Tom Elliott and Danny Longman swam all the lakes of the Lake District in four days, and Richard Flint filmed them. In this podcast, Richard, maker of the film ‘As You Lake It’, talks about the process of filming them do it, and Tom talks doing it - swimming the lakes of the Lake District.

Toronto-based Dylan Friedmann is an inspiration. She undertook, January 1st, 2021, to swim (or dip) in Lake Ontario every single day of the year to raise money for the charity Kids Help Phone, helping with adolescent mental health in Canada right now when help is needed. Air temperature on some of her dips dips to minus thirty Celsius, the water close on zero. She completed her daily swims in 2020, all 365 of them, and she continues on, swimming and dipping, even when in February she has to...

I was hospitalized with leptospirosis, Weil’s Disease, in August 2021. The risk of this disease sits at the back of the mind of many river and lake swimmers, but it very rarely materialises. It did so in my mind too, until. Until the intense burning and body chills, head and body aches, falling and falling blood pressure took me to hospital and intensive care. The clinical descriptions of the disease do not do justice to the metabolic and physiological roller-coaster I went on. This took me...

Juliet Turnbull is a very accomplished swimmer, and an artist who turns ideas that churn in her mind as she swims, into art-textiles and embroider-work, works that evoke the sensorial nature of being in the water. She lives on the Thames and swims in it. She is swimming the length of it in sections with her friend Fiona Irwin; she also sings under bridges. This podcast was recorded in January, when we were both in dry robes, recovering after swimming in a snow flurry, she near Hampton Court,...

The Thames, right now is not the universally clean and sparkling river of my dreams. This podcast is about trying to understand, as a swimmer, the problems surrounding rivers in the UK right now – the dumping of raw sewage, of pollution. How did we get into this watery mess? If it were simple, it would have been solved - so what is going on?  The music links are ‘Love is All Around’ by The Troggs; ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ sung by the choir of wells Cathedral; ‘Feeling Good’ by Nina Simone.

This podcast, with German nationally-acclaimed playwright, essayist, dramaturge and prize-winning novelist John von Düffel and acclaimed film-maker James Norton, considers Charles Sprawson’s classic book about the history and cultures of swimming, some thirty years after it was first published. Both John and James are passionate about this book,  John having adapted it for a German-speaking audience in 2002. The discussion ranges from swimming heroes, to romanticism, and to environmental...

Duncan Goodhew is a life-long swimmer and champion of swimming in more ways than one. He won Olympic Gold and Bronze in the 100 meters breaststroke and 100 meter medley relay respectively, in the Moscow 1980 Olympics. He has promoted swimming at all levels ever since. He is President of Swimathon, the swimming charity that brings together swimmers of all ages and abilities with two simple aims: to spread the joys and benefits of swimming whilst raising money for some of the UK’s most needful...

Anette Frisch lives in Dusseldorf, Germany. She swims in pools and the ocean, but mostly she is a pool swimmer, one that swims crawl because breaststroke is too slow for her. Which is not to say she is in a hurry. She is not; she is one of the most mindful swimmers I know, and this podcast very much became about exactly that – mindful swimming. It wasn’t planned that way, it just happened. Which is part of the magic of mindful swimming – it just happens. She is passionate about swimming, and...

Pauline Barker talks about the origins of the Polar Bear Challenge, and how it has expanded. She describes how many people got through the UK COVID-19 winter through swimming, dipping or equivalent challenges. Most importantly, she talks about what’s in store for the coming winter of 2021-22. Winter swimming has probably never been so popular in the UK as it is now, and Pauline Barker, one of the most experienced people in this field anywhere. The additional music links are Tom Rugg's Polar...

Ben Cousins is 72 years old and is passionate about the ocean – he has surfed it, swum in it, and now free dives in and around the ocean kelp forest south of Simonstown, south of Capetown, South Africa. At the start of our conversation in this podcast. Ben quotes poet Emily Dickenson - ‘That it will never come again - Is what makes life so sweet’. Ben lives life to the full, and strives to understand this mysterious world by keeping a diary for every swim - shark, octopus, stringray, and all...

Judith Holder is a bestselling comedy writer, TV producer and speaker, who originated the BBC series and stage shows 'Grumpy Old Women' which have sold worldwide. She is passionate about outdoor swimming. In this podcast she talks about her love for swimming, comedy, and her podcast series with friend and comedian Jenny Eclair. Linking music is Andy Grammer's 'Gotta Keep Your Head Up'; linking dialogue is from Judith Holder and Jenny Eclair's 'Older and Wider'. 

