Hope Springs with Annabel Heseltine

Galahad Clark is a cobbler by birth and trade who is on a mission to change the way we connect with the earth through a shoe inspired by the sand bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. In this episode of Hope Springs, the co-founder of Vivo Barefoot talks about what he learned from indigenous people, about his Quaker roots grounded in the Clark shoes legacy and about a little film called Shoespiracy with a big message: like Big Agriculture and Big Pharma, Big Shoe with its big, padded soles is quite literally disconnecting us from the natural world. We learn that had it not been for his mother’s sudden illness and death when Galahad was just twenty, he might never have found his way into making a shoe honouring our connection with the land. This podcast is bought to you by The Resurgence Trust.

Roger Tempest and Paris Ackrill, who are shortly to be married, have spent eleven years creating a truly transformative retreat centre at Broughton Sanctuary. Previously Broughton Hall, the stately with no less than 56 chimneys was home to the Roger’s recusant Catholic family for a thousand years. But now it's time for change, say the couple, who describe a rising of ‘an unarticulated movement’. Changing its name to Broughton Sanctuary, they have regenerated 3000 acres, created Avalon, a state-of the art wellbeing centre and “as without, so within” are now hosting formative visionaries including Dr Zach Bush, Bruce Damer and Lawrence Bloom, Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Urban Management. On this episode of Hope Springs we discuss the need for a spiritual Davos and the reasons why Broughton Sanctuary is described as “the birthing place of a new humanity” by Andrew Harvey, founder of Sacred Activism.   This podcast is brought to you by The Resurgence Trust.

The observant amongst us might have noticed Jim Murray at last’s year’s 2024 March for Clean Water carrying a very large fish named Sally. Best known for roles in Primeval and The Crown, the actor, artist and activist had his life turned upside down in 2009 when he and his wife the actress Sarah Parish lost their baby daughter to a congenital heart disease. Seeking solace in fishing, Jim became aware of the plight of our rivers. Now he actively campaigns for clean water, founding Activist Anglers, hosting a podcast and championing the salmon. His latest art exhibition experimenting with canvas underwater was entitled Creatures of Light inspired by the words of poet Ted Hughes. This podcast is bought to you by The Resurgence Trust.  

Robin and his son Merlin Hanbury Tenison have dedicated their lives to rainforests and the people living amongst them, whether in South America and Borneo or on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall where they live. Author Robin Hanbury Tennyson OBE is ‘an explorer with a conscience’ who has lead over 30 scientific expeditions and founded Survival International, campaigning for the rights of indigenous people and tropical rainforests. But it was in Cornwall after a severe covid attack forced him into an induced coma for five months that he discovered the true healing power of trees. It was only when Merlin returned home with his wife Lizzie, to heal his PTSD after serving three tours in Afghanistan and an uncomfortable stint in the London corporate world, that they discovered in a full circle of serendipity, that they were living in a rainforest- albeit an Atlantic temperate one. The story of how and why Merlin created the Thousand Year Trust to protect these ancient forests is beautifully told in Our Oaken Bones, published on March 20th 2025. This podcast is bought to you by The Resurgence Trust.  

Ruby Wax is better known as a comedian and broadcaster with a reputation for interviewing celebrities and deviant politicians but her life changed in 2008 when she found herself in a psychiatric hospital. Today she's a mental health campaigner with a master's in “Mindfulness based cognitive therapy” from Oxford University, an OBE for her work campaigning for mental health awareness and an online sharing circle; called Frazzled café for people who are “stressed about being stressed”.   Whether its worrying news about the climate, super-charged social media messages or managing our mental health crisis Ruby advocates meditation practice as a tool for navigating 21st century life and is on a mission to destigmatise one of the last taboo subjects. The author of five books with titles like I am not as well as I thought I was and How to be human both of which she turned into sell-out tours, the former with a monk and a neuroscientist, Ruby knows that by talking about her own experiences she opens the door for others to do the same, bringing the black dog out of the shadows.  But still, she says she isn’t a mental health campaigner.   This podcast is bought to you by The Resurgence Trust.