Podcasts about worlds beneath our feet

Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our FeetA panoramic investigation of the subterranean landscape, from sacred caves and derelict subway stations to nuclear bunkers and ancient underground cities—an exploration of the history, science, architecture, and mythology of the worlds beneath our feetWhen Will Hunt was sixteen years old, he discovered an abandoned tunnel that ran beneath his house in Providence, Rhode Island. His first tunnel trips inspired a lifelong fascination with exploring underground worlds, from the derelict subway stations and sewers of New York City to the sacred caves, catacombs, and tombs, from bunkers to ancient underground cities in more than twenty countries around the world. Underground is both a personal exploration of Hunt's obsession and a panoramic study of how we are all connected to the underground, how caves and other dark hollows have frightened and enchanted, repelled and captivated, us through the ages.In a narrative spanning continents and epochs, Hunt follows a cast of subterranea-philes who have dedicated themselves to investigating underground worlds. He tracks the origins of life with a team of NASA microbiologists a mile beneath the Black Hills, camps out for three days with urban explorers in the catacombs and sewers of Paris, descends with an Aboriginal family into a 35,000-year-old sacred mine in the Australian outback, follows a ghostlike graffiti artist writing stories in the subway tunnels of New York, and glimpses a sacred sculpture molded by Paleolithic artists in the depths of a cave in the Pyrenees.Each adventure is woven with findings in mythology and anthropology, natural history and neuroscience, literature and philosophy. In elegant and graceful prose, Hunt cures us of our “surface chauvinism,” opening our eyes to the planet's hidden dimension. He reveals how the subterranean landscape gave shape to our most basic beliefs, including how we think about ourselves as humans. At bottom, Underground is a meditation on the allure of darkness, the power of mystery, and our eternal desire to connect with what we cannot see.Advance praise for Underground“An unusual and intriguing travel book . . . As [Will] Hunt reveals the scientific, historic, literary, psychological, spiritual, and metaphorical qualities of his exploration, it begins to seem less idiosyncratic than universal, a pull that has persisted throughout civilization and a mystery that has yet to be solved. The underground may represent hell to some, but it has also provided spiritual solace for centuries. . . . A vivid illumination of the dark and an effective evocation of its profound mystery.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/1198501/advertisement

Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet A panoramic investigation of the subterranean landscape, from sacred caves and derelict subway stations to nuclear bunkers and ancient underground cities—an exploration of the history, science, architecture, and mythology of the worlds beneath our feet When Will Hunt was sixteen years old, he discovered an abandoned tunnel that ran beneath his house in Providence, Rhode Island. His first tunnel trips inspired a lifelong fascination with exploring underground worlds, from the derelict subway stations and sewers of New York City to the sacred caves, catacombs, and tombs, from bunkers to ancient underground cities in more than twenty countries around the world. Underground is both a personal exploration of Hunt's obsession and a panoramic study of how we are all connected to the underground, how caves and other dark hollows have frightened and enchanted, repelled and captivated, us through the ages. In a narrative spanning continents and epochs, Hunt follows a cast of subterranea-philes who have dedicated themselves to investigating underground worlds. He tracks the origins of life with a team of NASA microbiologists a mile beneath the Black Hills, camps out for three days with urban explorers in the catacombs and sewers of Paris, descends with an Aboriginal family into a 35,000-year-old sacred mine in the Australian outback, follows a ghostlike graffiti artist writing stories in the subway tunnels of New York, and glimpses a sacred sculpture molded by Paleolithic artists in the depths of a cave in the Pyrenees. Each adventure is woven with findings in mythology and anthropology, natural history and neuroscience, literature and philosophy. In elegant and graceful prose, Hunt cures us of our “surface chauvinism,” opening our eyes to the planet's hidden dimension. He reveals how the subterranean landscape gave shape to our most basic beliefs, including how we think about ourselves as humans. At bottom, Underground is a meditation on the allure of darkness, the power of mystery, and our eternal desire to connect with what we cannot see. Advance praise for Underground “An unusual and intriguing travel book . . . As [Will] Hunt reveals the scientific, historic, literary, psychological, spiritual, and metaphorical qualities of his exploration, it begins to seem less idiosyncratic than universal, a pull that has persisted throughout civilization and a mystery that has yet to be solved. The underground may represent hell to some, but it has also provided spiritual solace for centuries. . . . A vivid illumination of the dark and an effective evocation of its profound mystery.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our FeetA panoramic investigation of the subterranean landscape, from sacred caves and derelict subway stations to nuclear bunkers and ancient underground cities—an exploration of the history, science, architecture, and mythology of the worlds beneath our feetWhen Will Hunt was sixteen years old, he discovered an abandoned tunnel that ran beneath his house in Providence, Rhode Island. His first tunnel trips inspired a lifelong fascination with exploring underground worlds, from the derelict subway stations and sewers of New York City to the sacred caves, catacombs, and tombs, from bunkers to ancient underground cities in more than twenty countries around the world. Underground is both a personal exploration of Hunt's obsession and a panoramic study of how we are all connected to the underground, how caves and other dark hollows have frightened and enchanted, repelled and captivated, us through the ages.In a narrative spanning continents and epochs, Hunt follows a cast of subterranea-philes who have dedicated themselves to investigating underground worlds. He tracks the origins of life with a team of NASA microbiologists a mile beneath the Black Hills, camps out for three days with urban explorers in the catacombs and sewers of Paris, descends with an Aboriginal family into a 35,000-year-old sacred mine in the Australian outback, follows a ghostlike graffiti artist writing stories in the subway tunnels of New York, and glimpses a sacred sculpture molded by Paleolithic artists in the depths of a cave in the Pyrenees.Each adventure is woven with findings in mythology and anthropology, natural history and neuroscience, literature and philosophy. In elegant and graceful prose, Hunt cures us of our “surface chauvinism,” opening our eyes to the planet's hidden dimension. He reveals how the subterranean landscape gave shape to our most basic beliefs, including how we think about ourselves as humans. At bottom, Underground is a meditation on the allure of darkness, the power of mystery, and our eternal desire to connect with what we cannot see.Advance praise for Underground“An unusual and intriguing travel book . . . As [Will] Hunt reveals the scientific, historic, literary, psychological, spiritual, and metaphorical qualities of his exploration, it begins to seem less idiosyncratic than universal, a pull that has persisted throughout civilization and a mystery that has yet to be solved. The underground may represent hell to some, but it has also provided spiritual solace for centuries. . . . A vivid illumination of the dark and an effective evocation of its profound mystery.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet A panoramic investigation of the subterranean landscape, from sacred caves and derelict subway stations to nuclear bunkers and ancient underground cities—an exploration of the history, science, architecture, and mythology of the worlds beneath our feet When Will Hunt was sixteen years old, he discovered an abandoned tunnel that ran beneath his house in Providence, Rhode Island. His first tunnel trips inspired a lifelong fascination with exploring underground worlds, from the derelict subway stations and sewers of New York City to the sacred caves, catacombs, and tombs, from bunkers to ancient underground cities in more than twenty countries around the world. Underground is both a personal exploration of Hunt's obsession and a panoramic study of how we are all connected to the underground, how caves and other dark hollows have frightened and enchanted, repelled and captivated, us through the ages. In a narrative spanning continents and epochs, Hunt follows a cast of subterranea-philes who have dedicated themselves to investigating underground worlds. He tracks the origins of life with a team of NASA microbiologists a mile beneath the Black Hills, camps out for three days with urban explorers in the catacombs and sewers of Paris, descends with an Aboriginal family into a 35,000-year-old sacred mine in the Australian outback, follows a ghostlike graffiti artist writing stories in the subway tunnels of New York, and glimpses a sacred sculpture molded by Paleolithic artists in the depths of a cave in the Pyrenees. Each adventure is woven with findings in mythology and anthropology, natural history and neuroscience, literature and philosophy. In elegant and graceful prose, Hunt cures us of our “surface chauvinism,” opening our eyes to the planet's hidden dimension. He reveals how the subterranean landscape gave shape to our most basic beliefs, including how we think about ourselves as humans. At bottom, Underground is a meditation on the allure of darkness, the power of mystery, and our eternal desire to connect with what we cannot see. Advance praise for Underground “An unusual and intriguing travel book . . . As [Will] Hunt reveals the scientific, historic, literary, psychological, spiritual, and metaphorical qualities of his exploration, it begins to seem less idiosyncratic than universal, a pull that has persisted throughout civilization and a mystery that has yet to be solved. The underground may represent hell to some, but it has also provided spiritual solace for centuries. . . . A vivid illumination of the dark and an effective evocation of its profound mystery.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Written Summary: https://www.owltail.com/summaries/XyfEt-Robert-Macfarlane-The-Worlds-Beneath-Our-FeetOther podcast summaries if you're on Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/5-min-summariesOr in other apps: search 'podcast summaries'.Original episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-being-with-krista-tippett/id150892556?i=1000524121758

Written Summary: https://www.owltail.com/summaries/XyfEt-Robert-Macfarlane-The-Worlds-Beneath-Our-FeetOther podcast summaries if you're on Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/5-min-summariesOr in other apps: search 'podcast summaries'.Original episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-being-with-krista-tippett/id150892556?i=1000524121758

There’s dark matter in the cosmos, and inside us, and hidden beneath our feet. Robert Macfarlane is an explorer and linguist of landscape and his book, Underland: A Deep Time Journey, is an odyssey that’s full of surprises — from caves and catacombs under land, under cities, and under forests to the meltwater of Greenland. “Since before we were Homo sapiens,” he writes, “humans have been seeking out spaces of darkness in which to find and make meaning.” Darkness in the natural world and in human life, he suggests, is a medium of vision — and descent, a movement toward revelation.Robert Macfarlane — is a Fellow at the University of Cambridge. His books include Mountains of the Mind, The Old Ways, Landmarks, and Underland: A Deep Time Journey. With the artist Jackie Morris, he co-created the book of illustrated poetry, The Lost Words and a follow-up,  The Lost Spells.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.This show originally aired on November 14, 2019. 

