Natural Histories Podcast
1) Swans: from ancient Greece to Swan Lake to Putin's Russia.
Series celebrating the infinite variety of the natural world and its depiction in culture. In the final episode of the series we present our swan song. Ethereally white and otherworldy, the Swan has f...Show More
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.2) Penguins and us: from engaging funny figures to sentinels of change.
Its arguable that a certain dinner-suited bird has captured our hearts and minds more than any other creature over the centuries. As Brett Westwood discovers, penguins remind us of ourselves - like us...Show More
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.3) Orchid
The story of our relationship with Orchids is a story of obsession, money, deceit, beauty, femme fatales, ghosts, deception and let's be honest, sex. Orchid flowers come in a variety of colours, shape...Show More
4) Dog
Dogs have changed us and we've changed them. Brett Westwood visits Battersea to meet the animals whose history is most inextricably linked with our own. And in the process very nearly loses a furry mi...Show More
5) Komodo Dragon
Brett Westwood on the Komodo dragon - myth, monster and reality. With contributions from Mark Carwardine, Antonia Quirke and Joe Capon of the Attenborough Komodo Dragon House.
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.6) Adder
Holding what looks like a television aerial, reptile ecologist Nigel Hand strides across the heath. It may look something out of a science fiction movie, but as Nigel explains to Brett Westwood he is ...Show More
7) Dung Beetle
Brett Westwood explores how our idea of the dung beetle has morphed over the ages. The most sacred symbol in Egyptian ideology, the scarab beetle was also the butt of Classical Greek jokes, the in...Show More
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.8) Willow
Brett Westwood embraces the Willow. A tree celebrated across cultures for its beauty and versatility, it's the tree weāve hugged closer than any other. Brett learns from Joan Armatrading how the willo...Show More
9) Pike
Brett Westwood was twelve years old when he first encountered a pike between the pages of T.H.Whiteās book, The Sword in the Stone and yet the description of the pitiless monster still raises the hair...Show More
10) Reindeer
Reindeer have been entwined with the lives of people living in the most northerly parts of the world for thousands of years, following the herds north as the Arctic ice retreated. Karen Anette Anti fr...Show More