During the summer I went on a hike from Newton Abbot to Torquay to chat about Slow Ways with John Danks from BBC Spotlight. Here’s how that went..
BBC
BBC News: Slow map – Mapping Britain’s intercity footpaths
“Would you know the best way to walk from Leeds to Manchester? From Tring to Milton Keynes, or Carlisle to Inverness? If not, then you’re not alone.
We live in a time when our phones will show us the quickest route to almost anywhere – if we are driving, that is. Walking? Well, that’s a different matter.
Geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison is offering a solution; a new map created by volunteers during lockdown to show the best walking routes between all of Britain’s main towns.
All that is needed now is 10,000 keen walkers to test out the routes on his “slow map”. David Sillito
BBC Two: Cities, Nature’s New Wild
Cities: Nature’s New Wild is a brilliant new wildlife series from the BBC. Looking at the relationship between wildlife, people and cities around the world, the final episode finishes with Beth Collier and Wild in the City, Friend’s of the Earth’s 10xGreener project and the London National Park City.
Watch the whole episode on iPlayer here and skip to 52 minutes for “Tales from the Wild Side” that focuses on London.
BBC Countryfile: Cities
The first ever BBC Countryfile on cities started with a segment on the movement to make London a National Park City. It was wonderful to meet Countryfile presenter Anita Rani on Parkland Walk to chat with her about the campaign.
“Fundamentally this is about improving the health of all Londoners, no matter how wild they are..”
Watch from 01:50 on BBC iPlayer.
BBC News: Mood swings. The man mapping Britain’s emotions
“National Geographic explorer Daniel Raven-Ellison has just completed a 2.5 million step walk across Britain’s cities and parks and electronically measured his changing mood with each step.
Wearing an EEG monitor strapped to his head he collected millions of snapshots of the activity in his brain as he crossed 69 cities over seven months in the UK from June last year.
The monitor measures the electrical activity of the brain from sensors located across key areas of the scalp.
Its software provided metrics on how stressed, relaxed, excited, focused, interested and engaged he was during his walks.”
Continue reading David Sillito’s report on the BBC News website.
BBC Open Country: London, A National Park City?
“There’s a campaign gaining ground to make London a National Park City. But what exactly does that mean? David Lindo meets the campaign founder Dan Raven-Ellison to find out and goes on a journey across London to see for himself why anyone would think the UK’s biggest city could qualify for such a title. Along the way he finds a ghost of a river, an enthusiastic ornithologist, and some paddlers who call Regents Canal their breathing space.”
Listen to this episode of Open Country on BBC Radio 4.