The Realisation Festival Podcast

Episod

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  Realisation 2026 at Do Radio: Benedict Pollard learns from oaks and Nikki Trott from the uncertainty of profound change 21.09.2026 1j

  This is an episode of Do Radio Series, Where To Next?, hosted by Dan Kieran. Dan came to Realisation 2025 and, for this episode, spoke with Charles Foster, one of our speakers. Dan writes: “I’m thrilled to say that this year I attended again and went to another workshop with Benedict and this time I asked him to wear a microphone so you could listen in. He tells us about his business Mighty Fine Oaks, training to be a Samurai and gives the most astonishing explanation I have ever heard for wh...
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  Realisation 2026 at Do Radio: Indra Adnan precipitates explorations and realisations 21.09.2026 1j 1min

  This is an episode of Do Radio Series, Where To Next?, hosted by Dan Kieran. Dan came to Realisation 2025 and, for this episode, spoke with Indra Adnan, festival advisor and speaker. Dan writes: “My experiences at the Realisation Festival have been life changing and profound. The RF is the real deal and I urge you to look it up if you relate to any of the episodes in the series. But even by the standards of the wonderful conversations I have had so far this one was exceptional. I think it’s b...
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  Realisation 2026 at Do Radio: Sarah Corbett changes the world one stitch at a time 21.09.2026 59min

  This is an episode of Do Radio Series, Where To Next?, hosted by Dan Kieran. Dan came to Realisation 2025 and, for this episode, spoke with Sarah Corbett, one of our speakers. Dan writes: “This is such a beautiful interview. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so relaxed speaking to anyone and Sarah said afterwards it was unlike any interview she has ever done before. Sarah’s work is changing the world. But it doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because people who believe in her support her ...
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  Realisation 2026 at Do Radio: Charles Foster and the edges of the world 21.09.2026 1j

  This is an episode of Do Radio Series, Where To Next?, hosted by Dan Kieran. Dan came to Realisation 2025 and, for this episode, spoke with Charles Foster, one of our speakers. Dan writes: “Charles is a very modest man and seems genuinely baffled as to why anyone would find his work illuminating, but I have found it to be astonishingly so. And it’s also utterly re-enchanting at the same time. As though the world he describes was always on the tip of your tongue and he summons it out of you wh...
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  Realisation 2025 at Do Radio: Roc Sandford and Sarah Wilson 10.06.2026 1j 1min

  This is the fourth episode of Do Radio Series, Where To Next?, hosted by Dan Kieran. Dan came to Realisation 2025 and, for this episode, spoke with Roc Sandford and Sarah Wilson, two of our speakers. Dan writes: "This is an incredible event that takes place over three days at St Giles House, the home of the Earl of Shaftesbury. I was thrilled first to meet Roc, who lives off-grid on the island of Gometra off the coast of Mull, and then Sarah Wilson, the former editor of Cosmoplitan and presen...
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  Craftivism and gentle protest. A conversation with Sarah Corbett 01.06.2026 14min

  Handicrafts, including knitting, sewing, cross-stitching, as a form of activism? Speaking with Mark Vernon, Sarah explains how this quiet, multi-sensory, and mindful approach to pressing matters helps gather thoughts and process feelings. She will be speaking and offering a workshop at the Realisation Festival 2026. Arising from her own story and activist work, Sarah also discusses the crucial important of a space for inner reflection and compassionate conversation. Craftivism offers a ...
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  Local myths transform lives and how they do it. A conversation with Kim Willis 25.05.2026 20min

  There is another world that is also here and it can empower people in times of trouble. Kim Willis tells Mark Vernon that she stepped outside, bringing her expertise in systems thinking and the value of stories, to discover resources in England, Wales and Scotland that modern culture often overlooks. She describes her discoveries and their impact in her new book, "No Fair Maidens", and will bring that energy to the Realisation Festival 2026. What difference can an imaginative encounter ...
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  How Business Can Be Sacred. And Why. Nikki Trott at Realisation 2026 13.05.2026 10min

  Can businesses today become a source of healing and regeneration? What shifts are required in our appreciation of money and wealth to make commercial organisations into living systems in the service of life? What inner work is required, both by leaders and society as a whole, to make this transition? Speaker, transformation coach and thought leader, Nikki Trott, talking with Mark Vernon, explores some of the themes she will bring to Realisation 2026. Her book is Sacred Business. Find ou...
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  Why Edges Very Much Matter. Charles Foster at Realisation 2026 04.05.2026 12min

  Why does politics feel increasingly frantic, economics increasingly deluded, culture increasingly empty - even when led by seemingly good people? Charles Foster explores how, at root, modern ways of life uncouple us from the heart of what makes us human: a love of horizons and edges. With that perspective lost, power is mostly about control, not allure, and society organises around safety rather than spirit. What does this mean for notions like nation states and sciences of predic...
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  The Power of Story. Sharon Blackie on her themes for Realisation 2026 28.04.2026 9min

