusion.  Then, at the end of the interview, we find out whether Yvonne considers herself to be a looking back or a looking forward type of person, and the way past, present and future interrelate.

On the podcast this week, we are joined by Welsh farmer Clive Jones, Wales' Rural Affairs Secretary Huw Irranca-Davies (@huw4ogmore) and Wales' Wildlife and Rural Crime Coordinator Rob Taylor (@rural_wales), to discuss livestock worrying.@WGRuralLivestock worrying, when a dog chases or attacks livestock on agricultural land can have costly consequences on the health, well-being and finances of farmers across the UK. In most cases, farmers are witnessing first-hand the devastation a dog can have on livestock, leaving farmers to pick up the pieces afterwards. Tavistock farmer Chris Dawe said 49 sheep were killed after being attacked by dogs on farm back in January.Last week, Farmers Guardian reported on the devastating livestock worrying attack at Liz Nutting's farm in Lampeter, Ceredigion, which killed 10 of her Ryeland flock. Following numerous bids to seek justice, the dog owner only received a £75 fine despite his dogs causing £6,500 in damages. Cheshire farmer Phil Latham was left disgusted and heartbroken after loose dogs savaged 18 calves in a pen. And you will hear about the impacts of livestock worrying Mr Jones has had to face as well. In its latest annual ‘Rural Crime Report', NFU Mutual said livestock worrying had cost farmers £2.4 million, with animals being severely injured or killed in dog attacks, up nearly 30% compared to the previous year. Incidents keep on taking place on what seems like a weekly basis. But why? Is the law outdated? The Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act was created 71 years-ago in 1953. The new Labour Government has yet to confirm whether a private members' bill, tabled by former Defra Secretary Therese Coffey in December to amend the law and provide police with greater powers, will be progressed or notPolice in Scotland have the powers to impose fines of up to £40,000 for owners found worrying livestock, alongside receiving a potential 12 month prison sentence. Is it a lack of respect from dog owners? Incidents can often take place when a dog is not on a lead. And an attitude of ‘my dog could never hurt anyone' still persists. Is education the answer? The Welsh Government has worked hand-in-hand with animal charity Blue Cross and Mr Taylor regarding an optional educational course if dog owners are found worrying livestock. You will hear more about the course in this podcast.Farmers Guardian has been supporting the ‘Take the Lead' campaign, alongside the National Sheep Association to raise awareness of keeping dogs on lead when near livestock. We can provide you with free signs to place around your farm warning dog owners to keep their dogs on a lead near livestock. To request yours, send a stamped self-addressed A4 envelope to: FG Take the Lead, Farmers Guardian, Unit 4, Fulwood Business Park, Preston, Lancashire, PR2 9NZ. We will be able to send up to 25 signs. Alternatively, you can contact reporter Chris Brayford if you have been a victim of a livestock worrying incident and if you wish to share your story at chris.brayford@farmersguardian.com. But for now, enjoy the pod!Message us

In the fifth episode of Series Seven, host Andrew Martin meets anthropologist and Welsh professional genealogist, Dai Davies, and finds out how they got hooked on researching family history, the challenges of researching Welsh family history from afar, and their thoughts on how the genealogy community could become a better place.THE LIFE STORY - DAVID DAVIES Dai has chosen to tell the life story of their 8x Great Uncle, David Davies who was born in 1754 in a small parish near Lampeter in West Wales, and was the son of tenant farmers and Wesleyan Methodists. Dai was excited to discover this person in their tree, as David Davies was a highly influential educator, minister, and political poet in Wales during the 18th Century. He is known to have had a school in Castell Hywel, and was a minister at Llwynrhydowen Chapel. His work to translate English into Welsh for the newly literate communities, resulted in him even being described as 'improving into Welsh' on the popular poem by Thomas Gray - 'Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard'.  However, sometimes his political thoughts on the rapidly changing world around him, including the French Revolution, would cause controversy.THE BRICK WALL - DAVID THOMAS It's the family of Dai's 7x Great Grandfather David Thomas (brother-in-law of the above David Davies), that has them stuck for answers.Dai has found 76 records attributed to David Thomas, and knows about his life between 1757 and his death in 1816, Lampeter in Ceredigion, Wales, but Dai has found no trace of David Thomas' parents or siblings. Who were David Thomas' parents?Who were David Thomas' siblings?Where was David Thomas pre-1757? If you think that you can offer Dai a research clue or idea, then you can email them on the address they give in the episode, or find them at @GenealCymru at Twitter. Alternatively, you can send us a message and we'll pass it straight on.In the meanwhile, Dai has concerns about Andrew's offer of help... will this source be reliable?- - -Episode Credits:Andrew Martin - Host and ProducerDai Davies - GuestJohn Spike - Sándor PetőfiSend us a Text Message.Thank you for listening! You can sign up to our email newsletter for the latest and behind the scenes news. You can find us on Twitter @FamilyHistPod, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky. If you liked this episode please subscribe for free, or leave a rating or review.

My guest this week is Professor Paul Badham who for many years was Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Lampeter, where he began his career in 1973. His own father had done an English degree there before studying Theology at Oxford and whose own writings were influential on Paul. We find out how Paul got interested in his seminal research on life after death, which hadn't been a central plank of his studies beforehand. He mentions Penny Sartori's work in terms of gathering the relevant evidence and we find out about other students of his who have undertaken research on NDEs and the afterlife, including his Canadian students who worked on the care of the dying which brought about a change of emphasis in Paul's own work in this area. Paul talks about being a patron of Dignity in Dying and how his work here prompted former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey to change his mind on the topic. We discuss his media appearances and Paul talks about his regret that he has been associated so much with this particular branch of theology when his interests have spanned the wider area of Christian theology, with world religions being of particular interest to him. We talk about his own PhD supervisor John Hick and how he made it respectable to talk about issues around parapsychology but that the work was not always seen in this way. We find out about the funding that was available in the 1990s for students from Turkey to undertake PhDs in the department and we discuss Paul's stance on the ordination of women and how in many ways he was ahead of his time. We find out where Paul grew up and that his father was a vicar, and Paul reflects on how it feels as though he grew up into a different world in some respects. He did Theology at Oxford which, he reflects, was quite an old fashioned Christianity-centred degree. He talks about how the parameters of the subject and its relationship to Religious Studies was to change over the years. We also find out about the way music has impacted on Paul's life, and how he first met his wife, Linda, in a choir when they were both at Birmingham, and Paul talks about how music is often one of the triggers for religious experience. We find out also how due to Paul's health he has turned increasingly to being ‘read to' via podcasts. Paul also discusses his work on comparing religious experience in Britain and China, and we find out whether Paul, who was ordained, imagined that he would follow an academic or a church career. We learn that at Lampeter Paul wanted to move away from the notion that academic theology should be taught only by believers and that other religions should be taught by atheists who were interested in religious studies. He is proud of how world religions were taught by scholars who were both within and from without the faith traditions concerned. Paul talks about having gone five times to Japan to lecture and about his experience of working across theology and religious studies colleagues at Lampeter. It is all very different from when he arrived in Lampeter as back then everyone was a Christian theologian. I ask Paul if there was a particular golden age from his time at Lampeter, and Paul reveals what his younger self would think about what he went on to do in his life and career. We also find out at the end of the interview whether Paul is a looking back or a looking forward type of person.

