Let's talk about men's mental health! This week's guest is Tom Mason the co-founder of Blue Balls Cornwall, a cold water swimming group specifically for the men of Cornwall. We spoke about how cold water develops resilience, building a community and tidal pools. Perhaps this is the lesson that many women of my generation need to learn. We’re sold the idea that we can Marie Kondo our lives into happiness. We’re told Good Vibes Only, Think Yourself Healthy, Manifest Money and Set Boundaries, Find Peace. I thought I could do the same with grief. Grief in the Wild: Finding Refuge in Nature for Good Grief Festival on 28th October - Register here > Online Recordings

Freya Bromley is a writer living in London. Her work explores love, loss and healing through nature and she’s written for publications including Apple Music, Lonely Planet, Financial Times and National Geographic Traveller. Philippa Gregory - Shout out to the aunties — Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Russell Watson, Philippa Gregory, Rev Kate Bottley How a 10-day digital detox totally changed my life In need of a mental reset, Radio presenter and author Sonya Barlow ditched her

Podcast

Freya Bromley is currently touring her debut memoir, The Tidal Year, which was published this May. We spoke through a screen during our interview, but that feeling of knowing the people she meets through her book remained. Owusu-Sekyere said: “I am delighted to be publishing Freya’s stunning debut book next spring. Her story is both moving and inspiring, so it is a real pleasure working with Freya to bring this deeply tender book into the world."

The mini reset that helps me recover from my fast-paced life Livvy Probert, founder of Hawq, makes time for a seaside trip every few months – When we hung up, I got the train home from university and spent the journey trying to tell myself it would be ok. People get better from cancer all the time! They get better and they run half-marathons for charity when it becomes a story from their past. Then I got home and realised from everyone’s facial expressions that it was not that kind of cancer. The Tidal Year is a podcast about the joy of swimming. Writer and wild swimmer Freya Bromley discovers the human stories behind why we swim. Every week, she’s joined by a new guest who shares what water means to them. I adored this book, with its beautiful imagery and depictions of the British coastline. It’s hard to give structure to your own story but Freya manages to convey her development via clear plot points while refusing to portray grief as linear. I loved the honesty of this book; the anger and injustice of a teenage boy dying too soon, the guilt of dating and living without him, and the difficulties of connecting to other family members after a huge shift in your dynamics. This podcast resonated with me on such a deeper level than just swimming. Freya and guests talk about over coming fears, grief, moving on from different chapters in your life and family.

Clips

It's hard to capture the joy of swimming in words, let alone art, but Lizzy Stewart somehow manages it. This week's guest is the wonderful illustrator and author of the graphic novel Alison. We spoke about painting pools, Devon's beaches and the connection between creativity and water. My book The Tidal Year is out today! As a special thank you to my podcast listeners, I've included a free preview of the prologue and chapter one from the audiobook read by me. Here's more about the book: Bromley first made waves with her swimming themed podcast of the same name, which caught the attention of a literary agent. “I feel like a lot of us expect that it’s over before it’s even started”, she expresses, in relation to her early success. Though Bromley managed to publish The Tidal Year through traditional means, she also urges for “a revolution in sharing people’s stories, regardless of who’s publishing them. I think that’s what’s happening with Unbound, which is like crowdfunding for books.” Sir Ranulph Fiennes - I'm the only person to walk round the world — Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Russell Watson, Philippa Gregory, Rev Kate Bottley Coronet has signed The Tidal Year, “a story about the healing power of wild swimming and the space it creates for reflection, rewilding, and hope” by wild swimmer and podcast host Freya Bromley.

Her experience was not without frustrations, but Cambridge allowed Bromley to solidify her identity and confidence through learning and community. “We all had this shared intention of wanting to […] turn something that felt like a secret inside us into being a huge part of our identity. That was really powerful to be around. It was almost like we were co-signing each other’s dreams.” Freya Bromley, author and podcaster of The Tidal Year, expounds upon the virtues of swimming in every tidal pool in the UK and how it helped her grief. Swimming also gave me community and connected me with one very special friend, Miri. We began taking weekend swimming trips out of London and I became obsessed with tidal pools. I decided that, with her by my side, I would swim all of Britain’s tidal pools in one year. My book The Tidal Year is about our adventure. Russell Watson - "He's not what he used to be" — Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Russell Watson, Philippa Gregory, Rev Kate Bottley

Giuseppe Dell'Anno - I feel guilty my children don't have that connection — Rory Bremner, Sue Kent, Giuseppe Dell'Anno, Simon Farnaby For Bromley, the goalposts for success are constantly moving. “There was a time where the thought of having an agent was the best thing in the world. And as soon as I got an agent, I was like, I’ll be so happy when I get a book deal. Now I’ve had a book deal, I move on to the next thing.” Identity has been something that Bromley has realised is internal, and not earned. “I didn’t feel like I would have a right to call myself a writer if I didn’t have the book, whereas now I know that I’m a writer, inside me.” When was the last time you stopped to notice the plants around you while you swam? This week's guest is Leif Bersweden, botanist and author of Where the Wildflowers Grow. We spoke about aquatic plants, where to find them and how to care for them. The Tidal Year is a story about the healing power of wild swimming and the space it creates for reflection, rewilding, and hope. An exploration of grief in the modern age, it’s also a tale of female rage, sisterhood loss and love in the modern age.”

All have communities that meet regularly for swims and fundraise to keep them swimmable. I spoke to a woman at Clevedon Marine Lake in Bristol who said that swimming there saved her life. You might think that sounds hyperbolic, but after travelling around mainland Britain to swim in these places, I learned that it was a common theme. People are swimming to answer a question inside them. 'Why do I feel like this? When will I feel better? Can I keep going?' Writing a memoir implied a large degree of vulnerability for Bromley, who “worried a lot when I was writing it that I came across like a really moany bitch. [...] But now, I wish I’d had the confidence to go further with some of the ugly thoughts and feelings I had. Why do we [women] have to be likeable?” For Bromley then, being a writer and being successful are tied to externalising feelings that she describes are “tangled.” Though she still struggles with validation, confessing it to be “addictive”, her understanding of what it means to “do well” and more importantly, what doing well means to her, is shifting. Multi-hyphenate Steve Jones, TV presenter, podcaster, novelist and librocubicularist, discusses his debut novel Call Time. By the time we finally knew what was happening, Tom’s Ewing's Sarcoma was everywhere. My family had both a long time to say goodbye and never enough time to face the reality of someone we loved – and someone so young – being ill. Even now, it doesn’t feel real. I remember people saying, 'I just can’t believe it'. Yet really it is the most believable thing of all. We know death happens every day, we just try to avoid paying attention. Dying is the most predictable thing anyone can do. Just not when they leave behind me or leave behind you. Tom died in November 2016. The Tidal Year is captured by its subtitle, a memoir of ‘grief, swimming, and sisterhood’ which appeared following the loss of Bromley’s brother. Yet this is very much Bromley’s story – she firmly maintains: “it’s not my job to write a book about him. I don’t have that right, I’m not him, that’s his story. All I kind of was trying to write about was about what it was like to move forward with grief.”I had severe burnout – this is what helped me recover Wellness expert Lauren Lepley, 40, shares how a relocation reset her mind and Every other breath we take comes from the ocean, so it's important that we look after it! Susanne Masters has great tips for how. This week's guest is plant scientist, ethnobotanist and the author of Wild Waters. We spoke about sustainable harvesting, swimming with seals and the Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim. People meet me and there’s a sense that we know each other already because they have often spent quite a lot of time with me. There’s a natural intimacy there, and it has been beautiful.”