The Clearing with Katherine May

Not too warm, not too cool, the kind of evening where you’re still in shorts but have pulled on a sweater, is where we find ourselves this week with the wonderful writer and papercut artist Anna Brones.

It’s the Pacific North-West but imbued with Anna’s Swedish heritage as she brings comfort and nostalgia - cold water swimming, her grandmother’s woollen blanket - to a cosy spot on a blustery shore.

Together, Katherine and Anna explore ideas of home, desire for the place you are not, ‘the curse of the creatives’ and share fascinating insights into both of their creative processes.

Links from the episode:

Anna’s book Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break
Anna’s newsletter Creative Fuel
Anna’s website https://www.annabrones.com/
Anna’s Instagram

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript, to discover how to enjoy our bonus episodes, our ad free episodes and if you subscribe, how to submit your own idea for a dream retreat.

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits
Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘Revel’ is the recurring theme of this episode as writer Alice Vincent brings visceral, carnival-esque Glastonbury vibes to The Clearing this week.

A self-confessed extrovert, her dream retreat includes bundling up all the sounds and experiences of the people and places she loves; the chaotic joy of a house party, the blissful comfort of chatty gatherings with friends and family, the daily buzz of a busy household.

But after the noise comes the calm. That liminal space of watching the sun rise after being up all night with friends at a house party, morning dew on the grass, where your body glows with the memory of the night before and you savour the quiet stillness.

A lovely, messy, joyful gathering of sound, happiness and the coming together of humans.

Links from episode:

Alice’s website where you can find her books including Hark https://www.alicevincent.co.uk/
Alice’s Substack https://savour.substack.com/
Alice’s Instagram

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript, to discover how to enjoy our bonus episodes, our ad free episodes and if you subscribe, how to submit your own idea for a dream retreat

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trees as ancestors, blurring the boundary between our bodies and the living world and constructing your sense of ‘self’ through art; these are just some of the beautiful areas of discussion between our guest Joycelyn Longdon and Katherine this week.

Joycelyn is a researcher and writer, currently finishing her PhD at the University of Cambridge, who bridges the worlds of ecology, technology and environmental justice.

Resisting the urge to pick a far-flung place, she goes extremely local for her small idyll, choosing a tiny patch of woodland by the river near her home, under her favourite willow tree, connecting to culture and mother earth.

Wonderfully dreamy and deeply grounding.

Links from the episode:
Richard Powers The Overstory
Explore Adinkra Symbols https://www.adinkrasymbols.org/#gsc.tab=0
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Jeff Buckley and Elizabeth Fraser All Flowers Bend Towards the Sun

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript, to discover how to enjoy our bonus episodes, our ad free episodes and if you subscribe, how to submit your own idea for a dream retreat
Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Warm waters, humid, verdant jungle and the nighttime hum of insects are where we find ourselves this week as our guest, Yasmin Khan, transports us on a much-needed break to the tropics.

Yasmin is the bestselling author of travel cookbooks exploring the food, people and stories of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. In 2025 she found herself in the middle of a bizarre legal storm when she was threatened with legal action by a deli for calling her latest book ‘Sabzi’ - the word for veg or greens in multiple languages.

In this conversation with Katherine they discuss the controversy (the case was eventually dropped) and the issues it raises, including the ownership and commodification of food culture. Plus finding community when the chips are down, the ebb and flow of cooking for pleasure, snatched moments of rest with a small child and UK national treasure, Nigella Lawson. A wonderful, and important, conversation.

Links from the episode

Yasmin’s Substack Risingup.substack.com
Yasmin’s Instagram
Kaco Pens
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
How to Eat by Nigella Lawson

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript, to discover how to enjoy our bonus episodes, our ad free episodes and if you subscribe, how to submit your own idea for a dream retreat
Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate Bowler is the multiple New York Times-bestselling author, professor of divinity and stage-four cancer survivor who has mastered the art of finding small delights in the everyday. No grand gestures for her.

In this wonderful conversation with Katherine, they talk about ‘how to cope’, the brittleness of time and why revelling in absurdity is really the answer to everything. A celebration of silliness, tattoos, the important differences between canoes and kayaks and the most beautifully realised depiction of precious time spent with a best friend.

Links from the episode:

Kate’s new book Joyful Anyway
Kate’s website where you can find her previous books https://katebowler.com/
Kate’s podcast Everything Happens
Kate’s Instagram
A Truce that is Not Peace by Miriam Toews
My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman
Canadian ice fishing cabins https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/portraits-canadas-ice-fishing-huts-180957794/

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript, to discover how to enjoy our bonus episodes, our ad free episodes and if you subscribe, how to submit your own idea for a dream retreat
Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US
Follow Katherine on Instagram
Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.