Absolute Units
Lo-fi clip-clops and bleats to relax/study to. Welcome to the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. Based at the University of Reading, we explore the past, present and future of the English countryside. Hosted by Joe Vaughan and Dr Ollie Douglas. Chaotic Good.
Episodes
What will farming look like in 100 years time? That's the question asked by a group of University of Reading PhD students, managed by Rosy Scholes and Ellen Knight, as part of the University of Reading's centenary celebrations.
In this pod, Joe and Ollie catch up with Rosy and Ellen about their research and their project, which culminated in the burial of a time capsule in our garden, filled with research, creative r...
How do you lead a rural history museum in 2026? What does that look like in practice? And how does our contemporary work vary to the vision of our founders back in 1951?
In this second of two conversations with Kate Arnold-Forster, Director of The Museum of English Rural Life and the University of Reading's Museums and Collections, Ollie and Joe chat with Kate about our museum's ongoing evolution, the power of eBay f...
So far we've spoken a lot about The Museum of English Rural Life's earliest years. Yet so much of what we are today results from a radical rethinking of what The MERL can be, which has happened under the brilliant stewardship of Kate Arnold-Forster, Director of The Museum of English Rural Life and the University of Reading's Museums and Collections.
In this episode, we speak with Kate about her journey into museums, ...
What have we been up to lately? What's coming up? And what's the rural significance of Bad Bunny's performance at the Superbowl?
In this episode, Joe and Ollie have a general chat about a bunch of different topics, which each connect - in some surprising ways - to the collections we hold here at The Museum of English Rural Life.
- Guy Shrubsole on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/guyshrubsole.bsky.social
- The Skylon:...
We're back with our second episode with the University of Reading's Tom Oliver and Marzia Briel! We continue talking about their Nature-centric Catalyst project, how we can rebuild our relationships with the natural world, and what's coming up next for our collaboration with Tom and Marzia at the museum.
Relevant links:
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How does humanity fit into nature? How long have we viewed ourselves as being apart from it? And what are the problems that creates?
This time, we chat with Tom Oliver and Marzia Briel from the University of Reading to learn about their Nature-centric Catalyst project. We discuss the rights of nature, the advocacy landscape today, and how we can better centre the natural world in our thoughts and deeds.
Also, we end w...
Okay. Take 2.
Last month we drew to a close two major installations at The MERL: our gallery trail Radical Rural, and our exhibition Voices of the Countryside.
In this episode, Joe and Ollie reflect on these two projects. We explore what we learned from them, what they meant to us, and how we want to build on this work for the future.
We also talk about the World Cup, explain what the heck went wrong last time, and go ...
How do museums engage with accessibility, both as spaces that welcome visitors and as collections of human stories?
On this episode, we're joined by the brilliant disability activist and performance artist Anahita Harding.
We discuss Anahita's work in agricultural museums (both the Food Museum and The MERL), the histories of disability in our collection, and how we can improve access and representation for disab...
Turns out delays come like London buses. First Joe got the flu. Then we accidentally re-shared the first episode with Guy rather than the new one. If you listened before we caught it, we hope you enjoyed that episode even more the second time.
Anyways, we're back! We return in full strength, with the right episode to boot, to pick up once more with the brilliant environmentalist, author, and campaigner Guy Shrubsole.
...
It's a simple three-word question. Yet the answer is extremely complicated, expensive, and concealed behind paywalls that run into hundreds of millions of pounds.
How did we get here? And how do we get out of it?
In this episode, Joe and Ollie are joined by the remarkable author and campaigner Guy Shrubsole (co-founder of Right to Roam) to explore the question of who really owns England. We chart the course of land ma...
Hi folks! We're closed tomorrow for Easter (which is when we'd usually release our next episode). Ollie and Joe are also in and out of the office at the moment, so we're going to use this as a chance for a brief hiatus and we'll then be back to regular programming in 2 weeks' time. See you very soon!
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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through th...
Content warnings: infant mortality (indicated in the chapter list!) - skip from 14:38 to 19:33
Today we turn 1 years old! A fine age for a growing podcast. Thanks to everyone who has tuned in, joined us in the booth, and supported us in these last 12 months.
To celebrate, we decided yesterday afternoon to record an impromptu anniversary episode, taking listener questions via Bluesky. We talk about a range of topics, i...
In 2022, a report by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences analysed 14 European countries and ranked them for nature connectedness, bio diversity, and wellbeing. Britain ranked last in all three.
So how do we better protect nature, care for wildlife, and look after each other?
Adrian Lawson is an environmentalist, author and activist whose career and campaigns have been defined by these questions - whether in co...
Old Crockern returns! We're back for a second episode with the legendary giant of Dartmoor, plus giant maker and dancer Ruth Webb (of The Lost Giants) and storyteller and environmentalist Lisa Schneidau.
Last time, we set the scene of Crockern's story and introduced a repetition of history, as Alexander Darwall sought to restrict wild camping on Dartmoor. This time we delve deeper into that story, coming almost right...
There's an ancient spirit who rules over Dartmoor, an uplands region in South West England. His face is granite grey. His eyes are dark as peat pools. His name is Old Crockern. And right now, he's at The Museum of English Rural Life.
In the first of two episodes, we're joined by environmentalists and activists Ruth Webb (of The Lost Giants) and Lisa Schneidau (storyteller and author). We explore the mythology of Old ...
Content warning: This episode contains references to antisemitism and prejudice. Listener discretion is advised.
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Last episode we talked about the founding year of The Museum of English Rural Life. But what was our significance within wider museum practice? How did our founding relate to Britain's waning empire? And what does the future hold for The MERL?
In this second episode marking our 75th anniversary, Joe and ...
On 1 January 1951, on the same day that the first episode of iconic radio drama The Archers aired on the radio, academics at the University of Reading officially founded The Museum of English Rural Life.
What inspired these storied scholars to make a museum? What did establishing a museum involve? And why aren’t all our team dressed up in smocks?
On this episode, Joe and Ollie chat about The MERL’s earlies...
Jane Austen’s novels are classic books of the English countryside. Yet they reveal so much more about English culture, industry and society than simply presenting prettified scenes of village life.
In this episode, we're back with Professor Paddy Bullard (University of Reading) and Isabel Hughes (The MERL) to talk about how Jane Austen’s novels explore space in rural and urban England: how it was used, de...
It is a truth universally acknowledged that every podcast about the history of the English countryside must do an episode on Jane Austen.
In the first of two conversations, Joe and Ollie are joined by Professor Paddy Bullard (University of Reading) and Isabel Hughes (MERL Associate Director) to explore Jane Austen's links to farming, as found in her personal biography and her literature.
We're back on Tuesday 16 Dec f...
How does the history of enclosure surface in England today and in Britain's former colonies? How can we de-enclose to create access for all?
In this episode, Joe and Ollie continue last time's conversation with the legendary author and activist George Monbiot, about how does the history of capitalism and colonialism interlink to England's urban and rural spaces.
Learn more about George Monbiot's work at https://www.mo...
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