Scientists at Aberystwyth University have produced four new varieties of oats which have been approved for growing in the UK. We speak to the team leader about growing oats for the future.Time for a spring clean - we talk to a wildlife officer with RSPCA Cymru about the dangers and distress caused by litter on wild animals like hedgehogs, deer and foxesOur bird of conservation concern for this month is a bird of prey - the Kestrel And Cow Companions - the cow-hugging therapy service at a cow sanctuary in Mydroilyn, near Lampeter, Ceredigion

It was a great pleasure for this week's Nostalgia Interviews podcast to meet Sally Nicholls who was at Lampeter from 1992-95 where she studied Welsh. Originally from Llantrisant, Sally grew up in the countryside, and she talks about her passion for horse riding, which she even accomplished in India. Sally could have gone to university in Bangor, North Wales, but ended up in Lampeter, a place with which she fell in love. Living in a Welsh speaking community was an extra bonus. We learn that Sally cannot ever remember not speaking Welsh and has been working in the area of Welsh language education since 1996. Sally's favourite childhood film was The Wizard of Oz and she enjoyed Jason Donovan when she was growing up, and is, to this day, a huge fan of Neil Diamond, whom she has seen perform around the world, including at three venues in America, and nearly saw him in Australia. She has also written to another of her idols, Michael Palin, and we find out why he is the only man who has ever left Sally lost for words, and how she postponed the start of a holiday to Turkey so that she could see him in Cardiff. We find out how Sally got the travel bug, including the three months she spent in Patagonia. It wasn't the best time to go because it is when Covid hit, and which significantly impacted on what she was able to do while there. Sally talks about the huge differences of experience of dealing with Covid in South America compared with the UK. Sally talks about the positive experiences that can be gleaned from that period, and we talk too about what we think it would have been like in Lampeter if the pandemic had hit then in the 1990s. We also talk about what from Sally's undergraduate days feels strange from today's perspective, including the evolution over the years from cash to contactless payments. Then, at the end of the interview, we find out what Sally's younger self would have thought about the route she has taken, and whether she is a looking back or a looking forward kind of person, and why for Sally it is important to live in the present moment.

It was a great pleasure for this week's Nostalgia Interviews podcast to meet Simon Smith who was at Lampeter from 1988-91, where he studied Religious Studies, and then stayed on for the Interfaith Studies MA. Simon worked in a bank for six years before going to university, and we find out why he chose Lampeter of all places, and he reflects on the shape of the department of Theology and Religious in those days. He talks about how he could never have expected to write an essay on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before embarking on his course. We talk about the perennial question ‘Are you religious?' and why it is important to study religion without having to subscribe to a particular tradition. Simon explains why he enjoyed the interactive element of MA teaching, and we learn about his work at the Philosophical and Religious Studies Study Centre in Leeds. Simon was born in Chester, moved to Hull and then near Birmingham, and we talk about Simon's music interests including the blog he writes. He was nine years old when he bought his first single, and we learn that his mother had the Light Programme on during the day when he was very young. His father was a BP tanker driver and Simon remembers once picking out a jukebox single while on one of the journeys. We find out too about Simon's radio memories including John Peel's shows, and listening to the charts on Tuesday lunchtimes when he would write down the Top 40 as it was being broadcast and would then share it with his friends at school. It was the centre of the week. Simon also used to create his own charts. Simon shares his thoughts on the music press and seeing John Peel and Gary Numan on Top of the Pops, and hearing the news of the death of John Lennon on Radio 1. We discuss the role of cultural memories and the death of cultural icons, as well as the seminal role played by Miles Davis and seeing The Damned perform on The Old Grey Whistle Test. We talk about quasi-memories and whether we can remember the memories of other people, and at the end of the interview Simon discusses the ways in which bad and good memories have affected him, and he reveals the lesson that he would impart to his younger self.

This weekend the Right Reverend Dorrien Davies has been enthroned as the 130th Bishop of St Davids in a cathedral which is the mother church of a large diocese covering the west Wales counties of Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. It's a part of Wales that Bishop Dorrien knows well – having studied at Lampeter, served as a curate in Llanelli and subsequently as parish priest in Llanfihangel Ystrad Aeron and at St Dogmaels before being made a Residentiary Canon at St Davids Cathedral in 2010. Five years ago he was appointed to a senior role as Archdeacon of Carmarthen; he's well-known and popular in the diocese. He succeeds the Rt Revd Joanna Penberthy who retired last year following a lengthy period of sick leave. Her time in office wasn't without controversy following a tweet for which she subsequently apologised in which she said “Never, never, never trust a Tory.” Bishop Dorrien was born and brought up in Abergwili near Carmarthen which is also where Llys Esgob – the Bishop's Palace – is situated. That's where Jonathan Thomas recorded a conversation earlier this week, covering a wide-range of topics and issues including climate change, historic churches, the management of differing opinions over same-sex blessings and the role of the Church in an election year. He also recalls growing up in the shadow of the Bishop's Palace in Abergwili, and his consecration service as a bishop in Bangor Cathedral last weekend.

My guest this week is Matt Harrington who studied English at Lampeter from 1991-94. There are many great undergraduate reminisces here, beginning with a recollection of the circumstances around our graduation in July 1994. Matt worked in a bookshop post-Lampeter and then as a junior copywriter, and he talks about how this enabled him to write with economy, and how that played out in his student days when it came to submitting essays. Matt reveals how he managed to avoid reading lots of Victorian novels, and why he gelled with his peers because we were all arts and humanities students (there is a fascinating thread about Informatics being an outlier). We reflect on how a city university wouldn't have been right for us and we refer to a contemporary of ours, Alexis Athena De Winter, and the way Lampeter was a very accepting environment. Matt talks about being born in London but made in Lampeter, and we discuss the transgressive nature of Lampeter. We talk about the skills developed from our time in university, with some people having gone into politics, and we reflect on what our children today would make of the world we once inhabited in a town without a railway station or cinema. Matt was born in London and then moved to Kent at the age of three, and we talk about how so many students were from the Home Counties. He also refers to having transported Lampeter to London after he left. We discuss our musical memories and Matt remembers listening to Atlantic 252 back in his student days, and we find out which was the only song he would play on the upstairs Union jukebox where they never changed the discs. Then, at the end of the interview, we remember the 1992 General Election, which took place in the April of our first year, and Matt reveals why he is a chronic nostalgic. 

My guest this week is James Grindrod who was in Lampeter from 1993-96 where he studied Single Honours History. James talks about the impact of what he did on his life and career, and how learning is not just something that stops when you finish your full time education. We discuss different lenses of looking at the past, including how we might have once thought that things were ‘getting better', but that the events of the last decade or so might militate against that way of looking at history. James talks about always having been a nostalgic person, and we touch on the relationship between Christmas and nostalgia. We talk about the epidemic of loneliness and how people came together during the time of the Second World War, and we reflect on the role played by diary accounts. We talk about how we live in a world now where every facet of our lives is recorded, no matter how mundane, in contrast to the past, and we focus on the role of ordinary experiences. James was born and grew up in North London, and he recently re-walked the same streets, and we find out why James doesn't like change. It turns out that James and I lived in the same room in Lampeter, two years apart. We talk about what happens when one meets up again with people you haven't seen for many years, about losing people close to us, the role of life experience, and we talk about the events from childhood we are more liable to remember. Then, at the end of the interview, we find out why the dichotomy of being a looking back or looking forward type of person is not an attractive one for James.

My guest this week is Henry Jeppesen, a freelance literary translator, who studied Single Honours Swedish at Lampeter from 1993-97. We learn about Henry's Scandinavian background, find out why he fell in love with Lampeter and what happened on his Year Abroad. In his time at university, Henry sat on the Ents Committee and remembers seeing Zodiac Mindwarp and Doctor and the Medics perform – though we learn that he didn't quite manage to bring Oasis or Blur to Lampeter! We learn about the impact Lampeter had on Henry, including the Students' Union, and Henry reflects on what it would have been like to be at a different university. Henry talks about learning a language from scratch, what it was like to go to Lampeter from a small town, and growing up in Norfolk. We find out about the gigs Henry went to when young, including Def Leppard and he tells us whether he goes for the artists' old or new music. Another of his favourite bands is The Manic Street Preachers, and we reflect on the fanzines that existed when we were young. We talk about our chart obsessions. Like me, Henry bought the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles. He has always been into music, and he remembers the time that he went to see U2 in concert in Cape Town. Henry shares some of the advice he has been given along the way as far as translating is concerned and he talks about how he has been able to use his Swedish professionally. We also find out how Henry's parents met, how life has worked out for him and how he has reconnected with people through social media. And, at the end of the interview, Henry reflects on whether he is a looking back or a looking forward type of person.

