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Arts & Ideas

Going Underground

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2598 Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As Nottingham’s network of 800 man-made caves inspire an exhibition called ‘Hollow Earth’ at the city’s contemporary art gallery, Shahidha Bari and guests explore the underground world. Archaeologist Chris King discusses discoveries under Nottingham's streets, literary historian Charlotte May suggests stories to read, curator Sam Thorne picks out images, and award-winning cave explorer Andy Eavis, tells us about his career discovering more territory on earth than anyone else alive - all of it underground.

Producer: Ruth Thomson

Hollow Earth: Art, Caves & The Subterranean Imaginary runs at Nottingham Contemporary until January 22nd 2023. Organised in collaboration with Hayward Gallery Touring, the exhibition features works by René Magritte, Santu Mofokeng, Kaari Upson, Jeff Wall and Aubrey Williams, as well as new commissions from Sofia Borges, Emma McCormick-Goodhart, Goshka Macuga, Lydia Ourahmane and Liv Preston. In 2023, the exhibition will tour to The Glucksman in Cork and to RAMM in Exeter.

The Being Human Festival which showcases academic research has several events in Nottingham exploring the city's caves and underground history throughout November 2022. You can find another Free Thinking episode exploring Breakthroughs in electricity research showcased at this year's Festival https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dhyp89

The Green Thinking collection on the Free Thinking programme website features a host of discussions about the environment and our landscapes https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2 You can find a discussion about holes in the ground featuring Prof Paul Younger from Glasgow University, Geoscientist magazine editor Ted Nield and writer Rosalind Williams in the Free Thinking archives https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vs6g0 And poet Sean Borodale, archaeologists Francis Pryor, Paul Pettitt and Ruth Whitehouse join Sharon Robinson Calver in an episode called What Lies Beneath; Neanderthal Cave Art to Fatbergs

Transcript

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You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.

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It's such a wonderful listen.

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So nice.

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There are loads more like it on BBC sounds.

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Different paces, different heights.

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The roof is buckling.

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Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.

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It's right foot goes for goal.

0:16.7

And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.

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The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.

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And she's had to live with that.

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So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.

0:29.7

Listen on BBC Sounds.

0:31.7

Sort of expecting that every week now.

0:35.8

BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.

0:39.3

Hello, they were the earliest studios, the first museums and portals into the ancient past.

0:45.6

But they can also be seed vaults, doomsday bunkers and a repository for the future.

0:50.8

In today's Arts and Ideas podcast, we're talking about caves, what they mean and how to

0:56.2

survive in one, from the city of Nottingham to the island of Borneo. Join me, Shah-Hadabari,

1:02.2

just after this. Press rewind on a century of the BBC with Radio 3's Soundscape of a Century.

1:10.3

An epic, eight-hour soundscape

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