Strandings
Illuminated22 Elo 2024

Strandings

Peter Riley was 13 when he saw his first dead whale. It was a sperm whale. He spent most of the day with it on a Norfolk beach, and then watched on as someone carried away a trophy from its carcass. That night marked the beginning of Peter’s lifelong fascination with whales. Now, as an author and a Herman Melville scholar, Peter is seeking to understand the ancient and complex relationship between humans and whales.

According to the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, there are approximately 550-800 strandings of whales, dolphins and porpoises in the UK every year. Although no one is completely certain why this happens, we do know they've been doing it for thousands of years.

For as long as there have been stranded whales, there have been humans drawing meaning from their arrival - a warning, a symbol of hope, endings or new beginnings. So what news might they be bringing us now?

In our current state of unprecedented abundance and advancement, in our pandemic of isolation and individual “strandedness”, the whales seem to be calling us again. As Peter speaks with cetacean experts, chases down whale remains and witnesses a whale stranding himself, he discovers what these magical creatures might be revealing about who we are, what we've become and where we might be headed.

A Sound & Bones production for BBC Radio 4

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(105)

The Grand North Atlantic Home Video Archive

The Grand North Atlantic Home Video Archive

Growing up in rural Derry, author Séamas O’Reilly and his siblings never needed to go to Blockbuster. Instead, they were enraptured by their father’s archive of hundreds of films recorded off the tele...

16 Elo 28min

James Hutton and The Restless Earth

James Hutton and The Restless Earth

Award winning Scottish folksinger, songwriter and storyteller, Karine Polwart celebrates the 300th anniversary of James Hutton’s birth, the Scottish scientist and philosopher known as the father of ge...

9 Elo 28min

Precious Stones

Precious Stones

"Some losses feel seismic. The ground shifts, familiar landscapes tilt, and nothing is the same. Dad’s death changed our world. But it also left us with a distinctly geological conundrum. What on eart...

2 Elo 28min

Unreliable Narrator

Unreliable Narrator

How do you tell the story of your life when you have no memory of the events that shaped you? At 15, Stephen McAll was a promising musician with a head full of songs. He was booked into a studio to ...

26 Heinä 28min

A Most Magickal Encounter

A Most Magickal Encounter

Writer Tim Dee is trying to make a most extraordinary Zoom Call that will transport him across the centuries to have a most magical encounter with a scholarly looking guy with a white beard who is his...

19 Heinä 28min

Dear Gilbert, Dear Gordon

Dear Gilbert, Dear Gordon

When museum curator Mark Hignett began buying WWII-era letters online, he believed he was piecing together the life of an ordinary soldier. At first glance, the letters looked like typical corresponde...

12 Heinä 29min

Later Life Letter

Later Life Letter

This is a love letter to a special kind of letter, a 'later life letter' - a letter that can 'speak across the years', telling an adopted child where they come from, and helping them understand who t...

5 Heinä 29min

July Morning

July Morning

We're at the Black Sea coast on the last night of June. Everything is building up to the sunrise. This is Bulgaria’s ‘July Morning’ observance - somewhere between a counter-cultural musical festival...

28 Kesä 28min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
i-dont-like-mondays
download
hupiklubi
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
seitseman
uutiscast
sita
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
mamma-mia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
kaksi-aitia
kolme-kaannekohtaa
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
rss-murhan-anatomia
ihme-ja-kumma
loukussa
aikalisa