Why Women Grow
Alice Vincent
40 episodes
'These rich and intimate conversations offer new perspectives on our interactions with nature' - The FT
More about the show
I’m Alice Vincent and I’ve been on a quest to understand why women go to ground when there’s so much else to do. In Why Women Grow I have inspiring conversations with designers, chefs, entrepreneurs, and writers in their gardens.
This isn’t a podcast about gardening. Sure there’s bit of that but we discuss resistance, motherhood, spirituality, saving the planet and much more. These stories made me think differently about what it is to grow, and I think they’ll do that for you, too.
Episodes
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Cynthia Fan on how plants work
Cynthia Fan was undertaking a pHD in plant molecular biology when her colleagues at the Edinburgh Botanics noticed how much she loved being in the greenhouses - and how she could do amazing things with a flower frog.…
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Mary Keen on a lifetime of gardening
Mary Keen has worked in, documented and designed gardens all over the world for decades. But it’s the garden she’s made at home, during her ninth decade, that she writes most affectionately about. In her seventh book,…
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Yazmin Lacey on gardening as muse
When singer-songwriter Yazmin Lacey found herself adrift after the release of her first album, Voice Notes, she discovered an unlikely muse in the earth. And she decided to study for her RHS Level 2 qualification in…
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Maggie O'Farrell on gardening for stories
I’ve long been fascinated by roots - and the crossover between our families and the land that we are raised on. And it seems I’m not alone: Maggie O’Farrell was drawn to the Wild Atlantic Way after hearing stories…
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Season 7: summer trailer
The sun is high, the ground is warm, and we’re inviting you to take a moment to pause this summer with the Why Women Grow podcast. This season, we’re speaking to women who have boldly ventured beyond what’s expected of…
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Olia Hercules on gardening for survival
For many around the world right now, the green spaces that hold so many memories are caught in conflict. This is the case for the activist, writer and chef Olia Hercules, who has seen the garden her mother made…
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Pollyanna Wilkinson on designing a life-proof garden
With a clutch of medals from RHS Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows, a bestselling garden design book and more than half a million social media followers, Pollyanna Wilkinson has gained a well-earned reputation for…
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Milli Proust on building a garden
When you become known for your garden - and what you grow there - what does it mean to up peasticks and move? Milli Proust is a gardener, writer and floral designer based in a remote corner of West Sussex. She spent a…
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India Knight on making home in a garden
There’s a school of thought that believes the garden to be an extra room of the house - albeit, outside. If that’s the case, then India Knight is a masterful host. The author and columnist, who has written 13 books, is…
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Season 7: trailer
It's been a bleak old winter, but spring is upon us and with it comes a brand new season of the Why Women Grow podcast. This Spring, we’re exploring what it means to leave behind a garden that changed your life, how…
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Daisy Johnson on how landscape shapes us
Daisy Johnson made headlines when she became the youngest person ever shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018, when she was 27. But, as she tells us in this episode, her shortlisted novel Everything Under was born of…
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Isabella Tree on rewilding a garden
Today we are at the Knepp Estate - a huge rewilding project across 3500 acres of land, undertaken by the writer and conservationist Isabella Tree and her family. As she outlines so beautifully in her bestselling…
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Michelle Ogundehin on finding home
What is it that makes a home? Interior design may not seem the first port of call to consider when we think about our gardens, but Michelle Ogundehin’s approach to how our environments affect us shows just how…
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Beyond the Garden: new season trailer
Leaves are falling, the sunsets are glowing, and we’re taking every moment we can to reflect here on the Why Women Grow podcast. This autumn, we’re exploring beyond the garden: into the stories crafted alongside…
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Jeany Cronk on ripping up the rule book
When Jeany Cronk moved her young family from London to the south of France, she did so on a mission to not only make delicious wine, but shake up the whole rose tradition in the process. The co-founder of Mirabeau,…
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Louise Pascal on gardening in a time of crisis
What does it mean to be split between two places? Where we come from, and where we work? For actor Louise Pascal, putting on a character is part and parcel of her daily life, but one that relies on her returning to her…
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Jamie Beck on starting a new life in Provence
It’s easy to dream of building a whole new life, but it’s quite another to actually do it. Jamie Beck is a woman who knows - the American artist, photographer and author swapped her high-flying career as a fashion…
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The French Life: new season trailer
Summer is upon us - and the Why Women Grow podcast has gone on tour in Provence. Among the lavender fields, chateaux, rose gardens and town squares of Southern France, we meet three women who have made dramatic and…
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Jo Thompson and Kali Hamerton-Stove on strong beauty
Few Chelsea Flower Show gardens are designed by women. Fewer Chelsea Flower Show show gardens are created by the people they are intended for. And there has never before been a Chelsea Flower Show garden inspired by…
