Adventures in Nutopia

Adventures in Nutopia has been a bit quiet of late so I thought you might appreciate an audio essay on the extraordinary and courageous life of the singer, actor and activist, Paul Robeson. 

The word 'magic' derives from the Old Persian 'magush' – to have power and wisdom. Nowadays the word has multiple meanings including stage illusions, awe and wonder, and the kind of fictional sorcery found in Harry Potter, Buffy and Shakespeare. And then there is magical practise (also known to some as witchcraft).  A somewhat ambitious final episode, in sixty minutes The Magic Hour attempts to cover the history of magical practise in the west – from Ancient Greece to present day – offer advice on how to start a magical practise and demonstrate that magic isn't fanciful nonsense or mere superstition as some might believe but a dance between our imaginations and the material world, and something that lies at the heart of every culture.   With Dave Lee, Eimear Burke, Susan Greenwood, Mark Wagner, Andrew O'Neill and Efa Lois.    Efa Lois  https://www.serenbooks.com/seren-author/efa-lois/ Dave Lee  https://chaotopia.com/ Eimear Burke  https://www.kilkennydruidry.com/ Susan Greenwood https://susangreenwood.org Mark Wagner  @mark_wagner_33   Andrew O'Neill  https://www.andrewoneill.co.uk/

Biomimicry, the science of learning from nature's genius, is helping us in areas as diverse as architecture, pollution, air conditioning, clothing, robotics, fire-resistant materials, flooding and leadership. The internet of animals is a vast, ever-growing network of data provided by mini-transmitters on everything from bees and birds to rodents and bats. It is providing us with a better understand the natural world. Through biomimicry and the internet of animals we'll discover how trees, limpets, pine cones, bats, sharks, spider webs, birds, beavers and termites – to name but a few – are helping us re-shape our world for the better.     With Nicola Peel and Martin Wikelski    Nicola Peel  https://www.nicolapeel.com/ https://www.thewillowslakesideretreat.com/ Martin Wikelski  www.ab.mpg.de/585424/the-internet-of-animals www.nasa.gov/nasa-earth-exchange-nex/new-missions-support/internet-of-animals/

Science has long wrestled with what is known as 'the hard problem' – how did consciousness arise out of matter? But what if we've been approaching the problem wrong, all this time? Thanks to some of the world's leading philosophers, neuroscientists and psychedelic researchers, this consciousness-expanding episode delves into panpsychism, the theory that mind is a fundamental property of the universe. Along the way we'll discuss psychedelic experiences, why we won't be downloading our minds onto a floppy disc any time soon and how panpsychism could even be good for our mental health.    With Anil Seth, Philip Goff, Peter Sjoestedt-Hughes, Mark Vernon and Hedda Hassel Mørch.    https://www.anilseth.com/ https://philipgoffphilosophy.com https://www.philosopher.eu/ https://www.markvernon.com/ https://heddahasselmorch.com/

For the Greeks and other ancient cultures, animals played a key role in the diagnosis and healing of humans. In this episode we'll learn just how much animals are medicine to us, psychologically and physically, and explore the idea that certain things what we think of as being quintessentially human – morality, ethics, game-playing etc – may even have been taught to us by animals. We'll also take a deep dive into the behaviour of animals in our own woodland environments and what they can teach us, and learn that some of our two, four, six and eight-legged friends are capable of undertaking palliative care of dying humans, recognising diseases like cancer and appear to have their own rituals of bereavement and awe.    With Jay Griffiths, David Hadrill and Tristan Gooley    Tristan Gooley  www.naturalnavigator.com Jay Griffiths www.jaygriffiths.com

In this episode we meet those who are putting anarchism into action through community building, including the founders of Doncaster's A Commune in the North and Bristol's Rockaway Park. We'll learn about Three Acres and a Cow, a theatre show which teaches audiences about land rights and we'll go on a special adventure with Chumbawamba's Dunstan Bruce. We begin however, on the outskirts of Sheffield to visit Edward Carpenter's century-old queer, anarchist, socialist, feminist, vegetarian, nudist, sandal-wearing utopian retreat known as Milthorpe and which scandalised the local vicar.    With Robin Gray and Katherine Hallewell from theatre show Three Acres and a Cow, Chumbawamba's Dunstan Bruce, Warren Draper and Cath Muller from A Commune in the North, author Sally Goldsmith and Mark Wilson and Marta Jachimowicz from Rockaway Park.    Sally Goldsmith  https://salgoldsmith.wordpress.com/ Three Acres and a Cow  https://threeacresandacow.co.uk/ Dunstan Bruce on Bandcamp https://allthemadmenrecords.bandcamp.com/album/interrobang Warren and Cath at A Commune in the North  https://www.acommuneinthenorth.org.uk https://bentleyurbanfarm.com/ Rockaway Park  https://www.rockawaypark.co.uk/

'I am an anarchist! I am an antichrist!' sang the Sex Pistols' butter-loving John Lydon in 1976. But, as we'll discover in the first of this two-parter, anarchism has far more to do with allotments, lifeboats, mutual aid, self-organising and  inclusivity than it does with nihilism and destruction. Thanks to our guests we will explode some of the misconceptions around anarchism, learn its key principles, consider whether it needs a rebrand and discover that most of us, at heart, adhere to many of its principles.     With Robin Gray and Katherine Hallewell from the theatre show Three Acres and a Cow, Chumbawamba's Dunstan Bruce, Warren Draper and Cath Muller from A Commune in the North and Anarchism author Carissa Honeywell.     Robin Gray and Katherine Hallewell  threeacresandacow.co.uk Dunstan Bruce  allthemadmenrecords.bandcamp.com/album/interrobang Warren and Cath at A Commune in the North  https://www.acommuneinthenorth.org.uk bentleyurbanfarm.com Carissa Honywell  https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=anarchism--9781509523900

A brief hello and news that work on Series Four is underway.

John Lloyd was producer for TV's Spitting Image, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy and all four series of Blackadder. He is the creator of the News Quiz on Radio 4 and BBC2's iconoclastic comedy series Not the Nine O Clock News. He is the host of Radio 4's Museum of Curiosity and creator of the long-running TV comedy panel show QI. He even once shared a flat with Douglas Adams. John has won numerous awards for his work and has a happy, stable loving relationship and three children. Despite this, he has struggled with depression and in his early forties experienced a long dark night of the soul, out of which he came to some profound revelations. In this extra topping to conclude series three John shares his wisdom and ignorance on life, the universe and everything.  With guest John Lloyd 

The self-styled entertainer philosopher Alan Watts wrote his first book on Zen in 1936 when only nineteen and grew to become a world expert on Eastern philosophy. A prolific author, public speaker and radio presenter he wrote over twenty books, gave hundreds of public lectures and sought out a life in which (in his own words) he could 'swing'.  Watts had a rare genius for expressing with clarity and humour complex and challenging ideas about reality and how we came to relate to the world in the way that we do.  In this episode, AIN's David Bramwell explores Watts' fondness for seeing the universe as essentially playful, and asks the question: had Watts been alive today, what words of wisdom he might have had for our culture wars, our divisive political leaders and how to find compassion and understanding in times of conflict.  https://alanwatts.org/ With special thanks to Mark Watts for kind permission to use the archive footage of the late Alan Watts for this episode.