Caitlin Kraemer is a graduate student in Berlin and has written an article 'Swimming in the City'. In this podcast we talk about Berlin as an outdoor  swimming city, and city swimming in general. A citizen-swimmer, she knows a lot about the Flussbad Berlin, which will open up the Spree Canal to open water swimming right in the heart of the city.   Music links are: Froboess ‘Pack die Badehose ein’; Jaye Jayle 'The River Spree'; Tommy Guerrero 'Sun Rays Like Stilts'. As well as 'Noe Noe' by...

Anna Deacon is co-author, with Vicky Allen, of the book 'Taking the Plunge', She is a photographer of considerable repute, and has a number of swimming-oriented projects on the go. She talks about these, and more.

Darrin Roles started and runs, with acknowledged support from many friends and family, the Lock-to-Lock events in the River Thames upstream of Oxford. These swims are variously from Eynsham to King’s Lock (4 kilometers), from Farmoor to King’s Lock (6 kilometers) and from Farmoor to Godstow Lock (10 kilometers). In the course of setting up these swims, he revived the Oxford Mile (renamed the Oxford Classic Mile) and set up two swim-runs, along the same stretch of the River Thames as the...

Sian Richardson, Founder of The Bluetits Chill Swimmers, talks about how this social enterprise, with now more than 6,000 members across three continents, started and grew. From Wales, at the beach near the farm where Sian has lived all her life. Sian has style, panache and a passion for winter swimming which she is taking to the world. Link music in the podcast is John Rutter's 'Deep Peace' sung by Aled Jones.

Alex Foster spent the winter months of 2019-2020 learning about winter swimming and cold water immersion at the Serpentine Swimming Club, in Hyde Park, London. This is podcast is about his immersion in the club and its waters, and his MPhil thesis in Medical Anthropology on this topic. The thesis is available at www.lxvswim.org. Additional music is James Blake's cover of Don McLean's 'Vincent', and Glenn Gould's 1981 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations.  

A nostalgia conversation between Jeremy Wellingham and Stanley Ulijaszek about the Lake Bled Winter Swimming World Championships which took place a year ago, February 2020. We could not have anticipated how the year would unfold, so full of optimism was this event. Helped by the full-to-the-brim enthusiasm of the thousand-plus participants and their friends and family, there was seriousness, friendliness and fun in equal measure. ‘It’s wonderful to be here, it’s certainly a thrill…’ Music...

Sandy Burnett is a Man of Music, especially amphibious in classical waters and jazz streams of consciousness. He is one of the most authoritative classical music broadcasters in the UK, with a huge and impressive CV, which he wears lightly.  He is also an outdoor swimmer, Summer and Winter. In this conversation we discuss great rivers like the Thames and the Rhine, the ocean at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, and music that has been inspired by the flow of water. The music in this podcast is Sandy...

Bada bada bada, Varje dag Bada bada bada, Varje dag Bada Ja, Bada Ja Bada bada bada, Varje dag! Less of poetry than  trance chant – Swimming, swimming, swimming, every day Swimming, swimming, swimming, every day Swimming Yes, Swimming Yes Swimming, swimming, swimming, every day! Three women in Gothenberg, Sweden who swim every day, and bring joy, candles, bubbles and yoga on a surf-board, as well as their friends, to their project of a hundred swims into winter.  

Anne Katrine Kleberg Hansen is an all-seasons swimmer in Copenhagen, a city of the future where outdoor swimming is not just allowed but encouraged     

Judy Pearsall and Kristie Waller are two women who swim together regularly in Oxford and Oxfordshire. They both have a passion for swimming and they share some of their swimming thoughts, memories and plans.   

Between 2011 and 2013 a group of outdoor swimmers swam the 250 kilometer length of the non-tidal River Thames in stretches, starting at the source and ending in Teddington on the outskirts of London. The numbers varied from stretch to stretch, and the project took on a life of its own. Stanley Ulijaszek discusses this art-work-like swimming project with four of the founders of Swim the Thames.

Helen Edwards started swimming outdoors every day - Dip-a-Day - with no intention of taking it this far. She is now into her fourth year of this personal project, and she talks about her motivation for it, what it brings to her life, and how it has  just kept going. She lives in Oxford, and most of her swims are in and around this beautiful city. The music is Noe Noe by Castro, and Vienna Beat by Radio Pink, both on Blue Dot Sessions.       

Craig Holmes and Jo Jones are the defending British Ice Swimming 500 meter champions, and are very nice people. They talk with Stanley Ulijaszek about their swimming achievements, their aspirations, and how they got into cold water swimming. They have lots of excellent advice, all learned on their own bodies, on how to break the ice, so to speak, if you haven't done it before and want to.   

Pauline Barker, founder and organizer of the Polar Bear Challenge, in conversation with Stanley Ulijaszek, talking about her winter swimming achievements, what it takes to make a Polar Bear swimmer, and her swimming mission to make winter swimming open to everyone that wants it.