A series of podcasts from the ‘Pathologies of Solitude’ project at Queen Mary University of London, looking at places and experiences of solitude and how these have changed over the centuries. Each episode has been curated by a member of the project research team, and topics range from gardens, cities and sanctums, to potentially perilous places like prison cells and even the human mind. The series includes six episodes and two extended interviews: the first with historian Lisa Guenther and former political prisoner Shokoufeh Sakhi, and the second with historian Diarmaid MacCulloch and the Most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Presented by Hetta Howes (City University of London)
Produced by Natalie Steed

Spaces of Solitude

Hear historian of emotions Thomas Dixon describe and define joy, before listening to comedian Daliso Chaponda and developmental psychologist Caspar Addyman talk with Bidisha. They remind us to let our inner jester and inner laughing baby come out and play. 

Musician Sola shares her track ‘All Mine’ and talks about the pleasures of making music. Whilst enjoying ice cream, performance artist Travis Alabanza speaks with Bidisha about identity and defiance and the sheer delight they experience when they can be themselves on and off stage.  

How can joy be a collective experience? Bidisha finds out through speaking with Kemi Akinola, the founder of Be Enriched, a community kitchen in South London bringing people together over food and creating a place of comfort and joy for 4000 diners a year.

Presented by Bidisha
Produced by Debbie Kilbride
Sound design by Micky Curling
Music by Sola
Executive producer Emily Wiles

Hello Happiness: Episode 4, Joy

PSYCHIC DRIVING
TEST #1
MUSEUM OF THE NORMAL
BART'S PATHOLOGY MUSEUM, LONDON
24.11.16

*Contains some strong language*

TAPE #1

Sarah Chaney talks about the history of assumptions made about nursing, gender, and the emotions of care.

This is one of a series of short podcasts exploring what we do at the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions.

Compassion

Do we live in an age of rage? And if so, what can we learn about our furious feelings, and how to control them, from the experiences and ideas of great thinkers in the past?  Those are the questions explored in a pair of thought-provoking and darkly funny new audio dramas by playwright Craig Baxter, commissioned by the Living With Feeling project at Queen Mary University of London’s Centre for the History of the Emotions, and directed and produced by Natalie Steed.  

SENECA ANNOYED is a philosophical tragicomedy about emotions and ideas set in ancient Rome. When the order comes to him from Emperor Nero that he kill himself, the Stoic philosopher Seneca determines to dispatch himself in a calm and dignified manner. He hasn’t counted, though, on the frailty of his own body, the incompetence of his friends, or the blind fury of his wife, Paulina.

CAST: Seneca is played by Adam Kotz, Paulina by Jasmine Hyde, and Fabius by Geoffrey Streatfeild. The centurion is Michael Bertenshaw.

Produced and directed by Natalie Steed.
Recorded by David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown.

The Sound of Anger. DRAMA. Seneca Annoyed

An autobiographical essay on solitude, walking, the natural world, and emotions by the novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison.

Melissa reflects on what solitude has meant to her - and to others - from her childhood and early adult years to the recent period of lockdown in the summer of 2020. Recorded outside in the Suffolk countryside, this essay explores Melissa's feelings about living on her own and how she finds her most honest self through solitude in nature. She also reflects on what is has meant for women to be on their own in the past and the present. 

This essay was originally written in connection with the BBC Radio 4 series, 'A Short History of Solitude': https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m57m 

Find Melissa's podcast 'The Stubborn Light of Things' here: https://melissaharrison.co.uk/podcast/

This episode is presented by Thomas Dixon and produced by Natalie Steed, as part of the 'Living With Feeling' project at Queen Mary University of London, supported by the Wellcome Trust: https://projects.history.qmul.ac.uk/livingwithfeeling/

Melissa Harrison on Solitude

How did gardens come to play such a key part in the history of solitude? Hetta Howes sets out to answer this question with James Morland, who moves from the idyllic but complex seclusion of Eden to the refuge of queer ecology in Derek Jarman’s garden at Prospect Cottage to offer a reading of gardens as spaces of escape. Laura Seymour discusses how 17th-century gardens provided a sense of liberty in the face of political furore, and Stephen Bending talks us through design versus wilderness and the opportunities that gardens have provided for women. Finally, Hetta speaks to Rosie Fyles, the Head Gardener at Ham House, about the history of collaboration in creating garden spaces.

Contributors: James Morland (Queen Mary University of London), Laura Seymour (Birkbeck, University of London), Rosie Fyles (Ham House) and Stephen Bending (University of Southampton)

Presented by Hetta Howes
Curated by James Morland 
Produced by Natalie Steed
Readings by Sam West
Sound recording from An English Country Garden in July by Keith Selmes (CC Attribution License)

The Garden

In the opening episode of our series, Hetta Howes and Barbara Taylor take us on a journey through the history of spiritual solitude. Why have people of faith chosen to be alone throughout the ages and what perils do they face in doing so? Hetta meets Hilary Powell to discuss the secluded lives of medieval anchorites and hermits, and Revd Erica Longfellow to learn about the sociable religious landscape of the 17th century. Later she speaks to James Morland about the natural world as a space for solitary contemplation, before a conversation with Brother James Koester about the fine line between solitude and loneliness in a modern-day monastic community. 

