Treasure hunting on the Thames, with Jo Ellison
Life and Art from FT Weekend
Forhecz Topher
4.6 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we look at two things that connect us to human history. First, How To Spend It editor Jo Ellison takes us mudlarking — sifting through low tide for treasure — to find remnants of ordinary life from hundreds of years ago. Licensed mudlark Lara Maiklem teaches us how. Then we explore the staying power of games: why do we love them? Why have we been playing some for more than 7,000 years? Our gaming critic Tom Faber joins us to discuss.
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If you want to explore the FT, use this link for special discounts for listeners: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast
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Want to say hi? We love hearing from you. Email us at [email protected]. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.
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Links and mentions from the episode:
– This week’s How To Spend It cover story and photoshoot: ‘Tide and seek: the hidden treasures of low tide’ https://www.ft.com/content/44a1a5be-d0de-4a5a-a02b-1386e0b7c84f
–Lara Maiklem’s books are called ‘Mudlarking’ and ‘A Field Guide to Mudlarking’
–Last time Jo went mudlarking was with jeweller Ruth Tomlinson for this November 2021 article: ‘Why I’m throwing my jewellery into the Thames’: https://www.ft.com/content/aacc19ef-d397-4c15-b943-a029a4954ca1
–A great piece Lilah recommends on mudlarking by novelist Daniel Wallace: https://gardenandgun.com/feature/daniel-wallace-explores-the-art-of-mudlarking/
–Tom Faber on the transformative power of games: https://www.ft.com/content/c2f8b5b6-1f30-48cc-a098-71484ded9a00
–Tom also wrote a great piece this week about the Cameo app and celebrity culture: https://on.ft.com/3FIF7kF
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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design is by Breen Turner.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's a whale bone. |
| 0:05.2 | So if you stick your... |
| 0:06.5 | That's soft. |
| 0:09.3 | And very slimy. |
| 0:10.6 | That's much harder. |
| 0:11.7 | Oh my goodness, yeah. |
| 0:12.7 | Can you hear that? |
| 0:13.5 | You're hearing Joe Ellison, editor of the FT's luxury magazine, how to spend it, |
| 0:18.9 | standing on the banks of the River Thames in London, |
| 0:21.6 | with her fingers in a mushy block of wood. |
| 0:25.6 | She's with a guide named Laura Meeklam, an urban explorer who's showing her how to scavenge for treasures. |
| 0:31.6 | So that's a whale's... I don't know if it's... it's rib bone. |
| 0:35.6 | It looks like a red bone, isn't it? |
| 0:38.2 | Wow. |
| 0:39.9 | Hard does anything. |
| 0:40.2 | Yeah. |
| 0:43.2 | Why would there be a whale bone? |
| 0:44.3 | What's looking out of the ground? |
| 0:47.4 | Joe and Lara are mud larking. |
| 0:49.3 | Laura's written two books about it. |
| 0:51.6 | It's an increasingly popular hobby in London, |
| 0:54.9 | and it involves looking for fragments of history in the mud. Just around the corner up on the peninsula is the Greenland Dock and that was home to the |
... |
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