Seven Years of Friday Walks (with Man in the Woods)
Seven years ago on a Friday, artist Scott (best-known on social media as Man in the Woods) set off for a walk to no particular destination. The next Friday, he started a new walk where the previous week's ended. He's been doing that every Friday ever since, documenting his travels on social media while producing beautiful artworks that reflect his finds and the connections he builds to where he explores.In this episode, Joe and Ollie speak with Man in the Woods about what inspired the Friday walks, where it's taken him, and how exploring England's rural landscapes has helped him reimagine his relationship with English cultural identity. Topics range from psychogeography and rural flaneurs, to pubs, Peckham, and the pooing pigeon that now represents London Museum.View images that accompany this episode on our website: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2025/07/the-friday-walks-with-man-in-the-woods/---Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Themetune by Tai Dawson. Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe VaughanProducer: Joe Vaughan Support our work (comment it's a podcast donation and we'll message you!): https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/ Online shop: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
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The Meaning of Pigs (with Dolly Jørgensen)
Content warning: This episode contains references to animal slaughter, antisemitism, and injury to children. Listener discretion is advised.Joe and Ollie continue their deep-dive into the history of pigs with Professor Dolly Jørgensen (University of Stavanger, Norway). This time, we explore the symbolism of pigs: from their significance in our myths and religious texts, to their use as a foil for thinking through what it is to be human.Delve deeper into Dolly's work in her book, The Medieval Pig: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781837651689/the-medieval-pig/See visuals from our discussion with Dolly in Dolly's Bluesky thread: https://bsky.app/profile/dollyjorgensen.bsky.social/post/3lsjukzwkzk2sThis episode contains audio from Epidemic Sound.--Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Themetune by Tai Dawson. Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe VaughanProducer: Joe Vaughan Support our work (comment it's a podcast donation and we'll message you!): https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/ Online shop: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
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Medieval Pigs (with Dolly Jørgensen)
Content warning: This episode contains references to animal slaughter and blood. Listener discretion is advised.In medieval England, all roads led to pigs. They lived side-by-side with humans, and were a common sight in daily life.In this episode, Ollie and Joe speak to historian Dolly Jørgensen (Professor of History at University of Stavanger, Norway) about what it was like to live with pigs in medieval England: from pigs' place in homes and food systems, to the challenges required to maintain pig populations.We'll be following up with Dolly in two weeks' time for another episode, exploring the symbolism of pigs, and what they have represented historically and today.Delve deeper into Dolly's work in her most recent book, The Medieval Pig: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781837651689/the-medieval-pig/See visuals from our discussion in Dolly's Bluesky thread: https://bsky.app/profile/dollyjorgensen.bsky.social/post/3lsjukzwkzk2sThis podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound, plus freesound_community via Pixabay.---Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Themetune by Tai Dawson. Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe VaughanProducer: Joe Vaughan Support our work (comment it's a podcast donation and we'll message you!): https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/ Online shop: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
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Schedule Update: Big Sheep, Big Dreams
Episode 4 marked the end of our pilot series, produced by a group of extremely talented students from the University of Reading. Now, we're at the wheel planning future episodes. The tractor wheel of our mind and our dreams.In the meantime: for a shorter bonus adventure, join hosts Dr Ollie Douglas (curator) and Joe Vaughan (social media manager) as they reflect on the podcast to date. We talk about what we've learned, what we've loved, and what we're looking forward to for the future. Plus, follow us down some random tangents like the US-UK trade deal, our memories of meeting up for a socially-distanced coffee in Ollie's garden, and the correct terminology to describe sharing your hog on the Internet.References:Katrina Navickas' Open Spaces Society mapGuy Shrubsole with a cool map at The MERLThe Medieval Pig, by Dolly Jørgensen---Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Themetune by Tai Dawson. Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe VaughanProducer: Joe Vaughan Support our work (comment it's a podcast donation and we'll message you!): https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/ Online shop: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
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The Pest is History (with Dr Alice Mauchline)
How has our understanding of ecology in farming changed in time? What makes a pest a pest? And is an aphid chimney as metal as it sounds?Join Dr Alice Mauchline (University of Reading) to learn about changes in modern farm management. We course from the green revolution of the 1950s (the same era our work began) to the present day.This episode is introduced by Dr Ollie Douglas (MERL curator) and Joe Vaughan (MERL social media manager) - we forgot to say! The main discussion features Ollie and Katie Bergen (our former Digital Engagement Officer).This is the final episode of our podcast pilot series! We'll be back with regular programming from late June. Or early July depending on the direction of travel. Future episodes hosted by Ollie and Joe. More to come when we have it!---Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Themetune by Tai Dawson. Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe VaughanProducer: Joe Vaughan Support our work (comment it's a podcast donation and we'll message you!): https://merl.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/donate/ Online shop: https://merl-shop.co.uk/shop/absolute-unit.html
The Museum of English Rural Life podcast. We're exploring the fascinating, surprising, and moving backstories of our collections, to tell the story of the English countryside.
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