Advertise on podcast: The Clearing with Katherine May

Welcome Clearlings, once again, to your very own secret slice of The Clearing podcast, where you get some extra special chat from Katherine each week. We kick off this week with the joyous, but totally unsurprising discovery that the Clearlings are a community of quizzers. Of course you are! We expected nothing less. Katherine set her Insta chat alight this week after asking if anyone else had a passion for the New York Times puzzles app. Many of you came forward to share your favourite games. But did you know that some of them come with a hint of controversy? Katherine reveals all. She also wonders if the rumours are true, that quiz setters around the world are all speaking to each other via the medium of secret code? We hear about the joys of Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti - Katherine’s current group read - and Katherine reveals her mini-break for this week. Let’s just say it’s something that’s taken her 15 years to get to, only to discover that everyone was right about it all along. And last but very definitely not least, Katherine reads out a delicious dream escape to The Clearing from listener Moorea Corrigan that involves a spectacularly romantic train journey and possibly THE most perfect book choice. Links from the episode: Only Connect TV Show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Connect Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti Parks and Recreation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parks_and_Recreation Submit YOUR vision of a dream escape and if Katherine reads it out you’ll receive a wonderful Clearing mug https://theclearingpod.co.uk/subscribers/ Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd

Most of you will need no introduction to Elizabeth Gilbert. The international best-selling author of Eat Pray Love and Big Magic has sold a staggering 25 million books worldwide and is very much ‘a phenomenon’. In this truly special episode Elizabeth speaks to Katherine fresh from a six month sabbatical. A sabbatical taken after she lived through, and then wrote about, one of the most difficult periods of her life. The resulting memoir - All the Way to the River - has become the centre of much debate and critique and the toll it’s taken on Elizabeth is clear. With raw honesty, Elizabeth describes why she had to go away, feeling like she’d been ‘dragged through’ the process of writing her memoir and its resulting publication. She took herself to a very real Clearing - where she banned herself from working, doing or making. She contrasts it with her imaginary version, set along the volcanic beaches of Costa Rica, sea to the right, jungle to the left. Katherine and Elizabeth also talk about why women over fifty are quitting everything, the power of covens, being an introvert in an extrovert’s body and why collective housing (in Elizabeth’s case) or the nunnery (in Katherine’s case) would be the ultimate female fantasy lifestyle. With a shared post-break resistance to re-entering the world via the medium of podcast recording, they do it anyway. The result is an intimate and powerful episode full of the kinds of insight only Elizabeth Gilbert can offer. Links from the episode: Elizabeth’s website where you can find her books https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/ Elizabeth’s Instagram The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel The Shiva Nataraja Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending 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 retreat. Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s guest is someone Katherine has wanted on The Clearing since the very beginning. Sleep whisperer and ‘architect of coziness’, Kathryn Nicolai is the talent behind one of Katherine’s very favourite podcasts - Nothing Much Happens. Described as ‘bedtime stories for everyone’ it’s a show that combines Kathryn’s skill for storytelling with one of the most soothing voices in the business. The result is the aural equivalent of being rocked to sleep. Mutual fans, their conversation meanders gently as Katherine explores the craft behind the podcast. Kathryn’s childhood of wanting to feel safe, her ability to lift the cognitive load of those attending her yoga classes and skill in observing small moments in everyday life all led to the creation of her shows. That and an understanding that it’s not just children who need safety and to be held, but adults too. And no more than now. Kathryn also imagines a brilliantly dreamlike and mischievous getaway, that once again involves the idea of rummaging through other people’s belongings, and delights Katherine no end. The only thing to do is sit back and relax. If you’re lucky you will achieve Kathryn’s peak state of ‘so much time and nothing to accomplish’. Links from the episode: Kathryn’s website Kathryn’s podcast, Nothing Much Happens Kathryn’s book Nothing Much Happens Instagram Jalaluddin Rumi https://www.oxcis.ac.uk/publication/rumi Bashō https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/basho Kamo Chōmei https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kamo-Chomei Renee and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War by Paul Simon here The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend Ulysses by James Joyce Moby Dick by Herman Melville The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken One Summer America 1927 by Bill Bryson The Land and its People by David Sedaris Find out more about The Petoskey Stone Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending 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 retreat. Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week our dedicated Clearlings get what Katherine describes as ‘distilled essence of Katherine’. This translates as; Katherine is still somewhat poorly with Covid, a bit saggy round the edges, but also very much on the mend. And with a wonderfully nerdy mini-break that will send you reaching for your New York Times puzzle app. With her inner competitiveness raging, and a prevailing wind, she can get something down to sub 24 seconds. What though? It’s nothing to do with exercise, a lot to do with crosswords and might turn out to be the miniest of mini-breaks to feature on the MIni-Break. And of course we hear from one lucky listener, Angelika, who will receive a highly covetable Clearing mug for sending in her Tuscan escape, featuring petrified oak and birdsong. Lovely. Submit YOUR vision of a dream escape and if Katherine reads it out you’ll receive a wonderful Clearing mug https://theclearingpod.co.uk/subscribers/ Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd

