The podcast is hosted by Mark Vernon, in conversation with people who have attended the Realisation festival. The aim is to develop a sense of the various ways in which realising is done, as people offer reflections on ideas, experiences, books and activities.
Realisation 2025 at Do Radio: Roc Sandford and Sarah Wilson
This is the fourth episode of Do Radio Series, Where To Next?, hosted by Dan Kieran. Dan came to Realisation 2025 and, for this episode, spoke with Roc Sandford and Sarah Wilson, two of our speakers. Dan writes: “This is an incredible event that takes place over three days at St Giles House, the home of the Earl of Shaftesbury. I was thrilled first to meet Roc, who lives off-grid on the island of Gometra off the coast of Mull, and then Sarah Wilson, the former editor of Cosmoplitan and presenter of Masterchef in Australia who writes the extraordinarily successful Substack, This is Precious.” Find Dan’s Substack, Following The Stag, for more.
Craftivism and gentle protest. A conversation with Sarah Corbett
Handicrafts, including knitting, sewing, cross-stitching, as a form of activism? Speaking with Mark Vernon, Sarah explains how this quiet, multi-sensory, and mindful approach to pressing matters helps gather thoughts and process feelings. She will be speaking and offering a workshop at the Realisation Festival 2026. Arising from her own story and activist work, Sarah also discusses the crucial important of a space for inner reflection and compassionate conversation. Craftivism offers a form that is useful tool to protest without fuelling polarisation or burnout. What campaigns and cases has it impacted? How might it extend activism? Might this be an activism for the non-activist, as well?
Local myths transform lives and how they do it. A conversation with Kim Willis
There is another world that is also here and it can empower people in times of trouble. Kim Willis tells Mark Vernon that she stepped outside, bringing her expertise in systems thinking and the value of stories, to discover resources in England, Wales and Scotland that modern culture often overlooks. She describes her discoveries and their impact in her new book, “No Fair Maidens”, and will bring that energy to the Realisation Festival 2026. What difference can an imaginative encounter with enchantment bring? How do stories that are close to us meet us and empower us? Why do they much matter in a time when people are searching for positive ways of living? There are living myths waiting for our return to them!
How Business Can Be Sacred. And Why. Nikki Trott at Realisation 2026
Can businesses today become a source of healing and regeneration? What shifts are required in our appreciation of money and wealth to make commercial organisations into living systems in the service of life? What inner work is required, both by leaders and society as a whole, to make this transition? Speaker, transformation coach and thought leader, Nikki Trott, talking with Mark Vernon, explores some of the themes she will bring to Realisation 2026. Her book is Sacred Business. Find out more here – www.nikkitrott.com
Why Edges Very Much Matter. Charles Foster at Realisation 2026
Why does politics feel increasingly frantic, economics increasingly deluded, culture increasingly empty – even when led by seemingly good people? Charles Foster explores how, at root, modern ways of life uncouple us from the heart of what makes us human: a love of horizons and edges. With that perspective lost, power is mostly about control, not allure, and society organises around safety rather than spirit. What does this mean for notions like nation states and sciences of prediction? Drawing particularly on the work of Iain McGilchrist, Charles asks again about the meaning of life, individual and collective, by stepping towards uncertainty. Charles is speaking with Mark Vernon and will be at the Realisation Festival this year.
The Power of Story. Sharon Blackie on her themes for Realisation 2026
How can myths and fairytales help us, personally and collectively? What stories, often almost lost, can aid us with contemporary crises? Why does the imagination so very much matter? Sharon Blackie will lead us in the exploration of these themes and more on the opening of the first day of the Realisation Festival, 2026. She will invite us to consider possibilities beyond the hero’s journey and also how to draw on images, community and the land. Sharon was talking with Mark Vernon. For more on Sharon’s work, not least her new book, Ripening, see https://sharonblackie.net/ For more on the Realisation Festival, see https://realisationfestival.com/
A Whole Other Story. A conversation on the shape of Realisation 2026.
The Realisation Festival is a soulful response to the crises of our times. So, with two months to go before this year’s gathering, Nick Shaftesbury, Pippa Evans and Ed Haddon sat down with Mark Vernon to explore the shape of the programme this year. Why does this space to share the complexities of today so much matter? What encounters are they hoping for? How might the big theme of story, that has emerged in planning this year, help us stay with confusion and worry, aspiration and hope? The pre-festival in-person meeting on 21st April will be at Kairos in London.
Reviving the Education Commons and Speaking Truth to Power. A conversation with Guy Standing
Guy Standing is an economist whose new book Human Capital: The Tragedy of the Education Commons has much to say about a key theme of the festival: bildung. His thoughts on the corruption of education by policies that have lost touch with the public good are a provocative introduction to the kind of concerns explored when we meet. In this conversation with Mark Vernon, Guy explores the extent of the challenges facing education in the 21st century, though his deep critique is, at once, an articulation of vision and what is means to be human. As well as authoring a series of books on the commons, Guy is a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London and a founding member and honorary co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), a non-governmental organisation that promotes a basic income for all. more on Guy’s work see guystanding.com
The alchemy of music and improvisation. A conversation with Pippa Evans and Christopher Ash
The Realisation Festival is much to do with perspective and gaining fresh takes on current issues. That widening of horizons is greatly aided by combining ideas with music, insights with improvisation. Laughing with others is liberating, too. Mark Vernon talks with Pippa Evans and Christopher Ash from The Realisation Players. They explore how and why music and improvisation are so key to the gathering, linking body and soul, traditions past with the present, and also lending soul-refreshing levity to gravity.
