Podcast: Trees a Crowd

By Sara Bellini:

Trees a Crowd is a podcast that celebrates nature, people that love nature and the relationship between human beings and the natural realm. If you appreciate when someone can identify a wren rather than just calling it a bird, and your eyes light up at the thought of Yorkshire national parks, this is the podcast for you. Think David Attenborough without the telly but available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Tune In and Overcast.

From February 2019 actor and artist David Oakes has been interviewing people whose job is “inspired by or devoted to the natural world”: scientists, creatives, environmentalists, conservationists, gardeners and sometimes nature itself. “Everyone is working for the natural world but everyone’s agenda is completely different.” 

Why is nature so fascinating and how does it benefit us? How do human beings relate to their ecosystem? Why is it so important to protect the wildlife? David Oakes and his guests discuss these questions during one-hour-long episodes, twice to four times a month, mostly but not exclusively in the UK. Featured topics are: the dawn chorus, horticulture, carbon footprint, Yorkshire sheep, Inga alley cropping in Sierra Leone, Manta Rays in the Maldives, agricultural laws and Extinction Rebellion. 

“Perspective is increasingly key to all aspects of life, but perhaps never has it been more important in terms of our interaction with nature. With our society and technology growing so rapidly, we are capable of causing a huge amount of destruction, but we also now have the technology to limit, or even reverse, the damage it has caused. As Harry* suggests, running up a Devonian Tor or being penned in by trees or mountains helps us reimagine ourselves not purely as a construct of a human society, but as a continuing part of a natural ecosystem, of a natural justice.”

Have a listen, go for a walk, plant a tree.

*Harry Barton, chief executive of the Devon Wildlife Trust (Trees a Crowd, 07th October 2019)