Podcasts about Somerset

Not long after 9 PM on that Sunday night, in the sleepy new-build development of Dragon Rise, the back door security light of Jennifer and Stephen Chapple's home flicked on. Their two boys aged 5 and 6 years old had been put to bed hours before and were sleeping soundly upstairs.36-year-old Stephen was a well-loved IT teacher at West Somerset College. It was a secondary school in Minehead in Somerset, 23 miles away from his home in Dragon Rise. His wife 33-year-old Jennifer worked as a Customer Service Advisor at the coffee shop of the popular Otter Garden Centre in Norton Fitzwarren. At that time on a Sunday night, they were probably thinking about preparing for bed themselves. They had no idea what was about to explode into their home.Join Black Label on https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast to unlock the entire Ad-Free Obscura library + entire Black Label Bonus Episodes! Our Sponsors:* Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com* Check out Chime: https://chime.com/OBSCURA* Check out Mood and use my code OBSCURA for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code OBSCURA for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/obscura-a-true-crime-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The highly popular documentary filmmaker, Rick Sebak, is a native Pittsburgher, who's worked at Pittsburgh's PBS station WQED since 1987.Rick's created dozens of local TV documentaries known collectively as The Pittsburgh History Series, including: “Kennywood Memories,” “What Makes Pittsburgh Pittsburgh?” and “Right Beside The River” as well as many more. He's also produced 15 national programs for PBS including “A Hot Dog Program,” “A Flea Market Documentary” and “A Few Good Pie Places.”I've seen a number of Rick's documentaries and have always been delighted by the way they're put together and especially by the uplifting, wonderfully human stories Rick's work delivers each and every time.Rick has been honored with several regional Emmy Awards and two national Emmy nominations. One Pittsburgh bar even named a drink after him. In 2018, Pittsburgh Magazine named Rick one of the 50 Greatest Pittsburghers Of All Time.  There's even a street named for him in Pittsburgh's Somerset at Frick Park neighborhood.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Sebakhttps://www.wqed.org/history-documentaries-pittsburgh-history-series/https://www.pbs.org/show/the-rick-sebak-collection/

GJ WILLIAMS chats to Paul Burke about her new historical crime thriller THE CYGNET PRINCE, third in the Tudor Rose Murders series, Tudor scandals, pretenders to the throne, the Kardashians of the Tudor period. THE CYGNET PRINCE: England 1562. Elizabeth's court is besieged by scandal and Catholic plots, when a young German prince arrives in England claiming to be the son of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves - and so the rightful King. His letters, looks, and jewels seem to prove his case. As a poison spreads and old secrets unravel, Doctor John Dee and his apprentice, Margaretta, must uncover the truth behind the prince's origins. Their investigation spans England and German as they uncover forbidden love, revenge, betrayal and a plot against the Tudor Dynasty. But will they uncover the truth in time to save the queen's throne?GJ WILLIAMS is a Welsh woman living in Somerset, England. She is a doctor of psychology and ran an international consulting business for 25 years before putting her love of writing to the forefront of life. She lives between Somerset and London and is often found writing on the train next to a grumpy cat and a cup of tea. Her dream is to be chosen by readers of CJ Sansom, SJ Parris, Rory Clements, Kate Mosse, SG McClean, and Andrew TaylorLife is always busy. When she is not writing, she is researching, travelling to historic sites or plotting while sailing the blue seas on her beloved boat.GJ also delivers talks and ‘meet the author' sessions with historical interest groups, book clubs and societies. Reach her through the contact page.Recommendations The Unravelling of Mary Reddish by David Whitfield Murder at Greenwich Palace Adele JordanPaul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2025. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out 2026.20% of royalties from this book will be donated to Weston Hospice CareProduced by Junkyard DogCrime TimeCrime Time FM is the official podcast ofGwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025CrimeFest 2023CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 20242024 Slaughterfest,

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Ian Shepherd is joined by Dan Kingdom, Ben Warren & Anthony Gibson to chat about Somerset's quickfire win over Durham, discuss the social media comments made by the President of Durham, and reflect on another successful Vitality Blast group stage campaign...

Send us a textJoining me on this week's episode of The English Wine Diaries is Jessica Summer, founder of Mouse & Grape an award-winning cheese and wine business specialising in curated hampers and immersive tasting events focused on this delicious food and wine combo. Jessica, who last year opened her first deli and wine bar in London, was one of Harpers 30 Under 30 in 2023 and this year was named winner of the IWSC Emerging Talent in Wine Award, as well as winner of Retail Buyer of the year at The Drinks Business Awards. Underpinning her expertise is a Level 3 WSET certificate and a Level 2 certification from the Academy of Cheese but she's also got a brilliant marketing head on her shoulders – her innovative April Fools campaign, which saw a host of wine influencers humorously – and quite literally – combining cheese and wine, also won the Drinks Business Social Media Campaign of the Year in 2024.Mouse & Grape has been featured in publications like the Metro, Telegraph, and Express, while Jessica has made notable appearances on Saturday Kitchen, BBC Radio London, the Michael Portillo show on GB News, and today The English Wine Diaries podcast…! We tried the following cheese and wine combinations: NV Louis de Grenelle Platine Crémant de Loire Brut X La Tur –  a blend of thermised cow's, goat's and sheep's milk, from Alta Langa in Piedmont, Italy. Gruner No.1 Canned Wine Co. and Three Choirs Amber Wine X Taleggio – from Lombardy, Italy. Treve Estivale 2022 Rosé X Tor, a smooth goat's cheese from White Lake in Somerset. For Jessica's English cheese and wine pairing alternatives – listen in to the episode. To find out more visit mouseandgrape.com or follow @mouseandgrape on instagram. With thanks to series sponsor, Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to open an account and see their award-winning range of English wine and bottles from around the globe that have exceptional stories to tell.Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at englishwinediaries.com.

This week, Kelsey branched out to Pennsylvania, where she found some balls. We're trying a snack from My Girls Deli & Catering. Located at 542 Berlin Plank Rd. Somerset, PA. Open Tue-Thur 11:00 AM-4:00 PM, Fri 11:00 AM-2:00 PM, and Sat 11:00 AM-3:00 PM, Closed Sun-Mon.Here's what we tried:Sauerkraut Sausage Balls, a sort of Deep fried not quite croquette-like balls, full of cream cheese, sausage, and a mild sauerkraut; Chicken salad with green olives and walnutsThen, Matt covers one of many stories about Al Davis former coach, manager, and owner of the Oakland (Now Las Vegas) Raiders football team. As it relates to true crime, Matt goes into Al's long standing feud with former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, which resulted in multiple legal disputes and lawsuits.Also, the Creeps talk about a very wild sandwich, Kelsey dying for the clicks, her love of NFL training camps, and a last will and testimony.

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In this episode of the Farms Advice podcast, we delve into the intricate relationship between government policies and agriculture. Join us as we explore the unique challenges faced by UK farmers, including the impact of inheritance tax, environmental schemes, and Brexit on farming operations. Our guest, Richard Payne, an arable farmer from Somerset, shares his insights on navigating these policies while maintaining a sustainable and profitable farm. Tune in to understand how these policies shape the future of agriculture and what it means for farmers globally.Follow Richard on TwitterFollow to keep the conversation flowingFollow Jack on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cressy__/ and Twitter https://x.com/jcressw3 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@farmsadvice Follow Farms Advice - https://instagram.com/farmsadvice Join the Farmers Only Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/farmsadvice For more like this go to https://farmsadvice.com.au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Why the Epstein case looms large in MAGA world UK weather Amber warning as thunderstorms to bring flash flooding Manchester Airport brawl accused didnt know he hit female PCs Fake Botox suspected in dozens of poisoning cases Trains cancelled after car crashes onto tracks in Harrogate Three killed in explosion at LA Sheriffs Department training facility Boy, 10, dead as nine in hospital after Somerset coach crash Astronomer investigating after Coldplay concert embrace caught on video Inside the MasterChef crisis as Gregg Wallace, John Torode sacked Dog who helped police Queens funeral dies in crash

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Manchester Airport brawl accused didnt know he hit female PCs Three killed in explosion at LA Sheriffs Department training facility Boy, 10, dead as nine in hospital after Somerset coach crash Fake Botox suspected in dozens of poisoning cases UK weather Amber warning as thunderstorms to bring flash flooding Dog who helped police Queens funeral dies in crash Trains cancelled after car crashes onto tracks in Harrogate Why the Epstein case looms large in MAGA world Inside the MasterChef crisis as Gregg Wallace, John Torode sacked Astronomer investigating after Coldplay concert embrace caught on video

