Podcasts about Thames Estuary

Whilst out along the Kent side of the Thames Estuary on Saturday, aiming to capture the sound of skylarks and reeds, we met a walker with a very friendly border terrier. She told us there was talk of a nightingale not too far away at RSPB's Northward Hill Nature Reserve. We aren't strictly speaking wildlife recordists, the Lento box is designed like a wide angle camera to capture panoramic landscape sounds, but we thought it might be worth a visit to the reserve to see if we might be able to find it. Unusually for us public transport devotees, we were able to travel on to Northward Hill easily thanks to a magnificent Lento supporter. He'd driven us and the Lento box out from Brockley station in South East London to explore another corner of the Hoo Peninsula, and was keen to visit the reserve. We didn't feel hugely confident about actually hearing a nightingale. They are the kinds of birds you don't expect to find on demand. We rolled into the reserve's car park and quickly headed down into the woodland. We descended a rough flight of bare earth steps under the dark shadows of dense tree canopy, surrounded by glorious birdsong. All the usual suspects of course, familiar if you regularly listen to Lento - chif chaf, blackbirds, black caps, jackdaws, robins, various others plus trusty wood pigeons.  After turning right and proceeding further into the woods over a few hundred yards our ears pricked up. I found myself saying "and there it is" before I had even properly heard it. We continued for a few steps and, fortunately, there it was again, this time much more clearly, and without doubt a nightingale only about thirty yards away! Up on the tripod went the Lento box. I turned it to face the sound of the nightingale, and pressed record, bathed in the rich tapestry of spring woodland birds, coming from all around us.  Here's what the box captured. It's only twenty minutes. The passage of time is from around 5pm on 24th May. There are some people vaguely audible and a horse (louder) somewhere to left of scene. A road must pass the reserve too because some level of vehicle noise is distantly audible, but not so much as to spoil the overall effect. We capture whole landscapes from one fixed position, so what you hear is the nightingale just as we heard it from standing on the path and facing into the reserve. Wildlife recordists find ways to post their microphones very close to their subjects and as such we are all used to hearing nightingales proportionately far louder than anything else. In reality though these are not birds that like being approached, so few people can ever actually hear in-person, the bird singing as loudly as they do in specially focused recordings.  With a pair of headphones though this episode provides a realistic woodland soundscape with a nightingale almost dead centre of scene. You should be able quite easily to hear it between the other birds which are spread out to the left and to the right of scene. Listen out for a wonderfully special coincidence that happens a few times where a distant cuckoo comes into earshot too. It is pretty well dead centre, behind the nightingale.  There must be a farm nearby because several cockerels crow towards the end. The whole scene is in fact very busy, and whether a connection or not, I note how the nightingale seems to become more active when the chif chaf is in full voice. Coincidence, or not? This bonus episode is shared with big thanks to our trusty supporter and to the dog walker we met. 

This episode is the second in our new panel discussion series People of the Thames on Talk of the Thames, where we explore how different communities work, create, and engage with the river. Hosted by Chloe Russell, this series brings together experts, storytellers, and practitioners whose lives and work are directly tied to the Thames.In this panel, recorded aboard the working Theatreship in Canary Wharf, we explore the rich cultural and emotional connections people form with the Thames through art, music, history, and heritage. This is a conversation about creativity, community, and the personal stories that flow through the river's current.

This episode marks the launch of a new panel discussion series People of the Thames on Talk of the Thames, where we explore how different communities work, create, and engage with the river. Hosted by Chloe Russell, this series brings together experts, storytellers, and practitioners whose lives and work are directly tied to the Thames.Episode 1: People of the Thames: Working on the RiverIn this first panel, we dive into the working life of the Thames—what it means to make a living on the river, preserve its heritage, and create opportunities for future generations. Recorded aboard the Theatreship, a beautifully restored vessel moored in Canary Wharf, this discussion captures the stories of those shaping the river's future.

What does it take to deliver fair and meaningful growth? Joining Michael today on Change Makers is Kate Willard OBE – government-appointed envoy for the Thames Estuary and a champion of fair growth. Kate's career has been anything but conventional. From starting out  as an actress and director to working in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, her journey is one of bold decisions and a deep commitment to making a difference. Now, as Chair of the Thames Estuary Growth Board, Kate is on a mission to unlock the potential of one of the UK's most vital economic regions – driving innovation, attracting investment, and ensuring that growth is both sustainable and fair, ultimately creating 1.3 million jobs, one million homes, and £190 billion in economic value. In this episode, she and Michael discuss why fair growth matters, what it takes to make it a reality, and how her diverse career has shaped her leadership today. Content warning: This podcast episode contains strong language which may not be suitable for all audiences

Welcome to The Spark—your weekly creative pick-me-up from The Creative Boom Podcast. Each Thursday, we bring you a shorter, snappier episode packed with inspiration, creative news, and practical tips to fuel your creative journey as the week winds down. Whether you need a quick shot of motivation or insights to carry you through, we've got you covered. In this episode, Katy reflects on her inspiring conversation with Kwame Taylor-Hayford, the new D&AD president and co-founder of Kin. Together, they explore the impact of empathy, connection, and curiosity in creative careers and discuss D&AD's mission to support both emerging and mid-career creatives. Kwame also shares his insights on the shifting power dynamics in the industry, the role of AI, and the future of creativity. His thoughtful perspective left Katy inspired and motivated, sparking her own reflections on personal growth and career planning. In the Creative News segment, we share the record-breaking Tim Burton exhibition at the Design Museum, a £1.7 billion investment roadmap for the Thames Estuary, and the return of Maurizio Cattelan's infamous banana art at auction. Then, in The Spotlight, we celebrate Raw Materials' unique approach to design that led them to win D&AD's Studio of the Year. Plus, our Book of the Week showcases 1,000 Marks by Pentagram, and the Tip of the Week highlights the value of quiet confidence for creatives. Finally, in Letters to the Editor, listeners share reactions to the episode and industry insights. Tune in next week for an inspiring chat with Holly Howard on rethinking marketing for creatives. It will be packed with actionable tips for freelancers and entrepreneurs alike, especially those looking to step away from the pressures of social media and the increasing "sea of sameness" to build a sustainable, fulfilling creative practice.

In an interview with our sister podcast, Brave New World, one of the most famous faces of alternative medicine on the planet, Deepak Chopra, explains how any of us can receive spiritual guidance from his new digital AI twin.We speak to the Met Office as category 4 Hurricane Helene makes landfall in north-west Florida.And, Daniel Keane, the London Standard's Health Reporter, joins us to explain why scientists are urging parents to get their children vaccinated amid rising cases of whooping cough and measles.Also in this episode:The Prime Minister's plans for AI with our Political Editor, Nicholas CecilOver 3,500 seals live in Thames Estuary, showing a healthy habitat still exists Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to a special episode of Talk of Thames with your host, Chloe Russell. This week, we're taking you on an exclusive boat trip along the iconic River Thames, recorded live during the Totally Thames Festival 2023. Join our expert guides—Amy Pryor, Technical Director of Thames Estuary Partnership, Fisheries Expert Steve Colclough, and Thames Archaeologist Fiona Haughey—as they delve into the rich biodiversity, fascinating history, and hidden heritage of London's great river. __________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by the Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Keep up to date with TEP on all platforms!Twitter: @ThamesEstPartFacebook: @thamesestuarypartnershipInstagram: @thamesestuarypartnershipYouTube: @thamesestuarypartnership Produced & Presented by Chloe Russell.

Professor Lucy Blue delves into the wreck of The London, a 17th century warship, with diver and licensee Steve Ellis.  The ship exploded and sank in the Thames Estuary in 1665 and was rediscovered in 2005 when a ports authority survey was being conducted.  Since 2010, Steve has been directing the survey of the vessel and recovering artefacts with permission from Historic England.  A Second Rate vessel in the English Navy, The London was carrying 76 guns and a mix of over 300 crew and family readying to join a fleet preparing to fight in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, when tragedy struck. This significant archaeological site offers insights into 17th-century naval warfare, however despite it being a protected wreck of great historic value, there has been little funding or support from government sources. Over 1200 finds have been recovered and Steve will reveal his most recent discovery that is truly remarkable. A special thanks to Mark Beattie-Edwards and the Save the London campaign for their wonderful support in helping to continue to dive this site.  Find out more about the London Shipwreck Project here: https://www.facebook.com/TheLondonShipwreckproject To donate, please visit the project website: https://thelondonshipwreckproject.com/save-the-london/

Hear from Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review, as we dive into the challenges of climate adaptation and what it means for our cities. 2023 was not only the warmest year on record, it also marked the warmest 10-year period on record. As we witness first-hand the impacts of a warming climate, including heatwaves, more intense precipitation and increased flooding, the case for building resilience against these risks becomes ever more important. This is particularly so in our cities, where the concentration of populations and economic activity make adaptation non-negotiable. This episode's guest has recently led a comprehensive review of the Climate Resilience of London, which takes stock of the city's preparedness for climate impacts and makes a series of recommendations for how the city needs to bolster its efforts. In this episode, we explore: How cities are vulnerable to cascading and interconnected risks, which amplify the impacts of climate change; How a collaborative approach to learning and building resilience will be critical in the years ahead; And how adaptation and resilience need to be woven through our all our decision making, while paying particular attention to the most vulnerable communities To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr For more information on climate risk, visit GARP's Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com   Links from today's discussion: Read the final report of the London Climate Resilience Review: https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/environment-and-climate-change/climate-change/climate-adaptation/london-climate-resilience-review C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group: https://www.c40.org/ Thames Estuary 2100 Group report directory: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/thames-estuary-2100-te2100   Speaker's Bio(s) Emma Howard Boyd, Chair, London Climate Resilience Review Emma has been the Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review, leading the delivery of its work since summer 2023. She has had an extensive career in financial services at the forefront of the climate change, environmental and sustainable finance agenda. Emma is also currently Chair of ClientEarth and a Global Ambassador for Race to Zero and Race to Resilience, and outgoing Chair of the Green Finance Institute. She has been Chair of the Environment Agency and an ex-officio board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2022. Emma serves on several boards and advisory committees which include The Major Projects Association, Climate Arc, and the European Climate Foundation. She was the UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation from 2018 until its sunset in January 2021.

The Broomway has been dubbed the “deadliest footpath in Britain”, claiming more than a hundred lives. Helen Mark takes a cautious walk along this treacherous Essex seapath with Peter Carr and John Burroughs from the Foulness Island Heritage Centre. She'll hear how people can easily become disoriented on the vast mud flats and tragically caught out by the rapidly advancing tides of the Thames Estuary. Helen will also be joined by Thea Behrman, the director of the Estuary Festival, to reflect on how this meeting point of land and sea can provide creative inspiration through its bleak beauty. Presented by Helen Mark Produced by Robin Markwell

Welcome back to the second part of our captivating journey beneath the surface of the Thames Estuary. In this episode, we're joined by a true guardian of these waters, Steve Colclough, Fisheries Scientist and Chair of the Estuarine & Marine Specialist Section at the Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM). We've moved our discussion from the riverbank to the riverside at Battersea Reach, where Steve provides invaluable insights into the world of marine and freshwater fisheries, as well as his extensive experience in protecting this unique ecosystem.We pose a series of thought-provoking questions to Steve, exploring his remarkable 40 year long career and his passion for preserving the biodiversity of the Thames Estuary. We uncover the challenges he's faced while conducting fish surveys, his innovative solutions and his ability to collaborate with a diverse array of stakeholders.From memorable discoveries to the environmental threats that fish populations face, we dive deep into the intricacies of the estuarine ecosystem. Steve shares his wisdom on sustainable fisheries management practices and the ever-evolving trends he's observed over the years.As the conversation unfolds, we also touch on the special concerns and conservation interests associated with particular fish species and habitats in the Thames Estuary.For those who harbour dreams of a career in marine and freshwater fisheries or environmental consultancy, Steve imparts his seasoned advice. And, as always, we conclude with a profound take-home message from our esteemed guest.So, join us at the tranquil Riverside at Battersea Reach as we learn from the river's guardian, Steve Colclough, and continue our exploration of the hidden world beneath the tides of the Thames Estuary.__________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by the Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Keep up to date with TEP on all platforms!Twitter: @ThamesEstPart Facebook: @thamesestuarypartnership Instagram: @thamesestuarypartnership YouTube: @thamesestuarypartnership Produced & Presented by Chloe Russell.