Will Hunt, author of "Underground: A History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet," on the joys of subterranean travel

Hidden Gem Alert! Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet by Will Hunt brings all the spooky feels. This book about all the places you are too scared to go will probably leave you even more afraid, but it's so worth the journey. Check out my review, commentary, writing tips and the entertainment pairing for this book! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36701550-underground

The first time I attempted to play Minecraft with my then-seven-year-old son, we immediately dug ourselves into a pit deep in the Earth and could not get out. In spite of the crappy 8-bit graphics, all of our primal, H.P. Lovecraftian terrors of the underground were activated. We were trapped! We were lost! We might die down here! Will Hunt, on the other hand, has been climbing eagerly since childhood into dank and disorienting tunnels, caves, sewers, and other underground spaces, from abandoned New York City subway platforms to ancient Mayan temples of human sacrifice in the caverns of Belize. In his brilliant new book UNDERGROUND: a Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet, he takes us physically and spiritually along on some of these adventures. Part global, subterranean travelogue, part meditation on human curiosity, UNDERGROUND plumbs the philosophical depths of our primal awe of what lies beneath. . . . and it almost makes me want to go play Minecraft, where at least there are no rats. Surprise conversation starters in this episode: Martin Amis on good writing Michael Shermer on living forever Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the weekend, I took a workshop in encaustic painting. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it's basically painting with hot wax and it's a process that's been around for literally thousands of years. The are records of the Greeks using it as far back as the 5th century BC. The process involves heating beeswax with damar resin crystals which forms what's known as “medium.” From there, you add pigment — either oil-based or dry powder — to create whatever color you're after. What first drew me to the idea of encaustic was how much faster it seemed than the acrylic process I currently use in my paintings. Some of my pieces are 15 or even 20 layers deep and when the gels are applied thick to create the impasto type of textures that I use, it can take hours or even days to dry between layers. So, it's not unusual for me to take weeks to finish a piece and, if I'm being honest, there have been several instances where I was either bored with the piece or I basically forgot where I wanted to go with it. So the idea of encaustic has been in the back of my head for a while as a potential solution to speeding up my process and as a way to inspire new work.Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSSBen Bond is a photographer from Ghana whose latest BTS video is a terrific example of using simple gear well to achieve really superb results. For this shoot, Ben used one light firing into a 120cm octa and a Fuji X-T3 with the 18-55 kit lens. The results are just brilliant.Journalist and photographer Will Hunt has written a new book called Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet in which he explores some of the communities that call the sewers, tunnels, and catacombs beneath cities like New York and Paris home. Will was recently a guest on Fresh Air where he talked a bit about the project.If you're looking for creative inspiration, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has added nearly 600 full text books and catalogs to their digital collection that cover art, design and photography, which you view, search, and even download for free.Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

This week, Liberty and Rebecca discuss We Cast a Shadow, Deep Creek, Notes on a Nervous Planet, and more great books. This episode was sponsored by the Read Harder Journal, Flare Up by Shannon Stacey, and Doubleday, publishers of The Plotters by Un-su Kim. Subscribe to All the Books! using RSS or iTunes and never miss a beat book. Sign up for the weekly New Books! newsletter for even more new book news. Books discussed on the show: We Cast a Shadow: A Novel by Maurice Carlos Ruffin Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country by Pam Houston The Falconer: A Novel by Dana Czapnik Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard 99 Percent Mine: A Novel by Sally Thorne Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig Devotions by Mary Oliver What we're reading: Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After by Julie Yip-Williams More books out this week: King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo Spin by Lamar Giles Come Find Me by Megan Miranda The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer The Twenty-Ninth Year by Hala Alyan A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets by Feminista Jones All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf by Katharine Smyth Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet by Will Hunt Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett At the Wolf's Table: A Novel by Rosella Postorino and Leah Janeczko Ransacker (Berserker) by Emmy Laybourne The End of Loneliness: A Novel by Benedict Wells and Charlotte Collins Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow (Scholastic Focus) by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Tonya Bolden I Used to Be a Miserable F*ck: An Everyman’s Guide to a Meaningful Life by John Kim House of Stone: A Novel by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma Meena Meets Her Match by Karla Manternach and Rayner Alencar Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig WeirDo (WeirDo #1) by Anh Do The Bold World: A Memoir of Family and Transformation by Jodie Patterson The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers by Bridgett M. Davis Reckoning of Fallen Gods: A Tale of the Coven by R.A. Salvatore The Plotters: A Novel by Un-su Kim The Cerulean by Amy Ewing The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff Golden Child: A Novel by Claire Adam Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen Shameless: A Sexual Reformation by Nadia Bolz-Weber 41 Reasons I'm Staying In: A Celebration of Introverts by Hallie Heald The Pope: Francis, Benedict, and the Decision That Shook the World by Anthony McCarten Battlepug: The Compugdium by Mike Norton (Author, Artist), Allen Passalaqua (Artist), David Dunstan (Artist) Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib Some Girls Bind (Ya Verse) by Rory James