{"podcast":{"title":"A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley","slug":"a-reading-life-a-writing-life-with-sally-bayley-5890400","podcast_index_feed_id":5890400,"rss_url":"https://feed.podbean.com/readinglifewritinglife/feed.xml","website_url":"https://readinglifewritinglife.podbean.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/15515358/ARLAWL-FINAL_2__vsrabu.jpg","author":"Sally Bayley, Andrew Smith","episode_count":95,"summary":"Acclaimed writer Sally Bayley lives on a narrowboat, surrounded by the sights and sounds of nature, sustained by reading and writing. In this series, she invites us into her life, showing us how books can have the power to change our lives. Sally has recently been diagnosed with an auto-immune disease, but this is not a misery memoir podcast; she shows us how literature and connection to nature can console and give courage and insight even in the most difficult times. This podcast series is produced by BAFTA and Emmy Award winning producer Andrew Smith","last_synced_at":"2026-07-04T18:20:29.274602+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-reading-life-a-writing-life-with-sally-bayley-5890400"},"episode":{"title":"Rhapsody","slug":"rhapsody","published_at":"2025-03-11T13:02:05+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-reading-life-a-writing-life-with-sally-bayley-5890400/rhapsody","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-reading-life-a-writing-life-with-sally-bayley-5890400","url":"https://readinglifewritinglife.podbean.com/e/rhapsody/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/uttm5jfqrrewdndp/JB_Draft_28yyuc.mp3","summary":"‘I try to live my life as though I were stitching together a book of songs.’ This week, Sally offers us a tour through the stitched-together songs of her life, reflecting on the form of rhapsody. Join her for a series of vignettes on art, education, memory, and connection. This text of this episode is based on an address Sally gave at Wadham College Chapel, part of an evening of ‘Taking Heart in Poetry & Song’ for St David's Day. More information can be found here. The full text of Dylan Thomas’ poem, ‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower’, quoted early in the episode can be found here. The wonderful piano music in the opening and closing sections is, respectively, ‘Tuesday’ and ‘Saturday’ by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.","meta_description":"‘I try to live my life as though I were stitching together a book of songs.’ This week, Sally offers us a tour through the stitched-together songs of her…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1741,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/a-reading-life-a-writing-life-with-sally-bayley-5890400/episodes/rhapsody/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-reading-life-a-writing-life-with-sally-bayley-5890400/rhapsody.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}