Welcome to the first part of our exhilarating journey, as we delve into the thriving underwater world beneath the Thames Estuary. Our adventure begins at Battersea Reach, just east of the River Wandle's mouth, where TEP's Data and Training Manager Wanda Bodnar guides us through the essential work being carried out in this unique estuarine environment.We start by uncovering the significance of Estuary Edges, an innovative approach to enhance biodiversity along the edges of the estuary. These man-made vegetated intertidal habitats act as crucial ecosystems for fish and other wildlife, rejuvenating the estuarine edges and promoting a healthier environment.But why are these sites so important, you ask? Wanda delves into the historical transformations that the Thames Estuary has undergone over the past 2,000 years, leading to the loss of vital habitats. These habitats, like saltmarshes, seagrass areas and reedbeds, have a far-reaching impact, not just on the wildlife but also on our daily lives. They reduce flood risk, act as carbon sinks, and provide crucial nursery and spawning grounds for fish. In a world where the sea levels are rising, they play an indispensable role in safeguarding the environment.The aquatic life in the Thames Estuary is as diverse as it is fascinating. From the freshwater zone upstream from Battersea to the brackish waters downstream to Greenwich and the predominantly salty waters beyond, the fish species are ever-changing, depending on weather, season and tidal cycles. In 2017, the last survey at this site revealed the presence of European seabass, common goby, and the critically endangered European eel. These species contribute to the intricate web of life within the estuary, and with our seine nets, the survey yielded a total of 54 fish comprising of eight different species, including zander, goby, seabass, dace and bream. Additionally, a single European eel was caught during the fyke net operation. Steve Colclough, Fisheries expert, provides insights into the fish surveys and the equipment used. But it doesn't stop at just catching fish; Steve takes us through the identification process and explains the importance of the data collected. This valuable information is shared with partner organisations, including the Port of London Authority, Environment Agency and the Institute of Fisheries Management. The data helps demonstrate the ecological benefits of these habitats, underlining the significance of the Estuary Edges.But the Thames Estuary is not just about fish; it's a bustling hub of wildlife. Over 300 species of invertebrates, 96 species of birds, three species of mammals and even sharks call this estuary home. It's a testament to the richness of this ecosystem, with species like the tope, starry smooth-hound and spurdog patrolling the outer estuary.So, join us on this exploration of the hidden wonders of the Thames Estuary, where every dive into its waters reveals something extraordinary and where the ongoing efforts of dedicated individuals like Wanda and Steve are helping us better understand and protect this remarkable environment.__________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by the Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Socials:Twitter: @ThamesEstPart Facebook: @thamesestuarypartnership Instagram: @thamesestuarypartnership YouTube: @thamesestuarypartnership Produced & Presented by Chloe Russell.

"the searchlights looked like long pillars supporting a black canopy"

'Crittall's end of the pier show' item published on BusinessNetExplorer in audio/visual podcast format. BNE Product News presenter Mick de Leiburne provides the voiceover. | By listening to this podcast you will learn why Crittall steel framed windows that were installed in 2009 more than a mile out to sea at the mouth of the Thames Estuary are looking as good as new. | Podcasts, Bite Sized Learning, Case Studies, Application Stories, Industry, Sector, Architects, Building Designers, Steel Windows, Steel Doors | Link to item in Visual format to support learning: https://businessnetexplorer.com/crittalls-end-of-the-pier-show/ | For full product information please refer to brand manufacturer. Link to Crittall profile page in the BNE Construction & Building Services | Audio Visual virtual exhibition on BusinessNet Explorer: https://businessnetexplorer.com/clients/crittall/

Two friends, Karen and Emma, who say they met when both were post-covid slumped on the sofa and doing no exercise, take Clare for a walk along the Thames Path near Reading in Berkshire. Their friendship is based on walking and they're notching up the miles, including the Grand Union Canal (188 miles), the Ridgeway (72 miles) and 150 miles of the Portuguese Camino. Karen says that “Emma has gone from a neighbour I sort of knew to my very best friend. We have laughed so hard together we could barely stand; we have howled with pain together; we have picked each other up when the other could barely go on; we have gotten so grumpy with each other that we could barely speak to each other but always found a way back to friendship”. Clare hears their inspirational story of building a supportive and healing friendship as they ramble riverside one morning in late Spring. They start at the end of the Kennet and Avon canal and walk for around 9 miles to Henley on Thames. This is a section of a long distance route the friends are completing, coast to coast, from Bristol to the Isle of Grain on the Thames Estuary. Producer: Karen Gregor

Welcome back to a truly immersive episode of "Talk of the Thames"! On this special occasion of World Ocean Day, join us on a captivating journey along the River Thames, as we explore the beauty and wonder of London from the perspective of a paddleboarder. To achieve the full benefit of this immersive episode, we highly recommend listening to this episode with headphones on, in a quiet place.Our paddleboarder, Wanda Bodnar, also TEP's Data and Training Manager takes us on an intimate adventure from Kew Bridge to Richmond. As you listen, you'll be transported to the water's edge, where the gentle lapping of waves and the melodies of birds create a serene ambiance. Experience the rhythmic tales of the paddle hitting the water, echoing the rhythm of Wanda's journey.This episode goes beyond the immersive soundscape. We sit down with Wanda for an intimate interview, where she shares her personal connection to the river and her passion for protecting our precious waterways. Gain firsthand insights into the magic of paddleboarding and Wanda's deep connection with the Thames.But there's more! We have an exciting announcement for World Ocean Day. The Thames Estuary Partnership is launching a new course, "Introduction to the Thames Estuary." This course is open to everyone interested in learning about the history, biology, and ecology of the Thames. We extend our sincere thanks to Paul Hyman and his company, Active360, for providing their top-notch paddleboarding equipment. We had the privilege of sitting down with Paul to discuss his deep connection to the Thames and his commitment to environmental sustainability. Paul shared his insights into the importance of preserving our waterways and his company's efforts to promote responsible paddleboarding experiences. Read the full interview on our website.If you're inspired by Wanda's journey and want to experience a Thames Natural History paddleboarding tour, visit the Active360 website for more information. As we conclude this immersive episode, we invite you to cherish our ocean and waterways and take action in protecting them. Happy World Ocean Day!____________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by the Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThamesEstPartFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thamesestuarypartnership/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thamesestuarypartnership/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTV3IorpF7Qb9Sp673221jgProduced by Chloe Russell and Ben Imber, Presented by Chloe Russell.

The Hoo Peninsula is a vast open landscape on the Thames Estuary. Huge uninhabited swathes of ground. The mics (recording alone) were lodged in a hawthorn tree on Higham Marshes nature reserve and pointed out over a watery marsh. Close to the mics lapwings, redshank and cetti's warblers call, as well as geese and ducks that are familiar sounds to us urban dwellers. Skylarks circle above the farmland straight ahead on the other side of the marsh. Several pastures, with sheep and lambs in one, grazing cattle in the other. During the quieter periods when planes aren't going over, cattle can clearly be heard tearing up the long grass.  We took this 47 minute 'sound photograph' as an ear witness report of everything hearable on Higham Marshes on 14th May 2023 (map reference - 51.450474, 0.464734). Wildlife. Human life. The weather conditions were good - warm, around 20 degrees with a light breeze gusting 3-5 knots. The air was rich with scent of hawthorn blossom, cow parsley, meadow grasses and pollen.  The sound photograph is taken from the same tree as episode 73 Slow rhythms of the Hoo Peninsula, that we captured in June 2021. Due to the frequency of aircraft, subsonic throbbing of passing ships, and a strange long lasting clank from the distant Tilbury Container Port, we normally wouldn't have released this as an episode, but we've decided the recording is important as an ear-witness report for two main reasons. First, it clearly  shows the step change in human made noise now, compared to June 2021, when the pandemic was heavily impacting aviation and industry. Second, it documents the insect life, wildlife and farmed animals present on and surrounding the nature reserve at roughly the same time of year. Hearing how the birds communicate when planes are passing over, compared to how they are during the periods of quiet, has peeked our curiosity. 

It's January 5th 1941, the skies are gray and filled with water, ready at any minute to pour down to the Earth below. Amy Johnson, whom many people referred to as the British Amelia Earhart, is soaring through the air, her eyes fixed on the horizon, her heart beating with excitement and trepidation. Little does she know that she's about to live the final moments of her life.  Up to this point, the flight has been uneventful, but as Johnson approaches the Thames Estuary, she begins to encounter poor weather conditions. This is, as they say, where story ends and theory begins. The exact cause of the accident that led to Johnson's death is still unclear. But in recent years, an alternate explanation to what history says happened that day has been offered. And it's one that calls to a more tragic ending to one of aviation's biggest icon's. A woman's name you've likely never heard of….until now.  Welcome back to Vanished. This is Amy Johnson. LINKS Our Website  Vanished on Twitter  Vanished on Instagram  Vanished on TikTok Vanished on Facebook  Vanished Facebook Discussion Group Opening Theme by Krale Memoirs of the Forgotten  SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING  Mysterious demise of pioneering aviator Amy @ London News Online  The Distinguished Career Of Pioneering British Aviator Amy Johnson @ Simple Flying The ongoing mystery of Hull pilot Amy Johnson who died 81 years ago today @ Hull Daily Mail  Amy Johnson: Death of pioneering aviator 'may have been covered up' @ Independent 

Back after a short break, we bring Giles Tofield to the stage to talk to us about his work at The Cultural Engine. In this episode we explore what projects The Cultural Engine have worked on, including the North Thames Fisheries Local Action Group (NTFLAG) programme which TEP was involved in; what the future has in store; and the value of storytelling within community and local economy led projects. ____________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by the Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThamesEstPartFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thamesestuarypartnership/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thamesestuarypartnership/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTV3IorpF7Qb9Sp673221jgProduced and presented by Chloe Russell.

At over 600 feet high, and visible for miles, this giant mass of steel pylon on Swanscombe Marsh on the Thames Estuary has a sister. They stand together, like monoliths either side of the sprawling Thames, holding up cables, and silently serving society's insatiable thirst for power. After a shortish walk over the marsh from Swanscombe station, we arrived at the pylon on the Kent side bank. The ground directly beneath the pylon, in between its concrete footings, is flat. Barren, and crackling, under sharp pelting winter rain. Cold and already soaked, we unpack the audio equipment from our dripping rucksack and set up to record. As we pulled out its foldable legs, the mic stand oddly mirrored, on an atomic level, the skyscraper above. We walked on along the new extension of the Thames Path and England Coast Path, and left the mics to record. Their job to capture, uninterrupted, this brutal sound landscape, and to whatever noises the pylon made.  The sharp winter rain. The spatial murmurations of this panoramic edgeland world. The rushing sometimes humming noise the wind fleetingly made, as it surged through the loftiest sections of the pylon (centre of scene). The deep pulsating rumble, that we later found (when speeded up) seem to be the long span powerlines, singing subsonically in the wind. A brutally beautiful day under Britain's highest pylon. *The last time we recorded on Swanscombe Marsh (summer 2021) we heard a cuckoo. Amazing! This still surviving natural land is so much more than meets the eye. Listen to episode 77. 