My guest this week is Gary Bunt, Professor of Islamic Studies at University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Gary and I made a reverse academic journey as he was an undergraduate student at Kent before moving to Lampeter in later years, whereas I started at Lampeter and moved to Kent. The first half of our conversation relates to a less known aspect of Gary's life in which he had a radio career in BBC production, including working with Brian Matthew. He met artists like The Specials and John Lydon when they were promoting their records.  Gary also received the tapes from the last interview that John Lennon gave, to Andy Peebles, before he died, and had a week to put together a documentary on Lennon. He also did some archive work on the 60s at the BBC, e.g. finding old session tracks. We learn why Gary left that world behind and became involved with a charity called Radio Lollipop which involved laying on big events. He became more involved in working with the patients, which also signalled a change in direction. Gary remembers listening to the radio from when he was young. He was more of a Capital than Radio 1 person, with the likes of Roger Scott and Nicky Horne, and we talk about the role of the radio presenter and their personae. Gary knew Brian Matthew and used to chat to him on his commute to work. We also learn about the Pirate Radio stations which influenced him, including the Dread Broadcasting Corporation which played reggae, as well as his enjoyment of listening to John Peel. Gary interviewed Adam Ant on one occasion, being in the right place at the right time, and we learn that Gary was not someone liable to be star struck, though he wishes he had some photos/selfies from those days. We find out why Gary was intrigued by the possibility of going to university, where, at the University of Kent, he applied his research skills from his media work to his degree. After initially studying English, Gary ended up focusing after his first year on Religious Studies, including specializing in Islam. Gary reflects on his student days, including the trips he made, such as to Egypt, and how he ended up doing a research-based Masters at Durham. Then, at the end of the interview, we discover what the future has in store for Gary.

It was a huge privilege for my latest Nostalgia Interview to meet Anne Pőnisch and Vicky Tomlinson, daughters of John Roland Lloyd Thomas who was Principal of Saint David's (University) College for nearly a quarter of a century from 1953 until the mid-1970s. Anne and Vicky remember the days of living behind the College Chapel with its spiders, attics and cellars in an age when students wore academic gowns and had to be back home at around 10pm. They paint a fascinating picture of Lampeter from a different age. We talk about how SDC was not just a theological college, and they remember how students would line up to see their father after supper. Their father enjoyed rugby and cricket and the pastoral side of being Principal was important to him. He did all the admissions work during his time as Principal as well as taking disciplinary measures. They grew up knowing their father was a big fish in a small pond, and remember the diverse range of people they would encounter around the house. We find how things were for their mother whose first husband died in the War, and they talk about how she did all the dinner parties and cooking, in those days. We find out why she didn't let on that she was a Welsh speaker as well as why their father was keen to admit female students. This was an era when it wasn't obvious the College would survive. Vicky reminisces about once being kidnapped near Burgess Hall during Rag, and how there was once a This Is Your Life-type show arranged for their father in Lampeter's Victoria Hall. Anne and Vicky have many records from that era, including the letters that their father would write to them every weekend, and sermons and cine films. We also find out who they are in touch with from that era. Anne and Vicky reflect on how much smaller things seemed when they returned to West Wales as young adults, and we talk about returning to the place of origin. They remember when things changed in Lampeter, e.g. problems around drugs and the police having to be involved, and we learn how their father felt about retirement. Towards the end of the interview, we find out whether they have followed in their parents' footsteps at all and what their parents would have thought about the lives they have led. We learn that their father might not be happy about some developments in the Church, and what he might have thought of women priests, and they refer to the ‘lost souls' that their father was keen to take in to Lampeter who might not have secured a place elsewhere.

In Episode 100 of the Sense-Making in a Changing World,  I am delighted to be speaking with STEPHANIE HAFFERTY who is based on a half-acre no-dig permaculture farm in Lampeter, Wales.From the Half Acre Homestead, Stephanie explains how to grow year round using climate friendly regenerative organic gardening methods for abundant harvests and fewer weeds, working harmoniously with wildlife, and what to do with your harvests, from seasonal meals to preserving, homemade body, home and garden care, remedies and natural dyes.In this episode, Stephanie shares a wonderful story about how she discovered permaculture and gardening, the joy she derives from it, and how growing food has helped her to put healthy food on her children's plates on a modest income. This affordability and accessibility piece is a big part of what Steph is about, and what she shares with people - nothing highbrow or expensive. Just straightforward simple advice to get a diversity of healthy food from the pot to the plate.ABOUT STEPHANIEStephanie is an award winning garden and food author - she wrote the Creative Kitchen, and co-authored No Dig Organic Home and Garden - and she's a cover girl for a recent Permaculture Magazine! Stephanie is actively involved in Permaculture Wales and UK, and is a Vice Chair of the Garden Media Guild. She's also been featured on the long-running UK gardening show, BBC Gardeners World  and other shows, and has 30 years of practical experience to share. She runs courses in her edible garden (and soon online) is a simple living and no-dig gardening advocate, a sought-after speaker at gardening events and she consults with edible gardening projects far and wide.Stephanie has created and worked home, community and market gardens, gardens for  large  estates, restaurants and galleries. In 2021 she led the RHS No Dig Allotment Demonstration Garden at Hampton Court Garden Festival. Follow her gardening and homesteading life on YouTube, her blog or social media.Support the showThis podcast is an initiative of the Permaculture Education Institute.Our way of sharing our love for this planet and for life, is by teaching permaculture teachers who are locally adapting this around the world - finding ways to apply the planet care ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. We host global conversations and learning communities on 6 continents. We teach permaculture teachers, host permaculture courses, host Our Permaculture Life YouTube, and offer free monthly film club and masterclass. We broadcast from a solar powered studio in the midst of a permaculture ecovillage food forest on beautiful Gubbi Gubbi country. I acknowledge this is and always will be Aboriginal land, pay my respects to elders past and present, and extend my respect to indigenous cultures and knowledge systems across the planet. You can also watch Sense-Making in a Changing World on youtube.SUBSCRIBE for notification of each new episode. Please leave us a 5 star REVIEW - it really it does help the bots find and myceliate this show.

It was fantastic to catch up with Steve Jacobs, a retired Senior Lecturer in Media, Religion and Culture at the University of Wolverhampton, for my latest Nostalgia Interview. Steve and I were at Lampeter together from 1991-4 where we both received the same degree classification, and Steve recalls the way in which we received our results. Steve worked in Religious Studies at Wolverhampton initially on a fixed term contract at a time when the subject was not well supported. We learn how he made the shift to Media, and his motivations for doing it, and how doing Chris Arthur's Religion and the Media course at Lampeter helped him secure the job. He speaks about the importance of Chris Arthur, my own PhD supervisor, who let Steve into the department at Lampeter back in 1991. We learn about Steve's doctorate in Hindu Reform Movements which he sees now as a training ground – a process rather than a definitive product. Steve reflects on how so much of process has been lost in Higher Education today, and we ruminate on what has changed in thirty years. Steve talks about his background in catering and the Centre for Alternative Technology in Macynlleth where, prior to going to university, he ran their vegetarian kitchen. It was an educational centre whose objective was to promote sustainable living and Steve lived on site. Recently, Steve wrote a monograph on sustainable living at this Centre. Steve discusses the choices he has made, and the importance of the concept of sharing – both in academia and in working in kitchens, and we learn about his move to ethnography. Steve relates his experience of going to India, via Athens, in which he was able to study the practice and philosophy of yoga. He talks about the places that have really felt like home and about how home is a fluid construct. Then, at the end of the interview, Steve relates how he has been able, by and large, to do the things he has wanted, and how growing up it was much more possible to live in the moment than is the case today. We talk about how student experiences can be different today, and Steve remembers the aerograms he used to send from India which his father kept.

