It was the first days of spring when Laura Barton spoke to our third podcast guest, the Forward Prize winning poet Fiona Benson. Speaking about the itinerant rhythms of growing up in an RAF family, of boarding school and academia, the pleasing rhythms of a settled life in rural Devon and how each has shaped her poetry. Fittingly for this spring season Fiona shares her poem Almond Blossom to ease us out of winter into a hopeful and trusting green havoc.

TOAST Podcast Series 5 is presented by Laura Barton and produced by Geoff Bird. Music for this season was written and performed by Laura James. All views expressed in the podcast are the interviewees own and not necessarily those of TOAST.

Rhythm Podcast Series 5 | Fiona Benson

It would be hard to look at rhythm in all its forms without observing the breath and the way we speak. For over 40 years the world’s most formidable voice coach, Patsy Rodenburg, OBE, has done just that.  Speaking to Patsy from her home in London, we discover her passion for storytelling, her focus on the breath and its rhythms which link us all. 

Patsy has worked with politicians, business leaders and actors including  Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Daniel Craig. She’s collaborated with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre and is head of voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is the author of books on speech and presence and her great literary love, William Shakespeare.

TOAST Podcast Series 5 is presented by Laura Barton and produced by Geoff Bird. Music for this season was written and performed by Laura James. All views expressed in the podcast are the interviewees own and not necessarily those of TOAST.

Rhythm Podcast Series 5 | Patsy Rodenburg

Musician Valerie June was in New York when Laura Barton spoke to her for our fifth podcast series. She spoke of the stillness she has found through guided meditation, the natural rhythms that have steered her new album, 'The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers', and all of the ways her music carries her history – from singing gospel to recording with the queen of Memphis soul, Carla Thomas.

TOAST Podcast Series 5 is presented by Laura Barton and produced by Geoff Bird. Music for this season was written and performed by Laura James. All views expressed in the podcast are the interviewees own and not necessarily those of TOAST.

Rhythm Podcast Series 5 | Valerie June

The role of an intimacy coordinator is still fairly new in the world of film and TV but one that is fast gaining adoption in production houses including the BBC and Netflix. A pioneer and principal practitioner in the field, Ita O’Brien works to choreograph the often complex rhythms of intimate scenes and ensure best practice on set and stage when performances include nudity and sexual content. Ita has worked on productions including Normal People, Sex Education, I May Destroy You, The Dig and It’s a Sin. 

Joining Laura Barton from her home in Kent, Ita speaks about her work, physical rhythm and how she moved from dancing to acting to intimacy.

TOAST Podcast Series 5 is presented by Laura Barton and produced by Geoff Bird. Music for this season was written and performed by Laura James. All views expressed in the podcast are the interviewees own and not necessarily those of TOAST.

Rhythm Podcast Series 5 | Ita O'Brien

For our sixth podcast series we have partnered with Yorkshire Sculpture Park exploring our seasonal theme of Elemental Compositions through the work of six of the UK’s most exciting contemporary sculptors working today.

Elemental Compositions Podcast Series 6 | David Nash

Elemental Compositions Podcast Series 6 | Heather Peak

Elemental Compositions Podcast Series 6 | Ro Robertson

Elemental Compositions Podcast Series 6 | Saad Qureshi

Elemental Compositions Podcast Series 6 | Kedisha Coakley

Elemental Compositions Podcast Series 6 | Tania Kovats

The portrait of the Australian academic, writer and broadcaster Germaine Greer, by Paula Rego shows its subject filling the canvas, legs apart. Her hands are rough from gardening and she is dressed in her favourite Jean Muir dress and old, silver shoes. The portrait’s lack of flattery appealed to Greer: “A portrait that is kind is condescending. The last thing I would want is for Paula to condescend to me, and it's the last thing she would think of doing.” 

A major voice of second wave feminism, in 1970 Greer published The Female Eunuch, which argued that traditional family structures repress women’s sexuality. Still one of the most widely-read feminist texts, it has never been out of print. 

Greer has long courted controversy, and is regarded by many as a combative and frequently frustrating icon of feminism. A New Statesman column once stated that Greer “doesn’t get into trouble occasionally or inadvertently, but consistently and with the attitude of a tank rolling directly into a crowd of infantry.”

For all of this, Greer remains a crucial and powerful figure in the development of feminist thinking. One Guardian commentator put it: “As it goes with pioneering figures, there is much to doubt and dismiss; yet we are still indebted to them, as we are to Greer, for taking risks in the first place.”

Greer is 80 now, still writing, still vocal. On a midweek morning Laura Barton visits her at her home in Essex. There they discuss Greer’s current works and her plans to return to her homeland, leaving behind the garden that she has been creating for the last three decades.*

Image: Germaine Greer by Paula Rego. Pastel on paper laid on aluminium, 1995. © National Portrait Gallery, London. Discover more pioneering women from the National Portrait Gallery Collection in the book 100 Pioneering Women, featuring portraits of remarkable women from the last five centuries. 

*Please note, this episode contains strong language from the start.

Germaine Greer / The Making of a Pioneer

TOAST is a clothing and lifestyle brand that aspires to a slower, more thoughtful way of life. You can visit our website at: www.toa.st

TOAST podcasts are presented by Laura Barton, produced by Geoff Bird and conceived by Emily Cameron.

Germaine Greer / The Making of a Pioneer

TOAST

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