On the night of 31st January 1953, the combination of a high spring tide and a storm over the North Sea caused a devastating surge of water to sweep across the East Coast and up the Thames Estuary. It was one of Britain's worst natural disasters in the 20th century - 307 people lost their lives in England and over 1,800 in the Netherlands - and yet it has largely been forgotten in the UK. It also inspired one of the great works of English social history, The Great Tide by Hilda Grieve, which tells the story of the flood in Essex, and the extraordinary response of its local communities and emergency services. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the flood, BBC Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt asks what lessons were learned. We're better protected now as a result of the disaster but, as our coastal defences begin to age and sea levels continue to rise due to climate change, are we prepared for the next tide? Features archive from "Essex Floods" from Essex Sound and Video Archive. Producer: Patrick Bernard A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Standing tall way out into the Thames Estuary are strange looking towers. These were built during the Second World War to defend the entrance to the river and London beyond. The Maunsell Forts are named after their designer, Guy Maunsell who created two types used in the Thames Estuary. Following the World War Two, the forts lived on. Rough Sands Fort, sited some 13 kilometres from the Essex coastline becoming home to a pirate radio station and the Principality of Sealand. Flo McEwan is a Thames Estuary historian, photographer and she's the Duchess of Sealand. Flo joined Owen to talk about the history of these magnificant structures that many have only ever seen in pictures. If you've got a story, Owen would like to hear from you! Email essexbytheseapodcast@gmail.com Join him on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. Support with a small donation via ko-fi.com/essexbythesea

As Tolkien knew, Britain in the ‘Dark Ages' was an untidy mosaic of kingdoms – an age of saints and gods and miracles, of giants and battles and the ruin of cities. Leading historian Thomas Williams explores those lands and peoples who fell by the wayside: the lost realms of early medieval Britain. From the Scottish Highlands to the Cornish coastline, from the Welsh borders to the Thames Estuary, he will uncover the forgotten life and untimely demise of realms that hover in the twilight between history and fable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast, we are joined by Helena Anderson from Ikigai Capital, who has been appointed to deliver a hydrogen investment strategy for the Thames Estuary. Helena explores the legal challenges and opportunities for both the developers and funders of hydrogen projects across Europe.

Anna Turns investigates what over 30 years of post mortems on dolphins, porpoises, and whales has revealed about the state of the seas. The Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme in England and Wales, and the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme, have carried out thousands of autopsies. Anna goes into the pathology lab with Rob Deaville from ZSL as he examines a Harbour Porpoise for clues about how it died, and how it lived. As Anna finds out from toxicologist Dr Rosie Williams and veterinary pathologist Dr Andrew Brownlow, evidence from post mortems shows animals' ability to survive and breed is threatened by pollution from long banned but peristent chemicals, known as PCBs. To find out how these chemicals could still be leaching into the environment Anna travels to the Thames Estuary with Professor of Environmental Geochemistry Kate Spencer. Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol : Sarah Swaddling

In this episode, Pamela Largue speaks to Kate Willard, Chair of Thames Estuary Growth Board, about the importance of industrial clusters in fostering sector integration and driving decarbonisation. Industrial clusters are not only spurring innovation, explains Willard, but also bringing together supply and demand in a way that aligns strategies and grows businesses. Willard explains that the benefits of clustering go far beyond the borders of the UK and Europe. Work is being done with global estuaries as well to decarbonise industries around the world . Guest: Government appointed Envoy Kate Willard OBE, Thames Estuary Growth Board Resources: Join us at Enlit Europe to meet Kate Willard and join the conversation Learn more about Thames Estuary

Come and join us for an immersive guided walk around the Greenwich Peninsula as we explore the lesser-known environmental past and present of London's famous river.Your guides are Thames Estuary Partnership's Data & Training Manager Wanda Bodnar and Technical Director Amy Pryor.This episode was recorded on 17th September on our 'A short intro to the Thames Estuary - guided walk' event as part of the Totally Thames Festival.  ____________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by the Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThamesEstPartFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thamesestuarypartnership/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thamesestuarypartnership/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTV3IorpF7Qb9Sp673221jgProduced and Presented by Chloe Russell.

Have you noticed people on the River Thames' foreshore with their heads down searching for something? Have you ever wondered what they could possibly find? In this episode we address what this activity is - it is none other than mudlarking! And we have none other than River Thames' mudlarking enthusiast Lara Maiklem telling us about all things mudlarking. Lara is a British author, editor and publishing consultant known for her writing and speaking on mudlarking, she is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. One of her books, 'Mudlarking Lost and Found In The River Thames' was awarded Sunday Times Bestseller, an Observer Book Of The Year, Radio 4 Book Of The Week and Winner of the 2020 Indie Book Award for Non-Fiction.Join us as we dig and delve into the world of mudlarking and Lara's personal anecdotes on how she fell in love it!____________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by the Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThamesEstPartFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thamesestuarypartnership/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thamesestuarypartnership/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTV3IorpF7Qb9Sp673221jgProduced and Presented by Chloe Russell.

Abby Crisostomo is the Project Director for Thames Estuary 2100, the 100-year Plan setting out how the Environment Agency and its partners can work together to manage tidal flood risk in the Thames Estuary, adapt to a changing climate and plan for the future of our riverside. Prior to this, she led on climate adaptation, green infrastructure, water, flood risk and heat risk planning and policy for the Greater London Authority; led on sustainable design and construction for London Olympic Park transformation projects and other developments at KLH Sustainability; worked on water, community development and governance policy and planning in the Chicago region for the Metropolitan Planning Council; and worked on water policy and advocacy for the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Abby also chairs CIWEM's SuDS and Water Reuse Policy Leadership Group. She is the former Vice-Chair of the International Water Association's Public and Customer Communications Specialist Group and was a member of the first round of Chicago Next Generation Environmental Leaders.Natalie Mcildowie has enjoyed a diverse, agile career with Jacobs in the UK. She currently serves as the client account manager for the Environment Agency, one of Jacobs' biggest clients and longest-running relationships. Natalie has led the delivery of many different environmental projects ranging from land remediation to flood protection. Her leadership style reflects her interest in people, client relationships and making good things happen for the environment. She is particularly enthusiastic about improving inclusion and diversity in the workplace, serving as an ambassador to employee networks, a sponsor to quiet people with potential for big impact and a mentor to women who are thriving in their careers alongside raising a family. Natalie makes the most of being an American expatriate living in England for 18 years, enjoying British campsites and seeing many music legends live in concert - and she's reminded almost daily that she hasn't lost her accent.

Join us for a special episode released on World Fish Migration Day about The Thames Catchment Community Eels Project. We are joined by six organisations in total, Thames Rivers Trust who led the project, Action for the River Kennet, South East Rivers Trust, Thames21, Zoological Society of London and Thames Estuary Partnership. This huge collaboration was driven to aid the long-term survival of the European eel. The result of this two year project has been useful for opening up dialogue with the Environment Agency (EA) when prioritising barriers; useful for collecting citizen science data for discovering unrecorded barriers; and for bringing in a sense of community and camaraderie within local areas including school workshops. With special thanks to our guests speakers, listed in chronological order of speaking in the episode, Anna Forbes at Thames Rivers Trust, Jess Mead at The South East Rivers Trust, Philly Nicholls at Thames21, Mia Riddler at Action for the River Kennet, Azra Glover at Zoological Society of London, and Wanda Bodnar at Thames Estuary Partnership. To find out more information about the project, visit https://www.thamesriverstrust.org.uk/thames-catchment-community-eels-project/ To see the Fish Migration Map and gif, visit https://fishroadmap.london/ ____________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by the Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThamesEstPartFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thamesestuarypartnership/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thamesestuarypartnership/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTV3IorpF7Qb9Sp673221jgProduced and Presented by Chloe Russell.

On today's episode we're joined by Jesse Seaward, Partner at Band Agency and Ollie Jackson, Co-Founder of 100 Tons of Plastic and son of ex-fisherman Merlin Jackson, as they discuss their recent project of promoting a local fish species as part of Fish Local. This discussion includes all the project's processes including the selection process, finding the most sustainable and highest yield species, finding the fitting name the 'Silver Shore Herring', and what this project means for the fishing industry.The core working group for promoting the local species include -Jesse Seaward - Project Leader/ Band Agency, marketing and strategyAmy Pryor - Project Leader/ Thames Estuary PartnershipMerlin Jackson - Ex Fisherman, FLO on multiple offshore projects across the estuaryWill Wright - Chief IFC Officer at Kent & Essex IFCADave Ferris - Kent based fishermanFran French - Runs the West Mersey Fisherman's association, Essex based fisherJohn McGinn - Chapmans Fish - Seafood DistributorNeil Auchterlonie - Seafood 2040 campaign and technical specialist in fisheries and sustainable seafood Jack Clark - Marine Conservation SocietyShepherd Neame - Hospitality  Fish Local has been developed to support the Kent and Essex fishing industry, working together to deliver its world-class seafood to the public and trade. Buying locally caught seafood from a fishmonger, fish stall, restaurant or even direct from the fisher is more sustainable and supports an industry we can be proud to have on our doorstep.Fish Local is an initiative by Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA). Follow #FishLocalFB Use #FishLocalFB on social media posts to join with the community To find out more about Fish Local, visit https://fishlocal.org/____________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThamesEstPartFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thamesestuarypartnership/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thamesestuarypartnership/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTV3IorpF7Qb9Sp673221jgProduced and Presented by Chloe Russell.

Today on The FreeThinking Podcast, we have Kate Willard OBE - Chair of the Thames Estuary Growth Board and the Thames Estuary Envoy - spearheading action at an extra-ordinary scale.   Kate has extensive experience as a consultant, working on a diverse portfolio of infrastructure and growth projects. She has also worked across Europe as a Regeneration Expert with the European Commission and established the first UK-Hungarian cultural partnership trust, so she understands the strength in connection. She talks to us about the power of the Thames Estuary as an activator and innovator in transport, sustainability, exports, tech... the list goes on! Spoken from the heart, Kate shows us how being in a good place isn't just a matter of location - but of growth, too.   Connect with Kate Willard on Episode 20 of the FreeThinking podcast and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Join us as celebrate the successes of Thames Estuary Partnership's Executive Director Heather Hilburn, as she has been awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects Honorary Fellowships Award 2022. "This award is given to individuals who are recognised for outstanding achievements and thought leadership in the natural and built environments, including urban regeneration, culture, design, learning and engagement. This award is a reminder of the wealth of expertise that Heather brings to TEP, including planning, policy and development, impact investing as well as a deep understanding of heritage and cultural institutions. The depth of her knowledge help us achieve our objectives in that very unique space we work in, where the land and sea come together.Heather is well placed to help us build a strong partnership across many disciplines, sectors and communities and ensure our work is investment ready." - Victoria Borwick, Chair, Thames Estuary Partnership "Chief Executive of Thames Estuary Partnership, Heather Hilburn is a champion for sustainable living and inclusion in the built environment. She has helped shape large-scale heritage and regeneration projects, ensuring that outcomes benefit the local community. She regularly commissions young practices, helping many architects launch their careers." - Royal Institute of British ArchitectsTo find out more about the FRIBA Award, as well as all it's winners: https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing-page/awards/riba-honorary-fellows____________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThamesEstPartFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thamesestuarypartnership/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thamesestuarypartnership/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTV3IorpF7Qb9Sp673221jgProduced and Presented by Chloe Russell

Karl Whitney recalls the unlovely Central Motorway area of Newcastle upon Tyne, and how he found himself at home there. Zoë Howe takes us to Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary, low-lying outpost of a cockney diaspora.

What lives in the Thames? From the things we can see like seals and crabs to the invisible elements like oxygen and nitrate. Find out why the Thames has that signature brown colour and why it is actually a good thing! This episode is all about the recently published State of the Thames Report 2021 by the Zoological Society of London and we are greeted with the lovely and knowledgeable Alison Debney, ZSL's Senior Conservation Programme Manager to tell us all about it. Hosted by our new podcast producer Chloe Russell.To read the State of the Thames Report 2021, visit: https://www.zsl.org/sites/default/files/ZSL_TheStateoftheThamesReport_Nov2021.pdf ____________________Talk of the Thames has been brought to you by Thames Estuary Partnership https://www.thamesestuarypartnership.org/Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThamesEstPartFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thamesestuarypartnership/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thamesestuarypartnership/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTV3IorpF7Qb9Sp673221jg

A (very) windy day by the Thames Estuary for this Isthmian League North fixture at Canvey. Apologies for the top and tail sound quality of this recording ...Nickachtungmillwall@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A (very) windy day by the Thames Estuary for this Isthmian League North fixture at Canvey. Apologies for the top and tail sound quality of this recording ...Nickachtungmillwall@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"a lantern festival on the Thames"

There was a time when Mudlark-artist Nicola White was part of the high-pressure banking world in London, but she reached a point in her life when she wanted to do something she was really passionate about. Nicola had been casually 'mudlarking' on the River Thames for years, but around six years ago she decided to turn her hobby into a full time occupation. Nicola joins the show to discuss mudlarking, the art she makes from her finds, and some of the treasures and fascinating messages in bottles she's discovered over the years.

