The Clearing with Katherine May
The Clearing with Katherine May

The Clearing with Katherine May

Katherine May

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Episodes

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Where would you go to rest and retreat, in good times and bad?Katherine May, author of Wintering and Enchantment, asks her guests to share their idea of a perfect sanctuary. Drawing on memory, inspiration and imagination, she explores the things we seek out when we need to restore our joy, hope and energy. It begins with a forest clearing. What will we find there? A log cabin or a grand hotel? What cherished object or talisman would you bring? And what single work of art, be it a book, record, film or something else, would provide you with enough sustenance to see you through the darkness and remind you of the good times? In a series of frank, thoughtful and deeply personal conversations, The Clearing will explore the cultural, social and spiritual mindset needed to survive difficult times. Katherine's Links:Visit The Clearing website https://katherine-may.co.uk/the-clearing-podcast 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 Website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent Episodes

Yasmin Khan’s warm seas and verdant greens
MAY 21, 2026
Yasmin Khan’s warm seas and verdant greens
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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54 MIN
Kate Bowler’s Bridge of Absurdity
MAY 14, 2026
Kate Bowler’s Bridge of Absurdity
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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51 MIN
Jeffrey Boakye’s city path to peace
MAY 7, 2026
Jeffrey Boakye’s city path to peace
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  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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64 MIN
Jackie Morris & Robert Macfarlane ‘dream of nest’
APR 30, 2026
Jackie Morris & Robert Macfarlane ‘dream of nest’
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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61 MIN