Summary
From Pakistan to Bulgaria to swimming the waterways of Britain: Rana Mitter is joined by a panel of writers to look at our relationship with particular landscapes and the natural world. Kapka Kassabova’s latest book Elixir: In the Valley at the End of Time details her stay in a remote valley by the River Mesa in Bulgaria and the knowledge of herbalism she finds there. Patrick Barham's latest book is about Roger Deakin, the environmentalist who co-founded Common Ground and was passionate about wild swimming. New Generation Thinker Noreen Masud from the University of Bristol has written a memoir called A Flat Place which details the impact of displacement from her Pakistani roots and her pilgrimage to the low lying landscapes of Orkney, Morecambe Bay and Orford Ness. The programme is part of Radio 3's broadcasts from the 2023 Hay Festival and was recorded in front of an audience there earlier this week.
You can find a collection of discussions about Green Thinking all available to download or on BBC Sounds on the Free Thinking programme website of BBC Radio 3. Radio 3 is also broadcasting a series of lunchtime concerts from this year's Hay Festival and you can find past Hay festival discussions about Prose, Poetry and Drama in a collection on the Free Thinking programme website
Producer: Luke Mulhall.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | I'm Rana Mitter, and from the Hay Festival, |
| 0:07.6 | I advise you to get out your warmest swimsuit and plunge into the water, |
| 0:12.1 | because wild swimming, along with gathering rare herbs, |
| 0:15.8 | and the unexpected joy of flat places, are all up for grabs today. |
| 0:20.3 | We'll dive in after this word. |
| 0:26.3 | Hello, I'm Neo and I have a new series Your Love called The Music and Meditation Podcast. |
| 0:41.3 | Each episode will escape the noise of daily life through an inspirational chat with our special guests about how meditation can help us experience a |
| 0:47.2 | beautiful guided meditation together and enjoy some calming music to relax us each meditation is soundtracked by a beautiful piece of music |
| 0:57.1 | that has been written especially for this podcast. |
| 1:05.2 | So if you're new to meditation or just curious like me, |
| 1:09.6 | tune into my series, The Music and Meditation podcast on BBC Sounds. |
| 1:31.2 | Hello, here in Hay, they were brave souls and chilled torsos in the River Wye last night, |
| 1:35.6 | as festivalgoers cooled off from the excitement of meeting their Booker Prize idols by diving in for a bit of wild swimming. |
| 1:38.7 | I've always thought that plunging yourself into the icy waters was a step too far |
| 1:43.1 | when it came to being at one with nature. |
| 1:45.5 | But today I'm talking with three people who might disagree, as they've all combined a fascination |
| 1:50.4 | with nature with a chance to re-examine their own lives as nature and memoir come together. |
| 1:57.2 | Naurin Massoud is a Radio 3, AHRC, New Generation Thinker. |
| 2:01.6 | And her new book is called A Flat Place, examining her lives in Pakistan and in the UK. |
| 2:07.9 | Kapka Kasabova won the British Academy Prize in Global Cultural Understanding for her book, Border. |
| 2:13.1 | Her new book is Elyxia in the Valley at the End of Time, in which she returns to her birth |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.