There was a time when Mudlark-artist Nicola White was part of the high-pressure banking world in London, but she reached a point in her life when she wanted to do something she was really passionate about. Nicola had been casually 'mudlarking' on the River Thames for years, but around six years ago she decided to turn her hobby into a full time occupation. Nicola joins the show to discuss mudlarking, the art she makes from her finds, and some of the treasures and fascinating messages in bottles she's discovered over the years.

This week the show is not so much on the road, but out at sea! We take your letters and inspirational thoughts to the east coast of England to make a walk in sea fog, before climbing aboard the X-Pilot service vessel navigating ten miles out to photograph a cluster of seven sea forts from WWII, where the Thames Estuary meets the North Sea. Our special guest, environmental portrait and advertising photographer Phil Melia talks about making projects. We discuss the fashionable word 'story', introduce the world's most famous darkroom, talk happy accidents and more. Supported by MPB.com and our patrons. See the SHOW PAGE.

Catriona Riddell is the Director of Catriona Riddell & Associates Ltd and former Director of Planning of the South East England Partnership Board. In this episode, Catriona explores the role of strategic planning in achieving good growth moving away from standard measures. In particular, she discusses the 2011 Localism Act, its consequences for Local Governments, cooperation between local authorities and duty to cooperate, strategic planning opportunities such as the London Stansted Cambridge Corridor and Thames Estuary.

Well hello! This week I chat to singer-songwriter Willy Mason (and producer Noel Heroux) about his excellent new album “Already Dead”, his first album for 9 years. My other guest is artist Miles Taverner, who makes stunning works of art from wood and other materials the tide happens to bring in. He has an exhibition in London in September 2021 as part of the Totally Thames Festival. Instagram: @sendingsignalspodcast / @wwilly.masonn / @milestavernerartTwitter: @signalspodcast / @wwilly_masonn  willymasonmusic.commilestavernerart.co.ukthamesfestivaltrust.orgseareconnection.co.uk 

Swanscombe is one of the last surviving brownfield sites in the Thames Estuary where threatened wildlife can live. On the Kent side of the Thames, to the east of the QEII bridge, opposite Grays on the Essex side, it is an oasis of natural quiet. We took a train and a bus to get there, then walked a sloping path, paved then muddy with the sound of the road dying away. The marsh was full of fascinating life, though empty of people, except for a couple of weekday birders who gave us a wave.   Onwards we walked, heading to the UK's tallest pylon, scraping the sky from the very edge of the river. Impossibly high at 600 feet. We'd hoped it would hum, or be drizzling so we'd hear it fizz, or windy so we'd hear a whistle, But instead it stood silently in accepting partnership with its sibling on the other side of the river.    Though strictly-speaking too quiet to record, we tied the mics onto one of the giant legs anyway and left them alone. Listening back, days later, we discovered the mics had captured not only the feeling of the place, but also some astonishing and unexpected sounds. Gifts from the marsh. Truly, a magical precious location to be protected. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------     Hot, bored, isolating - or all three? Why not try out your listening skills with the first Radio Lento Golden Lobes quiz on our blog! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Find out more about the campaign to Save Swanscombe Marshes.

Several miles up the sun-baked track, along overgrown footpaths and through fields high with meadow grass, lie the watery ditches of the Higham Marshes nature reserve. Nestled within the wide expanse of partly farmed, partly inhabited, but mostly untended land that runs along the lower reaches of the Thames Estuary in Kent. On a barmy summer's day, blown about by a friendly wind, it's a place of retreat and of well tempered quiet.    Beside one of the wild ditches, from inside a hawthorn bush at the water's edge, we find a secret space to record. Well defended by thorns, it gently creaks in sympathy with the breeze, but has a birds-ear view of the nearby wildlife and the landscape beyond.    The air is cooler beside the water. It rings with the pewit calls of the lapwings. Croaks stretchily with the marsh frogs. Echoes with the gliding yelps of distant geese. At ground level this world is all green and overgrown, but from the air, it must be laced with glints and pools.   Bees buzz quickly by and a farmer traverses a field on a quadbike. It's alive with sheep and lambs. Above, skylarks wheel beneath high thrumming planes. From over the horizon, fleeting whines of overtaking motors along a distant country road. These are the slow rhythms of an early summer's day on the Hoo Peninsula.

Out for a Walk #6 - Crayford Marshes A podcast about walking & sound. Taking in field recordings, nature & local history. For this months podcast we head out to the Thames Estuary to the mouth the river Darent & Cray at Crayford Marshes. We are joined by local wildlife campaigner Donna Zimmer. Our first guest on the podcast. Hosted by Anthony Chalmers Produced by Sarah Nicol Music by Faten Kanaan

For this episode of Essex By The Sea, Owen is finding out about a large-scale arts festival called Estuary 2021. He visits Coalhouse Fort in East Tilbury, to meet up with author, journalist and semi finalist of Mastermind, Tom King who's taking part in the festival. Estuary Festival 2021 takes place in May and June 2021 with large and small scale art projects placed along the Thames Estuary. Find out more on their website www.estuaryfestival.com If you've got a story, Owen would like to hear from you! Email essexbytheseapodcast@gmail.com Join him on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

In this episode I turn to the Thames Estuary and explore what it takes to become a member of lifeboat crew for the RNLI and learn about the dangers of this particular part of the river. In the process I learn about knots, the challenges of modern day smuggling and the role of Southend Pier during the Second World War. This leads me to seek out The Endeavour Trust who maintain the last surviving cockle boat which left the town to help in the evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940. Lifelong professional fisherman Paul Gilson regales me with stories about the role of the ‘Little Ships' and his experiences managing the Endeavour during the filming of Christopher Nolan's film ‘Dunkirk'.

Caroline Crampton was born on the Thames Estuary to parents who had sailed there from South Africa in the early 1980s. Having grown up with seafaring legs and a desire to explore, Caroline is both a knowledgeable guide to the most hidden-away parts of this overlooked and unfashionable part of the country, and a persuasive advocate for its significance, both historically and culturally. As one of the key entrances and exits to England, the estuary has been pivotal to London's economic fortunes and in defining its place in the world. It has also been the entry point for immigrants for generations, yet it has an ambivalent relationship with newcomers, and UKIP's popularity in the area is on the rise. As Caroline navigates the waters of the estuary, she also seeks out its stories: empty warehouses and arsenals; the Thames barrier, which guards the safety of Londoners more precariously than we might; ship wrecks still inhabited by the ghosts of the drowned; vast Victorian pumping stations which continue to carry away the capital's sewage; the river banks, layered with archaeological Anglo-Saxon treasures; literature inspired by its landscape; beacons used for centuries to guide boats through the dark and murky waterways of the estuary; the eerie Maunsell army forts - 24 metre high towers of concrete and steel which were built on concealed sandbanks at the far reaches of the estuary during the Second World War and designed to spot (and shoot) at incoming enemy planes; and the estuary's wildlife and shifting tidal moods. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/support

Kate Willard, Estuary Envoy and Chair of the Thames Estuary Growth Board, talks to James King about the role that the Thames Estuary will play in driving long term and sustainable economic growth in the UK, as the country looks to a future beyond the European Union. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lord Heseltine has devoted much of his long and illustrious career to the question of regeneration and regional growth. A Member of Parliament for 35 years, former Cabinet Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, he is arguably the grandfather of ‘levelling up' – famously devising 30 ideas for Liverpool's regeneration after the 1981 Toxteth riots. In 2015 he became an adviser to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, chaired the Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission, co-chaired the Estate Regeneration Advisory Panel, made key recommendations for developing the Tees Valley area and co-commissioned The National Infrastructure Commission. After leaving government in 2017, he published his own version of what the Industrial Strategy should be and has most recently written about English devolution. This special in-conversation between CPP and Lord Heseltine came ahead of May's local, mayoral and Scottish Parliament elections, as questions – and tensions – rise as to the future of devolution in England and the future of the Union.Key questions will include: what has coronavirus shown us about the power of local and regional leaders in shaping and delivering government policy? How might we envision the next stage for devolution in England and the wider UK if we are to drive inclusive growth and economic recovery? What is the role of the regions and how can systems of Mayoral accountability best reflect this? How should the government best invest in communities to address inequality and shared prosperity across the UK? What should the government do to support business and industry and incentivise investment, especially in so called ‘left behind' places?The event was chaired by Charlotte Alldritt, Director, Centre for Progressive Policy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In The Lark Ascending (Faber) Richard King, author of Original Rockers and How Soon is Now?, explores how Britain's history and identity have been shaped by the mysterious relationship between music and nature. From the far west of Wales to the Thames Estuary and the Suffolk shoreline, taking in Brian Eno, Kate Bush, Boards of Canada, Dylan Thomas, Gavin Bryars, Greenham Common and the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass, The Lark Ascending listens to the land and the music that emerged from it, to chart a new and surprising course through a familiar landscape. King was in conversation with Luke Turner, editor of the influential online music publication The Quietus and author of the memoir Out of the Woods. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"The Thames Estuary is the UK's number one growth opportunity." Those are the words of the Thames Estuary Growth Board, who have recently submitted a bid to the Government for Freeport status. Kate Willard is the Thame Estuary Envoy and also is also the Chair of the Growth Board and explains to Owen Ward why a Freeport covering the Thames Estuary and including the Port of Tilbury and London Gateway would be benifical for the local growth oportunities. More information about the Thames Estuary Growth Board can be found on their website: www.thamesestuary.org.uk If you've got a story, Owen would like to hear from you! Email essexbytheseapodcast@gmail.com Join him on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

READ: PSALM 40:1-2 NLT I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. I was born and brought up in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex which is on the Thames Estuary. As a boy I loved exploring the coast which is well known for its generous expanses of mud, and at low tide it is possible to walk out more than a mile from the shore. However, you have to be careful. In places the mud is of such a fine quality that you can easily sink in it and I remember being told gory stories of people who got caught in the mud when the tide turned, with disastrous consequences. The psalmist reflects on his own life and recognises that he had once been totally stuck. It was just like being stuck in the mud. He had been in a hopeless situation but he had cried out to God who had reached out to him and lifted him to a place of solid ground. What a relief! There are some predicaments in life for which no human remedy will work. However hard we try we will sink back into the mud. We need to cry out to God and have the humility to let him reach down and rescue us. The rescue is vitally important but it’s not the end of the process. God rescues us so that we can then live securely and serve him confidently. He enables us by his Spirit to live a completely new life. The last thing we would want to do is to get stuck in the mud all over again. QUESTION: Have you had the experience of God rescuing you? PRAYER: Loving God, thank you that you reach out to me when I get badly stuck in life. Thank you that you are able to set my feet on solid ground and give my life a new meaning and purpose. Amen.

The British pilot bailed out of her plane over the Thames Estuary, never to be recovered from the icy water. 

A bird calls out. Its cry carries far out over the water on this, a rare day of no wind. Not even a breeze or a whisper of leaves in the trees. Cows low from farmland on the floodplain beside the Thames Estuary. From a hidden nest, little birds flutter in and out. What planes there are pass softly, almost inaudibly, but just enough to reveal the vastness of the bright afternoon sky. It's hanging on, the light, longer for a late November day. Away from the footpath down a thick grassy slope we found the water, at rest between the tides. Shallow over boot stealing mud, it was mirroring the sky. A corner within the landscape of visceral stillness. Tiny bubbles are popping on the surface of the water. Almost too delicate to hear. We lower the tripod to get the microphones closer, then carry on with our walk to let them record alone. To the keen ear, murmurs waft in from out over the estuary of curlew, avocet and geese. Crows caw. A horse neighs. The air vibrates. This isn't just a pastoral landscape beside a wild estuary, it is edgeland too.  On the western horizon, three perhaps four miles distant are tall cranes at work shifting containers. They place and drop, each makes a gentle roll of thunder. It's the London Gateway Port. The still water bubbles and pops. The little birds flutter back. Walkers clink the gate up by the field but this spot is well hidden from view. And what was that? Something plopped into the water. Or jumped out of it? Who knows, there was no one here to see.

