Meet the people using the healing power of forests to help improve physical and mental health.
In forest therapy, people are taken into the woods and taught to use what they see, hear and smell to calm their minds.
This kind of therapy has its roots in the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing”, which was developed in the 1980s.
Myra is joined by Gary Evans, founder of the Forest Bathing Institute, to experience some of the relaxation techniques of forest bathing.
We also hear how forests are helping people recover from depression and addiction in Hong Kong and Costa Rica, and look into the scientific evidence for its effectiveness.
Presenter: Myra Anubi
Reporter: Carla Rosch
Producer: William Kremer
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Hal Haines
Editor: Penny Murphy
Email: [email protected]
Image: A woman in a forest (Getty Images)
1/24/2023
24:26
Plants fighting pollution
Clearing up pollution can be a messy and expensive task, but around the world people are harnessing the power of plants to do the job for them.
We hear how water hyacinths are going from hated weed to providing communities with a greener water filtration solution; how plants in the Niger Delta are helping rejuvenate land drenched in oil and devastated by fire and ask whether plants could be the future to more environmentally friendly mining.
Presenter: Myra Anubi
Reporter: Georgina Rannard
Reporter/producer: Lizzy McNeill
Producer: Zoe Gelber
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Hal Haines
Editor: Penny Murphy
Email: [email protected]
Image: A water hyacinth (Getty Images)
1/17/2023
24:04
Bringing dead languages back to life
Australia used to be one of the most linguistically diverse places, with over 200 languages. Today, many of Australia’s indigenous languages are considered “highly endangered”.
Inspired by his native language, Hebrew, Ghil’ad Zuckermann is a linguistics professor who is on a mission to revive Australia’s dead and endangered languages, painstakingly piecing them back together from historical documents.
We speak to Ghil’ad and Shania Richards from the Barngarla community, whose language is being brought back from the brink.
Presenter: Myra Anubi
Reporter/producer: Josephine Casserly
Producers: Claire Bates & Craig Langran
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Annie Gardiner
Editor: Penny Murphy
Email: [email protected]
Image: Shania Richards from the Barngarla community
1/10/2023
26:13
Fighting the megadrought
Chile is in the midst of a “megadrought” – year after year of low rainfall which has turned farmland to desert and left communities struggling to survive.
But in the midst of the crisis, people in Chile have found ingenious ways of collecting, saving and cleaning water.
We visit the hillside fog nets, AI powered irrigation system and a high-tech desalination plant that are helping people survive and thrive when the rains don’t come.
Presenter: Myra Anubi
Reporter/Producer: Jane Chambers
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound Mix: Gareth Jones
Editor: Penny Murphy
Email: [email protected]
Image: Daniel Rojas and his fog nets
1/3/2023
24:09
Micro-homes and sobercoins
A charity in the UK is building temporary wooden homes with just three small rooms. The idea is to give people who’ve been sleeping rough or living in hostels a step on to the housing ladder.
We visit some of these ‘micro-homes’ in England and hear about a community of ‘tiny homes’ in Los Angeles.
Plus, we visit a project in Belgium that’s trying to persuade young people to drink alcohol in moderation. They've created ‘sobercoins’ which party-goers are given if they turn up at events sober – which they can then use to buy alcoholic drinks.
Presenter: Myra Anubi
Reporter/producers: Caroline Bayley and Richard Kenny
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Hal Haines
Editor: Penny Murphy
Email: [email protected]
Image: Eamonn and his micro-home