  How can myths and fairytales help us, personally and collectively? What stories, often almost lost, can aid us with contemporary crises? Why does the imagination so very much matter? Sharon Blackie will lead us in the exploration of these themes and more on the opening of the first day of the Realisation Festival, 2026. She will invite us to consider possibilities beyond the hero's journey and also how to draw on images, community and the land. Sharon was talking with Mark Vernon. For more on...
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  A Whole Other Story. A conversation on the shape of Realisation 2026. 17.04.2026 15min

  The Realisation Festival is a soulful response to the crises of our times. So, with two months to go before this year’s gathering, Nick Shaftesbury, Pippa Evans and Ed Haddon sat down with Mark Vernon to explore the shape of the programme this year. Why does this space to share the complexities of today so much matter? What encounters are they hoping for? How might the big theme of story, that has emerged in planning this year, help us stay with confusion and worry, aspiration and hope?...
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  Reviving the Education Commons and Speaking Truth to Power. A conversation with Guy Standing 23.03.2026 37min

  Guy Standing is an economist whose new book Human Capital: The Tragedy of the Education Commons has much to say about a key theme of the festival: bildung. His thoughts on the corruption of education by policies that have lost touch with the public good are a provocative introduction to the kind of concerns explored when we meet. In this conversation with Mark Vernon, Guy explores the extent of the challenges facing education in the 21st century, though his deep critique is, at once, an...
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  The alchemy of music and improvisation. A conversation with Pippa Evans and Christopher Ash 10.03.2026 25min

  The Realisation Festival is much to do with perspective and gaining fresh takes on current issues. That widening of horizons is greatly aided by combining ideas with music, insights with improvisation. Laughing with others is liberating, too. Mark Vernon talks with Pippa Evans and Christopher Ash from The Realisation Players. They explore how and why music and improvisation are so key to the gathering, linking body and soul, traditions past with the present, and also lending soul-refres...
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  The intelligence of molecules. A conversation with Pauline Rudd 02.03.2026 19min

  A new paradigm is beginning to emerge in biology, though for some biologists, the new is, in fact, the old. The reductive treatment of living organisms, as if the gene were all, is giving way to the realisation that intelligence, even agency, operates at all levels of biological systems, from the proteins up. There is no-one better to talk to about this development and what it implies than Professor Pauline Rudd, a regular at the Realisation Festival and leading glycobiologist, recognised mos...
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  Storms make the oak grow deeper roots. A conversation with Benedict Pollard, the "acorn man" 18.02.2026 17min

  Oak trees lend themselves to proverbs and expressions of wisdom. The poet, George Herbert, is said to have written about these mighty trees sinking deeper roots, as a metaphor for resilience and preparedness for the future. In this conversation, Mark Vernon speaks with Benedict Pollard, founder of the nursery Mighty Fine Oaks, conservationist, and Fellow of The Linnean Society. Benedict also looks after the trees of St Giles House, Dorset, where the Realisation Festival takes place. He ...
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  Wisdom from the horse's mouth. A talk with coach and rider Damian Hallam 07.02.2026 45min

  Damian Hallam is a contributor to the Realisation Festival, both as participant and speaker. He has been named one of the top 5 dressage coaches in the UK and, as a rider, won over 15 national championships, as well as medals for GB. He has learnt much from his sport and a life lived with horses and other animals. In this powerful and moving talk, given in January 2026 at the Winter Gathering of the Realisation Festival, St Giles House, Dorset, Damian brings eloquence, exper...
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  Presence, soul and AI. A conversation with Ben R Smith 05.06.2025 35min

  Understanding AI has is a recurrent challenge. Should we be afraid or more sanguine or some combination of the two? Ben is a good person to talk to as he works in the front line of AI developments and is alert to the wonder and complexity of things. He found the Realisation Festival through the work of figures such as Iain McGilchrist and John Verveake and brings their insights to bear upon his work and sense of things. In this conversation, he discusses his own story of moving from a mechani...
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  The good, the beautiful and the truth. A philosophical godfather of the Realisation Festival, with Esmé Partridge 13.05.2025 36min

  The Realisation Festival is held at St Giles House, Wimborne, the home of the Earls of Shaftesbury. The place is loaded with the history of social reform and philosophical innovation - not least when it comes to ideas that inspire our gathering. In this episode of the podcast, Mark Vernon talks with Esmé Partridge about one figure in particular. The Third Earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, was born in the latter stages of the seventeenth century and seeded in his genius the genius of...
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  The joys of spring. A conversation with Indra Adnan 02.05.2025 52min

  If politics is broken how might people rediscover agency? If capitalism favours the powerful are there alternative forms of power to be found? If life often feels fragmented how can the fractal become revelatory? And further: how might practises like improvisation and resources like spiritual traditions assist? Indra Adnan explores these themes and more in conversation with Mark Vernon. Indra is a Co-Initiator and Founder of The Alternative which seeks to surface new ways of coming together. ...
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  Poetry as a tool for transformation. A conversation with Josiane Smith 29.04.2025 50min

  What good is a poem? How might poetry be a tool for transformation, both personally and collectively? And how does poetry help us to better understand the spirit of our times? In this conversation, Mark Vernon and Josiane Smith explore the ways in which poetry goes beyond 'the poem', towards a more soulful way of living; engaging more deeply with the forces of nature and change all around. It can be used in surprising places to console and challenge, it can be a catalyst for our dreams ...