Bonus episode to mark 10,000 Radio Lento downloads. This is a shorter but no-loud-noise version of episode 29 'Trains planes and estuary birds'. Now in high definition sound, this an opportunity to hear the evocative sounds of the Thames Estuary at low tide, without the noisy aircraft which was included in the original episode. Since starting the podcast, we've covered 142 miles on foot with our children and the microphone gear, listening out for peaceful places to record. We don't have a car, so travel out of the city where we live on public transport. Trains can often be heard in our recordings, as they can in this one. It's a cloudy late August afternoon on the banks of the Thames Estuary near Benfleet in Essex. Wild gusts of wind race in over the water. Birds swoop and swirl over the exposed mudflats, hunting for food. Redshanks, gulls, little egrets, oyster catchers, curlew, avocet, crows. When the wind drops, the newly exposed mud and silt can be heard bubbling and popping in the drying air.  

My guest today is Caroline Crampton. Caroline is a freelance writer and podcaster. Among other things, she edits The Listener, a daily newsletter that curates the best podcasts. In this conversation, we focus on Caroline's curation workflow. Listen to the full conversation Download episode 48   Show notes Caroline Crampton The Way to the Sea: The Forgotten Histories of the Thames Estuary by Caroline Crampton Shedunnit (Caroline's podcast) Hot Pod newsletter Serial podcast The Listener newsletter The Browser Lindelani Mbatha Listen Notes RSS NewsBlur Apple Podcasts Pocket Casts Overcast Radio Atlas Google Keep Google Pixel Google Recorder Google Drive The Joe Rogan Experience Some show notes may include Amazon affiliate links. I get a small commissions for purchases made through these links. Read the full transcript Jorge: Caroline, welcome to the show. Caroline: Thank you very much for having me. It's great to be here. Jorge: Well, it's great to have you. For folks who don't know you, can you please tell us about yourself? About Caroline Caroline: So, I'm a writer and a podcaster based in the UK. I started out my career in print journalism, but obviously things have changed a lot in that industry, and my career has changed a lot with it. So, I now work completely for myself and I'd say I don't have so much a beat as such I have a lot of curiosity. So, I've written a book that's about the Thames estuary that is kind of a nature book. I make a podcast that's about detective fiction from the 1920s. I've done reporting work about all manner of politics and social affairs. And increasingly in the last few years, my work has been in newsletters and recommending and reporting on very niche aspects of the podcast industry. Jorge: That's super intriguing. As someone who hosts a podcast and the newsletter myself, I'm very keen to unpack what that means for you. Newsletters and podcasts Caroline: Yeah, so there are two main email newsletters that I contribute to. The first one is called Hot Pod and it's…. well, we call it “the trade publication for the podcast industry.” That's what it's grown into. It was founded by my colleague Nick Quah, back in 2014, the summer of the Serial podcast, which I'm sure many of your listeners will be familiar with. And he was writing it himself for several years. And then sort of towards the end of 2018, he brought me on as the second writer. And obviously I'm contributing from the UK; he's based in the US. That's enabled us to broaden our coverage and bring more people in and generally expand things really. So yeah, we act like a trade publication would in any other industry, I suppose, but because podcasting is so new and so distributed, there are people doing it all around the world and people doing it for all different reasons as well. You know, people coming from professional backgrounds in radio, people coming from no experience in media whatsoever and just jumping in as a hobby and everything in between. And all the different subjects and topics as well that, it can be quite… it's both a great challenge to cover something like that, but also a source of endless excitement, because you never know who you might get to speak to you next week. Jorge: You mentioned two publications. So Hot Pod is one, right? Caroline: Hot Pod is one, and The Listener is the second, which is a daily podcast recommendation newsletter. I both source the episodes to recommend and write the whole email and everything that we feature in it. And that grew out of a company called The Browser, which has been going for a long time now and its main email newsletter is written by a guy called Robert Cotrell, who just has the most incredible background in journalism and media and everything that's interesting on the internet basically. The Browser has existed for I think over 10 years at this point, recommending articles; five articles a day that you won't find anywhere else and that you won't be able to stop reading once you've clicked on them. A couple of years ago now, I started working with them on adding audio picks for that community. Out of that work has grown an entirely separate newsletter called The Listener, in which we recommend podcast episodes in the same way that The Browser recommends articles. Jorge: So, that makes me think that you must listen to a lot of podcasts. Caroline: Yeah, I really do. I don't tend to keep an active tracker or anything like that, but I definitely less than for a couple of hours a day, I'd say. Jorge: I'd love to find out more about that. But before we started recording, you also told me that you host a podcast yourself. Caroline: I do. Yeah, it's called Shedunnit, and it's about the very niche topic of 1920s and 30s British detective fiction. So, we're talking Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Poirot, all that kind of stuff. Jorge: So, given your experience sorting through all of these podcasts, I'm wondering if you developed criteria that you can share with us as to what constitutes a good podcast. Caroline: I think the biggest thing is, I like to be surprised. And I can be surprised in any way. It doesn't necessarily mean information that's new to me. It can be surprising in the style that something's told or surprised in the tone of something. An example, just recently I recommended a podcast that was aimed at people who play amateur chess tournaments. Not something that I do. Not something I'm involved in. Not a world that I know very much about, but I found the enthusiasm and the specificity of the two people on the podcast in the way they were reviewing different pieces of software that you can use to help you organize your tournament, especially online. I just found that so surprising and charming, that I wanted to recommend it. So it doesn't necessarily mean a big budget or a huge revelations or anything like that. But just something that for me is out of the ordinary. Caroline's curation process Jorge: I'm super curious to jump into the newsletters — the curation process that goes into that — because it sounds to me like your work entails listening to a lot of stuff and then somehow finding the gems that you want to share with your readers/listeners. And I have just a lot of questions about that as someone who can barely keep up with media myself. How do you do it? Caroline: Well, you're right. That is exactly what it's about is filtering out the gems, and particularly, part of the mission of The Listener is to recommend things that people wouldn't be able to find otherwise… that wouldn't stray across their path naturally either in their sort of recommendations or on the front page of the podcast listening app that they use. Things that take them outside of their media diet, essentially. So, I'm constantly myself battling against that, because the way that the internet works these days is you consume one of something and it says, “Hey, would you like three more of that?” I'm constantly trying to think beyond that and find ways around it myself. So, the process starts actually not in my headphones, as it were. It starts on my screen where I just try and capture as many different feeds as I possibly can. And at this point I'm just looking for, anything and everything. And I have an RSS reader where I organize everything and I put things in folders by topic and category and so on, so that I can find things again, basically. And then before I start actually listening, I'm filtering by how many episodes does the show have? Does it have a particular series that I'm interested in? Is this something where the audio quality is just so poor that I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending it? So, I'm doing a sort of initial filter at that stage. And then, I move on to adding episodes that I want to consider for recommendation into a giant never-ending listening queue. And then that's what I'm listening to whenever I have time. And it's from that, that I'm drawing the episodes of the eventually make it into the newsletter. Jorge: So, the way that I'm hearing this is you find out about the shows through an RSS reader and/or your web browser. And are you collating those in any way? Do you have a queue of shows that you want to listen to? How does that part of it work? Caroline: Yes. So I have a lot of different sources that I'm drawing on to add things into that RSS reader, other email newsletters, the things that the makers of apps are putting on their front pages, stuff that people are recommending to me word of mouth, things that my friends and family like and enjoy, things that I see people talking about on Twitter, things that are getting written up in publications. Also, I have a very long running and overflowing Google form where… it just says, “Do you want to recommend a podcast to me? Put it in here?” I quite often sift through that because there's lots of things that end up in there that I would never have found otherwise. I also have a colleague helping me, Lindelani Mbatha is our international editor and he also is just feeding me anything good that he finds from where he's consuming media in South Africa. So that gives me a completely different perspective from another place. He's seeing the world differently to me and all of that then ends up in my RSS reader. Then I use a website called Listen Notes. I absolutely love this site — I think it's brilliant — which is a podcast catalog, I suppose, in its simplest form. But crucially for me, it has the ability to create custom RSS feeds. It calls them your “Listen Later” feed by default. So, I have “Caroline Crampton's Listen Later,” and to that, I can add any episode of any podcast and it generates for me an RSS feed for that queue, which I can then add to my app. So anytime I add a new episode to that Listen Notes feed, it pops straight into my app without the need for me to go and search for a show and subscribe or anything. I've just got one organized linear feed, essentially, of everything I want to try out for the newsletter. RSS Jorge: That sounds fantastic. I wasn't aware of Listen Notes. It might be worth recapping for folks what RSS feeds are, because so far, you've mentioned both the newsreader and podcast itself, right? Can you give us a brief overview of that? Caroline: Yeah. So, RSS is actually very old internet technology. It's sort of one of the building blocks of the internet. And RSS just stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” And it's a very straightforward collection of code that creates an instance that updates every time you add a new article or MP3 file. You can add basically anything to an RSS feed. And people have over the years built different apps to capture the product of that syndication. So, what I use in my web browser, I use an RSS reader called NewsBlur, but there are lots of different ones, just essentially an interface that organizes all of those updates that are being sent by all those different feeds. A podcatcher of any kind, whether it's Apple podcasts or Pocket Casts or Overcast or whatever is essentially the same thing. It's an interface through which you've told it that you want to run all of these RSS feeds and it's alerting you every time an update arrives. Jorge: And in the case of this very podcast, The Informed Life, if you go to the website, we provide a link to the podcast's RSS feed, which you should be able to plug into any of those apps to actually listen to the shows. One aspect of RSS as a technology for getting information to people, is that — as you hinted at in your description — it prioritizes chronology over other organization means. For example, if you're subscribed in a podcatcher, you will care about the latest episode, right? And you will be notified when there's a new episode of the show. In my experience, the interfaces of these tools don't tend to be as useful for looking for older content. And I'm wondering in your curation process, how do you balance the discovery of new shows… You were talking earlier about things that might be surprising; I don't know if to call it serendipitous. But if you're using RSS, I would expect that that would increase the likelihood that you would be listening to shows from the same… two episodes from the same shows? I'm describing what happens to me, when I subscribe to RSS feeds, it's like I ended up reading the things that person X is writing in their blog, or I end up listening to episodes of the same podcast, even while some might be more interesting to me than others. It's always favoring the recency. I'm wondering in the act of curation, are there ways to overcome that or is that an issue for you at all? Caroline: Its definitely something that I'm aware of. And it's one of the reasons why I use a web-based RSS reader to store all of the podcast feeds that I'm currently filtering and considering rather than just subscribing to them in a podcast app, for instance, because podcast apps are built exactly as you say: to show you the latest releases because that's the behavior that they expect from their users. Whereas I want to be able to easily scroll down everything or flip it the other way up and look at it as something from the beginning or one reason why I like NewsBlur as my RSS reader over some others that I've tried is it has quite a good advanced search and filtering system, so I can say, “I only want to see posts or episodes from 2017 or from after 2018.” It allows me to put in search queries that help combat that issue of everything being in chronological order. I also organize feeds into folders. So, like I have a folder that's just for podcasts that are about food. So, when I'm looking at the upcoming recommendations for the newsletter, I like to try and keep it as varied as possible on a few different factors, chronology being one of them, or age of publication, but also, where in the world was the podcast made? What style? Is it a conversational show or a narrative documentary type or something in between? Who's making it? How long is it? All these different things and I'm trying to make sure that there's a mixture at all times. So, you'll never get a newsletter that just has three, hour-long conversational podcasts featuring only Americans, you know? It will always be varied and different. So, I might think, “Oh, well, you know, for next week, I really want a food podcast that's maybe from South America. That would be here a really great addition to what we've already got.” I'll go and look in my food folder and scan back through what's there. I might do some searching for some key words of country names or cuisines or something, and that will help me focus in on some episodes that I then want to listen to in order to make the final selection. Jorge: When you said podcast from South America, I'm assuming that all the podcasts are in English. Is that a fair assumption? Caroline: