Put your thoughts into the mix In Part 2 of our Foot and Mouth series, we move beyond the initial outbreak and into the harsh reality of what it took to bring it under control — and the lasting impact it had far beyond the farm gate. This is the side of the story that is rarely spoken about. We hear from a slaughterman working at the very front line of the response — confronting the scale, intensity, and emotional weight of the job day after day. Alongside this, we explore how the outbreak ri...
May 5
1 hr 11 min
Put your thoughts into the mix In this first part of our two-part series, we step back into 2001 — to the beginning of the Foot and Mouth outbreak. An outbreak that would change British farming forever. What started as a single confirmed case quickly escalated into a national crisis. But behind the headlines and statistics were real people, real farms, and real lives being turned upside down. In this episode, we hear directly from those on the front line. A farmer from an affected area shares...
Apr 21
1 hr 30 min
Put your thoughts into the mix What really happens when you put rewilding, farming, and real-life rural voices in the same conversation? In this unfiltered and often hilarious episode, we dive deep into one of the most controversial debates in modern agriculture: 👉 Should land be rewilded—or should it feed people? From sleep-deprived lambing nights and muddy farm realities to the growing pressure of government schemes, rising costs, and public opinion, this episode pulls back the curtain on w...
Apr 7
1 hr 26 min
Put your thoughts into the mix In this episode of the Wilson and Ashley Podcast, off the back of a great reel from Schöffel Country and The Country Food Trust, we talk about how game meat is being used to tackle food poverty in the UK. When you actually look at the numbers, food poverty is hard to ignore - millions of people in the UK are struggling to access enough food, there are now more food banks than McDonald's restaurants, and demand for emergency food is still rising. At the sam...
Mar 24
1 hr 11 min
Put your thoughts into the mix In this episode of the Wilson & Ashley Podcast we’re looking at two topics that have been making plenty of noise both online and in real life: the controversy surrounding multi-million follower account, Ballerina Farm, and the ongoing debate around taking children out of school during term time. If you spend any time on the rustic American farming side of social media, you’ve probably come across Ballerina Farm. Run by former ballerina Hannah Neeleman and he...
Mar 10
56 min
Put your thoughts into the mix This week we're asking should farmers be wearing SPF like it’s PPE? From influencer 50-step skincare routines and £100 moisturisers to the harsh reality of UV exposure in agriculture, we dig into why so many farmers skip sunscreen — and whether that says something bigger about how the industry approaches wellbeing in general. With 17,500 new melanoma cases in the UK each year and outdoor workers at significantly higher risk, is it time farmers started taki...
Feb 24
59 min
Put your thoughts into the mix This episode is brought to you in partnership with with our Headline Sponsor, BKT and Kirkby Tyres. Is solar grazing a genuine triple-win or just clever greenwashing? This episode talks about two big topics in farming at the moment - land use and milk price - and who ultimately pays the price for cheap energy and cheap food. We open with the rise of solar grazing, sparked by a Guardian article questioning whether putting sheep under solar panels really del...
Feb 10
1 hr 1 min
Put your thoughts into the mix This episode is brought to you in partnership with with our Headline Sponsor, BKT and Kirkby Tyres. In this episode of the Wilson and Ashley Podcast, we take on two big questions shaping the future of food, work and farming. We begin by looking at the significant changes happening on our supermarket shelves... changes which are perhaps going under the radar. From chocolate bars that are no longer legally allowed to be called chocolate, to ingredient substi...
Jan 27
59 min
Put your thoughts into the mix We're starting this week's episode with animal welfare and the UK Government’s new Animal Welfare Strategy for England, which aims to cover farmed animals, pets and wildlife under one policy framework. With proposed changes ranging from livestock production systems to dog breeding and wildlife management, we ask whether one strategy can realistically work for such different animals — and whether farming continues to carry a disproportionate share of the welfare ...
Jan 13
1 hr 24 min
Put your thoughts into the mix Welcome back to Episode 19 of the Wilson & Ashley Podcast — our final episode before Christmas! Somehow, despite an entire year to prepare, we’ve managed to finish on Episode 19 instead of 20 (sorry to those of you who like your round numbers!) A festive combination of poor planning, questionable maths, and general disorganisation. Should we record a bonus episode to fix it? Maybe. Probably. (Almost definitely not.) Before we fully embrace the Christmas spir...
Dec 23, 2025
1 hr 2 min
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