My guest this week is Becky Jefcoate, who like me was at university in Lampeter from 1991-94 where she studied Archaeology and English Literature. We find out how Becky ended up there and why her school teacher had misgivings about doing Archaeology as a single honours subject. We talk about how Lampeter was a place you knew pretty quickly whether you were going to fit in or not and how it attracted a certain type of self-sufficient person. After university, Becky moved to London and we learn about her time working at the Cartoon Museum as well as in a theatre and at the Royal Opera House. We talk about the collections in the Cartoon Museum, exploring with different audiences what the relevance was to them personally of the likes of Hogarth and Bagpuss. There was a specific Nostalgia exhibition, and we learn how it affected Becky, and the therapeutic possibilities involved when recording people's memories. Becky has always kept a diary including from her Lampeter days, and we talk about the efficacy of diaries. We learn about Becky's childhood. She was born in Birkenhead and moved to Lincolnshire, and remembers watching Robin of Sherwood and its mystical world England. Her favourite film was Raiders of the Lost Ark and which was a determining factor in studying Archaeology. Musically, Becky was into the Pet Shop Boys and Crowded House. Becky was one of the DJs in the Union Disco in Lampeter, and we talk about the interplay between new and old music played by bands at gigs. We discuss the balance of Archaeology and English as they are about people and their stories, what they have left behind, and we find out how they have both helped Becky in terms of her career. Becky wrote over 500 letters to every arts organization and museum when applying for work, and she reflects on whether with the passing of time we tend to remember the good times, and what we learn from the past. Then, at the end of the interview, we find out about the performances Becky was involved with in the Drama Society, about the way we look back on particular years, and why Becky is an especially nostalgic person.

As Easter draws to a close, Christians around the world will be focussing on the Day of Pentecost which comes a week today. This major festival has been given other names too - Whit Sunday or Whitsun for short. It's even been referred to as the birthday of the church. Coming 50 days after Christ's Resurrection, it's the time when (according to the dramatic account in chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles) the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. The passage continues, “Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them” The Holy Spirit had arrived in no uncertain terms. From then on – as the remainder of the Book of Acts relates - the disciples and their followers were inspired to go forth and set up the first churches in places like Corinth and Thessaloniki; their mission was far from easy. Down the centuries, churches have been opened and closed and indeed the landscapes of Wales and other places around the world are punctuated with neglected and derelict churches which were once proud testaments to fervent revivals. Here in Wales, many places such as Llandudno, Llantwit Major and Llanbadrig are testament to church cells founded by saints about 1500 years ago. Now, despite an increasingly secular society today, new churches are being opened with congregations growing in number. We ask why. With the help of his guests, Jonathan Thomas hears about the descent of the Holy Spirit on the very first Day of Pentecost, and its subsequent influence on new churches emerging around the Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor. He also explores the work of the Holy Spirit today in Pentecostal and mainstream denominations, and learns about the seeming exponential growth of neo-Pentecostal churches in south America. Our guests: Catrin Williams: Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Wales, Trinity St David. The Revd Dr Gareth Leyshon, a Roman Catholic priest and Director of Adult Education in the Archdiocese of Cardiff. The Revd Dr Jonathan Black: Lecturer in Theology at Regents Theological College of the Elim Pentecostal Church, and a minister in the Apostolic Church. Luca Sparey: an ordinand based at the Citizen Church in Cardiff. Professor Bettina Schmidt: Director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Centre based in Lampeter.

Maggie Webster is my fantastic guest this week, five years to the day since I broadcast my first Nostalgia Interviews podcast episode. Maggie teaches Religious Education at Edge Hill University in Lancashire, and we learn that she did a PhD in Lampeter which explored how people become witches on social media. Maggie discusses her fieldwork in which she interviewed 13 witches who ranged in age from 20 to 70, and how among other things they fought back against stereotypes. We talk about how there was a coming out of the broom cupboard in the 1990s, through magazine articles, films and TV series but how even today it is very difficult to find in-person covens. We find out how Maggie was destined to do this research on contemporary witchcraft, we learn about her research drivers and how it was as much a hobby as work as she would read all fiction and watch films about witches in her downtime. We talk about Witch Lit and The Witches of Eastwick and how films today are less heteronormative than they were a few decades ago. Maggie has compared the two versions of Hocus Pocus, thirty years apart, in terms of showing how we have changed as a society. We discuss Eurovision 2023 which was just about to take place when we recorded the interview, and we learn that Maggie was brought up in a working class family in Bangor, North Wales. She talks about the role of music as a child especially listening to Leo Sayer when cleaning the house, and hearing her Dad singing ‘Don't Worry Be Happy' to help when she was anxious. We move on to talk about the Welsh hiraeth and nostalgic longing in relation to Beddgelert, and she talks about the differences between the campus where she works and that of Lampeter, discussing along the way subcultures and Dungeons and Dragons. Maggie then talks about how she ended up going to university and the importance of education having come from a background where her mother was not allowed to have one. We find out why Maggie wanted to study religion and the importance of pluralism and we discuss her eclectic religious predilections. (You also get to hear my confession regarding church and the Top 40 singles chart.) We also find out how Maggie learns from what she has done and how it has made her the person (and academic) she is today. Then, at the end of the interview, Maggie reflects on her educational journey where becoming an academic was never on the cards, but that she has always been set on a path where she can help and make a difference to people's lives.

My guest this week is journalist, editor and poet Susan Norvill, who like me was in Lampeter in the early 1990s where she read Victorian Studies and English Literature. We find out about Susan's love of Victorian literature and what drew her to Lampeter, and how the place exerts such a hold over those who went there, and how the people are still there for us. Susan grew up in Weston-super-Mare and went to a convent school in Bristol, and we find out about her first job after leaving university as a mortgage counsellor. Susan worked at the Albert Hotel in Weston in the summer holidays while she was at university and recounts the time when she bumped into Anthony Hopkins while he was filming The Remains of the Day. We discover that Susan was offered a job as an extra and find out why she unfortunately had to decline. We talk about Susan's earliest memories and her love of Anne of Green Gables. She did a teacher training course in Scarborough after graduating, and we talk about the literary connections in the North Yorkshire town. We find out about Susan's affinity with the Victorian era, and with the music of the 90s when we were at Lampeter. We talk about how the journey to school in Bristol in the car was very music-oriented, and Susan's affection for Roy Orbison. We discuss the influence of radio, vinyl, cassettes and other audio technologies as well as Ceefax, and about which facets of the past appeal, and whether you have to live through an era to feel connected to it. Susan edited the Hong Kong Industrialist in the 1990s and we find out about her time in Hong Kong at the time of the Handover. We also find out about Susan's poetry, and the anthology she collated and edited following the Ukrainian invasion by Russia, United for Ukraine. Then, towards the end of the interview, Susan reflects on the bittersweet nature of nostalgia and how the past serves the present. We find out what Susan's younger self wanted to be and, at the end, we discover whether Susan is a looking back or a looking forward type of person.