Almost always, yeah. Just because that's the language that I speak best. I have recommended a few podcasts that exist for language learning. So, they're in other languages, but they are people speaking slowly or explaining or that kind of thing. And I've also recommended a great podcast called Radio Atlas, which is a project that subtitles podcasts in other languages. It's a video podcast but it doesn't have any visuals if you know what I mean, it just has the subtitles. So, it means that, someone like me for whom English is my main and only language, it means I can listen to any podcasts that they've recommended with the subtitles. Frequency and volume Jorge: Well, that's fascinating. I'm going to have to check that out. What's the frequency with which The Listener comes out? Caroline: There's an addition every weekday. Jorge: That makes me think that you have to sort through a lot of different podcasts. And when you were describing the process, I got the sense that there's a part of the process where you're looking at, like you said, stuff on a screen, right? So, I would imagine like the description, the length of episodes… you talked about how many episodes the show had released. I would expect that those are all things that you can see on the screen without having to listen to the shows. But there are other aspects that you were talking about that made me think that when the shows have made it past an initial set of filters, you have to actually listen to the shows. I'm wondering how much time do you spend listening to podcasts and how do you make the time, basically, to be able to keep up that volume? Caroline: Well, this was one of the things I was apprehensive about when first discussing whether we wanted to launch this newsletter, because I was concerned that in order to do it well, yes, I would need to listen to so many podcasts and would there physically even be time in the day, let alone with life and work and everything else. So, we did a couple of trial weeks where I tried it not for publication, just sending to one of my colleagues every day, just to see if it was possible. I was actually really surprised at how much time in the day could have podcasts in it that didn't currently. I don't set aside two hours a day where I just sit there with headphones. I don't have that luxury, but I listen while I'm walking my dog. I listen while I'm cooking. I listen while I'm exercising. Pretty much any time that anyone might be listening to podcasts, I'm always listening to podcasts. And yeah, there is enough time, I was happy to discover. But it does mean I need to be very systematic and very organized to make sure that I'm getting through enough and that I'm listening to a wide enough variety. Also, I keep notes as I go. I write notes in my phone. So, when I finished an episode, either straight away, or as soon after as I can, I will just make some notes about it. Because otherwise, if I know I want to recommend it, I might not have time to actually write it up for the newsletter for a few days or a few weeks. And I don't want to forget those initial impressions I had upon listening to it. Making notes Jorge: You've just touched on a subject that I wanted to ask you about, which was exactly that this: how do you keep track… especially, the image of walking the dog is one that I can relate to. I do that as well. And I actually love walking and listening to either podcasts or audio books. And one of the challenges that I always run into is that I will listen to something that I want to keep track of because it either sparked an idea or it's something that I want to blog about later. And I find that I have to take the phone out of my pocket, open up the note taking app or the “to do” app, you know, write a note to self and in the process of doing that, I've lost track of what I'm listening to. So, what I've resorted to doing is speaking into the air, like a mad person, because the smart assistant in my phone will interpret the trigger phrase, which I will not mention here, and I will say, “take a note” or “remind me to,” or what have you. But it's a very imperfect system for me. And it seems that that is central to your work. I'm wondering how you do it and if there are recommendations for how to do that better? Caroline: I'm in the same situation as you. I have to say it has got easier now that my dog is older. When I first got him and he was just pulling me all over the place, there was just no opportunity to pause and take my phone out and make a note or set anything going or anything like that, because I was just being yanked about all over the place. He's now three years old and is calmed down enough that he's quite happy to have a sit down on a street corner while I make a note or whatever. So, that's easier. I do a combination of: I use Google Keep to write little notes to myself if there are any particular moments that I want to revisit. When I write up the eventual recommendation, I'll try and just notice where the play head is in the app and go, “at 25 minutes in that podcast, this person said that,” that sort of thing, so that if I want to jump back to it, to remind myself, I can, without having to listen to the whole thing again. I have a Google Pixel phone and I really like the — it's quite recent edition actually, it came with an OS update, I think — I like the voice recorder app, because it now has inbuilt transcription and uploading to Google Drive. So, if I'm in a situation where for whatever reason, I don't want to type into my phone or I'm not able to, I do the same, I just start talking to it. And I can, just in the same app, I can scroll through what I've said as text or upload it to Google Drive so I can access it on another device. And that can be really helpful to talk through some thoughts or talk to myself about it, but then be able to locate what I was saying and paste it straight into a newsletter, if I think it's good enough. The influence of curation on creation Jorge: One of the advantages that I see in curated collections of items — like the ones that you are creating — is something that you touched on earlier, which is that you are getting recommendations from a person, as opposed to some kind of algorithm. You talked about, like the stuff that is surfaced in the stores, right? Which I think at this point, we all realize that those are driven by algorithms, and usually they will try to create some kind of profile of you and your tastes and will try to serve you up similar things. And the advantages that I see in what you're doing is that rather than depend on these algorithms that are tailored to serve you more of the same, in the curation process, what you're doing is you're reflecting a particular taste or worldview. I'm wondering, as someone who is not just a curator of podcasts, but a podcaster yourself, if and how the curation process has influenced your own approach to podcasting and how you select the subjects that you will podcast about, or that you will write about, if that is a thing? Caroline: Yeah, I think it is a thing. It's mostly influenced me in a practical sense in that now being somebody who does curate podcasts for a living and listen to them, I have come to an appreciation of quite how many press releases and alerts and so on people who do this do so, you know, someone who reviews podcasts for a publication or something. I get dozens a week, messages and emails from people saying, “Hey, check out my podcast!” I've really come to appreciate the value of a very pithy and well-written approach. I in no way begrudge people sending me those emails, because often I find interesting things to listen to. We all just want to share our contact with more people. That's perfectly fine! But the emails I get that are very easy to read and to the point and have a very clear… “and if you're interested in checking it out, here's where you can do that…” element to them, I'm just so much more likely to click on those links or remember those shows. At the beginning, it was astonishing to me what a small proportion those well-written and short emails are. I get so many where it's actually quite hard to dig out what the name of the podcast is; it comes in like the fifth or sixth paragraph or something and I just don't have time for that. So, I've given talks at conferences before about ideas for growing your podcast and that kind of thing. And one of the things I always like to include in the deck is, a friend of mine who actually became my friend because he initially sent me a really good email about his podcast before we even knew each other, and that's how we first got in contact. With his permission, I share that email and just say, “You know, this email was so good. Not only did I listen to his podcast, but now I'm friends with this person. Send emails like this! Don't send confusing or rude ones. Or long ones.” Jorge: Oh, that's great. And you've posted that? Is it public? Caroline: I think it's on my website. Yes, I can make sure it's visible. Curating your listening Jorge: I've noticed, as a result of the — I'm attributing this as a result of the pandemic — that my listening habits have changed. When I was working in offices and I had a commute to offices, I would devote a lot of my commute time to listening to podcasts. As commutes have gone away, my podcast listening has diminished significantly and I'm starting to feel guilty at how many un-listened episodes there are in my podcatcher. I'm wondering if you have any tips for folks, other than subscribing to The Listener for how they might find podcasts that they might find interesting, or that might add value to their lives. Caroline: I think that is something that a lot of people are facing. You're definitely not alone in that. The data over the last six months has shown that people were listening less initially. And then once listening did start to creep back up again, it had a different profile. People were no longer listening in the mornings and evenings for their commutes, but far more people were listening at lunchtime, for instance. Lunchtime has become actually a really big time for podcasts to drop, rather than very early in the morning, so you catch people on their way to work. I find that quite delightful in a way. I like to think of people all over the world, sitting down to their sandwiches with a podcast. But I do think that it's okay for your tastes to change. I very much recognize that guilt, that the episodes are piling up, you haven't listened to them and you feel bad. So, first thing I tend to encourage people to do is just be really honest and unsubscribe to the ones that don't work for you anymore. And that doesn't mean that you are saying that they're bad, or that they're not as good as they used to be, just that they're not for you right now. Maybe you'll come back to them another time. There's a very famous and popular podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, which I do not understand how people keep up with that podcast. He puts out a two-hour episode every other day! Even I, with my very high podcast listening, if I was trying to keep up with that one, I would not be able to do my job. So, I do think that you might decide that it's not all for you. And then the other thing I recommend doing, is thinking about the kinds of topics that you want to engage with. Start from the other end. I think often we start from like, “What is a good podcast?” And then you try it out to see if you like, which is just totally fair. But you might also like to think, “Well, I'm trying to feel a bit more escapist right now. Like I'm not so interested in focusing on the news. What audio drama is there that I could try or I'm into spooky stories right now, what is that I could try?” So be very focused in your searching and look in particular genres because they can get a bit overwhelming to just scroll and scroll and go, “Well, there are all these podcasts, how do I know if any of them are any good or that I will like them?” So I like to sort of narrow things a bit like that, if that makes sense? Jorge: Yes, it does. That's a really valuable advice. And I think after our call, I'm going to delete a bunch of podcasts from my podcatcher or unsubscribe from them. Caroline: I definitely have experienced that guilt feeling. But I had a very fortuitous thing happen — I didn't feel like it was fortuitous at the time — where I used to use a different podcast app, and I don't know why maybe there was a bug? Maybe there's something wrong with my phone? But just one day I opened it and it had wiped everything! All of the shows I'd subscribed to and my whole listening history, everything was just gone. And I was a bit taken aback and upset about that. But in the process of rebuilding my subscriptions list, it meant that I shed a lot of shows that I wasn't really that interested in anymore more. And it meant, I felt therefore, like there was space to add some new things that I did want to try. And I'm not saying you should delete everything, but I do think that people get into a rut or a habit with their apps and their podcasts and so on. And sometimes it can be quite good to just force yourself to reevaluate it. Closing Jorge: Well, that sounds like an invitation for folks to curate their own feeds and the information that they let in. And I think that that is a very good place for us to wrap up the conversation. So where can folks follow up with you? Caroline: I have a website, which is carolinecrampton.com, where there are links out to the various different things that I do. And you can find my social media and so on, if that's interesting to you. Also The Listener has a landing page, thelistener.co and you can see some sample additions, you can see some testimonials from people, you can try it for free and you can subscribe if it seems like the kind of thing you'd be into. Jorge: Fantastic! I'm going to include links in the show notes to all of those. Thank you so much for being with us and for sharing your knowledge and insights. Caroline: Thank you very much for having me. It's been great.

Beneath the water in the Thames Estuary, lies a treasure trove of a shipwreck. The London sunk in the 1600's on her way to London to collect her captain. Since then, she's been buried under the river bed. That is until recently, as larger and larger container ships pass overhead, the remains of The London are being washed away at an alarming rate. Steve Ellis, trustee of the London Shipwreck Trust, is the only person to hold a diving license for this wreck. Owen spoke to him alongside the cockle sheds in Leigh-on-Sea to find out more. More information about The London Shipwreck can be found on their website. If you've got a story, Owen would like to hear from you! Email essexbytheseapodcast@gmail.com Join him on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

It's a cloudy late August afternoon on the banks of the Thames Estuary near Benfleet in Essex. Wild gusts of wind race in over the water. On this side, spots of rain float in the air but a mile away on Canvey Island there's sun. It's low tide. Birds swoop and swirl over the exposed mudflats, hunting for food. Redshanks, gulls, little egrets, oyster catchers, curlew, avocet, crows. We climb down onto the mud and leave the microphones beside a tall upright rock for some shelter. It's not unlike a standing stone. The traffic on Canvey Island is a distant rumble, punctuated by the occasional motorbike. From behind, an aircraft takes off from Southend Airport flying directly overhead, tearing the sky, then out over the estuary. The wind drops and a blissful peace returns. Feathery wings swoosh nearby. Trains pass softly on the London Tilbury Southend railway line. Mud bubbles and pops in the quiet, sparkling with the movements of tiny creatures enlivened by the drying air.