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Manchester Airport brawl accused didnt know he hit female PCs Fake Botox suspected in dozens of poisoning cases Boy, 10, dead as nine in hospital after Somerset coach crash UK weather Amber warning as thunderstorms to bring flash flooding Dog who helped police Queens funeral dies in crash Inside the MasterChef crisis as Gregg Wallace, John Torode sacked Trains cancelled after car crashes onto tracks in Harrogate Three killed in explosion at LA Sheriffs Department training facility Astronomer investigating after Coldplay concert embrace caught on video Why the Epstein case looms large in MAGA world

For July, Alice visits author and mudlark Lara Maiklem on the Thames foreshore in Wapping, London. Lara takes us on a mudlarking walk, to search for London's forgotten objects. This episode was produced by musician and sound artist Alice Boyd, featuring music by herself and Sam Lee. Thanks go to Lara Maiklem. 'Found Sounds' are back for 2025 with another twelve episodes, each released on the middle Friday of the month. This year, Alice is travelling across the UK to meet people inspired by heritage crafts, folklore and the landscape, creating a sonic scrapbook of their practice. 'As the Season Turns' is a podcast created by Ffern in collaboration with Lia Leendertz. Each episode, released on the first of the month, is a guide to what to look out for in the month ahead - from the sky above to the land below. Found Sounds are released on the middle Friday of the month. Ffern is an organic fragrance maker based in Somerset. You can learn more about Ffern's seasonal eau de parfum at ffern.co

We meet painter Charlotte Keates within her new installation ‘Inner Landscapes'. We discover the inspiration behind her epic new commission and explore her lifelong passion for drawing and painting.Keates' work is inspired by interiors, travels, and architectural composition, in seamless communion with elements from the natural world. Trees push through flat concrete, while perspectives unfold in sheets of glass. These images of modernist leisure leave one with the feeling of having entered a space only recently vacated, dramatizing stillness without surrendering movement. These are environments that suggest, technically as well as artistically, indistinct human activity and motion.Her paintings gently weave together impressions of space and structure with subtle narratives, often emerging through the interplay of distinctive colours and carefully placed objects. These scenes do not depict real places but rather reflect traces of memory and quiet moments of perception. The spaces she constructs are imagined, yet the emotions they carry feel genuine and immediate. Without relying on overt storytelling, her works convey a calm presence and a quiet tension. As art historian Marco Livingstone observed, “the highlighted area acquires a hypnotic presence, as if spotlit into existence from within an atmosphere of ambiguous limitless space.”Keates was born in 1990 in Somerset, United Kingdom, and currently lives and works in Guernsey and London. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Falmouth University. She will show new work in a forthcoming group exhibition at the Ju Ming Museum in October 2025, Taipei, Taiwan.Follow @CharlotteKeates on Instagram.

We were very fortunate to have Frank Traficante and Tim Chimenti from Somerset Thrower on the podcast to talk about their new album, "Take Only What You Need To Survive". Enjoy! Somerset Thrower Socials: Twitter: https://x.com/somersetthrower Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somersetthrower/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somersetthrower/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somersetthrowerlihc Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/somerset-thrower/955202923 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Ifk35ildPnmMtcnOWLITu Bandcamp: https://somersetthrower.bandcamp.com/music Grab some GNP Merch!: https://goodnoisepodcast.creator-spring.com/ Check out the recording gear we use: https://www.amazon.com/shop/goodnoisepodcast Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/goodnoisepodcast Good Noise Podcast Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodnoisepodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodnoisepod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@goodnoisepodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/nDAQKwT YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFHKPdUxxe1MaGNWoFtjoJA Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/04IMtdIrCIvbIr7g6ttZHi All other streaming platforms: https://linktr.ee/goodnoisepodcast Bandcamp: https://goodnoiserecords.bandcamp.com/

A full interview with New York Yankees outfield prospect Brendan Jones on being named the Eastern League Player of the Week for Somerset. We look back at his past year to his start to pro ball from Kansas State and talk about what he was up to over his first professional offseason.

After a two-parter with Thomas Klimoski on small layouts and the potential they hold, it was perfect timing to talk about operations on John Farrington's Somerset & Raritan. Don Irace joins me in the ATLP Studio to talk to his neighbor about the small layout that's become a blast to operate thanks to John's creativity, willingness to change and implementation of tasks that slow down the session, providing enjoyment for himself and his crew.Learn more about this episode on our website:aroundthelayout.com/167Thank you to our episode sponsor, Spring Creek Model Trains:https://www.springcreekmodeltrains.com/Thank you to our episode sponsor, Tully Models:https://tullymodels.com

Child dies in Somerset bush crashDiane Abbott has been suspended by the Labour party for a second time President Trump says he wants Coca-cola to replace high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar and we speak to two teenagers about the government's plans to lower the voting age to 16

Ein Mann wird bei einem Sommergewitter vom Blitz getroffen und verschwindet vor den Augen seiner Familie spurlos. Drei Tage später taucht er unversehrt wieder auf, trägt fremde Kleidung und berichtet von vollkommen unbekannten Orten und Personen. Was genau Peter Williamson zugestoßen sein könnte, überschreitet unser Verständnis von Physik und Logik um Lichtjahre…

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Yas Rana and Ali Brown bring you Oval and Out - your bitesize look at the Surrey's Men's superb Vitality Blast win over Somerset.

Cameron Ponsonby and Kirstie White bring you Oval and Out - your bitesize look at the Surrey's Women's superb Vitality Blast win over Somerset.

Gov. Beshear says the state will be out hundreds of millions of dollars for disaster relief without federal aid, a program is working to provide law enforcement officers with life-saving equipment, Renee Shaw goes one-on-one with Somerset Mayor Alan Keck, and a Kentucky soft drink teams up with KSU to offer a Kentucky-centric beverage.

Nothing captures the spirit of a British summer quite like Wimbledon and the iconic pairing of strawberries and cream. This week we're diving into the fascinating history of strawberry cultivation with the RHS Head of Libraries and Exhibitions Fiona Davison, who uncovered a hidden story of pioneering strawberry-focused citizen science. Wisley's Liz Mooney returns to run us through exactly how to keep on top of the vegetable patch during one of the busiest times in the growing season. And finally, we journey to Somerset to meet Georgie Newbury of Common Farm Flowers. Her cut flower farm is a haven for bees, butterflies, and all things that flutter and buzz. Host: Gareth Richards Contributors: Fiona Davison, Liz Mooney, Georgie Newbury Links: How the RHS transformed British strawberry growing RHS Digital Collections RHS Plant Trials and Awards Common Farm Flowers

What if the American Revolution wasn't a noble birth of liberty, but a costly wrong turn? Before muskets were raised at Lexington and Concord, the British Empire was already inching toward something remarkable: the abolition of slavery. In 1772, just three years before the war began, the landmark Somerset decision in England ruled that slavery had no basis in common law. While it didn't outlaw slavery across the empire, it signaled growing discomfort with the institution. British abolitionists like Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson were building momentum. By 1807, Britain banned the slave trade; by 1833, it abolished slavery entirely. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the American colonies, especially in the South, were deeply entrenched in slavery. Many of the Revolution's leading voices were enslavers who feared that continued British rule might imperil their human property. In fact, during the war, the British offered freedom to enslaved people who escaped and joined their forces. The Americans, despite their soaring rhetoric about liberty, were far more reluctant to do the same. In this light, the Revolution was not just a fight for freedom: it was also, for some, a fight to preserve slavery. Had the colonies remained within the empire, they likely would have been pulled along Britain's abolitionist trajectory. Slavery might have ended decades earlier, without the catastrophic toll of a Civil War. Instead, the United States forged its identity through violent rupture, glorifying revolution and enshrining ideals it could not yet fulfill. America's foundational rebellion may have delayed justice rather than advanced it. Peace, reform, and patient negotiation–Canada's path–might have built a fairer, stabler society. Liberty, contrary to our cherished American myths, isn't always won on the battlefield. Sometimes, it's secured by fighting for reform and changing from within. EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: NEW DATE! Thursday July 31 4pm ET – the Gaslit Nation Book Club discusses Antoine de Saint Exupéry's The Little Prince written in the U.S. during America First.  Minnesota Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other, available on Patreon.  Vermont Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other, available on Patreon.  Arizona-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to connect, available on Patreon.  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon.  Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon.  Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit! Show Notes: Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies & Sparked the American Revolution https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/slave-nation/ We Could Have Been Canada: Was the American Revolution such a good idea?https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/15/we-could-have-been-canada Bernie Sanders clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZWzADxM_kw

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter  or Bluesky for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcast.Competition ends on 23rd July 2025. The winner will be contacted via Bluesky. Show references:  Sam Mullins, Trustee at SS Great Britainhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sammullins/https://www.ssgreatbritain.org/ Transcriptions:  Paul Marden: What an amazing day out here. Welcome to Skip the Queue. The podcast for people working in and working with visitor attractions, I'm your host, Paul Marden, and today you join me for the last episode of the season here in a very sunny and very pleasant Bristol Dockyard. I'm here to visit the SS Great Britain and one of their trustees, Sam Mullins, who until recently, was the CEO of London Transport Museum. And I'm going to be talking to Sam about life after running a big, family friendly Museum in the centre of London, and what comes next, and I'm promising you it's not pipes and the slippers for Sam, he's been very busy with the SSGreat Britain and with other projects that we'll talk a little more about. But for now, I'm going to enjoy poodling across the harbour on boat number five awaiting arrival over at the SS Great Britain. Paul Marden: Is there much to catch in the water here?Sam Mullins: According to some research, there's about 36 different species of fish. They catch a lot of cream. They catch Roach, bullet, bass car. Big carpet there, maybe, yeah, huge carpet there. And then your European great eel is here as well, right? Yeah, massive things by the size of your leg, big heads. It's amazing. It goes to show how receipt your life is. The quality of the water is a lot better now. Paul Marden: Oh yeah, yeah, it's better than it used to be years ago. Thank you very much. All right. Cheers. Have a good day. See you later on. So without further ado, let's head inside. So where should we head? Too fast. Sam Mullins: So we start with the stern of the ship, which is the kind of classic entrance view, you know. Yeah, coming up, I do. I love the shape of this ship as you as you'll see.Paul Marden: So lovely being able to come across the water on the boat and then have this as you're welcome. It's quite a.Sam Mullins: It's a great spot. Isn't it?Paul Marden: Really impactful, isn't it? Sam Mullins:  Because the amazing thing is that it's going this way, is actually in the dry dock, which was built to build it. Paul Marden: That's amazing. Sam Mullins: So it came home. It was clearly meant to be, you know,Paul Marden:  Quite the circular story.Sam Mullins:  Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Paul Marden:  Thank you. Wow. Look at that view.Sam Mullins: So that's your classic view.Paul Marden:  So she's in a dry dock, but there's a little bit of water in there, just to give us an idea of what's going on. Sam Mullins: Well, what's actually going on in here is, preserving the world's first iron ship. So it became clear, after he'd come back from the Falklands, 1970 came back to Bristol, it became clear that the material of the ship was rusting away. And if something wasn't done, there'd be nothing left, nothing left to show. So the innovative solution is based on a little bit of science if you can reduce the relative humidity of the air around the cast iron hull of the ship to around about 20% relative humidity, corrosion stops. Rusting stops. It's in a dry dock. You glaze over the dock at kind of water line, which, as you just noticed, it gives it a really nice setting. It looks like it's floating, yeah, it also it means that you can then control the air underneath. You dry it out, you dehumidify it. Big plant that dries out the air. You keep it at 20% and you keep the ship intact. Paul Marden: It's interesting, isn't it, because you go to Mary Rose, and you go into the ship Hall, and you've got this hermetically sealed environment that you can maintain all of these beautiful Tudor wooden pieces we're outside on a baking hot day. You don't have the benefit of a hermetically sealed building, do you to keep this? Sam Mullins: I guess the outside of the ship is kind of sealed by the paint. That stops the air getting to the bit to the bare metal. We can go down into the trigger, down whilst rise up.Paul Marden:  We're wondering. Sam, yeah, why don't you introduce yourself, tell listeners a little bit about your background. How have we ended up having this conversation today.Sam Mullins: I'm Sam Mullins. I'm a historian. I decided early on that I wanted to be a historian that worked in museums and had an opportunity to kind of share my fascination with the past with museum visitors. So I worked in much Wenlock in Shropshire. I worked created a new museum in market Harbour, a community museum in Leicestershire. I was director of museums in St Albans, based on, you know, great Roman Museum at Verulamium, okay. And ended up at London Transport Museum in the 90s, and was directed there for a long time.Paul Marden: Indeed, indeed. Oh, we are inside now and heading underground.Sam Mullins: And you can hear the thrumming in the background. Is the dehumidification going on. Wow. So we're descending into thevery dry dock.Paul Marden: So we're now under water level. Yes, and the view of the ceiling with the glass roof, which above looked like a lovely little pond, it's just beautiful, isn't it?Sam Mullins: Yes, good. It sets it off both in both directions, really nicely.Paul Marden: So you've transitioned now, you've moved on from the Transport Museum. And I thought that today's episode, we could focus a little bit on what is, what's life like when you've moved on from being the director of a big, famous, influential, family friendly Museum. What comes next? Is it pipe and slippers, or are there lots of things to do? And I think it's the latter, isn't it? Sam Mullins: Yes. Well, you know, I think people retire either, you know, do nothing and play golf, or they build, you know, an interesting portfolio. I wanted to build, you know, something a bit more interesting. And, you know, Paul, there's that kind of strange feeling when you get to retire. And I was retiring from full time executive work, you kind of feel at that point that you've just cracked the job. And at that point, you know, someone gives you, you know, gives you a card and says, "Thank you very much, you've done a lovely job." Kind of, "Off you go." So having the opportunity to deploy some of that long term experience of running a successful Museum in Covent Garden for other organisations was part of that process of transition. I've been writing a book about which I'm sure we'll talk as well that's been kind of full on this year, but I was a trustee here for a number of years before I retired. I think it's really good career development for people to serve on a board to see what it's like, you know, the other side of the board. Paul Marden: I think we'll come back to that in a minute and talk a little bit about how the sausage is made. Yeah, we have to do some icebreaker questions, because I probably get you already. You're ready to start talking, but I'm gonna, I'm just gonna loosen you up a little bit, a couple of easy ones. You're sat in front of the telly, comedy or drama?Sam Mullins: It depends. Probably.Paul Marden: It's not a valid answer. Sam Mullins: Probably, probably drama.Paul Marden: Okay, if you need to talk to somebody, is it a phone call or is it a text message that you'll send?Sam Mullins:  Face to face? Okay, much better. Okay, always better. Paul Marden: Well done. You didn't accept the premise of the question there, did you? Lastly, if you're going to enter a room, would you prefer to have a personal theme tune played every time you enter the room. Or would you like a personal mascot to arrive fully suited behind you in every location you go to?Sam Mullins: I don't know what the second one means, so I go for the first one.Paul Marden: You've not seen a football mascot on watching American football or baseball?Sam Mullins: No, I try and avoid that. I like real sport. I like watching cricket. Paul Marden: They don't do that in cricket. So we are at the business end of the hull of the ship, aren't we? We're next to the propeller. Sam Mullins: We're sitting under the stern. We can still see that lovely, gilded Stern, saying, Great Britain, Bristol, and the windows and the coat of arms across the stern of the ship. Now this, of course, was the biggest ship in the world when built. So not only was it the first, first iron ship of any scale, but it was also third bigger than anything in the Royal Navy at the time. Paul Marden: They talked about that, when we were on the warrior aim the other day, that it was Brunel that was leading the way on what the pinnacle of engineering was like. It was not the Royal Navy who was convinced that it was sail that needed to lead. Sam Mullins: Yeah, Brunel had seen a much smaller, propeller driven vessel tried out, which was being toured around the country. And so they were midway through kind of design of this, when they decided it wasn't going to be a paddle steamer, which its predecessor, the world's first ocean liner, the Great Western. A was a paddle steamer that took you to New York. He decided that, and he announced to the board that he was going to make a ship that was driven by a propeller, which was the first, and this is, this is actually a replica of his patent propeller design. Paul Marden: So, this propeller was, is not the original to the show, okay?Sam Mullins: Later in its career, it had the engines taken out, and it was just a sailing ship. It had a long and interesting career. And for the time it was going to New York and back, and the time it was going to Australia and back, carrying migrants. It was a hybrid, usually. So you use the sails when it was favourable when it wasn't much wind or the wind was against. You use the use the engines. Use the steam engine.Paul Marden: Coming back into fashion again now, isn't it? Sam Mullins: Yeah, hybrid, yeah.Paul Marden: I can see holes in the hull. Was this evident when it was still in the Falklands?Sam Mullins: Yeah, it came to notice in the 60s that, you know, this world's first it was beached at Sparrow Cove in the Falkland Islands. It had lost its use as a wool warehouse, which is which it had been for 30 or 40 years. And a number of maritime historians, you and call it. It was the kind of key one realised that this, you know, extraordinary, important piece of maritime heritage would maybe not last too many war winters at Sparrow cope had a big crack down one side of the hull. It would have probably broken in half, and that would have made any kind of conservation restoration pretty well impossible as it was. It was a pretty amazing trick to put it onto a to put a barge underneath, to raise it up out of the water, and to tow it into Montevideo and then across the Atlantic, you know, 7000 miles, or whatever it is, to Avon mouth. So it's a kind of heroic story from the kind of heroic age of industrial and maritime heritage, actually.Paul Marden: It resonates for me in terms of the Mary Rose in that you've got a small group of very committed people that are looking to rescue this really valuable asset. And they find it and, you know, catch it just in time. Sam Mullins: Absolutely. That was one of the kind of eye openers for me at Mary rose last week, was just to look at the kind of sheer difficulty of doing conventional archaeology underwater for years and years. You know, is it 50,000 dives were made? Some immense number. And similarly, here, you know, lots of people kind of simply forget it, you know, it's never gonna, but a few, stuck to it, you know, formed a group, fund, raised. This is an era, of course, you know, before lottery and all that jazz. When you had to, you had to fundraise from the public to do this, and they managed to raise the money to bring it home, which, of course, is only step one. You then got to conserve this enormous lump of metal so it comes home to the dry dock in which it had been built, and that has a sort of fantastic symmetry, you know about it, which I just love. You know, the dock happened to be vacant, you know, in 1970 when the ship was taken off the pontoon at Avon mouth, just down the river and was towed up the curving Avon river to this dock. It came beneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge, which, of course, was Brunel design, but it was never built in his time. So these amazing pictures of this Hulk, in effect,  coming up the river, towed by tugs and brought into the dock here with 1000s of people you know, surrounding cheering on the sidelines, and a bit like Mary Rose in a big coverage on the BBC.Paul Marden: This is the thing. So I have a very vivid memory of the Mary Rose being lifted, and that yellow of the scaffolding is just permanently etched in my brain about sitting on the carpet in primary school when the TV was rolled out, and it was the only TV in the whole of school that, to me is it's modern history happening. I'm a Somerset boy. I've been coming to Bristol all my life. I wasn't alive when Great Britain came back here. So to me, this feels like ancient history. It's always been in Bristol, because I have no memory of it returning home. It was always just a fixture. So when we were talking the other day and you mentioned it was brought back in the 70s, didn't realise that. Didn't realise that at all. Should we move on? Because I am listening. Gently in the warmth.Sam Mullins: Let's move around this side of the as you can see, the dry dock is not entirely dry, no, but nearly.Paul Marden: So, you're trustee here at SS Great Britain. What does that mean? What do you do?Sam Mullins: Well, the board, Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance of the charity. We employ the executives, the paid team here. We work with them to develop the kind of strategy, financial plan, to deliver that strategy, and we kind of hold them as executives to account, to deliver on that.Paul Marden: It's been a period of change for you, hasn't it? Just recently, you've got a new CEO coming to the first anniversary, or just past his first anniversary. It's been in place a little while.Sam Mullins: So in the last two years, we've had a, we've recruited a new chairman, new chief executive, pretty much a whole new leadership team.One more starting next month, right? Actually, we're in July this month, so, yeah, it's been, you know, organisations are like that. They can be very, you know, static for some time, and then suddenly a kind of big turnover. And people, you know, people move.Paul Marden: So we're walking through what is a curved part of the dry dock now. So this is becoming interesting underfoot, isn't it?Sam Mullins: This is built in 1839 by the Great Western Steamship Company to build a sister ship to the Great Western which was their first vessel built for the Atlantic run to New York. As it happens, they were going to build a similar size vessel, but Brunel had other ideas, always pushing the edges one way or another as an engineer.Paul Marden: The keel is wood. Is it all wood? Or is this some sort of?Sam Mullins: No, this is just like, it's sort of sacrificial.So that you know when, if it does run up against ground or whatever, you don't actually damage the iron keel.Paul Marden: Right. Okay, so there's lots happening for the museum and the trust. You've just had a big injection of cash, haven't you, to do some interesting things. So there was a press release a couple of weeks ago, about a million pound of investment. Did you go and find that down the back of the sofa? How do you generate that kind of investment in the charity?Sam Mullins: Unusually, I think that trust that's put the bulk of that money and came came to us. I think they were looking to do something to mark their kind of, I think to mark their wind up. And so that was quite fortuitous, because, as you know at the moment, you know, fundraising is is difficult. It's tough. Paul Marden: That's the understatement of the year, isn't it?Sam Mullins: And with a new team here and the New World post COVID, less, less visitors, income harder to gain from. Pretty well, you know, all sources, it's important to keep the site kind of fresh and interesting. You know, the ship has been here since 1970 it's become, it's part of Bristol. Wherever you go in Bristol, Brunel is, you know, kind of the brand, and yet many Bristolians think they've seen all this, and don't need, you know, don't need to come back again. So keeping the site fresh, keeping the ideas moving on, are really important. So we've got the dockyard museum just on the top there, and that's the object for fundraising at the moment, and that will open in July next year as an account of the building of the ship and its importance. Paul Marden: Indeed, that's interesting. Related to that, we know that trusts, trusts and grants income really tough to get. Everybody's fighting for a diminishing pot income from Ace or from government sources is also tough to find. At the moment, we're living off of budgets that haven't changed for 10 years, if we're lucky. Yeah, for many people, finding a commercial route is the answer for their museum. And that was something that you did quite successfully, wasn't it, at the Transport Museum was to bring commercial ideas without sacrificing the integrity of the museum. Yeah. How do you do that?Sam Mullins: Well, the business of being an independent Museum, I mean, LTM is a to all sets of purposes, an independent Museum. Yes, 81% of its funding itself is self generated. Paul Marden: Is it really? Yeah, yeah. I know. I would have thought the grant that you would get from London Transport might have been bigger than that.  Sam Mullins: The grant used to be much bigger proportion, but it's got smaller and smaller. That's quite deliberate. Are, you know, the more you can stand on your own two feet, the more you can actually decide which direction you're going to take those feet in. Yeah. So there's this whole raft of museums, which, you know, across the UK, which are independently governed, who get all but nothing from central government. They might do a lottery grant. Yes, once in a while, they might get some NPO funding from Ace, but it's a tiny part, you know, of the whole. And this ship, SS Great Britain is a classic, you know, example of that. So what do you do in those circumstances? You look at your assets and you you try and monetise them. That's what we did at London Transport Museum. So the museum moved to Covent Garden in 1980 because it was a far sighted move. Michael Robbins, who was on the board at the time, recognised that they should take the museum from Scion Park, which is right on the west edge, into town where people were going to be, rather than trying to drag people out to the edge of London. So we've got that fantastic location, in effect, a high street shop. So retail works really well, you know, at Covent Garden.Paul Marden: Yeah, I know. I'm a sucker for a bit of moquette design.Sam Mullins: We all love it, which is just great. So the museum developed, you know, a lot of expertise in creating products and merchandising it. We've looked at the relationship with Transport for London, and we monetised that by looking at TFL supply chain and encouraging that supply chain to support the museum. So it is possible to get the TFL commissioner to stand up at a corporate members evening and say, you know, you all do terribly well out of our contract, we'd like you to support the museum as well, please. So the corporate membership scheme at Transport Museum is bigger than any other UK museum by value, really, 60, 65 members,. So that was, you know, that that was important, another way of looking at your assets, you know, what you've got. Sometimes you're talking about monetising relationships. Sometimes it's about, you know, stuff, assets, yeah. And then in we began to run a bit short of money in the kind of middle of the teens, and we did an experimental opening of the Aldwych disused tube station on the strand, and we're amazed at the demand for tickets.Paul Marden: Really, it was that much of a surprise for you. And we all can talk. Sam Mullins: We had been doing, we've been doing some guided tours there in a sort of, slightly in a one off kind of way, for some time. And we started to kind of think, well, look, maybe should we carry on it? Paul Marden: You've got the audience that's interested.Sam Mullins: And we've got the access through TFL which, you know, took a lot of work to to convince them we weren't going to, you know, take loads of people underground and lose them or that they jump out, you know, on the Piccadilly line in the middle of the service, or something. So hidden London is the kind of another really nice way where the museum's looked at its kind of assets and it's monetised. And I don't know what this I don't know what this year is, but I think there are now tours run at 10 different sites at different times. It's worth about half a million clear to them to the museum.Paul Marden: It's amazing, and they're such brilliant events. So they've now opened up for younger kids to go. So I took my daughter and one of her friends, and they were a little bit scared when the lights got turned off at one point, but we had a whale of a time going and learning about the history of the tube, the history of the tube during the war. It was such an interesting, accessible way to get to get them interested in stuff. It was brilliant.Sam Mullins: No, it's a great programme, and it was doing well before COVID, we went into lockdown, and within three weeks, Chris Nix and the team had started to do kind of zoom virtual tours. We all are stuck at home looking at our screens and those hidden London hangouts the audience kind of gradually built yesterday TV followed with secrets of London Underground, which did four series of. Hidden London book has sold 25,000 copies in hardback, another one to come out next year, maybe.Paul Marden: And all of this is in service of the museum. So it's almost as if you're opening the museum up to the whole of London, aren't you, and making all of that space you're you. Museum where you can do things.Sam Mullins: Yeah. And, of course, the great thing about hidden London programme is it's a bit like a theatre production. We would get access to a particular site for a month or six weeks. You'd sell the tickets, you know, like mad for that venue. And then the run came to an end, and you have to, you know, the caravan moves on, and we go to, you know, go to go to a different stations. So in a sense, often it's quite hard to get people to go to an attraction unless they've got visitors staying or whatever. But actually, if there's a time limit, you just kind of have to do it, you know.Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. Everybody loves a little bit of scarcity, don't they? Sam Mullins: Should we go up on the deck? Paul Marden: That sounds like fun to me.Sam Mullins: Work our way through.Paul Marden: So Hidden London was one of the angles in order to make the museum more commercially sound. What are you taking from your time at LTM and bringing to the party here at the SS Great Britain?Sam Mullins: Well, asking similar, you know, range of questions really, about what assets do we have? Which of those are, can be, can be monetised in support of the charity? Got here, Paul, so we're, we've got the same mix as lots of middle sized museums here. There's a it's a shop, paid admission, hospitality events in the evening, cafe. You know that mix, what museums then need to do is kind of go, you know, go beyond that, really, and look at their estate or their intellectual property, or the kind of experiences they can offer, and work out whether some of that is monetisable.Paul Marden: Right? And you mentioned before that Brunel is kind of, he's the mascot of Bristol. Almost, everything in Bristol focuses on Brunel. Is there an opportunity for you to collaborate with other Brunel themed sites, the bridge or?Sam Mullins: Yeah. Well, I think probably the opportunity is to collaborate with other Bristol attractions. Because Bristol needs to. Bristol's having a hard time since COVID numbers here are nowhere near what they were pre COVID So, and I think it's the same in the city, across the city. So Andrew chief executive, is talking to other people in the city about how we can share programs, share marketing, that kind of approach.Paul Marden: Making the docks a destination, you know, you've got We the Curious. Where I was this morning, having coffee with a friend and having a mooch around. Yeah, talking about science and technology, there must be things that you can cross over. This was this war. This feels like history, but it wasn't when it was built, was it? It was absolutely the cutting edge of science and technology.Sam Mullins: Absolutely, and well, almost beyond, you know, he was Brunel was pushing, pushing what could be done. It is the biggest ship. And it's hard to think of it now, because, you know, you and I can walk from one end to the other in no time. But it was the biggest ship in the world by, you know, some way, when it was launched in 1845 so this was a bit like the Great Western Railway. It was cutting edge, cutting edge at the time, as we were talking about below. It had a propeller, radical stuff. It's got the bell, too,Paul Marden: When we were on, was it Warrior that we were on last week at the AIM conference for the first. And warrior had a propeller, but it was capable of being lifted, because the Admiralty wasn't convinced that this new fangled propeller nonsense, and they thought sail was going to lead. Sam Mullins: Yeah. Well, this ship had, you could lift a you could lift a propeller, because otherwise the propeller is a drag in the water if it's not turning over. So in its earlier configurations, it was a, it was that sort of a hybrid, where you could lift the propeller out the way, right, set full sail.Paul Marden:  Right, and, yeah, it's just, it's very pleasant out here today, isn't it? Lovely breeze compared to what it's been like the last few days. Sam Mullins: Deck has just been replaced over the winter. Paul Marden:  Oh, has it really. So say, have you got the original underneathSam Mullins: The original was little long, long gone. So what we have replaced was the deck that was put on in the in the 70s when the ship came back.Paul Marden: Right? You were talking earlier on about the cafe being one of the assets. You've done quite a lot of work recently, haven't you with the team at Elior to refurbish the cafe? What's the plan around that?Sam Mullins: Yeah, we're doing a big reinvestment. You always need to keep the offer fresh anyway, but it was time to reinvest. So the idea is to use that fantastic space on the edge of the dock. It's not very far down to where the floating harbour is really well populated with kind of restaurants and bars and an offer, we're just that 200 meters further along the dock. So perhaps to create an offer here that draws people up here, whether they visit the ship, you know, or not. So it's money, it's monetising your assets. So one of the great assets is this fabulous location on the on the dockside. So with early or we're reinvesting in the restaurant, it's going to go in the auto into after some trial openings and things, Paul, you know, it's going to have an evening offer as well as a daytime offer. And then it's been designed so the lights can go down in the evening. It becomes, you know, an evening place, rather than the museum's all day cafe, yes, and the offer, and obviously in the evenings would similarly change. And I think our ambition is that you should, you should choose this as the place to go out in the evening. Really, it's a great spot. It's a lovely, warm evening. We're going to walk along the dockside. I've booked a table and in the boardwalk, which is what we're calling it. And as you pay the bill, you notice that actually, this is associated with Asus, Great Britain. So, you know, the profit from tonight goes to help the charity, rather than it's the museum cafe. So that's the,Paul Marden: That's the pitch.Sam Mullins: That's the pitch in which we're working with our catering partners, Eli, or to deliver.Paul Marden: Andrew, your CEO and Claire from Eli, or have both kindly said that I can come back in a couple of months time and have a conversation about the restaurant. And I think it would be rude to turn them down, wouldn't it?Sam Mullins: I think you should test the menu really fully.Paul Marden: I will do my best. It's a tough job that I have. Sam Mullins: Somebody has to do this work. Paul Marden: I know, talking of tough jobs, the other thing that I saw when I was looking at the website earlier on was a press release talking about six o'clock gin as being a a partnership that you're investigating, because every museum needs its own tipple, doesn't it?Sam Mullins: Absolutely And what, you know, I think it's, I think what people want when they go to an attraction is they, they also want something of the offer to be locally sourced, completely, six o'clock gym, you know, Bristol, Bristol beers. You can't always do it, but I think, I think it's where you've got the opportunity. And Bristol's a bit of a foodie centre. There's quite a lot going on here in that respect. So, yes, of course, the museum ought to be ought to be doing that too.Paul Marden: I was very kindly invited to Big Pit over in the Welsh Valleys about 8 or 12 weeks ago for the launch, relaunch of their gift shop offering. And absolutely, at the core of what they were trying to do was because it's run by Museums Wales, they found that all of their gift shops were just a bland average of what you could get at any of the museums. None of them spoke of the individual place. So if you went to big pit, the gift shop looked the same as if you were in the centre of Cardiff, whereas now when you go you see things that are naturally of Big Pit and the surrounding areas. And I think that's so important to create a gift shop which has things that is affordable to everybody, but at the same time authentic and genuinely interesting.Sam Mullins: Yeah, I'm sure that's right. And you know I'm saying for you is for me, when I when I go somewhere, you want to come away with something, don't you? Yes, you know, you're a National Trust member and you haven't had to pay anything to get in. But you think I should be supporting the cause, you know, I want to go into that shop and then I want to, I want to buy some of the plants for my garden I just seen, you know, on the estate outside. Or I want to come away with a six o'clock gin or, you know, whatever it might be, there's and I think, I think you're more likely to buy if it's something that you know has engaged you, it's part of that story that's engaged you, right, while you're here. That's why everyone buys a guidebook and reads it afterwards.Paul Marden: Yeah, it's a reminder, isn't it, the enjoyable time that you've had? Yeah, I'm enjoying myself up on the top deck. Sam Mullins:  But should we go downstairs? The bow is a great view. Oh, let's do that. I think we might. Let's just work our way down through.Paul Marden: Take a sniff. Could you travel with these smelly passengers? Oh, no, I don't think I want to smell what it's like to be a cow on board shit. Sam Mullins: Fresh milk. Just mind yourself on these companion, ways are very steep now. This is probably where I get completely lost.Paul Marden: You know what we need? We need a very good volunteer. Don't we tell a volunteer story? COVID in the kitchen. Wow. Sam Mullins: The Gabby.Paul Marden: Generous use of scent. Sam Mullins: Yeah, food laid out pretty much based on what we know was consumed on the ship. One of the great things about the ship is people kept diaries. A lot of people kept diaries, and many have survived, right? You know exactly what it was like to be in first class or in steerage down the back.Paul Marden: And so what was the ship used for? Sam Mullins: Well, it was used, it was going to be an ocean liner right from here to New York, and it was more like the Concord of its day. It was essentially first class and second class. And then it has a founders on a bay in Northern Ireland. It's rescued, fitted out again, and then the opportunity comes take people to Australia. The Gold Rush in the 1850s. Migration to Australia becomes the big kind of business opportunity for the ships. Ships new owners. So there's more people on board that used to it applies to and fro to Australia a number of times 30 odd, 40 times. And it takes, takes passengers. It takes goods. It does bring back, brings back gold from because people were there for the gold rush. They were bringing their earnings, you know, back with them. It also brings mail, and, you know, other. Kind of car goes wool was a big cargo from. Paul Marden: Say, people down and assets back up again.Sam Mullins: People both directions. Paul Marden: Okay, yeah. How long was it taking?Sam Mullins: Well, a good trip. I think it did it in 50 odd days. Bit slower was 60 odd. And the food was like this. So it was steerage. It was probably a bit more basic. Paul Marden: Yeah, yes, I can imagine. Sam Mullins: I think we might. Here's the engines. Let's do the engines well.Paul Marden: Yes. So now we're in the engine room and, oh, it's daylight lit, actually. So you're not down in the darkest of depths, but the propeller shaft and all of the mechanism is it runs full length, full height of the ship.Sam Mullins: Yeah, it runs off from here, back to the propeller that we're looking at. Okay, down there a guy's stoking the boilers, putting coal into into the boilers, 24 hour seven, when the engines are running. Paul Marden: Yes, that's going to be a tough job, isn't it? Yeah, coal is stored in particular locations. Because that was something I learned from warrior, was the importance of making sure that you had the coal taken in the correct places, so that you didn't unbalance the ship. I mean,Sam Mullins: You right. I mean loading the ship generally had to be done really carefully so, you know, sort of balanced out and so forth. Coal is tends to be pretty low down for yes, for obvious reasons.Paul Marden: So let's talk a little bit about being a trustee. We're both trustees of charities. I was talking to somebody last week who been in the sector for a number of years, mid career, interested in becoming a trustee as a career development opportunity. What's the point of being a trustee? What's the point of the trustees to the CEO, and what's the benefit to the trustees themselves? Sam Mullins: Well, let's do that in order for someone in the mid part of their career, presumably looking to assume some kind of leadership role. At some point they're going to be dealing with a board, aren't they? Yes, they might even be doing, you know, occasional reporting to a board at that at their current role, but they certainly will be if they want to be chief executive. So getting some experience on the other side of the table to feel what it's like to be a trustee dealing with chief executive. I think he's immensely useful. I always recommended it to to my gang at the Transport Museum, and they've all been on boards of one sort or another as part of their career development.Sam Mullins: For the chief executive. What's the benefit? Well, the board, I mean, very directly, hold the chief executive to account. Yes, are you doing what we asked you to do? But also the wise chief executive recruits a board that's going to be helpful in some way or another. It's not just there to catch them out. Yeah, it's it's there to bring their experience from business, from IT, from marketing, from other museums into the business of running the place. So here we've got a range of Trustees. We've been we've recruited five or six in the last couple of years qquite deliberately to we know that a diverse board is a good board, and that's diverse in the sense not just a background, but of education, retired, still, still at work, young, old, male, female, you know, you name in.Paul Marden: In all of the directionsSam Mullins:  Yeah. So a diverse board makes better decisions than one that just does group think all the time. It's, you know, it's a truism, isn't it? I think we all kind of, we all understand and understand that now and then, for the trustee, you know, for me, I particularly last couple of years, when the organization has been through huge changes, it's been really interesting to deploy my prior experience, particularly in governance, because governance is what it all comes down to in an organisation. You do learn over the course of your career to deploy that on behalf, you know, this is a great organisation, the story of Brunel and the ship and and, you know, his influence on the railways. And I travel down on the Great Western railways, yeah, the influence of Brunel is, you know, is enormous. It's a fantastic story. It's inspiring. So who wouldn't want to join? You know what in 2005 was the Museum of the year? Yes, I think we'll just go back there where we came. Otherwise, I never found my way.Paul Marden: Back through the kitchen. Sam Mullins: Back through the kitchen. It looks like stew is on the menu tonight. You've seen me at the mobile the rat.Paul Marden: And also the cat up on the shelf. He's not paying a lot of attention to the ratSam Mullins: Back on deck. Paul Marden: Wonderful. Yeah. So the other great endeavor that you've embarked on is writing, writing a book. Tell us a little bit about the book.Sam Mullins: Yeah, I've written a history of transport in London and its influence on London since 2000 since the mayoralty, elected mayoralty was, was started, you know, I was very lucky when I was running the museum where I had kind of one foot in TfL and one foot out. I knew lots of people. I was there for a long time, yes, so it was, it was easy to interview about 70 of them.Paul Marden: Right? I guess you've built trust levels, haven't you? Yeah, I don't mean that you don't look like a journalist walking in from the outside with an ax to grind. Sam Mullins: And I'm not going to kind of screw them to the Evening Standard, you know, tomorrow. So it's a book based on interviews, oral reminiscences. It's very much their story. So it's big chunks of their accounts of, you know, the big events in London. So what was it like to be in the network control room on the seventh of July, 2005 when the bombs went off? What was it like to be looking out for congestion charge the day it started? Yep. What was it like to kind of manage the Olympics?Paul Marden: You know? So you're mentioning these things. And so I was 10 years at British Airways. I was an IT project manager, but as well, I was a member of the emergency planning team. Yeah. So I got involved in the response to September the 11th. I got involved in some of the engagement around seven, seven, there's seminal moments, and I can, I can vividly remember myself being there at that time. But similarly, I can remember being there when we won the Olympics, and we were all sat in the staff canteen waiting to hear whether we'd won the Olympics, and the roar that erupted. There's so many of those things that have happened in the last 25 years where, you know, you've got, it's recent history, but it's real interesting events that have occurred that you can tell stories of.Sam Mullins: Yeah. So what I wanted to get in the book was a kind of sense of what it was like to be, really at the heart of those, those stories. And there are, you know, there are, there are people in TfL who made those big things happen? Yes, it's not a big, clumsy bureaucracy. It's a place where really innovative leadership was being exercised all the way through that 25 years. Yes, so it runs up to COVID, and what was it like when COVID struck? So the book's called Every Journey Matters, and it comes out in November.Paul Marden: Amazing, amazing. So we have, we've left the insides of the ship, and we are now under, what's this part of the ship? Sam Mullins: We're under the bow. There we go, and a bow spread that gets above our heads. So again, you've got this great, hulking, cast iron, black hull, beautifully shaped at the bow. Look the way it kind of tapers in and it tapers in and out.Paul Marden: It's a very three dimensional, isn't it? The curve is, is in every direction. Sam Mullins: Yeah,it's a great, great shape. So it's my sort of, I think it's my favourite spot. I like coming to look at this, because this is the kind of, this is the business, yeah, of the ship.Paul Marden: What have we got running along the front here? These these images in in gold.Sam Mullins: This is a figurehead with Victoria's Coat of Arms only sua Kim Ali points on top with it, with a lion and a unicorn.Paul Marden: It's a really, it's not a view that many people would have ever seen, but it is such an impressive view here looking up, yeah, very, very cool. And to stand here on the on the edge of the dry dock. Sam Mullins: Dry Docks in to our right, and the floating harbor is out to our left. Yeah.Paul Marden: And much going on on that it's busy today, isn't it? Sam Mullins: Yeah, it's good. Paul Marden: So we've done full loop, haven't we? I mean, it has been a whistle stop tour that you've taken me on, but I've loved every moment of this. We always ask our guests a difficult question. Well, for some it's a difficult question, a book recommendation, which, as we agreed over lunch, cannot be your own book. I don't think, I think it's a little unfair Sam Mullins: Or anything I've ever written before.Paul Marden: Yes, slightly self serving, but yeah.Sam Mullins: It would be, wouldn't it look the first thing that comes to mind is, I've actually been reading my way through Mick Herron's Slow Horses series, okay, which I'm a big fan of detective fiction. I love Ian Rankin's Rebus. Okay, I read through Rebus endlessly when I want something just to escape into the sloughhouse series Slow Horses is really good, and the books all have a sort of similar kind of momentum to them. Something weird happens in the first few chapters, which seems very inconsequential and. Suddenly it turns into this kind of roller coaster. Will they? Won't they? You know, ending, which is just great. So I recommend Mick Herron's series. That's that's been the best, not best, fiction I've read in a long time.Paul Marden: You know, I think there's something, there's something nice, something comforting, about reading a series of books where the way the book is structured is very similar. You can, you can sit down and you know what's going to happen, but, but there's something interesting, and it's, it's easy. Sam Mullins: It's like putting on a pair of old slippers. Oh, I'm comfortable with this. Just lead me along. You know, that's what, that's what I want. I enjoy that immensely.Paul Marden: And should we be? Should we be inviting our listeners to the first book in the series, or do they need to start once, once he's got his, got his, found his way? Sam Mullins: Well, some people would have seen the television adaptation already. Well, that will have spoilt the book for them. Gary Oldman is Jackson lamb, who's the lead character, okay, but if you haven't, or you just like a damn good read, then you start with the first one, which I think is called Sloughhouse. They're all self contained, but you can work your way through them. Paul Marden: Well, that sounds very good. So listeners, if you'd like a copy of Sam's book, not Sam's book, Sam's book recommendation, then head over to Bluesky and repost the show notice and say, I want a copy of Sam's book, and the first one of you lovely listeners that does that will get a copy sent to you by Wenalyn. Sam This has been delightful. I hope listeners have enjoyed this as much as I have. This is our first time having a @skipthequeue in real life, where we wandered around the attraction itself and hopefully narrated our way bringing this amazing attraction to life. I've really enjoyed it. I can now say that as a West Country lad, I have actually been to the SS Great Britain. Last thing to say for visitor, for listeners, we are currently midway through the Rubber Cheese Annual Survey of visitor attraction websites. Paul Marden: If you look after an attraction website and you'd like to share some information about what you do, we are gathering all of that data together to produce a report that helps people to understand what good looks like for an attraction website. This is our fourth year. Listeners that are interested, head over to RubberCheese.com/survey, and you can find out a little bit more about the survey and some of the some of the findings from the past and what we're looking for for this year. Sam, thank you so very much.Sam Mullins: Enjoyed it too. It's always good to rabbit on about what you do every day of the week, and being here and part of this really great organisation is huge privilege.Paul Marden: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others to find us. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them to increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcripts from this episode and more over on our website, skipthequeue fm. The 2025 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsTake the Rubber Cheese Visitor Attraction Website Survey Report