My guest this week is Revd. Edward Owen, Vicar in the South Cardiff Ministry area, the most multicultural area of Wales, who like me did his degree in Lampeter in the early 1990s. We learn that Edward's grandmother's brother was Richard Burton and he talks about a photo from when he was aged three of him with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor taken in his grandmother's front room. We find out how Edward ended up in Lampeter and we talk about the overlap between St. David's University College and the Church in Wales. We talk about what might be said to comprise the hub of Lampeter and how it has changed but also remained the same, and how Lampeter had a connection which bigger universities lacked. We discuss why nostalgia is important for one's own development and why Edward has chosen to be an inner city parish priest. He talks about the concept of ‘intentional community', misremembering the past and our capacity to cling to a past that is not real. Edward identifies the importance of belonging and the Church's role in rebuilding that common narrative, and we find out about Edward's interfaith walks. For Edward, bringing together people who are different is more important than bringing together people who are the same. We hear about Edward's work with conflict resolution and mediation, and Edward explains why nostalgia enables us to change and how we only get better by embracing that which is difficult. Edward reveals that his father thought he should become an accountant and was dumbfounded when Edward left the teaching profession to become a priest, and Edward talks about the self-criticism that comes with looking back at the past. Then, at the end of the interview, we talk about how there are things we do now which we couldn't have done in the past, the role of social media and the public vs. private interface and how our lives are often led through a filter. Edward refers also to the running community of which he is a part, why his memories are mainly positive and Edward explains why ‘Why' is such an important question for him.

The recent release of Census statistics for religion suggests that the number of people with no religion now far exceeds the number of those purporting to be Christian. Roy Jenkins discusses the implication of these results with a panel including Dr Emma Whittick, chaplain of Trinity Saint Davids University of Wales at Lampeter and Carmarthen; George Craig, a retired civil servant and Methodist lay preacher; Kathy Riddick, Wales co-ordinator for Humanists UK; and Chris Street, who leads the Wales Leadership Forum, an organisation that aims to help church leaders to develop their mission.

My guest this week is Wendy Dossett, whom I have known for around 30 years from when we were both based at the University of Wales, Lampeter. Wendy is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Chester, specializing in Buddhism, and has more recently been studying Addiction Recovery Spirituality. Wendy grew up in Hastings and we talk about what it is like to return to the place of one's birth and the teachers who actively chose to teach in a school with challenges. We find out about Wendy's love of live music, the first gigs she went to, and how she got into American protest music, Bob Dylan and Two-Tone. We talk about pop nostalgia and the importance of lyrics and the ‘moment in timeness' of seeing an artist live as well as about cover versions and how they match up. Wendy discusses why she studied English and Religious Studies at university. Her mum was an Anglican and her dad was interested in the paranormal, and we find out about her interest in ‘meaning of life' questions and against whom she might have been rebelling. We discuss the interplay between Buddhism and nostalgia, and the changing nature of the self. Wendy reflects on the past in the light of addiction recovery and the notion that change is possible, and we find out about the project that Wendy has undertaken around such fellowships and the concept of Higher Power. Wendy focuses on the notion of recovery and the moving forward element to it. We talk about the living element to these terms and the importance of ‘ordinary experience' vs. the power dynamics that lead some figures to be presented as authorities, and how it applies to what for example is ‘proper' Buddhism. This leads to a discussion around power dynamics and who are the legitimated voices in any discourse. We discuss the alchemy involved when people share their negative experiences of the past, in the context of recovering from addiction, and the notion of ‘busting shame', and how all of this links with questions of impact in academia, and how we are all struggling human beings. We find out what Wendy's younger self wanted to become when she was older and whether she looks back more than she looks forward.

This week we're joining farmers, businesses, environmentalists and people with a passion for talking about food and farming - to discuss how it's good for us, our communities and the environment. Caroline Evans visits the Lampeter campus of University of Wales Trinity St David's for this years' Wales Real Food and Farming Conference.

In the second part of my interview with Irene Williams, Irene talks about how the family moved to Cardiff, and how to begin with they had neither a house nor any money. Her father helped them with a deposit and Irene decided to go out to work, managing to secure the first job for which she applied. We also find out about what was the hardest nine years of Irene's life. We learn whether their son Martyn was able to get a scholarship to study at Atlantic College. Irene recounts in detail what she heard about the interview experience and about the unexpected occasion when he brought his friends over to stay the night after missing the bus. We hear about how Irene and Cyril ended up in Lampeter. The journey started in Canada when Cyril was asked to start up a department of Religious Studies at Aberystwyth. Irene talks about the importance of studying more than Christianity and how Cyril managed to get a colleague down from Bangor to Aberystwyth. They ate at home and with the money saved Cyril was able to buy books. In due course Cyril was asked if he could come to Lampeter where he lived in the decades that followed. Irene did up the garden of their home so well students would call it The Embassy, and we learn that she would make the students Welsh Cawl. Then, towards the end of the interview we hear about Irene's work with Amnesty International and how Cyril encouraged her to travel. Irene talks about their invitation to Japan, her time in Cuba and the work of the Missions of Charity. It was such a privilege to spend time with Irene in July 2022 to record both instalments of this interview.

My very special guest this week is Mrs. Irene Williams, a centenarian. Irene is an inspiring lady with a wealth of history and experience in terms of the development of Religious Studies at Lampeter and a considerable amount of international humanitarian work over many decades. We will hear more about these dynamics in the second part of this interview, to be broadcast in the next episode. In this first instalment, we learn about Irene's early years. She was born in October 1921, she talks about her father who had been in France in the First World War, and we discover that Irene is the eldest of four sisters, one of whom is still living in the same house. We hear about Sunday School and her father's pacifism and how he became the Baptist Church organist for 44 years. Irene met her future husband, Professor Cyril Williams, when they were both at school, and Irene talks about his brilliance. Irene reflects upon her mother's legacy and values – cleanliness and cooking. We hear about her and Cyril's courtship and how Irene never got to meet Cyril's father, and we learn about the time when her parents got to meet Cyril and how Irene's father was keen for her to pass her driving test. We find out about Irene's time in London training for nursing and helping refugees and how she didn't want to wait before she got married on 9 August 1945 – the day war ended. We also hear about Irene's wedding dress experience and the birth of her son and Cyril's appendix operation. Then, at the end of this instalment, we learn about a refugee from Holland and the resulting ‘nutmeg' experience, and why she and her family didn't want to leave London. We also find out that their daughter, Anne, contracted polio on the train back from London. Part 2 follows…

