The Clearing with Katherine May - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

The Clearing with Katherine May — Arts
The Clearing with Katherine May

Where would you go to rest and retreat, in good times and bad?

Katherine May, author of Wintering and Enchantment, asks her guests to share their idea of a perfect sanctuary. Drawing on memory, inspiration and imagination, she explores the things we seek out when we need to restore our joy, hope and energy.

It begins with a forest clearing. What will we find there? A log cabin or a grand hotel? What cherished object or talisman would you bring? And what single work of art, be it a book, record, film or something else, would provide you with enough sustenance to see you through the darkness and remind you of the good times?

In a series of frank, thoughtful and deeply personal conversations, The Clearing will explore the cultural, social and spiritual mindset needed to survive difficult times.

Katherine’s Links:

Visit The Clearing website https://katherine-may.co.uk/the-clearing-podcast to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Katherine’s new book, Tending: How Care Binds the World is out in March and you can pre-order it here https://katherine-may.co.uk/tending

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copyright: Copyright © Katherine May

Latest Episodes:

Season One Interlude Jan 31, 2026

Show notes

Katherine explains why we are heeding our own advice and taking a tiny break this week. She also previews some exciting, listener-led bonus content that will be coming your way next season. We’ll be back next week with another wonderful guest for you. Meanwhile take care everyone.

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ece Temelkuran’s landscape of belonging Jan 24, 2026

Show notes

A modern sage who forewarned the world of the rise of fascism, writer Ece Temelkuran explains why she ‘put her heart in the freezer’ ten years ago when she fled her country of birth and how finding traces of home all around are helping her to heal.

From a beloved old cardigan to episodes of Downton Abbey, from being surrounded by Turkish food in Berlin to talking to her three favourite trees in the park; in this moving conversation Ece reveals the power of finding joy in the little things, as we collectively go through what she calls our ‘winter of humanity’.

A powerful call to arms and a must-listen for those of us searching for hope in difficult times.

Links from the episode:

Ece’s Instagram

Buy her latest book Nation of Strangers here

Buy How to Lose a Country here

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kaitlin Curtice’s sanctuary of the subconscious Jan 17, 2026

Show notes

Author, storyteller and enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin Curtice, shares her beautiful image of the perfect retreat, created by her own consciousness during the Covid pandemic.

Exploring this space together, Katherine and Kaitlin discuss the little-appreciated power of ageing, looking for stories beneath the stories, the art of listening, feeling the presence of the ancestors and asking permission from the stones and shells before you bring them home.

A wonderful episode of Indigenous wisdom, stillness and calm - the perfect moment of retreat.

Kaitlin’s Links

Kaitlin's website where you can find her books

Kaitlin's Substack

Authors mentioned by Kaitlin

Alastair McIntosh

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Musicians’ mentioned by Kaitlin

Gregory Alan Isakov

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Martha Beck and Rowan Mangan on the magic of communing with every living thing Jan 10, 2026

Show notes

This episode of The Clearing with renowned, Oprah-endorsed American life coach Martha Beck and her wonderful wife and podcast co-host Rowan Mangan skips the small talk and delves right into the mysteries and wonder of life and death.

From the consciousness of stones to the nonsensical hierarchy of different sentient beings on earth. From the spiritual repression of our age to the societal need for a shaman. From the realities of living in a liminal space as an autistic person, to parenting neurodivergent children to each of their own unique ‘awakenings’.

With uncannily similar experiences of the world, Martha, Ro and Katherine roll through a dizzying array of mind-expanding subjects and shared interests, resulting in a truly captivating and enriching episode.

Martha and Rowan’s Links

Martha’s website where you can find her books

Rowan’s website

Martha’s Instagram

Rowan’s Instagram

Martha and Rowan’s Bewildered podcast

Things mentioned in the show

Poet Andrea Gibson’s website and movie Come See Me in the Good Light

Nisargadatta Maharaj wiki

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis here

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melissa Hemsley’s calm chaos Jan 03, 2026

Show notes

Chef and cookery writer Melissa Hemsley shares her bucolic, Darling Buds of May-esque fantasy of ‘safe’ escape with Katherine.

Filled with wild and domesticated animals roaming freely, Chi Gong, nudity, a hammock, friendly neighbours who are close but not too close, the sea, also close but not too close; it’s a warm hug of a landscape where everything is chaotic but controlled. Wild but safe. With people but alone. Calm chaos.

A chance to escape the anxiety that accompanies her daily life, Melissa fully embraces the opportunity to imagine a place where her brain could take a rest from the worry and conjures something very beautiful in the process.

Melissa’s links

Melissa’s website where you can buy her books

Melissa’s Substack

Melissa’s Instagram

Things mentioned in the show

The Darling Buds of May TV Show wiki

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam Baker on the challenges of letting go Dec 27, 2025

Show notes

Writer and former magazine editor Sam Baker is dragged kicking and screaming into this getaway as she admits she can never let go of her internal chatter and is not someone who ‘does rest’.