In the 1970s and 80s, Caroline Eshghi was a young girl living in Bristol, Somerset, and Wiltshire. From the moment she was born until she ran away at the age of 15, Caroline was beaten, burned and starved by her mother. In May this year, Melanie Burmingham was jailed for 20 months for abusing her daughter more than 50 years ago. Caroline tells Krupa Padhy why she is now petitioning for a change to the law around historical cases that only allows a sentence available at the time of offending. The first malaria treatment suitable for babies has been approved for use. We speak to BBC Africa Health Correspondent Dorcas Wangira in Nairobi to find out how this may empower healthcare workers in the battle against the disease that takes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people each year.One of the key measures that Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is reported to be considering as part of her Sentencing Bill is a national rollout of drugs that suppress sexual arousal to try and tackle sex offenders. There is currently a working pilot in the South West of England, and several of the clinicians, psychiatrists and forensic psychologists have raised concerns about making such a scheme mandatory. Krupa talks to Don Rubin, Emeritus Professor in Forensic Psychology at Newcastle University, and a consultant to the pilot programme. Fatima Timbo, known as Fats Timbo, is a content creator and comedian who has amassed an incredible 3 million followers on TikTok. Since appearing on TV show The Undateables in 2018, she's also been part of the team bringing us the Paralympics coverage from Paris last year. Born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, she documents her experiences of being - as she describes it - ‘a little person', and now she's sharing her tips for succeeding in a world where it's difficult to be different in her book Main Character Energy: Ten Commandments for Living Life Fearlessly. Presenter: Krupa Padhy Producer: Sarah Jane Griffiths