My guest this week is Anne Watkins, who came to Lampeter in 1985, after originally expecting to work for the Civil Service, where she studied Philosophy and Ethics in Western Thought. Anne recalls hearing the sheep bleating on the hills and knowing that Lampeter was the place for her. We talk about long friendships especially with the overseas students and about how Philosophy helped her to think carefully. Anne also did an MA in Interfaith Relations. Anne talks about growing up in Cardiff and her earliest memories and her traumatic transition to high school. She remembers her Catholic education and the Corpus Christi procession. She remembers listening to the charts when growing up and discusses how her dreams have changed over the years.  We find out why Anne couldn't join the Merchant Navy and how she always wanted to travel. Anne failed her ‘O' levels but ended up staying and working in Higher Education and made it her mission to improve education for others. Anne is a fanatical record keeper by way of diaries and photograph albums. She started keeping a diary in 1974 and reflects on how the photo interest in the early days, pre-digital, was expensive. Anne talks about the teachers who inspired her, and remembers dancing around a cauldron at school and being given animals to look after. She also remembers some of the gigs she went to see when growing up. Anne then talks about what has changed in recent years in terms of going out vs. staying at home due to lockdown. We get to hear her lockdown story which involved her having to change her routine. She returned to letter writing and encouraged others to do so. Anne talks about why she found coming out of lockdown difficult, and how she spent much of lockdown without internet. Towards the end of the interview, Anne talks about how she would live her life again in the same way and how she tries not to dwell too much on what is negative. She considers whether she maybe has been living too much in the past, discusses why friendships are crucially important and why her home has been referred to as a shrine. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Anne Watkins and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is Jonty Stern, who works at the Sir John Soane's Museum in London. Jonty ran the Doctor Who Society at Lampeter and we learn about his encyclopaedic knowledge of the series and the impact it has had on him over the years. Jonty did Welsh Studies at Lampeter and focused on Celtic languages. He was the only student in the UK doing Middle Breton at the time, and we find out how he became interested in languages. His ‘A' levels didn't work out for him – and we learn how Lampeter beckoned. Jonty is obsessed with diaries and history and has been keeping a diary since 1986. He even brought along his 1990-93 Lampeter diaries to our interview which took place at the O2 in Greenwich on one of the hottest days of the year in July 2022. Jonty explains how some of his entries were written up many years later and we have a discussion about who his diaries are written for, and how some of the topics on which he writes only exist in his diary – there is no other, say, internet reference to the events described. Diaries are connected to his photos and tax returns, and during lockdown Jonty interviewed elderly relatives and friends. We find out how they were able to connect what happened, say, on VE Day with their experiences of lockdown. We talk about the LBGT community, freedom of speech, RP accents on TV, and how diversity changes were not predicted accurately in, say, sci-fi. We also learn about Jonty's work in market research and his love of museums. Then, towards the end of the interview we find out about Jonty's stint on the Channel 4 series Big Brother in 2007, what made him apply, how it was a break from his life up to that point, and how he made it through to finale night. He talks about being both an extrovert and an introvert, how he feels about Channel 4 following doing the programme and what it was like being a celebrity and then no longer being famous. We also discuss how he wasn't allowed to take his diary with him into the Big Brother house. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Jonty Stern and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

It was a great pleasure to meet José Moreno Carbonell for my latest Nostalgia Interview. Our paths may have once crossed in Lampeter where we were both students in the 1990s. José lives in France but comes from Spain and works as a high school Spanish teacher. José has just had a novel published called A la sombra de la glicinia - https://www.amazon.es/sombra-glicinia-Antonio-Moreno-Carbonell/dp/B09W7FLQ49 - which is a recreation of oral tradition from his home village mixed with classical mythology and 20th century Spanish history. It was written during lockdown and José talks about how it came about and the way in which writing was a survival strategy. We learn about José's earliest memories from growing up in Spain and how he comes from a family of school teachers. He always wanted to be a writer and we find out how José couldn't have been a writer if he hadn't become a teacher. We learn about José's TV influences when growing up in Spain in the days when there was just one channel, and we talk about the music our children listen to and how José started liking his father's classical music when a teenager. We also discuss the musical accomplishments that our children inherit. We find out about the teachers who made an impression as well as about José's time in Lampeter and the benefits from living there compared to a city life. We also discover why he would never keep a diary of his own. José then tells me a story from the time he was 12 years of age involving a Nobel Prize for Literature winner, The Three Musketeers and false memories. At the end of the interview we talk about what he wanted to be as a teenager, the advantage sometimes in not being paid for the things we love doing, why José is a looking forward person and why ‘this year's Christmas will be next year's nostalgia'. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and José Moreno Carbonell and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is Jennifer Uzzell, who is studying for a PhD in Durham, has done a Masters degree at Lampeter, and used to teach full time in a secondary school. Jennifer's original background is in theology and biblical studies, when she did her undergraduate degree at Durham. We learn about how her interest in Hinduism developed and how Jennifer is a Senior ‘A' level examiner. Her latest research is on Druids and their attitudes towards death and dying. We talk about how on many levels she is squaring circles. We learn about how she became involved in the funeral director business which in some respects could be construed as a form of therapy. She didn't see a dead body prior to working in a funeral home, and we find out how Jennifer does the job and how she has the right resources to do it and how she has a vocational role both to the bereaved and the dead. We talk about how Jennifer's job impacts on her research and vice versa, and we talk about the different ways of conducting funerals that work for each family – including juggling and drinking whisky in one case. She devoured Greek mythology as a child and she talks about the paucity of work on non-Christian traditions when she was at university. Jennifer has always been interested in how words are used in translation, and she talks about why she considers herself an anthropologist of religion and being aware of watching herself watching. She discusses also being an insider both as a Druid and a funeral director. We talk about the key role of fiction in paganism and of re-enchantment, and about the importance of myth and magic and folk horror. Towards the end of the interview, Jennifer talks about the way funerals can be a way for families to reconnect, and we discuss the role of connecting with an imagined past and about Jennifer's work in historical re-enactment. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Jennifer Uzzell and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

The tables were turned on me for this week's Nostalgia Interviews podcast – as I am the guest. Pamela Petro, who did such a fantastic interview with me earlier in 2021, asks me about my background (and we talk about why I don't sound Welsh), why I used to emulate great radio presenters and newsreaders and why I ended up in academia if I always wanted to be on the radio. I talk about my career path, the dream that never went away, the bridge between broadcasting and teaching, and how this all dovetailed during lockdown when I would record my lectures like doing a radio show. I talk about my first university memory and recount my memories of the first day at Lampeter, which dovetailed with buying a bed for my sister, and why I came close to crying. Friday 4 October 1991 was the beginning of the rest of my life. Pamela asks me what the song is that sums up my student days (the answer may surprise you), and I talk about the 1992 Lampeter Arts Hall Christmas disco when I danced really badly to the Human League and how it led to a particularly memorable experience at the Quarry club in Lampeter the following Tuesday… I discuss how I wasn't in a good place 5 or 6 years ago and, through my work on Nostalgia, I have wanted to return to the prosaic, humdrum stuff from my undergraduate days and to say thank you to those friends from that era, and how one episode in particular was the template for me becoming involved with student support many years later. I then talk about my diaries and how and why I have been annotating my past, and what it says about the difference between experience and memory. I refer to the diary as being a corrective against having a rose-coloured lens reading of the past. We also talk about what makes Lampeter special by virtue of what for other people might be its perceived limitations. We then focus on the role of memoir and finding a way to connect a personal story to universal experiences. Specifically, I talk about why the diary became a form of salvation after I met somebody in 2016 who didn't turn out to be who she promised to be, and the diary turned me into a detective in my own story. I talk about how the diary is both primary source, secondary source and work in progress. The interview finishes with me being asked what I would do if God gave me the chance to satisfy one desire!

The Marine Biologist - Sir Alister Hardy - set up a centre to study religious experience. He claimed that 50% of people in the UK had a religious experience and saw this as an evolutionary response to some dimension of reality

My guest this week is Penny Sartori, a medical researcher and teacher in the field of near-death experiences who did a PhD in NDEs at Lampeter. Penny used to work in the Intensive Therapy Unit in Morriston Hospital in Swansea where she was upset about the death of her patients and which led her to want to research more about death.  Something that Penny discovered is that the neurophysiological assumptions that better fitted her nurse training didn't seem to be an adequate or sufficient model for understanding the phenomena. She found that talking to patients about what they were feeling and what they said face to face was an eye opening experience. They appreciated the fact that she was taking their experiences seriously whereas in many cases their relatives might dismiss their testimonies. It was a form of empowerment for them which counterbalanced the trauma of having come close to death. Penny talks about the negative experiences which some of the patients had, and she reveals what her colleagues thought about her research and the importance for nurses to recognize and validate these experiences and support their patients. We learn how this ended up becoming the PhD with Paul Badham as supervisor and how this all changed her life. Her work on NDEs has enabled her to become more appreciative of her life and it taught her to live in the moment. We talk about NDE characteristics, some of the findings of her research, including the seeing of deceased relatives and whether all of the patients she was studying had clinically died. We learn that she is interested in the extent to which NDEs give meaning to patients' lives, and Penny discusses the lack of acceptance in nursing circles of these experiences. Do we understand the dying process sufficiently? Penny tells me about the impact of her research and the book, which was serialized in a national newspaper, had on her personally. We also find out what made her enter the nursing profession in the first place and how everything has fallen into place in her life since. Finally, towards the end of the interview Penny talks about growing up in Swansea where she used to enjoy going surfing, and we hear about her love of 80s music. We learn that she is in touch with her best friend from school, why she enjoyed the solitude of lockdown, and why Penny is a looking forward kind of person. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Penny Sartori and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