Leaning into her Covid status and resting at home, Katherine catches up on Bake-Off: a TV show that leaves her with slightly mixed feelings and not a small amount of trauma thanks to the job her mum did tirelessly throughout Katherine’s childhood. Mirror glazes be damned. This week’s fascinating book club chat with subscribers has been around Joan Barfoot’s novel Gaining Ground, which has led Katherine down even more rabbit holes thinking about memoir, truth and fiction. Katherine shares her Mini-Break suggestion for this week - an electronic artist, still going strong in her eighties - who has impacted and transformed her life in all sorts of interesting and unexpected ways. And listener Jennifer Whitmore shares her beautifully imagined escape to a turf house ‘far north’, spinning yarn and reading books that very much meet with Katherine’s approval. Links from the episode: Gaining Ground by Joan Barfoot Suzanne Ciani https://www.sevwave.com/ Live Quadrophonic by Suzanne Ciani https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDFXID1MnVo More information about the BBC Proms here Sisters With Transistors film - https://sisterswithtransistors.com/ Watch the trailer for A Life in Waves, the documentary on Suzanne Ciani, here Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending Submit YOUR vision of a dream escape and if Katherine reads it out you’ll receive a wonderful The Clearing mug https://theclearingpod.co.uk/subscribers/ Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript. Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd

A friend of Sarah Wilson’s once told her she was always ‘looking for trouble’. It is clear from this episode that the best-selling Australian author, podcaster and TV presenter is hard-wired for restlessness. A self-confessed ‘edge-seeker’, constantly pushing boundaries in a flirtation with life, she proves a fascinating guest to discuss ideas of rest with Katherine. Finding the pressures of a small cabin or ‘being good at rest’ too claustrophobic and restrictive, Sarah instead finds ultimate peace being out in the ancient, Australian desert. The dry heat, crunchy dirt underfoot and minimal distractions in a monotonous landscape are where she feels truly alive. It’s the great equaliser. A place to feel what Oliver Burkeman calls ‘cosmic insignificance’. It’s also just one of the many extraordinary and often surprising places she has perfected the ultimate tent-life; much to Katherine’s horror who practically shudders at just the word tent! A truly original vision of rest from someone who has learnt to integrate work and leisure to such an extent that rest has been rendered meaningless. Links from the episode: Sarah’s website https://sarahwilson.com/ Sarah’s book I Eat the Stars Sarah’s podcast Wild with Sarah Wilson Sarah’s Substack https://substack.com/@sarahwilson Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending 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 retreat. Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have something completely different and really special for our subscribers this week as Katherine records a daily audio diary over five days while attending her first ever stand-up comedy course in London. Thrown together with a group of strangers and testing her social battery to the full, the course forces her to reflect on her own writing. Perhaps in ways she wasn’t expecting. As the week goes on Katherine finds herself asking: what constitutes truth in memoir? She comes to realise comedians are more like novelists than memoirists, with an unspoken license to fabricate and play with the truth in ways she had not fully realised. By the end of the week she is starting to grapple with both the constraints of her chosen medium and self-inflicted constraints around what she sees as ‘truth’. An audio diary full of insight into Katherine’s writing practice along with some surprising revelations about how things could change going forwards. Best of all, she managed not to fall over on stage. Always a win. Links from the episode: Katherine attended the Angel Comedy Club beginner’s course in London, run by Dec Munro (@decmunro_comedy). You can find full details here… https://shorturl.at/QjZbs Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd

Barbara Carrellas believes we can find the truest rest in moments of awe. The author of ‘The Book of Ecstasy’ says even in life’s darkest moments, ecstasy is possible. It’s something seeded in her practice of ‘Urban Tantra’ - a non-touch sexual practice rooted in her experience of working with the people and communities affected by New York’s AIDS crisis in the 1980s. As Katherine and Barbara delve more deeply into this concept of ecstasy, they marvel at the capacity of human lives for surprise and why sometimes we just need to step out of our own way. Barbara also explains why Tantra isn’t what we think it is and we get to hear the most beautifully unique vision of rest as Barbara transports us to a flamboyant theatre, replete with horses, Hollywood legends and an ever-changing array of favourite theatrical shows. A deeply joyous and uplifting episode where Barbara’s bottomless well of compassion, love and yes, ecstasy, is deeply present. Links from the episode: Barbara’s book The Book of Ecstasy Barbara’s website https://barbaracarrellas.com/ Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending 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 retreat. Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comedian, podcaster, radio presenter and bona fide history nerd Pierre Novellie joins Katherine in The Clearing for this week’s episode.  A geekfest of language and ideas, they launch straight into the etymology of the word ‘dork’, why you can’t choose your own clown as a stand-up, and the politics around the changing language of autism. Like Katherine, Pierre received a late neurodivergence diagnosis. Unlike Katherine, his came after a heckler suggested he might be autistic during a live stand-up show.   A lovely, chewy episode for the brain, with Katherine bidding for them to be the hosts of ‘The Rest is Neurodivergence’ and Pierre sprinkling his imagined getaway with some Orkney magic.  Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending Links from the episode: Pierre’s website https://www.pierrenovellie.com/  Pierre’s book Why Can't I Just Enjoy Things  Pierre’s BBC Radio 4 show https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002pfbr  Pierre’s gaming podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/button-boys/id1827054353  Baldur’s Gate 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur%27s_Gate_3  Kingdom Come: Deliverance II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Come:_Deliverance_II  Portugese writer Antonio Lobo Antunes  Night Watch by Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum  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 retreat. Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you remember the library you visited as a child? The teak furniture? The smell of the polish? The location of your favourite section? Our exclusive episode for the Clearlings this week involves some heavy library nostalgia as Katherine runs through the special libraries in her life, from the mobile van that visited her village to Haddon Library in Cambridge where she would study as a student. Katherine also brings us her idea for one small, transportative thing to do this week and we hear from Clearling Cat Salt with her wonderful vision of getting away from it all. Links from the episode: Sweet Death by Claude Tardat Haddon Library https://www.haddon.lib.cam.ac.uk/ Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd

Caitlin Moran is somewhat of an icon in the UK. Growing up as the eldest of eight kids in a three bed council flat, home-educated from the age of 11, she became a published author at just 16 and a TV presenter not long after that. A long-time columnist for The Times, she has a well-deserved reputation for being one of the UK’s funniest writers. She is also a massive fan of Wintering - so much so her new book contains an entire chapter devoted to it.  Caitlin joins Katherine for a conversation that was never going to be anything but brilliantly bonkers. They discuss her plan to rid the world of evil billionaires that basically involves being a madam, why she would pay a thousand pounds to hear the sound of a blackbird from Wolverhampton in the 1980s and ask; grottos - the Temu of caves?  Her unique vision of splendour for her escape to the Clearing, involving ‘the greatest building that humans have ever come up with’, provokes a particularly visceral reaction from Katherine.  Just to warn you, this being Caitlin, the episode contains a spot of swearing.  Links from the episode: Caitlin’s new book How to Be Hopeful  Outsiding Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/outsiding/id6782845808  Caitlin’s Instagram 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 retreat. Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the season turns, the air chills and the Devon bracken starts to bronze, Katherine returns home from a summer of maxi-breaking. We hear some wetsuit controversy, Katherine shares her ‘relaxing and deeply geeky’ Mini-break suggestion and listener Shari reveals her perfect getaway. Between a beach and an artsy town in the summer and a castle in a European city in the winter, with lots of chat, art, wine and the hint of a whirlwind romance, this break has it all in the most delicious way. Links from the episode: The Riverford Field Kitchen https://fieldkitchen.riverford.co.uk/ GeoGuessr https://www.geoguessr.com/ Saturday Night Live UK https://www.instagram.com/snluk/?hl=en The Landmark Trust https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/ Angela Carter https://www.angelacarter.co.uk/ Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd

Step forward our first OBE on the show; former Children’s Laureate, winner of the Carnegie Medal for Writing, poet and prolific children’s author, Joseph Coelho.   Having both grown up on housing estates where you definitely weren’t pre-conditioned for a life in the creative arts, Joseph and Katherine marvel at the way teachers can shape children’s futures, wonder at the power of brutalist public art and relish the joy of watching people rummage through abandoned homes in post-apocalyptic films.  A wonderful, and deeply thoughtful, conversation with one of the UK’s most inspiring literary figures.  Links from the episode:  Joseph’s website https://www.thepoetryofjosephcoelho.com/ Joseph’s Instagram Munya Chawawa’s Black Boys Theatre Club  Joseph’s estate he grew up on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Estate  Lynn Chadwick’s The Watchers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watchers_(sculpture) 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 retreat. Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here  Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katherine brings us this week’s mini-break from an actual break, as she records looking out over the Atlantic Ocean, fog rolling in and seals bobbing about in the waves. Absolute bliss. There is some witchy chat and a wonderful tribute by Katherine to actor Tim Curry and one of her favourite films of all time - a celebration of outsiders everywhere. And we hear from listener Melody, who brings minimal modifications, unobstructed views of the sunrise and some wonderfully specific stationery needs to her imagined getaway, much to Katherine’s delight. Links from the episode. The Witches of New York by Ami McKay https://terrypratchett.com/ His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy The Rocky Horror Picture Show ‘Improvisation. Dreamy’ by Kandinsky https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/work-33.php Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd

Katherine kicks off Season Three of The Clearing in wild style by chatting to former magazine editor, podcast host and US author Elise Loehnen.  Menopausal Love Island, lumberjack witches, the potential joy of losing female reproductive organs and animal totems are just some tiny tasters of a brilliant, hilarious, radical conversation that plays with the boundaries of possibility for women everywhere.  Despite it being her first podcast interview since discovering she had ‘dumb and slow cancer’ (the good kind) and undergoing a double mastectomy, Elise brings unfathomable, infinite amounts of energy and laughter, plus just the right amount of woo, to a joyous episode.  Links from the episode:  Elise’s website and podcast Pulling the Thread https://www.eliseloehnen.com/ Elise’s Instagram Mark Rothko, artist page https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-rothko-1875 Anne Truitt, sculptor https://www.annetruitt.org/ Hilma af Klint, artist page https://hilmaafklint.se/ Ithell Colquhoun, artist page https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ithell-colquhoun-931  Fulgur press https://www.fulgur.co.uk/ 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 retreat. Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here  Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.