A former state senator teases an announcement about a future political bid, members of Kentucky's federal delegation discuss the President's spending and tax cut bill, and Kentucky Edition goes On the Road to Somerset and to the "Houseboat Capital of the World."

In today' podcast we are focusing on the UK's new nuclear power ambitions and specifically, exploring the Sizewell C project.As I said a few weeks ago on the podcast, it's perhaps one of the most significant moments for the UK's nuclear industry in over a generation.Last month, the government announced a multi-billion investment to drive forward this ambition with £14.2 billion committed to accelerate construction of the Sizewell C project. Alongside this comes backing for Small Modular Reactors and investment in fusion research - all part of a landmark commitment to clean energy, jobs, and long-term energy security. So the message is clear: this is the start of what the government calls a "golden age of nuclear." Discuss.Well Sizewell C certainly sits at the heart of this new ambition - a twin-reactor power station on the Suffolk coast - a carbon copy of the Hinkley Point C reactor now under construction in Somerset – sitting alongside the Sizewell B station which was, of course,  intended as the start of the last nuclear golden age 30 years ago.When operational in the mid 2030s, Sizewell C will power six million homes with low-carbon energy for the next 60 plus years as the UK's first fully British-owned nuclear project in decades – and apparently a keystone in delivering both net zero energy and national resilience. But ambition is just the beginning of course. Turning that vision into reality will mean overcoming a long list of challenges — from regulatory hurdles and construction risk, to workforce capacity and public trust.Joining me today to unpack all of this is Julia Pyke, Managing Director of the Sizewell C project. Lot's to talk about when it comes to identifying what the government's investment really means in practice and how Sizewell C fits into the wider nuclear revival.And of course, what it will take to deliver this project on time, on budget. So let's crack on…ResourcesSizewell C project websiteGovernment press release on Sizewell CHinkley Point C websiteGreat British Energy - NuclearNuclear Industry Association release on nuclear investment The Stewart Review: The HS2 Experience