Moody author, J. Brian Tucker is a guest on Dawn and Steve Mornings for an important conversation about theology. Brian has written the book 50 Most Important Theological Terms. Listen and learn why these terms matter. Brian is a Professor of New Testament at Moody Theological Seminary in Plymouth, MI, and an External Affiliate at St. Mary's University, Twickenham, London. He is co-editor of The T & T Clark Social Identity Commentary on the New Testament and the author or coauthor of several books including Reading Romans after Supersessionism, and All Together Different. Brian earned his DMin from Michigan Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. from the University of Wales, Lampeter. In his spare time, he enjoys science fiction and playing and listening to jazz. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest this week is Pamela Petro, American author, artist and teacher based in Massachusetts. Pamela has just published a memoir called The Long Field in which we learn about her passion for Wales as an American, based around the concept of hiraeth. Pamela did an MA in The Word and the Visual Imagination at Lampeter and she talks about how she never got over her ‘Welsh thing'. In the last 35 years she has been back something like 28 times. Lampeter has affected her in a way no other place has. Pamela talks about how she felt instantly at home there and about being comfortable on the margins looking critically at the centre. She felt that she was in touch with the world in this intimate place, and she talks about using our own stories as a jumping off place to a universal plane. We learn about the importance of hiraeth, which might be thought of as a form of homesickness and longing and as the presence of absence – perhaps a longing for the self that we once were. We hear about the time a man appeared out of a manhole wearing a German pith helmet, and a sheep wandering in the library. Pamela grew up in New Jersey and she talks about the search for that in between state and about how one is always imagining what we don't have. To miss something is the springboard to imagination, and Pamela is happy to be in that liminal space. It's the looking forward, say to Christmas, that's more important than Christmas Day itself. We find out why Pamela looks forward to the shortening of the light in winter, and we consider these motifs via the endings of The Shawshank Redemption and Local Hero. At the end of the interview we discuss how negative experiences allow one to grow, and we talk about how loss might be deemed to be the most important thing in life. We discover that Pamela carries the past with her all the time – and we find out what would happen if she could choose between going to the past or the future. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Pamela Petro and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is Gregory Shushan, a researcher in the area of Near Death Experiences who is currently based in Portugal. Gregory went to Lampeter to do a PhD in 2004 on a cross cultural study of afterlife beliefs under the supervision of Paul Badham. We talk extensively about Near Death Experiences and how Gregory was interested in looking at the impact of NDEs on culture. Gregory was born in San Diego and grew up in an environment where his parents had very different approaches to life. He talks about the role of travel in his life, and we learn that he studied at UCL before going to Lampeter. We learn too about Gregory's tendency to the outsider way of thinking. He once contemplated being a musician and Gregory discusses his musical influences, and the resonances of Matt Dillon's debut 1979 film Over the Edge. British music and culture also influenced him, and we discover that Gregory listens to it today though not so much in the case of punk.  Gregory talks about his work on indigenous religions and NDEs and is looking at Victorian and Edwardian work on mediumship and reincarnation memories for his next book. He calls out the racist elements in some of that spiritualist literature, and we talk about the way NDEs are overlaid with our cultural conditioning and symbols. We then discuss H.H. Price's work on mind-dependent worlds which, Gregory believes, comes closest to explaining the similarities and differences in afterlife and NDE experiences. Gregory talks about what people who have had an NDE make of his research, and he talks about how people who have had an NDE may look to his work to corroborate their experiences. The materialist sceptics also want him to corroborate their ‘it's all in the brain' position. He explains why he isn't interested in proving whether or not NDEs are true or not. At the end of the interview we learn that Gregory's memories are fairly mixed. He talks about finding journals from when he was a teenager and he talks about ‘nostalgicising' certain periods of his life and how he is inclined to look back and forward more than be in the present. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Gregory Shushan and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is Professor Bettina Schmidt, Professor in Study of Religions and Anthropology of Religion at University of Wales Trinity Saint David and President of the British Association for the Study of Religion. Bettina is also Director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre in Lampeter. Bettina is currently looking in her research at questions of spirituality, health and wellbeing and one of her areas of specialism is spirit possession and trance in Brazil and on vernacular forms of religion, such as voodoo, in the Caribbean. Originally from a working class background in Germany, where her father was a coal miner, Bettina reflects on how her mother made sure she and her sisters had a good education. Anthropology was a way for Bettina to see the world, and Bettina talks about the role that religion played in terms of identity in her mother's life. Indeed, for Bettina, religious identity is more important in some respects than the content of religion. We learn what her parents thought about her career and about the role that the patron saint Barbara played, including in Bettina's PhD viva. Bettina also discusses musical interests, including Abba and Grease and civil rights songs. She saw Joan Baez perform in Cardiff shortly before lockdown and she also remembers being impressed by Joe Cocker. We learn how Bettina entered academia and talk about whether fieldwork can still take place due to lockdown. Bettina explains that she keeps a diary of each of her field trips and we discover why Brazil is the only place to which she has returned. Indeed, she joined Facebook because of the people in Brazil and we learn how she sent her books to the leaders of the community who helped her. We find out about the university teachers who inspired Bettina and why she is inspired more by ideas than people. She talks about her father's experience of being harassed for being a German after the War and she discusses the role of nostalgia in the context of a past that was destroyed by political events. Bettina also reflects on how Brexit has been tough on Europeans living in the UK, and we talk about the concepts of cultural memory and of a Utopian Africa. Then, at the end of the interview, we learn that Bettina enjoys reading Agatha Christie crime novels and we talk about the nostalgic idea of a Britain that never existed vis-à-vis the stories of Enid Blyton and how anthropology comprises a subjective reflection of the world. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Bettina Schmidt and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

We're now into week two of what First Minister Mark Drakeford calls ‘the final lap' of emerging from the pandemic. Legal limits have gone on the number of people we can meet in our homes, in public places or at events; restrictions on worship have eased, the kinds of gatherings which have been impossible are starting to happen again. Although they're still likely to be wearing masks for much of the time, many congregations are at last able to be seeing one another in person. But it's been eighteen months in which shared worship has largely taken place online. New technology has offered exposure to very different styles of worship, but day-to-day pastoral care and work with children and young people have faced huge difficulties, and many buildings have remained closed. What have churches learnt through this – and what have they lost? In what ways will this experience help to shape their future? To explore this, Roy Jenkins is joined by: Father Christopher Hancock, who was Catholic parish priest in Merthyr until he moved to Sunderland nine months ago Rev Dr Emma Whittick, chaplain at the University of Wales Trinity St David in Lampeter and Carmarthen Rev Gethin Rhys, Policy officer at Cytûn, Churches Together in Wales Rev Edwin Counsell, Ministry Area Leader for the Glamorgan Heritage Coast Ministry Area