The intelligence of molecules. A conversation with Pauline Rudd
A new paradigm is beginning to emerge in biology, though for some biologists, the new is, in fact, the old. The reductive treatment of living organisms, as if the gene were all, is giving way to the realisation that intelligence, even agency, operates at all levels of biological systems, from the proteins up. There is no-one better to talk to about this development and what it implies than Professor Pauline Rudd, a regular at the Realisation Festival and leading glycobiologist, recognised most recently by being awarded the Torbern Bergman Medal 2025. In this conversation with Mark Vernon, she explains what it is like to befriend biochemical molecules, to understand how they see the world around them, and thereby to form the science of their activity.
Storms make the oak grow deeper roots. A conversation with Benedict Pollard, the “acorn man”
Oak trees lend themselves to proverbs and expressions of wisdom. The poet, George Herbert, is said to have written about these mighty trees sinking deeper roots, as a metaphor for resilience and preparedness for the future. In this conversation, Mark Vernon speaks with Benedict Pollard, founder of the nursery Mighty Fine Oaks, conservationist, and Fellow of The Linnean Society. Benedict also looks after the trees of St Giles House, Dorset, where the Realisation Festival takes place. He has invited attendees to plant new trees and also to attend to the beetles in the shrubs and on the land, which is another source of fascination for him. In this conversation, Benedict describes his deep relationship with trees, oaks in particular, as his intelligence meets theirs.
Wisdom from the horse’s mouth. A talk with coach and rider Damian Hallam
Damian Hallam is a contributor to the Realisation Festival, both as participant and speaker. He has been named one of the top 5 dressage coaches in the UK and, as a rider, won over 15 national championships, as well as medals for GB.
Presence, soul and AI. A conversation with Ben R Smith
Understanding AI has is a recurrent challenge. Should we be afraid or more sanguine or some combination of the two?
The good, the beautiful and the truth. A philosophical godfather of the Realisation Festival, with Esmé Partridge
The Realisation Festival is held at St Giles House, Wimborne, the home of the Earls of Shaftesbury. The place is loaded with the history of social reform and philosophical innovation – not least when it comes to ideas that inspire our gathering. In this episode of the podcast, Mark Vernon talks with Esmé Partridge about one figure in particular.
The joys of spring. A conversation with Indra Adnan
If politics is broken how might people rediscover agency? If capitalism favours the powerful are there alternative forms of power to be found? If life often feels fragmented how can the fractal become revelatory? And further: how might practises like improvisation and resources like spiritual traditions assist?
Poetry as a tool for transformation. A conversation with Josiane Smith
What good is a poem? How might poetry be a tool for transformation, both personally and collectively? And how does poetry help us to better understand the spirit of our times?
The Spiritual Function of Myth. A conversation with Martin Shaw, 2025 Realisation Festival guest speaker
What is the function of myth and story? How can they help us become more human? What do they teach us about the nature of reality and how we might orient wisely in a time such as ours when the world is in turmoil?
Soul nerding and becoming the ground in collapsing times. A conversation with Sarah Wilson, Realisation Festival 2025 speaker
Why is seeing simply so valuable? How can we relearn from nature a reimagining our of lives? What does it mean to tackle contemporary troubles with joy and devotion? And what role might myth and ritual play in the rediscovery of pathways to the future?
Science and imagination, nature and meaning. A conversation on bridging divides with Pauline Rudd
Professor Pauline Rudd is a leading glycobiologist, recognised most recently by being awarded the Torbern Bergman Medal 2025. So what is it like to work as a scientist? And why is she inspired by everything from beluga whales to the grail stories?
When the world gives back. A conversation with Ed Haddon
How is sport a spiritual practice? What is the value of coaching? Why are collective undertakings as valuable as individual goals?
The confidence to be human in an age of AI. A conversation about the complexity of things with Mazviita Chirimuuta
What do we really learn from neuroscience? How can scientific assumptions shape the world we perceive? Why might notions such as soul and mind matter all the more in times of mechanistic, computational thinking?
In the beginning was connection. A conversation with Kenneth Cross
Many of today’s troubles could be described as ones of connection. But is that about a lack of connection, a flood of connection, or perhaps the quality of connections?
From energy transition to knowing your bees – and there is a link. A conversation with Jonny Williams
What is it like to work in the world of renewables? Why is transitioning to new fuels so complicated and what practical difference can soulful concerns make?
The body as the practice of the imaginal. A conversation with Dominique Savitri Bonarjee
The body as the practice of the imaginal. A conversation with Dominique Savitri Bonarjee.
Passion and trust in a turbulent age. A conversation with Juliette Otterburn Hall
What does it mean to have a shared story? How can collaboration be fostered in competitive times?
How to be a pilgrim of cultures. A conversation with Jacob Kishere
Much is changing in the world, evidenced by movements flourishing as well as environments degrading. So how can we live into these times? What qualities and imaginative tools might help?
Levity, trees and the shape of the festival. A conversation with Pippa Evans
The Realisation Festival is five years old, so how is it shaping up? What ways best describe the gathering? And also, what of its distinctive coupling of music and improvisation with ideas and the challenges of today?
Ghosts, sci-fi and fictional philosophy. A conversation with Carrie Myshkin
What would happen if the doors of perception were cleansed, to recall William Blake’s phrase? Can science-fiction help us re-imagine the world in which we live? Might strange experiences play a part in enlightening us?