The post Why Are You in Despair, O My Soul? Part 1 appeared first on Calvary Community Church.

-Carson highlights a recent event where 35,000 people gather in Somerset, Kentucky, to witness Raymond Kahn jump a car over a fountain, reminiscent of the Dukes of Hazzard, with John Schneider, who discussed the event and his 50-state tour celebrating America's 250th birthday. -The show covers positive economic indicators, reduced border crossings, and the impending passage of Trump's “big beautiful bill,” with guest Luke Ball, a political strategist appearing on the Newsmax Hotline, discussing Republican unity and Democratic disarray. Today's podcast is sponsored by : BIRCH GOLD - Protect and grow your retirement savings with gold. Text ROB to 98 98 98 for your FREE information kit! To call in and speak with Rob Carson live on the show, dial 1-800-922-6680 between the hours of 12 Noon and 3:00 pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday…E-mail Rob Carson at : RobCarsonShow@gmail.com Musical parodies provided by Jim Gossett (www.patreon.com/JimGossettComedy) Listen to Newsmax LIVE and see our entire podcast lineup at http://Newsmax.com/Listen Make the switch to NEWSMAX today! Get your 15 day free trial of NEWSMAX+ at http://NewsmaxPlus.com Looking for NEWSMAX caps, tees, mugs & more? Check out the Newsmax merchandise shop at : http://nws.mx/shop Follow NEWSMAX on Social Media:  -Facebook: http://nws.mx/FB  -X/Twitter: http://nws.mx/twitter -Instagram: http://nws.mx/IG -YouTube: https://youtube.com/NewsmaxTV -Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/NewsmaxTV -TRUTH Social: https://truthsocial.com/@NEWSMAX -GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/newsmax -Threads: http://threads.net/@NEWSMAX  -Telegram: http://t.me/newsmax  -BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/newsmax.com -Parler: http://app.parler.com/newsmax Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Juliana Horatia Ewing (August 3, 1841 – May 13, 1885) was an English writer of children's stories. Her writings display a sympathetic insight into children's lives, an admiration for things military, and a strong religious faith.Known as Julie, she was the second of ten children of the Rev. Alfred Gatty, Vicar of Ecclesfield in Yorkshire, and Margaret Gatty, who was herself a children's author. Their children were educated mainly by their mother, but Julie was often the driving force behind their various activities: drama, botany and so on. Later she was responsible for setting up a village library in Ecclesfield, and helped out in the parish with her three sisters. Early stories of hers appeared in Charlotte Mary Yonge's magazine The Monthly Packet.On 1 June 1867, Julie married Major Alexander Ewing(1830–1895) of the Army Pay Corps. A musician, composer and translator, he was also a keen churchgoer and shared his wife's interest in literature. Within a week of their marriage, the Ewings left England for Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, where he had received a new posting. They remained there for two years, before returning to England in 1869 and spending eight years in the army town of Aldershot. Although her husband was sent overseas again, to Malta in 1879 and Sri Lanka in 1881, Ewing's poor health precluded her from accompanying him.On her husband's return in 1883, the Ewings moved to Trull, Somerset, and then in 1885 to Bath, in the hopes that the change of air would do her good. However, her health continued to decline. After two operations, she died in Bath on 13 May 1885. She was given a military funeral at Trull three days later.Julie's sister Horatia Katharine Frances Gatty (1846–1945) published a memorial of her life and works, which includes a publication history of her stories. A later selection includes some of Julie's letters and drawings about Canada. A biography of her by Gillian Avery appeared in 1961.-bio via Wikipedia This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Phil Neve explains what Passivhaus Premium is and why he chose to target the standard for his own self build in Somerset. He also talks through his biggest project challenge, which was obtaining planning permission to build in open countryside. Check out the show notes for more information.