Our guest is Laura Littleton from TE2100 - the Environment Agency department planning to manage tidal flood risk in the Thames Estuary until the year 2100. Laura explains what the future holds for some of London's major flood defences and the work TE2100 are doing to empower communities and stakeholders from across the Thames.

Podcast 7, 22nd May 2020* - SUT Chair of Education Committee Susan John interviewing Mark Beattie-Edwards, CEO of the Nautical Archaeology Society, about the discovery, excavation to date, & future plans for the wreck of the 'London' - a rare English civil-war-era warship, that was lost in a massive explosion in the Thames Estuary off Southend in 1665. London has been described at Southend's very own 'Mary Rose', and Mark discusses the possibilities of how she could be raised as a future education and archaeology project - but that time is short, as the wreck lies just off a major shipping lane and is in danger of destruction by erosion. This is an extra episode timed for the UK late May bank holiday weekend. See also https://thelondonshipwrecktrust.co.uk/save-the-london/ & the following Twitter Feeds - @SaveTheLondon @StevenEllis3 (Steve's the main diver working the wreck) and @NautArchSoc Find out more about SUT at www.sut.org, & contact steve.hall@sut.org if you'd like to be interviewed for a future podcast. Thanks to Emily Boddy for creating the podcast artwork and composing the theme music. Please don't forget to follow, subscribe, rate and review our podcast - Thanks! *audio file replaced 0850hrs 22/5/20 after error found in version 1 - please reload if you've got a version with a gap in sound after the theme music Support the show (https://www.justgiving.com/soc-underwatertech)

2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and will see the building of the first major addition to the system he created to prevent sewage entering the Thames. The Thames Tideway Tunnel is now finally making its way 16 miles beneath the course of the river from Acton to the Thames Estuary, to intercept storm water which would otherwise enter the Thames. The illustrated lecture will examine Bazalgette's achievement and the work involved in building this latest addition to it.A lecture by Dr Stephen Halliday, Writer and Historian 9 October 2019The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bazalgetteGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Caroline Crampton is a writer and editor who contributes regularly to the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday and the New Humanist. She has appeared as a broadcaster on Newsnight, Sky News and BBC Radio 4. Her first book is The Way to The Sea: The Forgotten Histories of The Thames Estuary. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Richard and Aasmah are joined by Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE, who began pursuing a pop career but drama took over with TV and theatre roles. As a writer, his first play won an award and his second transferred to the West End, he’s curated a World Festival of Black Arts and had an artistic directorship in Baltimore. Now he has been appointed Artistic Director of the Young Vic theatre in London. Caroline Crampton grew up sailing with her family at every opportunity, but it's only since a recent trip to sail down the Thames Estuary with her family that she got to really love it. Candice Brathwaite is a parenting blogger, Influencer and founder of Make Motherhood Diverse – an online initiative that aims to encourage a more accurately representative and diverse depiction of motherhood in the media. Edd China, mechanic on TV's Wheeler Dealers and the creator of numerous obscure vehicles including a road legal sofa. He has set Guinness World Records for the fastest furniture, shed, bathroom and bed, largest motorised shopping trolley and fastest electric amphibious vehicle and electric ice cream van. And as well as your thank yous, we have the Inheritance Tracks of Francis Rossi of Status Quo. He chooses the Everley Brothers’ Cathy’s Clown, and In the Army now by Bolland and Bolland. Producer: Corinna Jones Editor: Beverley Purcell

If you're a keen podcast listener, you might recognise Caroline's name from the Hot Pod newsletter, or, since yesterday, from The Browser's daily inbox offering. Sign up for The Listener here: https://thelistener.email/ Podcasts and newsletters have a lot in common: each one develops its own voice and character, and gets delivered into its audience's private spaces: ears and email inbox. Caroline and I discuss how both are a good substitute for having your own column. Caroline's got a book coming out in June, The Way to the Sea, and its topics include the Thames Estuary, which leads out of London to her childhood home in Kent, and is where her parents first pitched up in England over 30 years ago, after sailing over from apartheid-era South Africa. What do immigrants become after spending over half their lives in the new country, and brining up children who are more of the new land than the old? Maybe we need a new word? Caroline is also a podcaster, with the British Podcast Awards-nominated Shedunnit, which take a deep dive into the real stories behind classic crime fiction. It's up for a prize in the Smartest Podcast category, so one to try if you like crime fiction and also feeling S-M-R-T. Wait. Was that a Simpsons joke? -- How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work. Newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/freelancepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/ YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD  

As I write, it’s local elections day here in England. There are elections in large chunks of the country, but to my shame I’ve only really been paying attention to two: the London borough ones (where there’s a lot of tension around how they might go for the various parties), and the Sheffield City Region mayoral one (where there’s no tension whatsoever because we’ve basically known that Labour’s Dan Jarvis was a lock for months now).Anyway. I talk about those, briefly – but because we won’t have any results until some silly time this evening, our main feature this week is something else entirely.Caroline Crampton was for many years in charge of the internet here at the New Statesman, and is one of the hosts of our pop culture podcast Srsly. Last year, she took on a new role as head of podcasts, and moved to Merseyside to write a book about the Thames Estuary.So, all things considered, I thought it was about time I invited her onto Skylines to talk about it. She tells me how her parents’ journey from South Africa and her childhood in Kent inspired an interest in the estuary; how and why its human, natural and economic geography all differ so radically from the proper Thames, up-river; and why the towns of the estuary keep showing such an enduring enthusiasm for right-wing populist racists.She also tells a frankly horrific story about 600 Victorians who drowned in sewage. It’s a fascinating conversation.Next week, in all likelihood, will be the local election post mortem episode. See you on the other side.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A woman who's widely referred to as the “original Dreamer” weighs in on the current moment in immigration. A young man shares a tale of rising above poverty, homelessness, and undocumented status. Plus, does Boston deserve its racist reputation, and what's being done to move beyond it? We discuss takeaways from the Boston Globe's series on racism with columnist Adrian Walker. We get a critical look at offshore wind from across the pond, and rethink a potato-focused school break. Tereza Lee, center, protests in New York City on Wednesday. Lee – whose parents brought her to the U.S. as a child without documents – reached out to Sen. Richard Durbin about her family’s status as a teenager. Durbin would go on to introduce the DREAM Act in Congress.  (Courtesy Tereza Lee) They Had a Dream This week, the fate of young immigrants across New England has been at the center of a Washington political debate over DACA — or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. And, they've been a chip in a bigger political fight over keeping the government open. At stake is whether these so-called “Dreamers” – who were brought to the country illegally by their parents years ago – will be allowed to stay, or be forced to return to countries many of them don’t consider home. The movement behind the DREAM Act began nearly 20 years ago when an undocumented teenager in Chicago wrote to her senator. WBUR’s Shannon Dooling sat down with Tereza Lee, the woman  known as the original “Dreamer.” Saul Grullon, a native of the Dominican Republic, was abused by his parents because of his sexuality. (Beth Reynolds|Joyce Showyra/ NEPR) While Tereza Lee grew up with the fear of being separated from her family, Dominican-born Saul Grullon sought refuge from his family in the immigration system. Grullon come out to his family as gay when he was a teenager living in New Jersey, and he encountered such hostility that it felt dangerous to stay at home. Grullon was undocumented, but he was able to apply for a temporary visa through VAWA — the Violence Against Women Act. He told his moving story for New England Public Radio's “Words in Transit” project. Is Boston Racist? About a year ago, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh took a staunchly pro-immigrant stand in the face of President Trump's executive order pledging to strip funding from so-called “sanctuary cities.” Walsh said that people fearing deportation could live at city hall, if they wanted. Other cities in the greater Boston metropolitan area also promised to do what they could to protect immigrants. But there's another group whose members don't always feel welcome in Boston: African Americans. Saturday Night Live cast member Michael Che brought up this sentiment before last year's Superbowl — when the Patriots played against the Atlanta Falcons. Sport and race have long been a sore spot in the city, but the history goes much deeper. Protests and riots around court-ordered school desegregation in the 1970s were a particularly ugly time for African Americans in Boston — one that's left lasting scars. “I remember riding the buses to protect the kids going up to South Boston High School. And the bricks through the window. Signs hanging out those buildings, ‘Nigger Go Home.’ Pictures of monkeys. The words. The spit. People just felt it was all right to attack children.” – bus safety monitor Jean McGuire, a speaking with WBUR in 2014. Bill Russell experienced discrimination as the only black member of the Boston Celtics during the 1956-1957 season, his rookie year. The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team is known for investigations into issues like political corruption and sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Last fall the investigative unit took on what they call their most difficult question yet: Does Boston deserve its reputation as a racist city –and a place that's unfriendly to blacks in particular? Their reporting series “Boston. Racism. Image. Reality” was published in print and online in December. Our guest Adrian Walker is a columnist for the Metro section of the Boston Globe. Walker is part of the team behind the Spotlight series, where he wrote about professional sports and fan culture. Winds of Change Fisherman Steve Barratt is aboard his boat Razorbill in the Ramsgate harbor in southeast England. Barratt says he’s lost valuable fishing ground to a wind farm in the Thames Estuary. (Chris Bentley/WBUR) We've reported on plans to build wind farms in the waters off Massachusetts’ South Shore and in the Atlantic south of Long Island, and the opposition by some fishermen to those plans. But right now, aside from a small array of turbines off the coast of Rhode Island, the worries are theoretical. To get a sense of how big wind farms might affect fishing in New England’s future, WBUR reporter Chris Bentley visited fishermen working near giant wind farms in the United Kingdom. If jobs in the new energy economy are seen as part of a growth industry, many in traditional farming communities have seen their way of life shrinking. Carson (left) and Kyle Flewelling, pictured in 2014, worked 12-hour days on their family farm in Easton during harvest break, spading up about 700 acres of russets for the fry and chip markets. (Jennifer Mitchell/ Maine Public In Maine's northern Aroostook County the acreage for potato farming has shrunk over the last 50 years, and technology has reduced the demand for labor. That's a big deal for high school students there, who have traditionally taken a three-week break from classes each fall to harvest potatoes. With far fewer teenagers now working in the fields, the school board in the town of Presque Isle is looking at a new approach that could end the tradition of the October break, and bring the harvest into the classroom. Maine Public Radio’s Robbie Feinberg reports. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Contributors to this episode: Shannon Dooling, Saul Grullon, John Voci, Tema Silk, Chris Bentley, and Robbie Feinberg Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “Adapt and Prosper” by Akrobatic Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and potato harvest selfies to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They might look like something from a science fiction movie but the Redsand Forts were actually built during World War Two as part of efforts to protect shipping in the Thames Estuary. Designed by a civil engineer called Guy Maunsell, the forts consist of seven individual towers, which stand on the sea bed fourteen kilometres off shore. The towers supported large anti-aircraft guns and were home to hundreds of military personnel. Originally, they were linked by walkways but these have fallen into disrepair. Abandoned in 1958, there is now a project to renovate the Redsand Forts with plans to include a luxury hotel, recording studios and possibly a radio station. Michael John travelled to the forts aboard the X-Pilot, a classic Thames pilot vessel which makes regular trips to the forts and which is available for charter. This fascinating programme offers a glimpse into a largely forgotten chapter of European military history. For more information about the forts, visit: http://maunsellseaforts.com/ To charter the X-Pilot, go to: http://x-pilot.co.uk/index.htm

From Dickens, through wartime defences to Doctor Who - as a new festival looks at the landscape of the Thames Estuary, Matthew Sweet is joined by the author Rachel Lichtenstein and photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews. Jatinder Verma explains why a novel by Abdul Halim Sharar written in 1899 about the cult of the Assassins is relevant to put on stage now. And as the writings of Arne Næss are republished in English what was the influence of this Norwegian ecologist? Producer: Luke MulhallRachel Lichtenstein's book is called Estuary: Out from London to the Sea. She is curator of the Shorelines Literature Festival which is part of Estuary 2016. Points of Departure, curated by Gareth Evans and Sue Jones: an exhibition of new and existing work by 28 contemporary artistswhich includes photographs by Chloe Dewe Mathews. On display in the Grade II listed Tilbury Cruise Terminal Paradise of the Assassins is the opening production at the newly refurbished Tara Arts Theatre in Earlsfield, South London where Jatinder Verma is Artistic Director. It runs from September 15th to October 8th. The Ecology of Wisdom by Arne Næss is out now.