Giving us a fascinating insight into the brain of someone who has dedicated their life to hard work and busy-ness, we come to understand how different our visions of escape can be.

Needing to be ‘at the edge’ of somewhere, looking out to sea with mountains nearby, and her faithful, tail-less cat Sausage, Sam only truly rests when entering the world of her favourite anime box set. Sam’s discomfort with the concept of retreat and the realisation she doesn’t like having to choose will be utterly relatable and ring the truest for many.

Sam’s Links

Sam’s Substack The Shift

Sam’s podcast The Shift podcast

Sam’s Instagram

Buy her book in the UK here

Things mentioned in the show

You can watch The Apothecary Diaries here on Crunchyroll

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andy J. Pizza’s magical, moving ADHD landscape Dec 20, 2025

Show notes

The ADHD and autistic tendency to rest in motion is fully realised in American author and illustrator Andy J. Pizza’s vision of the ideal retreat. Choosing an extraordinary fictional setting which incorporates an ingenious method of travelling the world, this episode showcases the wonder of a brilliantly creative, neurodivergent brain.

Along the way, and with many fascinating tangents, Andy and Katherine discuss the power of Miyazake films, their shared love of Fraggle Rock and longing for direction from the universe.

A meticulously thought out and fully realised world that accommodates his own personal experience of ADHD, Andy unveils the most beautifully zany and imaginative dreamscape. An absolute treat.

Links

Andy’s website where you can find his books

Andy’s Instagram

Andy’s Creative Peptalk podcast

Mentioned in the show

Last of the Summer Wine Wiki

The Master and his Emissary book about left and right brain

The Little Prince

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oliver Burkeman’s art of the non-retreat Dec 13, 2025

Show notes

Kicking off the episode with an existential crisis, the inimitable Oliver Burkeman joins Katherine to explore his own, unique take on rest and retreat.

A familiar name to many in both the US and the UK, Oliver’s book Four Thousand Weeks has put him at the heart of the global conversation around building a meaningful life. As you might expect, Oliver turns the concept of the podcast on its head whilst taking Katherine on a wild ride through topics from whether we should use AI as a creative tool to favourite notebooks to whether TS Eliot was on the path to spiritual enlightenment.

A wonderful, brain-stretching conversation that reaches way beyond the confines of an imagined cabin in the woods to explore wider ideas around what it really means to get away from it all and if we should even try.

Oliver’s Links

Oliver's website to buy his books and sign up to his newsletter

Things mentioned in the programme

Kendra Allenby’s New Yorker beach cartoon

NYC stationery store Goods for the Study

Shinzen Young on T.S. Eliot

Visit The Clearing website www.theclearingpod.com for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laura Pashby's lighthouse at the end of the world Dec 06, 2025

Show notes

In this episode Katherine chats to Laura Pashby, author of the incredible book Chasing Fog and master of ethereal photography, about her vision for the perfect retreat when things get tough.

A magical dreamscape unfurls of a fog-bound lighthouse on an island in the Arctic circle; a liminal space filled with books and a favourite painting which acts as a portal through which Laura can step whenever she needs to escape.

The perfect, escapist listen for anyone needing to give their mind and body a fleeting moment of rest and retreat.

Laura’s Links

Laura's website where you can buy her book Chasing Fog

Laura's Instagram

Things mentioned in the episode

The Light Alone Instagram

Hammershoi's Interior, Sunlight on the Floor painting

Visit The Clearing website https://katherine-may.co.uk/the-clearing-podcast to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cariad Lloyd’s mossy, mythical retreat Dec 06, 2025

Show notes

Katherine launches her new podcast The Clearing with British actor, comedian, author and 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction judge Cariad Lloyd. Together they explore Cariad’s vision of a dream retreat; a place she would conjure given the opportunity, and of course the privilege, to rest and retreat.

The result is pure joy. A Tolkien-esque riot of ancient oak trees, moss and mythical creatures merging into a Brambly Hedge world replete with tiny mice making jams and apple crumble.

At a time when the world feels more uncertain than ever, allowing ourselves to dream of hope and rest feels indulgent but also vital and restorative. Cariad does not hold back in letting her imagination run wild, dancing her way through the chaos and sharing with us, briefly, the blissful, joyous and often hilarious inside of her brilliant mind.

Cariad’s Links

Cariad's Instagram

Cariad's Substack

Cariad's website where you can order her books

Sara & Cariad's Weirdos Book Club - Podcast

Things mentioned in the episode

Empire - Podcast

Brambly Hedge (@bramblyhedgeofficial) • Instagram photos and videos

Blue - Album by Joni Mitchell | Spotify

Mothers Who Write

Winterfold candles

Visit The Clearing website https://katherine-may.co.uk/the-clearing-podcast to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free

Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Visit Katherine’s Website

Production Credits

Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins

Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong

Producer - Alice Lloyd

Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Related Podcasts