Contributors: Hilary Powell (Durham University) , Erica Longfellow (New College, Oxford), James Morland (Queen Mary University of London), James Koester (Society of Saint John the Evangelist)

Presented by Hetta Howes
Curated by Barbara Taylor 
Produced by Natalie Steed 
Readings by Miles Richardson

The Sanctum

Hetta Howes and James Morland continue their exploration of solitude in this episode, pondering the perilous places we sometimes enter in the search for aloneness. James introduces listeners to the graveyard poets of the 18th century, who sought out places of darkness to explore their biggest fears and deepest anxieties. Hetta then speaks to Josh Cohen about Emily Dickinson’s reclusive tendencies, the imagined wildernesses she created locked away in her room, and the ways in which, historically, seclusion and solitude could make women simultaneously conspicuous and invisible. Finally, she talks to Barbara Taylor about John Donne’s terrifying struggle with solitude in his sickroom and what we can learn from those most troubling forms of aloneness when care has disappeared. 

*Correction: the poem ‘The Wilderness’ referenced in this podcast episode was misattributed to Emily Dickinson and is by 20th-century poet Kathleen Raine. For more on wilderness and solitude in Dickinson, see her poem, ‘Had I not seen the sun’.
 
Contributors: James Morland (Queen Mary University of London), Josh Cohen (Goldsmiths University), Barbara Taylor (Queen Mary University of London)

Presented by Hetta Howes 
Curated by James Morland 
Produced by Natalie Steed
Readings by James Morland and Sam West

Perilous Places

The German sociologist Georg Simmel famously claimed that ‘one nowhere feels as lonely and lost as in the metropolitan crowd’. Hetta Howes and Charlie Williams take a walk through London to explore this classic idea of loneliness and the many ways of being alone in a city. They hear from Matthew Beaumont about the long tradition of ‘nightwalkers’, a mantle applied to vagrants, sex workers, migrants and bohemians, all searching for different opportunities in the city after dark. Hetta speaks to Leo Coleman about the development of the industrial city and the experiences of isolation that come with it, before being guided by Susheila Nasta through Sam Selvon’s classic novel of city newcomers, The Lonely Londoners.

Contributors: Charlie Williams (Queen Mary University of London), Matthew Beaumont (University College London), Leo Coleman (Hunter College, City University of New York), Susheila Nasta (Queen Mary University of London)

Presented by Hetta Howes 
Curated by Charlie Williams 
Produced by Natalie Steed 
Readings by Miles Richardson and Burt Caesar

The City

As part of the 'Spaces of Solitude' series, Hetta Howes presents a conversation between Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University, and the most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury. Discussion ranges from personal experiences of solitude and silence, to ‘thin-places’ and speaking in tongues.

Presented by Hetta Howes 
Produced by Natalie Steed

On Spiritual Solitude

In this episode, Hetta Howes and Charlie Williams look at experiences of imprisonment and solitary confinement, asking how we can understand the effects of enforced isolation on the human psyche?  They speak first to Lisa Guenther, who charts the rise and rise of solitary confinement in the United States and the links between this practice and the long history of slavery. Next, they hear from Andrea Brady about the ‘Jail Poems’ of Beat Poet Bob Kaufman and the perspective they provide on imprisonment as an existential condition. And finally, Hetta speaks to Shokoufeh Sakhi about her years as a political prisoner in Iran, the work of preserving connections with the world in the face of solitary confinement, and the power of creating beauty within the prison.  

Contributors: Charlie Williams, (Queen Mary University of London) Lisa Guenther (Queens University, Canada), Shokoufeh Sakhi (independent scholar), Andrea Brady (Queen Mary University of London)

Presented by Hetta Howes 
Curated by Charlie Williams
Produced by Natalie Steed 
Readings by Miles Richardson and Burt Caesar

The Cell

Uplifting interview with Bethany about how singing saved her life. “What was once just a band aid, I just need to get better so I can sing, kinda thing, actually has been an underlying sustaining force the whole time.”
Bethany moved to London from the US almost 4 years ago and has loved building community here through singing. Currently, she teaches a community singing group for seniors at Coin Street Community Builders as well as a group at Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest for people building resilience and overcoming mental health problems. Bethany knows first-hand the healing power of singing and loves being able to share that power with others. When she is not teaching, she enjoys going for long walks around the city and hanging out with her rescue cat Arwen.

Singing Saved My Life: Bethany

This is a podcast from the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London. 'The Sound of Anger' won two gold British Podcast Awards in 2020.  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts via iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/living-with-feeling/id1186251350?mt=2

On Spiritual Solitude

Centre for the History of the Emotions

Related tracks