Day: Raids on London and the Solent areaNight: Continued attacks on LondonWeather: The Channel, Straits and Thames Estuary cloudy otherwise generally fair to fineThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainRead our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.uk>read by Kit Dunster

Day: Reduced activity, attacks mainly over Thames Estuary and East LondonNight: Raids on London and MerseysideWeather: ShoweryThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainRead our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.uk>read by Kit Dunster

Day: Unsuccessful attacks on London, Thames Estuary and aircraft factoriesNight: Main target is London, including the City and West EndWeather: Scattered showers, thundery in the east. Channel fairThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainRead our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.uk>read by Kit Dunster

Day: Fighter Command suffers its heaviest losses. Airfields in the south and south-east raidedNight: Liverpool once again the main target with lesser attacks covering the north-east coast to PlymouthWeather: Mainly fair with haze over the Thames Estuary and Dover StraitsThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainRead our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.uk>read by Kit Dunster

Day: Heavy raid on Portsmouth. Convoy in Thames Estuary, radar stations and coastal airfields attackedNight: Widespread harassing raidsWeather: Fine with some mist patchesThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainAnd read our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.ukread by Kit Dunster

Day: Heavy attack on Portland, feints by fighter over Dover. Convoy attacks in Thames Estuary and off East AngliaNight activity: Harassing attacks on Merseyside. MinelayingWeather: Fair in morning, cloudy for most of the dayThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainAnd read our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.ukread by Kit Dunster

Day: Convoy reconnaissances. Convoy off Cromer attackedNight: Widespread raids from Thames Estuary to Aberdeen and from Poole, Dorset, to Land's End and LiverpoolWeather: Mainly fair with cloud and thunderstorms in eastern districts. South-eastern districts cloudy. Winds variableThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainAnd read our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.ukread by Kit Dunster

Day: East and south coast shipping attackedNight: Targets in South Wales and Midlands were attacked. Minelaying in the Thames Estuary and the north-east coastWeather: Fair in most districts with Straits and Channel overcast. Low cloud dispersing during the day. WarmerThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainAnd read our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.ukread by Kit Dunster

Day: Convoy off Dover raidedNight: Activity on a reduced scale over landWeather: Fair all over Britain. Thames Estuary and Dover hazyThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainAnd read our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.ukread by Kit Dunster

Day: Shipping attacked off Dover and south coast portsNight: Minelaying from Thames Estuary to Humber. Scattered raiders over England and WalesWeather: Fine early. Fair for the rest of the day, clouding over in the eveningThis post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's actionFollow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainAnd read our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.ukread by Kit Dunster

Day: Shipping off the south coast attackedNight: Minelaying in Thames Estuary and off the Norfolk coast. Bristol areaWeather: Fair Straits, cloudy in Channel. Slight rain in the Midlands and the North Sea This post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's actionFollow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainAnd read our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.ukread by Kit Dunster

The Boulton-Paul Defiant was the newest fighter in the RAF and was used in front-line day time duties in Fighter Command.On the 19th of July 141 Squadron of Defiants (nine aircraft) were sent up to intercept Bf110s that were reportedly dive bombing shipping off Dover. Whilst they were still climbing, a group of Bf109s were sweeping high above the English Channel with perfect visibility. Undetected by the climbing Defiants, the Bf109s were able to position themselves to attack from the sun. The brief but brutal combat resulted in the loss of six out of the nine Defiants and signalling the end of the RAF using them as daytime frontline fighters.19 July 1940Day: Dover raided. Defiant squadron largely destroyed.Night: Some activity between Isle of Wight and Plymouth, Thames Estuary and Harwich.Weather: Showery with bright intervals in most cases. Channel winds light - fair.This post details aircraft crashes, pilots, places, engagements, news and facts from the day's action.Follow us on Twitter @BofB1940 for real time tweets from the Battle of BritainAnd read our blog for more in depth analysis, revelations, descriptions and comment: http://bofb1940.blogspot.co.ukread by Kit Dunster

Libby Purves meets director Polly Findlay; writer Huan Hsu; comedian and performer Deborah Frances-White and Jane Dolby, founder of the Fishwives Choir. Huan Hsu is a journalist and academic. In his book, The Porcelain Thief, he tells the story of his great-great-grandfather Liu, a scholar in the late 19th century who lived in the village of Xingang in China. In 1938, as the Japanese army approached, he buried his collection of prized porcelain in a vault in the ground before fleeing with his family. Huan's family eventually settled in the US and the treasure remained buried. It wasn't until eighty years later that he decided to go to China to look for it. The Porcelain Thief is published by Fourth Estate. Polly Findlay is an award-winning director whose production of The Merchant of Venice stars Makram Khoury as Shylock. A former child actor, Polly started out as an assistant director at the National Theatre and her recent productions include Arden of Faversham and Treasure Island. The Merchant of Venice is at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. Deborah Frances-White is a comedian and writer. Her four-part BBC Radio series, Deborah Frances-White Rolls The Dice, is the story of how she tracked down her biological mother. Adopted at ten days old and brought up in Australia, Deborah began the search for her family after moving to the UK to study. As a performer she has toured the country with solo stand-up shows and performed in London's West End and at the Edinburgh Festival. Deborah Frances-White Rolls The Dice is broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Jane Dolby was a single mother when she fell in love and married the fisherman who lived next door. They had two children together before Colin was lost at sea during a freak storm in 2008 while out fishing in the Thames Estuary. Without a proof of death Jane struggled financially and was supported by the Fishermen's Mission charity. To thank the charity Jane founded the Fishwives Choir which is currently touring the UK. Song of the Sea by Jane Dolby is published by Orion Books.

TB in the New World Brand new work in comparative genetics is shedding light on the spread of TB. Scientists have shown that the initial spread of the deadly bacterial disease tuberculosis to the Americas didn't come with the European explorers and invaders. Skeletons of pre-Columbian Peruvians have shown signs of TB. So where did it come from? DNA samples collected from the ancient bacteria show they're closely related to the TB strain that infects seals and sea lions. So did the disease pass from humans in Africa to seals on the coast which then crossed the ocean and infected the Peruvians, 1000 years ago? Truth, Trust and the internet A recent YouGov poll revealed that the British public trusts the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia more than it trusts the BBC. The internet has revolutionised how we receive information and check references. But how much should we trust online facts? Adam talks to Carl Miller, from the Centre for Analysis of Social Media at think-tank Demos, about how Wikipedia entries are created and regulated. And he asks him whether the democratisation of facts - created by crowd-sourced opinion rather than individual experts - is something we should welcome? Shipwreck of the London The London was a 64-gun second-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched in June 1656 and commanded by Captain John Lawson. The ship was accidentally blown up in 1665 and sank in the Thames Estuary. The wreck was rediscovered in 2008, and is considered important partly for its historical references and partly for its insight into an important period in British naval history. English Heritage and Cotswold Archaeology are examining the remains in the murky Thames estuary before they decide what to do next. Although the wreck could be at risk from increasingly acidified water and invasive shipworm, it's thought unlikely that they will raise the ship, due to a lack of museum space. Lego Academics Campaigns for better female scientist role-models are not new. But what is new and welcome is when industry and society listens. Plastic toy brick manufacturer, Lego, has recently come up with a new set called the 'Research Institute' and it consists of lab kit and three female scientists - a palaeontologist, an astronomer and a chemist. Real life scientist and archaeologist Donna Yates, from the University of Glasgow, has gained thousands of Twitter followers after posting photographs reflecting the daily frustrations of academic life using the Lego figures. She arranges them in academic scenarios and posts her pics to the @LegoAcademics account. It's fun and full of in-jokes, but it gives great insight into some of the real issues scientists, and in particular, female scientists face. A Lego version of Adam Rutherford conducts the interview. Producer: Fiona Roberts.

Saving Species presented by Brett Westwood this week poses the question; with increasing pressures to develop our land for housing, transport and industry, is there still room for Britain's wildlife to flourish? Recently the Government set out proposals to extend development rights into the Green Belt as an aid to economic growth. Brett Westwood discovers the importance of brown-field sites on a visit to Canvey Wick in the Thames Estuary accompanied by Sarah Henshall, Brownfield Manager from the charity, Buglife. And we hear from Dr Chris Baines who discusses whether the plans to build a London to Birmingham high speed rail link could actually benefit wildlife in the longer term. Producer : Mary Colwell Presenter : Brett Westwood Editor : Julian Hector

Proposals to build an airport on the north Kent marshes are in the news once again. In this episode of Nature's Voice the RSPB's Rolf Williams, who is based at RSPB Northward Hill, talks to local people about what a new transport hub on the Thames Estuary would mean for them. The marshes are a wetland habitat that is recognised as being of international importance for wildlife and we hear the RSPB conservation director Martin Harper's response in the light of previous threats to the area. There are also details about how you can make your voice heard about the plans.

This programme examines plans for a TV station on by Roy Bates on one of the disused wartime forts in the Thames Estuary. We talk with offshore radio specialist Hans Knot (still going strong in 2012 - check out the website). You might want to skip the frequency changes at the start of the show...those were the days when Radio Netherlands had a major presence on shortwave. The programme also talks to media researcher , now teaching in Bulgaria. He'd been commissioned to look into the future of shortwave radios up to 2000 and beyond. Actually, they seem to have got quite a lot of it right. 

When a raging storm coincides with high seas it unleashes a colossal tidal surge, which travels mercilessly down England's East Coast and into the Thames Estuary. It is not a question of if, but when London floods. DirectorTony Mitchell WritersJustin Bodle Matthew Cope Richard Doyle(novel) StarsRobert Carlyle Jessalyn Gilsig Tom Courtenay --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gruesome-hertzogg/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gruesome-hertzogg/support

From the atolls of the Pacific to the Thames Estuary, shipwrecks of World War Two litter the oceans. After seventy years rust is starting to take its toll, breaching steel hulls and sending cargoes of munitions, chemicals and oil into the environment. For decades governments have turned a blind eye to the risk, anxious to avoid responsibility for ships sunk in foreign waters. However, as the number of pollution incidents rises it's becoming vital for expertise in underwater salvage to be pooled in a worldwide effort to identify and remediate the most dangerous wrecks. Tom Heap investigates the latest salvage techniques and asks if the cancellation of funding for coastguard rescue tugs could add to the risk of future wrecks in British waters.

The results of a two year project to calculate what climate change is doing to the Thames Estuary.

Transcript -- The results of a two year project to calculate what climate change is doing to the Thames Estuary.

The results of a two year project to calculate what climate change is doing to the Thames Estuary.

Transcript -- The results of a two year project to calculate what climate change is doing to the Thames Estuary.

This podcast highlights two papers presented at a conference entitled An End to History? Climate Change, the Past and the Future that that was held at the Birmingham and Midland Institute in Birmingham on 3 April 2008. The papers presented addressed the issue what we can or can not learn from the experiences of past societies which have coped with climate or environmental change. In this episode Gill Chitty, Head of Conservation of The Council for British Archaeology, explores the important contributions that archaeology can make to the national debate about climate change. Jim Galloway of the Centre for Metropolitan History, Institute of Historical Research in London, reviews the evidence of the impact of storm surges on the lands bordering the Thames Estuary during the fourteenth century. Website mentioned in this podcast: Rescue!History: rescue-history-from-climate-change.org/