Drink the Wild Air

We live in an age where the relationship between humans and machines has never been closer. In his extraordinary book about how people relate to technology, Hybrid Humans, Harry Parker explores the limits of what the human body can be. Since his accident when he was a soldier in Afghanistan, in which he lost both his legs, he has become acutely aware of what technology can and can't achieve. Our relationship with everything from our mobile phones to our cars makes us all hybrids, he argues. But as an amputee he has found himself on the frontier of the latest scientific research, looking at everything from the latest prosthetics to the very nature of humanity itself.

Sacha Dench made headlines around the world in 2016 when she took to the air in a paramotor to follow the migratory route of the Bewick’s swan. Her extraordinary journey was as scientifically important as it was spectacular – she was dubbed the "Human Swan" – and in 2020, as a result of her work, she was made UN Ambassador for Migratory Species. In this episode she talks about how, as Co-Founder and CEO of Conservation Without Borders, she continues to carry out critical work raising awareness about climate change. Among other things she tells the story of how last year she made headlines again when she followed the migratory route of the osprey from Scotland down to Guinea in West Africa.

What is digital archaeology? In recent years its different uses have included recreating monuments destroyed by ISIS attacks, working out the smells of different texts including the Magna Carta and, most provocatively of all, asking why the Elgin Marbles should stay in Britain. In 2012 the Institute for Digital Archaeology was founded in Oxford by Executive Director Roger Michel. Drink the Wild Air visits London’s Oriental Club to interview Alexy Karenowska, the Institute’s Director of Technology, who oversees everything from the guerrilla scanning of ancient artefacts to reproducing them in stone through 3D printing techniques.

For French glaciologist, Heïdi Sevestre, the story of what's happening to the world's ice is the story of what's happening to us all. Last year a panel of polar experts awarded the 35-year-old the Shackleton Medal for the Protection of the Polar Regions for her pioneering work, not least on an Arctic expedition where she was forced to bury herself in the snow to survive a freak storm. It was just one sign of how much more dangerous her profession as a glaciologist has become due to global warming. Here she explains why everything from 'monster' glaciers in Svalbard to rituals with indigenous Columbians are part of her - and our - future.

Victor Vescovo is a record-breaking deep sea explorer. At a point where it seems that no part of the world is unmapped, he has defied physics to go where no human has gone before. In the first episode of 'Drink The Wild Air', he talks to us about the link between deep sea exploration and outer space, the terrifying potential of undersea warfare, and the psychological importance of visiting shipwrecks.