A Life More Wild

Lucy Campbell has eight national surfing titles to her name and years of competing on the international circuit. Not bad for someone who once thought running might be her future. She swapped a promising running career for professional surfing, hoping for fewer injuries and a slightly more laid-back lifestyle. Instead, she discovered a fiercely competitive world whose demands eventually took a huge toll on her mental health. Now, having stepped away from the international competition circuit, Lucy is finding a different way to be part of the sport she loves. One that allows her to inspire the next generation of surfers, while rediscovering the simple pleasure of getting out into the sea, without the pressure of having to win. A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.

Charlie Cooper shot to fame when he and his sister Daisy wrote and starred in the hit TV series This Country. While some might see the show as poking fun at rural life in the south west, Charlie’s affection for the countryside in which he grew up, and still lives, is clear. Now an obsessive metal detectorist, having taken up the hobby a few years ago, he loves nothing more than walking the fields and unearthing the history beneath his feet. On a day of mixed weather, we went detecting with him in Gloucestershire, as he talked about collecting junk, discovering treasure and how the character Big Mandy nearly got him in serious trouble. He also turned up something pretty special! A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.

This year, as well as walks with interesting guests, we’re doing something a little different on A Life More Wild. Working with our charity partner Campaign for National Parks, we’re creating bonus episodes with seasonal soundscapes from some of the UK’s most precious green spaces.   In this episode, we’re listening to the breeze in the grass and the trout in the streams of the South Downs National Park, in the company of Dr Rose O’Neill, an environmental scientist and CNP’s Cheif Executive.

We walk among the headstones of a cemetery with journalist and author of Matrescence, Lucy Jones, as she talks about the struggle to reconcile the societal ideal of a mother with her own experience, how her search for insight led to her book Matrescence and what she learnt by observing slime moulds and lichen. Lucy always knew that having kids would be a big shift, but when she did, she was shocked to find that not only had her life changed, something fundamental to her identity had changed as well. Her own experience was so at odds with society’s ideal picture of motherhood that she became fascinated by the science and sociology of what becoming a mother entailed. On a walk through her local cemetery, she examines what she learnt about parenting, how we could shape a world around care and what slime moulds have to teach us. A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.

Emily Chappell went from being a bike messenger in London to winning the Transcontinental, a 4000km race across Europe, in 2016. But cycling is far more than a physical test for her. Her relationship with the sport has changed many times over the years and it has become a community, a way to travel, a way to live and a cause to further. On a ride from her home in Kendall, to which she’s recently moved, she talks about relearning her love of riding for its own sake, and how an early love of the Tour de France came full circle in a wonderful moment on the streets of Paris.  A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.

Joycelyn Longdon wears many hats. She works on conservation with communities in Ghana, she speaks and writes about environmental action and she also specialises in something called bioacoustics. It keeps her pretty busy, so we caught up with her to take a break from her desk and a stroll into one of her favourite places - Paradise Nature Reserve in Cambridge. On the way, she explains how all her worlds come together and how important it is that cultural interaction creates a new way to imagine our future.

This year, as well as walks with interesting guests, we’re doing something a little different on A Life More Wild. Working with our charity partner Campaign for National Parks, we’re creating bonus episodes with seasonal soundscapes from some of the UK’s most precious green spaces.   We start with The Sounds of Spring in Eryri National Park. You’ll follow Rhys, a shepherd from Dolgellau, as he takes his flock out into the wind and rain of a fairly typical spring day in Wales.

Barney Murray was in his late teens, studying art and hating it. He took a casual labouring job with a couple of guys who ran a drystone walling company. He never looked back. Nine years later and now a certified Master Craftsman, he loves working out in the fields, even when the weather is at its most challenging. Join him as he works to patch a gap in the wall of a sheep field, a more technical process than you might think. As he builds “skins”, packs the centre and lays coping stones, he talks about finding himself already a veteran builder as a young wave of wallers emerges, brutal weather, wildlife habitats, and how he can read the walls like handwriting. A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.

At the age of 20, Jordan Stephens achieved his dream - when Rizzle Kicks’ album Stereo Typical went platinum. He’d always loved music and had seen it as a way he could transform the lives of himself and his mother. With the album’s success, he should have had it all but it’s never that simple. On a walk along the shores of the Isle of Sheppey, he talks about the problems with selling young people dreams of fame and wealth, making mistakes, walking dogs, his mixed feelings about the city and starting it all with raps that dissed his teachers. A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.

Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival has always been the centre of Tim Key’s professional life. For over 20 years, he’s been bringing shows to the city, honing his craft in the intensity of month-long runs. Every time he visits, he climbs Arthur’s Seat, so while he was in town for some Christmas gigs, we joined him on the ascent. He talks about the city’s place in his heart, the unfortunate year of 2002, being ignored in favour of Mark Watson and not getting any clarity on why he spent almost all his screen time in Bong Joon Ho’s film Mickey 17 dressed as a pigeon. A Life More Wild is an 18Sixty production, brought to you by Canopy & Stars. Production by Clarissa Maycock. Our theme music is by Billie Marten.