Step into the chilling world of unresolved mysteries with "5 True Crime Cases Still Unsolved in 2025." These five haunting stories remain clouded in uncertainty, leaving families and communities yearning for answers and justice.

Tom Baxter is the founder of Bristol Fungarium, the UK's first organic-certified medicinal mushroom farm. A former organic vegetable grower and forest school leader, Tom has spent years foraging in the wild across the Pyrenees, Siberia, and the forests of Somerset. Today, he leads a pioneering operation that not only cultivates native strains of mushrooms but also funds neuroscience research and runs the only dedicated analytical lab for medicinal fungi in the UK.In this episode, Tom joins Robin Harford for a rich and far-reaching conversation about the power, mystery, and challenges of working with medicinal mushrooms. They explore the rise of lion's mane, the pitfalls of the supplement industry, why most mushroom powders are misleading, and what makes a mushroom extract genuinely effective. It's a frank and passionate look into one of nature's oldest and most complex kingdoms.

With some calling for the Director-General of the BBC to resign, Somerset police launching a criminal investigation and the US Deputy Secretary of State revoking visas, the political fireworks at this year's Glastonbury were even more sensational than the pyramid stage's. But what was it like on the ground?In this edition of the New Statesman culture podcast, Kate Mossman is joined by colleagues Finn McRedmond, Will Lloyd and Nick Harris to discuss it all. Also in the show, Will has strong views on journalist Sarah Vine's bestselling memoir How Not To Be a Political Wife.READLet Kneecap and Bob Vylan speak freely - Finn McRedmondWhat's wrong with Sarah Vine? - Will Lloyd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wallow with us in the quiet of July, seeking out the coolness of water in the orchard and the wetlands. Along the way we hunt for chicken of the woods and predict the weather on St Swithin's Day. To begin, Sam Lee sings I Have Been A Rambling - an unusual song with a strange image at its heart. 'As the Season Turns' is a podcast created by Ffern in collaboration with the nature writer and author of the Seasonal Almanac, Lia Leendertz. Lia is joined by novelist Zoe Gilbert and folk musician Sam Lee. Sam's traditional song was arranged by himself (vocals) with James Keay (piano) and Niko O'Brien (percussion and mixing), with strings from Avery Bright. This podcast is produced by Geoff Bird and Catriona Bolt. Each episode, released on the first of the month, is a guide to what to look out for in the month ahead - from the sky above to the land below. Ffern is an organic fragrance maker based in Somerset. You can learn more about Ffern's seasonal eau de parfum at ffern.co

A confirmed measles outbreak in Central Kentucky, the Kentucky connection to recent SCOTUS rulings, remembering an icon in horse racing, thousands show up to see the General Lee jump a Kentucky fountain, and a look back at the history of Frankfort.

The Smart 7 is an award winning daily podcast, in association with METRO, that gives you everything you need to know in 7 minutes, at 7am, 7 days a week…With over 18 million downloads and consistently charting, including as No. 1 News Podcast on Spotify, we're a trusted source for people every day and we've won Gold at the Signal International Podcast awardsIf you're enjoying it, please follow, share, or even post a review, it all helps... Today's episode includes the following: https://x.com/i/status/1939697815824765144 https://x.com/i/status/1939700318612115956 https://x.com/i/status/1939601241883165181 https://x.com/i/status/1939608828539965539 https://x.com/i/status/1939584689498374213 https://x.com/i/status/1939554730226663738 https://x.com/i/status/1939748972354048326 https://x.com/i/status/1939426051190628545https://x.com/i/status/1939660324069585306 Contact us over @TheSmart7pod or visit www.thesmart7.com or find out more at www.metro.co.uk Voiced by Jamie East, using AI, written by Liam Thompson, researched by Lucie Lewis and produced by Daft Doris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matt, Ryan and Billy discuss the General Lee jumping the fountain in Somerset, UK football/basketball and the guys take your phone calls.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, Avon and Somerset police launched a criminal investigation into sets by bands Bob Vylan and Kneecap at Glastonbury festival on Saturday. Adam is joined by BBC media and culture editor Katie Razzall, who reported from the festival over the weekend, to discuss the investigation and the BBC's apology for not cutting the livestream of Bob Vylan's performance.And, Faisal and Chris are back for another day of dissecting the government's change to their welfare proposals. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall confirmed the concessions in a statement to the House of Commons on Monday afternoon, in a bid to stave off a revolt at the vote on Tuesday. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhereNew episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Miranda Slade with Anna Harris and Lucy Gape. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Kruser talks about the clean up efforts after the 4th of July festivities, a car jumping a fountain in Somerset, and Kenny Rice from NBC Sports joins the show to talk about the passing of big time trainer D. Wayne Lukas in hour 1. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nuacht Mhall. Príomhscéalta na seachtaine, léite go mall.*Inniu an t-ochtú lá is fiche de mhí an Mheithimh. Is mise Niall ÓSiadhail.Bhí bua gan choinne ag Zohran Mamdani i dtoghchán tosaigh an Pháirtí Dhaonlathaigh le haghaidh Mhéara Nua-Eabhrac DéMáirt, nuair a fuair sé an ceann is fearr ar iarghobharnóir Stát Nua-Eabhrac Andrew Cuomo. Reáchtálfar toghchán an mhéara féin i mí na Samhna agus meastar gur rogha na coitiantachta a bheidh in iarrthóir an Pháirtí Dhaonlathaigh. Bhí tacaíocht leithéidí Bernie Sanders agus Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ag Mamdani, agus é ag gealladh polasaithe níos forásaí ná Cuomo, lena n-áirítear reo cíosanna agus busanna saor in aisce sa chathair. Anuas air sin, tá Cuomo luaite le roinnt líomhaintí faoi chiapadh gnéasach. Má éiríonn le Mamdani i mí na Samhna beidh sé ina chéad Mhéara Moslamach i gCathair Nua-Eabhrac.Tháinig fear slán as foirgneamh a bhí trí thine i lár Bhaile Átha Cliath le linn na seachtaine, buíochas le tiománaí leoraí a pháirceáil a fheithicil faoi fhuinneog an tí ar Rae Granby in aice le Cearnóg Parnell. Chonaic Tomasz Zareba fear amháin ag léim amach as fuinneog thuas staighre agus é féin a ghortú ar an tsráid ach ansin thiomáin sé a leoraí taobh leis an fhoirgneamh le go mbeadh fear eile ábalta teacht anuas go sábháilte. I ndiaidh na heachtra, chuaigh Zareba ar ais ag obair, agus é ag seachadadh earraí go siopaí sa chathair. Cuireadh cóireáil ar sheachtar ar an láthair agus cuireadh triúr san ospidéal, ach ní fios go fóill cad é ba chúis leis an tine.Tá féile cheoil Glastonbury ar siúl an deireadh seachtaine seo, agus thart fá dhá chéad míle duine ag teacht go Worthy Farm in Somerset in iardheisceart Shasana. Is iad The 1975, Neil Young agus Olivia Rodrigo príomhoirfidigh na féile, a d'eagraigh anfeirmeoir Michael Eavis den chéad uair sa bhliain 1970, agus tá roinnt ceoltóirí móra Éireannacha ag seinm fosta i mbliana, lena n-áirítear Kneecap, CMAT, Sprints agus Inhaler. Seachtain ó shin, dúirt Príomh-Aire na Ríochta Aontaithe Keir Starmer go gcreideann sé nár chóir go mbeadh ceolchoirm Kneecap á léiriúar an teilifís, ach tá sé ráite ag an lucht eagraithe go bhfuil fáilte rompu ag an fhéile. Beidh an chéad fhéile eile ar siúl sa bhliain 2027, ós rud é gur feirm dhéiríochta é Worthy Farm agus go mbíonn bliain ina bhán de dhíth ó am go ham.*Léirithe ag Conradh na Gaeilge i Londain. Tá an script ar fáil i d'aip phodchraolta.*GLUAISbua gan choinne - unexpected victoryrogha na coitiantachta - favouritereo cíosanna - rent freezelíomháintí faoi chiapadh gnéasach - allegations of sexual harassmentpríomhoirfidigh - headlinersbliain ina bhán -fallow year

Zoe Langley-Wathen walked 630 miles around the coastline of Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset – and then she wrote a book about it. Music: © Barney & Izzi Hardy Support the show

Nationals No. 5 prospect Alex Clemmey talks about his first-half adjustments with Wilmington, his Rhode Island roots and last season's trade from the Guardians. Also, Ben, Sam and Tyler review last week's visit to Somerset, Sam and Tyler break down the Rafael Devers trade and the gang plays another round of Name That Dude in the final segment. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from the City of Somerset.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Live from the City of Somerset.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Live from the City of Somerset.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.