The Clearing with Katherine May

Trees as ancestors, blurring the boundary between our bodies and the living world and constructing your sense of ‘self’ through art; these are just some of the beautiful areas of discussion between our guest Joycelyn Longdon and Katherine this week. Joycelyn is a researcher and writer, currently finishing her PhD at the University of Cambridge, who bridges the worlds of ecology, technology and environmental justice. Resisting the urge to pick a far-flung place, she goes extremely local for her small idyll, choosing a tiny patch of woodland by the river near her home, under her favourite willow tree, connecting to culture and mother earth.Wonderfully dreamy and deeply grounding.Links from the episode:Richard Powers The Overstory Explore Adinkra Symbols https://www.adinkrasymbols.org/#gsc.tab=0 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale HurstonJeff Buckley and Elizabeth Fraser All Flowers Bend Towards the Sun Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript, to discover how to enjoy our bonus episodes, our ad free episodes and if you subscribe, how to submit your own idea for a dream retreatBuy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / USFollow Katherine on InstagramVisit Katherine’s WebsiteProduction CreditsGuest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan HutchinsSubstack Manager - Rebecca ArmstrongProducer - Alice LloydMusic - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Warm waters, humid, verdant jungle and the nighttime hum of insects are where we find ourselves this week as our guest, Yasmin Khan, transports us on a much-needed break to the tropics. Yasmin is the bestselling author of travel cookbooks exploring the food, people and stories of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. In 2025 she found herself in the middle of a bizarre legal storm when she was threatened with legal action by a deli for calling her latest book ‘Sabzi’ - the word for veg or greens in multiple languages.In this conversation with Katherine they discuss the controversy (the case was eventually dropped) and the issues it raises, including the ownership and commodification of food culture. Plus finding community when the chips are down, the ebb and flow of cooking for pleasure, snatched moments of rest with a small child and UK national treasure, Nigella Lawson. A wonderful, and important, conversation.  Links from the episodeYasmin’s Substack Risingup.substack.comYasmin’s InstagramKaco PensThe Artist's Way by Julia CameronHow to Eat by Nigella LawsonVisit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript, to discover how to enjoy our bonus episodes, our ad free episodes and if you subscribe, how to submit your own idea for a dream retreatBuy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / USFollow Katherine on InstagramVisit Katherine’s WebsiteProduction CreditsGuest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan HutchinsSubstack Manager - Rebecca ArmstrongProducer - Alice LloydMusic - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Kate Bowler is the multiple New York Times-bestselling author, professor of divinity and stage-four cancer survivor who has mastered the art of finding small delights in the everyday. No grand gestures for her. In this wonderful conversation with Katherine, they talk about ‘how to cope’, the brittleness of time and why revelling in absurdity is really the answer to everything. A celebration of silliness, tattoos, the important differences between canoes and kayaks and the most beautifully realised depiction of precious time spent with a best friend.Links from the episode: Kate’s new book Joyful AnywayKate’s website where you can find her previous books https://katebowler.com/ Kate’s podcast Everything HappensKate’s InstagramA Truce that is Not Peace by Miriam Toews My Bright Abyss by Christian WimanCanadian ice fishing cabins https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/portraits-canadas-ice-fishing-huts-180957794/ Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript, to discover how to enjoy our bonus episodes, our ad free episodes and if you subscribe, how to submit your own idea for a dream retreatBuy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / USFollow Katherine on InstagramVisit Katherine’s WebsiteProduction CreditsGuest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan HutchinsSubstack Manager - Rebecca ArmstrongProducer - Alice LloydMusic - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Our first guest to choose a city for his dreamscape, the brilliant writer, BBC broadcaster and educator Jeffrey Boakye reveals he’s most at peace when walking for walking’s sake through the ever-changing textures of London’s streets.  The very essence of a ‘flâneur’, as we discover.A gorgeous and meandering conversation, Jeffrey and Katherine explore a wonderful array of topics: from skateboarding as a life lesson in failure to finding joy in packed tube trains, why we need to foster more pointless hobbies to what the movie Groundhog Day teaches us about the mundane and the sublime. Often philosophical, frequently laughter-filled and as always, deeply thought-provoking.Links from Episode:Jeffrey’s website where you can find his books https://www.jeffreyboakye.com/ Jeffrey’s SubstackJeffrey’s InstagramJeffry’s BBC Radio 4 music show Add to PlaylistSandwich by Catherine NewmanTranscription by Ben Lerner The Door by Magda SzaboZen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzukihttps://oleandsteen.co.uk/ Danish BakeryVisit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad freeBuy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / USFollow Katherine on InstagramVisit Katherine’s WebsiteProduction CreditsGuest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan HutchinsSubstack Manager - Rebecca ArmstrongProducer - Alice LloydMusic - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary 

A beautiful, bird-filled episode from the wonderful collaborative duo of writer Robert Macfarlane and illustrator Jackie Morris. Together they have created some of the best-loved books on the natural world in recent years, including The Lost Words.In this transcendent episode they share their quite different visions of what rest looks like for them. Robert conjures a wild, bird-filled landscape in the Scottish Cairngorms whilst Jackie imagines taking a sentient ship to a melding of The Rain Wilds and Earthsea. Full of wonder, wild knitting, ‘glacial erratics’, laughter and of course plenty of nature chat, this episode is a true salve for the soul.Links from the episodeThe Book of Birds by Jackie Morris and Robert MacFarlane The Lost Words by Jackie Morris and Robert MacFarlane The Lost Spells by Jackie Morris and Robert MacFarlaneJackie’s InstagramJackie’s websiteRobert’s InstagramDeep Deep Light pain brushes and paints https://deepdeeplight.com/ A Wizard of Earthseaby Ursula K. Le GuinThe Rain Wild Chronicles by Robin HobbThe Illustration Department PodcastArtist David GentlemanRead about Albrecht Dürer’s painting Young Hare here The Living Mountain by Nan ShepherdRead about artist Mark Rothko on the Moma websiteVisit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free and to access our bonus contentBuy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / USFollow Katherine on InstagramVisit Katherine’s WebsiteProduction CreditsGuest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan HutchinsSubstack Manager - Rebecca ArmstrongProducer - Alice LloydMusic - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

We’re back! After a small, restorative break, we are excited to bring you a new season of The Clearing, where Katherine will explore visions of rest and retreat with some more wonderful guests. Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com to discover how to enjoy all episodes ad free and to listen to bonus content as it’s released. Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / USFollow Katherine on InstagramVisit Katherine’s WebsiteProduction CreditsGuest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan HutchinsSubstack Manager - Rebecca ArmstrongProducer - Alice LloydMusic - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary