Homeward Bound (including The Great Humbling)
Episodes
The Great Humbling S6E7: We're Better Than This!
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to The Great Humbling with Dougald Hine and Ed Gillespie. It’s been a while. And there’s… a lot happening in the world.When the two...
The Great Humbling S6E6: What Time Is LOVE?
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After a long summer of counselling to recover from the sight of Sean Connery’s red mankini, Ed and Dougald are reunited to talk about green populism...
The Great Humbling S6E5: Against The Vortex
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In our first episode of 2025, we get inspired by Anthony Galluzzo’s Against the Vortex to watch the cult 1974 movie Zardoz, featuring Sean Connery i...
"Burnout From Humans" with Vanessa Andreotti
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is the podcast version of a live event a few weeks ago, hosted by the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective, where I joined Van...
The Great Humbling S6E4: The Consolations of Folklore
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As Ed says at the end of our final episode of 2024, “Have yourself a mythic little Christmas!” We close the year with a wandering conversation abo...
Five Questions for a Time of Beginnings
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
My guest in this episode is Jay Cousins, an inventor, recovering entrepreneur and carrier of questions, an old friend from my Sheffield days, who has ...
The Great Humbling S6E3: #DECELERATE
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we chew on a question that’s been on Dougald’s mind since a recent event in London, where Brian Eno wondered what is the differen...
"Maybe I'm NOT a Doomer?" with Isabelle Drury
15 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Homeward Bound, I’m talking to Isabelle Drury, author of the Substack Finding Sanity. I wanted to talk to Isabelle because of a p...
The Great Humbling S6E2: Remember, Remember!
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Remember, remember, the 5th of November,Gunpowder, treason and plot.I see no reasonWhy gunpowder treasonShould ever be forgot.This episode starts with...
The Great Humbling S6E1: When the S**t Hits the Roomba
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“Maybe what we’re looking for is fewer robot vacuum cleaners and more compost toilets.”We stumble into a new series of The Great Humbling with a...
The Times Into Which We Were Born (Solo Show)
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Midway through last month’s North American tour, the filmmaker Katie Teague sat me down to record an interview. Sometimes an interview happens at ju...
The Gifts in the Ruins with Dr Ashley Colby
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, my guest is Dr Ashley Colby for a joint episode with her Doomer Optimism podcast. Ashley is hosting a weekend retreat around my work ...
Taking Beauty Seriously with Caroline Ross
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As the fifth season of The Great Humbling came to an end, we recognised that what we’ve been doing is letting you listen in on a conversation that w...
The Great Humbling S5E8: 'State of the Humbling'
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The end of this fifth series of The Great Humbling finds us looking back over the loose ends from earlier episodes, exploring the wider field of “Hu...
The Great Humbling S5E7: 'Founders Confessions'
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In our latest episode, Ed and Dougald compare notes on the experience of being founders – or co-founders – of organisations. What did we learn alo...
The Great Humbling S5E6: 'The Low Agreements'
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is the episode where we finally left Skype, which we’ve for some reason been using to record these conversations for four and a half series. Sw...
The Great Humbling S5E5: 'Make Populism Good Again?'
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Here's a rundown of references from this episode... Leah Rampy, Earth & Soul: Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos Bill Drummond, 45 David Mitchell, Unrul...
The Great Humbling S5E4: 'The Forever Project'
15 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our final episode of 2023 finds Dougald already in his Christmas jumper, as the tiredness of a busy year catches up with the pair of us. Ed opens a ...
The Great Humbling S5E3: 'We Used to Have Fun'
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We take a different route into our conversation this time around, in what turns out to be the first in a two-parter woven around John Higgs’s book, ...
The Great Humbling S5E2: 'Words in Wartime'
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We recorded this episode on Dougald’s birthday – and Ed starts with the image of him wearing Anna’s family’s Coyote coat, triggering unsettli...
The Great Humbling S5E1: 'The Ruined Church'
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Season 5 of The Great Humbling! Here are some show notes... The Regrowing a Living Culture series at a school called HOME starts on 7 ...
The Great Humbling: Live at Norwich Arts Centre
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In February this year, we took The Great Humbling into a new format, a live conversation on stage at Norwich Arts Centre as part of the UK tour that D...
The Great Humbling S4E8: 'We Need to Talk About George'
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We reach the end of Season 4 of The Great Humbling, though Ed and Dougald start the show with an invitation to a one-off live recording of a sp...
The Great Humbling S4E7: 'The Missing Episode'
25 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
So, here's what happened – after a long break, we sat down in early October to record the seventh episode of this series, but life got in the...
The Great Humbling S4E6: 'Nice to meet you'
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After twenty-nine episodes recorded through screens and cameras, Ed and Dougald find themselves meeting for the first time and sit down for a ...
The Great Humbling S4E5: 'Belief'
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dougald poses a big question for this episode: what do we believe in? Ed responds playfully and paradoxically with ‘self-delusion’, citing...
The Great Humbling S4E4: 'Are we going to talk about Ukraine?'
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We started this podcast in the early weeks of the pandemic, talking about the stories circling around it. A crisis had come out of the corner o...
