Latest David oakes Podcast Episodes

Bella Hardy: Singing in the Shadows of Mountains

Trees A Crowd - June 13, 2019 12:00 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
In this episode, David speaks to award-winning folk musician Bella Hardy. A fiddle-singer and songwriter from Edale in the Peak District, she has performed at festivals worldwide and on the UK folk circuit since she was 13. In 2007, she released her debut solo album Night Visiting, for which she ...

Maldives Underwater Initiative: Diving with Pearls

Trees A Crowd - May 30, 2019 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
In this episode, David speaks to members of the Maldives Underwater Initiative based at the Six Senses resort in Laamu Atoll. The initiative includes members of The Manta Trust, Blue Marine Foundation, The Olive Ridley Project and other marine specialists. The team have a shared vision for preser...

Dr Guy Stevens: Guarding the Big Blue’s Gentle Giant

Trees A Crowd - May 16, 2019 12:00 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
Dr Guy Stevens is the CEO and co-founder of The Manta Trust. An experienced marine biologist and expert in conservation, he set up the Maldivian Manta Ray Project in 2005. Working closely with the Maldivian government to establish protective measures and educate against targeted fishing, his proj...

Dr Fay Clark: Ring-tails, Killer Whales and the history of the British Zoo.

Trees A Crowd - May 06, 2019 08:00 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
Dr Fay Clark is an animal welfare scientist. A self-confessed “zoo geek”, she specialises in the assessment and enhancement of captive animal welfare in traditional zoos, safari parks, sanctuaries and aquariums. She is currently based at Bristol Zoo where she examines how the welfare of large-bra...

Dr Ellinor Michel: Snail shells and concrete dinosaurs in deep time

Trees A Crowd - April 25, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
Dr Ellinor Michel is a molluscan systemetist and ecologist at the Natural History Museum and chair of the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. Her work focuses on malacology (the study of molluscs), taxonomy and nomenclature, and the ecology of the Great Rift Lakes of Africa. In this in-depth con...

Dr Steve Etches: Plumbing the prehistoric depths of the Kimmeridge Clay

Trees A Crowd - April 22, 2019 07:00 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
Dr Steve Etches MBE is a renowned fossil expert. His collection of over 2,000 pieces from the Kimmeridge Clay include remains of ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs and a whole host of Jurassic marine life. Once housed in his garage, the collection is now on display at the Etches Collection in ...

Dr Katherine Brent: Morris dancing, bees and badger cull protestors

Trees A Crowd - April 11, 2019 23:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
Dr Katherine Brent from Wotton-Under-Edge has danced the Morris since she was 18 years old for sides including Red Stags, Winterbourne Down, Rag Morris and Madcap Morris. She also teaches beekeeping for Rory’s Well, a charity dedicated to regenerating the local economy of an area in Sierra Leone....

Astrid Goldsmith: Puppets, politics, and The Wind in the Willows with extra Wombles

Trees A Crowd - April 04, 2019 09:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
Astrid Goldsmith is an award-winning stop-motion animator. After tuition from Great Uncle Bulgaria and 12 years of hand-making models for other people - including Garth Jennings (for “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”), the boy band Blue and the unrelenting Duracell Bunny - she made her debut...

Astrid Goldsmith: Puppets, politics, and The Wind in the Willows with extra Wombles

Trees A Crowd - April 04, 2019 09:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
Astrid Goldsmith is an award-winning stop-motion animator. After tuition from Great Uncle Bulgaria and 12 years of hand-making models for other people - including Garth Jennings (for “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”), the boy band Blue and the unrelenting Duracell Bunny - she made her debu...

David Fettes: Going against the crowd - and the best moment to press the button

Trees A Crowd - March 25, 2019 00:00 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
David Fettes is technically a wildlife photographer but is far better described as a force – and primarily a part – of nature. Growing up in India and in England, surrounded by snakes, langur monkeys and even more baleful creatures, he has stretched the definition of “self-taught”. An initial car...

Polly Morgan: Form and colour rather than life and death

Trees A Crowd - March 07, 2019 00:00 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
Polly Morgan is a modern artist known for her sculptural taxidermy. Growing up in pastoral Oxfordshire, she’s been surrounded by animals from an early age. After moving to London to read English literature at university, she took a one-day course in avian taxidermy in a bid to decorate her new ho...

Mark Frith: a legacy of Britain's ancient oaks

Trees A Crowd - February 21, 2019 00:00 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 41 ratings
Mark Frith is an artist and film-maker. His documentaries include “The War on Love”, “Hotel Splendide”, and BAFTA award-winning documentary “The Lie of the Land”. In 2011, he began a project which was commissioned by the late publisher and poet Felix Dennis to draw 20 large scale, intricate port...