My guest this week is Professor David Cheetham, Professor of Philosophical Theology at the University of Birmingham where he has been based since 1999. David and I were both Theology students at Lampeter, with David studying for his PhD at the time that I was an undergraduate, and David talks about how Lampeter influenced him – and how there was more going on than his academic achievements. We talk about the second nature element of Zoom and how it has affected our teaching and we learn why David is an optimist about life post-lockdown. We discuss his memories of living in Lampeter back in the days when you ‘had to make your own entertainment' in a way that wouldn't have happened in a city university and why Lampeter was like a self-contained ecosystem of people in which he didn't have to worry about ‘tomorrow'.  We learn all about the legendary Edmund Estafan and the Mydroilyn Sound Machine where David was the band's keyboardist and David reveals that he had originally wanted to be a musician and that despite ostensibly going there to read Theology Lampeter enabled him to become a musician. He also recalls his ritual of running over to the local Chinese takeaway for 11pm. David recalls growing up in the 1980s in what was a very musical world and that he once told the Revd. Richard Coles that ‘Don't Leave Me This Way' by The Communards was the first song he danced to at the Lampeter union disco. David is not the first person I've interviewed who has written a PhD on John Hick (see my interview in 2019 with Gerard Loughlin). He talks about meeting John Hick at his home in Birmingham over a strong sherry and David recounts an hilarious story about how he once had a clash between a Blend Band rehearsal and seeing John Hick give a talk.  We learn about how David doesn't necessarily agree with everything Hick has written and he tells us why Hick was worried about how Death and Eternal Life would be perceived, before moving on to talk about Paul Badham's influence (on his both) and his defence of dualism. We learn what David's younger self would have expected him to do and how one of his secondary school teachers thought he was a bit too ambitious when he said at the age of about 14 that he wanted to be a Professor one day.  We discuss whether our university tutors could ever have known what we got up to outside of our work and at the end of the interview we discover why David has a ‘good nostalgia' about what he has done in his life to date. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and David Cheetham and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

My guest this week is Jonathan Trigg, who studied Archaeology at Lampeter from 1995-98 and has been at Liverpool for the last 22 years. We talk about the advantages of living and studying on a small campus like Lampeter. Jonathan, who was brought up in Essex, talks about how and why he decided to apply to university and being a late developer. We talk about our relationship with the past and his work on war memorials and how some people are going to be more deserving of our praise than others. From growing up Jonathan remembers watching cricket with his father and we discuss the 1981 Royal Wedding. He also remembers the love of family and then discovering after going to university that he had the chance to become himself. Jonathan doesn't have a mobile phone and we talk about the benefits (or otherwise) of doing everything online due to lockdown. He appreciates the time that his tutors took to give him and others to learn and we talk about the importance of feedback. We also learn how he ended up working in academia and why he feels that in some ways it is a hobby.  He relays what happened when he saw Gladiator at the cinema with a Roman archaeology and history lecturer who had a problem with some facets of the film. Jonathan also talks about voting for the first time while a student and playing for the student cricket team. He learned life experience at Lampeter and academic experience at Liverpool. When asked at a young age what he wanted to be he would have said a museum curator. Jonathan talks about how good it is when people go on to do things because of your efforts, and he finishes with a reference to the Welsh hiraeth. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Jonathan Trigg and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

Professor Louise Steel examines the history of clay and how the cultural and technological knowledges of the earliest settled farming and urban communities were informed by people's engagements with clay.       As one of the first mineral substance to be transformed from a malleable to a durable state. Many societies perceive it as an animate substance permeated with "a spiritual energy and life-force" that retains a "thing-power", allowing it to be shaped into various forms.[1] [2]     Building on her ongoing research Steel looks at the agency of matter to illustrate how the distinct capacities of clay (in relationship with water and fire) shaped and facilitated, but equally constrained, people's behaviour, resulting in distinctive social and material worlds. Focusing on the vitality of matter, Steel considers how “the materials themselves are determining—even actively responsible—for the final shape and manner by which the finished article can manifest”. [3]   [1] Boivin, N. 2012. From veneration to exploitation: Human engagement with the mineral world. In Soils, Stones and Symbols: Cultural Perceptions of the Mineral World; Boivin, N., Owoc, M.A., (Eds). London: Routledge, pp. 1–29.  [2] Bennett, J. 2010.Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.  [3] Attala, L. and Steel, L. 2019.Body Matters: Exploring the Materiality of the Human Body> Cardiff: Wales University Press.  Louise Steel is Professor in Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter. Her research focuses on materiality and the interaction of objects in people's social worlds. She is series editor of Materialities in Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Wales Press, and is currently editing a volume on Earthy Matters: Exploring Human Interactions with Earth, Soil and Clay.

As the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show goes virtual for the second year running, we speak to the Welsh Government Rural Affairs Minister, Lesley Griffiths on farming matters. Back to nature, the businessman rewilding a farm in Ceredigion. We buy a pint of milk from Llaeth Llanfair - a mobile vending service set up by a Lampeter dairy farm. And how social media and a desire to be outside following the pandemic, sparks a revival in PYO.

My guest this week is Charles Musselwhite, Professor in Psychology at Aberystwyth. Charles is a specialist in gerontology with a particular focus on how people engage with place in terms of age. He first went to Lampeter to study Archaeology and Charles talks about how that experience underpinned what he thinks now. We learn that he prefers a bottom up approach to his research, asking how someone lives their life and we learn how, for example, transport is more about people than vehicles. After Lampeter Charles went to Southampton to study Psychology and later did a PhD looking at how young boy racers change in their lifetime. We look at the role of nostalgia vis-a-vis the people that Charles interviews, and the views that older people who are housebound see from their windows. Charles also talks about how the most interesting bits in people's lives are often the everyday and ordinary ones rather than the extraordinary events. He grew up near Portsmouth, his parents were teachers, and Charles remembers once seeing his headmaster throwing up in his parents' downstairs toilet at 3am. He talks about how he can feel and smell the past as well as see it.  Charles talks about how gratifying it is when students tell you how much they learned from your teaching. He didn't complete his degree at Lampeter and Charles explains why he doesn't now want to be a Professor who doesn't teach.  Musically, Charles has always been into progressive rock and he recounts the time when he went down from Lampeter to see Marillion in concert in Cardiff in January 1994 and how he especially remembers the most unusual of journeys there. We discuss how the journey is often as important as the destination. Charles reveals that he suffers from rose tinted glasses syndrome and he talks about the importance of keeping diaries in terms of correcting the way we look at things. He's not very good at parking the past, he tells us why returning to Lampeter is restorative and unique and we finish by reflecting on how our friendships often evolve in ways we might not have anticipated. Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Charles Musselwhite and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Oxford Movement in the Church of England in the 19th century. Cardinal John Henry Newman is perhaps the most significant Christian theologian of the nineteenth century. He began as an evangelical, becoming a High Anglican before converting to Roman Catholicism in 1845. His is the story of the diversity of Victorian religious life. But his path also marks the waning of the ideas of Protestant nationhood at the close of the eighteenth century and the reaffirmation of the Catholic tradition at the turn of the twentieth century. For over a decade, between 1833 and 1845, Newman and his fellow travellers, the Oxford Movement, argued that the Church of England was a holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. They sought to assert the Catholic nature of their Church just as secularism, liberalism, non-conformism, and even Roman Catholicism, seemed to threaten her. They published tracts, preached and brought their social mission to some of the poorest urban parishes. Why between 1833 and 1845 was the voice of reaction such a loud one? What was the Oxford Movement and what motivated them? How did they present their ideas to the Anglican clergy at large and what did the clergy make of them? And why did they leave such a powerful legacy for the Church of England, its character and its churches? With Sheridan Gilley, Emeritus Reader in Theology at the University of Durham; Frances Knight, Senior Lecturer in Church History at the University of Wales, Lampeter; Simon Skinner, Fellow and Tutor in History at Balliol College, Oxford.