The Great Humbling S4E3: "Remapping Lava"
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve been listening back to the first episode we made, almost two years ago, in the early weeks of the time of Covid. Maybe it’s the infl...
The Great Humbling S4E2: "The Commonplace"
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode starts with a little reflection on our new more-or-less monthly schedule, and in the course of this episode, we talk about a few o...
The Great Humbling S4E1: 'Confessions'
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Great Humbling is back for a fourth series of conversations between Dougald Hine and Ed Gillespie, now as part of the wider patchwork of H...
The Great Humbling S3E8: 'Now...breathe!'
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We begin with some listener feedback from last week’s ‘Get on your knees!’ about prayer… Before Dougald introduces our final instruc...
The Great Humbling S3E7: 'Get on your knees!'
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ed talks about Martin Shaw’s new book ‘Smokehole - looking to the wild in the time of the spyglass’ and the line ‘The mess out there i...
The Great Humbling S3E6: 'Small yourself up!'
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dougald references a long essay by David Cayley, ‘Gaia and the path of the Earth’ and Bruno Latour’s book, Facing Gaia, contradictions ‘...
The Great Humbling S3E5: 'See Double!'
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dougald realises how his work these days has come to orbit around the future and discovers he’s accidentally became a futurist Ed shares h...
The Great Humbling S3E4: 'Do shrooms!'
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dougald shares Lucille Clifton’s poem ‘Blessing the boats’ And this week’s instruction is – ‘Do Shrooms!’ Ed introduces one ...
The Great Humbling S3E3: 'Be like water!'
14 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dougald talks about Campfire Convention https://campfireconvention.uk/ Ed introduces this week’s ‘New Move’ instruction: Be Like Wat...
The Great Humbling S3E2: 'Move your ass!'
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Let’s get ready to humble! This episode’s instruction is ‘Move Your Ass!’ and Dougald finds himself saying words that have literally n...
The Great Humbling S3E1: 'Keep it foolish!'
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to series three of the Great Humbling – ‘New Moves’. And given that we’re returning on the 1st of April, which is obviously no...
The Great Humbling S2E8: 'State of Limbo'
11 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We start with a reference to Kenny Rogers to ‘see what condition our condition is in? Then in the context of the US election this clip: ...
The Great Humbling S2E7: 'State of Jeopardy'
31 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the week before the US election we finally do an episode where we talk about American politics and how it fits into this larger conversatio...
The Great Humbling S2E6: 'State of Play'
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Do grown-ups play? What’s been playing on our minds this week? Ed talks about the House of Beautiful Business - ‘The Great Wave’, hisl...
The Great Humbling S2E5: 'State of Anger'
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention” Dougald pays to get emails from a very angry man – Mic Wright’s Substack,...
The Great Humbling S2E4: 'State of Tension'
10 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Here we are in a state of tension… What have we been reading? ‘The Precipice - Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity by Toby Ord: h...
The Great Humbling S2E3: 'State of Panic'
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We start as is traditional with what's been getting us thinking this week... Ed talks about the film My Octopus Teacher and Nick Cohen in the ...
The Great Humbling S2E2 'State of Grace'
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We start with Adam Ramsay, ‘Queer Eye’, Jordan Peterson and the Battle for Depressed Men – https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/queer-eye-j...
The Great Humbling S2E1: 'State of Alert'
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We call these conversations the Great Humbling because we start from a sense that this is a time of being humbled, brought down to earth, and ...
The Great Humbling Season 2 Trailer
11 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.homewardbound.org
The Great Humbling S1E8: 'How's your humbling?'
04 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why we’re recording this final episode of Series One at night, as our children sleep Reviewing the journey we’ve been on together since ...
The Great Humbling S1E7: 'The cultivation of conspiracy?'
18 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Conspiracy literally means 'to breathe together'. What is causing us to inhale such a complex mix of vaporous ideas right now? Are these 'vood...
The Great Humbling S1E6 'As deep as culture'
07 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We start with Martin Shaw’s hare-piece (hair piece?) - ‘A Hare’s Leap or a Rabbit’s Hop?’, a typically stirring offering from Dr S...
The Great Humbling S1E5 'A world turned upside down'
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Introducing ‘A World Turned Upside Down’, an old english ballad ‘a brief description of the ridiculous fashions of these distracted times’.....
The Great Humbling S1E4: 'A bestiary of metaphors'
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Dougald and Ed explore the ‘bestiary’ of metaphors stalking this time, the creatures of our imaginations, we are walking w...
The Great Humbling S1E3: 'Framing a language of longing'
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we explore the framing of a potential 'language of longing', beginning with the usual reviews of our recent relevant reading: ...
The Great Humbling S1E2: 'Can we afford an economic recovery?'
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You can hear the rising chatter: the bubbling of ‘back to normal’, the stimulus packages, the business resurrection plans, the recovery th...
The Great Humbling S1E1: 'Mapping Lava'
04 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How will they look in hindsight, these times we're living through? Is this a midlife crisis on the road to the Star Trek future, or the point ...