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Ula Maria on making space for loss
Some people move house for the location, some people move for the fireplaces: for Ula Maria, it was a neglected, overgrown garden in South London that confirmed her future home. The Lithuanian garden designer is…
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Sarah Price on inheritance in the garden
Sarah Price is a landscape gardener who’s always seemed to exist on another plane. Her designs work with the environment to create something that feels both otherworldly and of the earth. After undertaking a degree in…
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The Designers: new season trailer
It’s the biggest gardening show on earth - and this spring, the Why Women Grow podcast is finding out what it’s really like to be a female designer at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This is The Designers, our Spring…
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Hannah Read on making music through the landscape
How to capture the sound of something humans can’t hear? How to make a song about a mushroom? That was the challenge put to Scottish musician, Hannah Read, in the wake of her father’s death. Hannah, who lives in…
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Manon Awst on being peat compatible
Today we are on an adventure - to the sticky, secret depths of Wales’s peatlands. This intriguing landscape could be the answer to the climate crisis, but it also hold so many stories in its mysterious history. One…
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The Land Gardeners on the power of soil
As Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy explain in our first Earthly Matters episode, people come for the flowers but they stay for the soil. Since forming their company, The Land Gardeners, in 2011, they have…
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Earthly Matters: new season trailer
Introducing Earthly Matters A new season of Why Women Grow is coming soon - and this time, we’re getting dirty. After two years of celebrating the bold and the beautiful, we’re back - and we’re going under the…
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Hazel Gardiner on gardening to heal
Floral designer and broadcaster Hazel Gardiner has been part of the Why Women Grow sisterhood long before we hit record: she was the first woman I interviewed for the book. I’d been aware of Hazel’s distinctive…
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Robin Wall Kimmerer on gardening as love
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She’s a rare example of someone who straddles the world of academic science and indigenous…
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Anna Jones on taste in the garden
Chef and bestselling author Anna Jones has inspired the way hundreds of thousands of people cook for years - and we were delighted to be invited into her courtyard garden in East London for this episode of Why Women…
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Why Women Grow: mini series trailer
Why Women Grow is back with a new mini series, featuring three women who have fundamentally changed how I think and live. This summer's mini series features the chef and bestselling author Anna Jones, botanist and…
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Jamaica Kincaid on gardening as writing
Bonus episode: Writer and novelist Jamaica Kincaid redefined garden writing with books such as My Garden (Book) and Among Flowers, as well as changing perspectives on the post-colonial experience through titles such as…
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Paula Sutton on gardening in the pursuit of happiness
The creative mind behind Hill House Vintage and author of Hill House Living, Paula Sutton is a stylist, writer and - perhaps most of all - a purveyor of joy. After navigating a career in the fast-paced and glamorous…
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Margaret Howell on a life inspired by nature
Margaret Howell has been designing men’s and womenswear for five decades, prioritising understated quality over trends: she makes beautiful clothes that work well. Fifty years after she started to design and sell…
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Rukmini Iyer on growing to nurture
One simple concept, a million cookbooks sold: Rukmini Iyer’s Roasting Tin recipe books have transformed dinner times around the country. But the writer and food stylist is also a keen amateur gardener, growing first on…
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Salley Vickers on a life lived in gardens
Sally Vickers is a Jungian psychotherapist and the author of books such as Miss Garnet's Angel, The Other Side of You and, most recently, The Gardener. The daughter of two communists, Salley was a teacher before she…
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Sarah Raven on growing a whole new approach to colour
If you’ve ever bought plants or seeds online, or through mail order, you’ve probably encountered Sarah Raven. The gardener, writer and teacher is also a nursery-owner and businesswoman, developing, trialling and…
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Claire Ratinon on growing for reclamation
Claire Ratinon is a food-grower, speaker and writer. In 2022, she released Unearthed, a powerful memoir about understanding what it is to become a custodian of the earth as a Black woman, and how the process of doing…
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Poppy Okotcha on gardening to save the planet
Poppy Okotcha describes herself as an ecological home grower working to inspire reconnection to the land and the living world through the story of food and herbs. She came to gardening after a shift in her personal…
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Why Women Grow: guest reveal trailer
Introducing the line-up for the first season of Why Women Grow: writer Claire Ratinon designer Margaret Howell chef Rukmini Iyer gardening gamechanger Sarah Raven novelist Salley Vickers environmentalist Poppy Okotcha…
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Why Women Grow: teaser trailer
The first listen of the forthcoming Why Women Grow podcast, launching February 2023 from Alice Vincent. This podcast is inspired by my book, Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, which is out on…
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