Between the Ears: The Racing Mind

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Between the Ears

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Innovative and thought-provoking features on a wide variety of subjects

Innovative and thought-provoking features that make adventurous use of sound and explore a wide variety of subjects. Made by leading radio producers.

The Racing Mind

BBC Radio 3 - Between the Ears, The Racing Mind

A meditation on ultrarunning through interviews, poetry, location recordings and music.

A soundscape of endurance and resilience of long-distance running and what compels two friends, neuroscientists and runners Matthias Ekman and Laurence O'Dwyer, to keep going.

This feature focuses on two friends, neuroscientists and ultra-runners - Matthias Ekman (German) and Laurence O'Dwyer (an award-winning Irish poet). It's a meditation on ultrarunning through interview, poetry, location recordings, sound and music.

This programme weaves specially commissioned poems (Laurence O'Dwyer) and music that chart the pain and elation of running. It explores Larry’s endurance, physical deterioration and injury alongside Matthias’s personal determination to become the fastest known runner on the 800km route, the Haute Route Pyrénées.

Producer Zoë Comyns weaves location recordings, amateur archive phone recordings, interviews, poetry and tracked runs.
 
With original compositions by Ruth Kennington, many musical sequences were performed live using real-time generation and manipulation of audio that responded to Laurence and Matthias’s stories. Longer composition and looped components relay the repetition of ultrarunning and mimics how the mind works as the runners spend long periods on their own in dangerous and remote locations. 
 
Each sound carries with it the resilience and propulsion of the long-distance runner. It charts how predictive brain studies in the lab might be applied out on the trail, how your mind ‘pre-plays’ the terrain, anticipating where to place your feet at speed over long distances. 
 
With thanks to Regan Hutchins, Kevin Brew and Ronan Kelly. 

Produced by Zoë Comyns
Original music and sound design by Ruth Kennington
HRP archive recordings Matthias Ekman. 
 
The Racing Mind is a New Normal Culture production for BBC Radio 3

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Between the Ears

The Racing Mind

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3