Folklore Matters
By National Folklore Survey: England
Categories: Society & Culture, Arts
The profile of folklore in England has never seemed higher. The team behind the National Folklore Survey for England project speak to a variety of people working with or researching folklore to understand why folklore is so compelling, find out more about their work, and to discover their hopes for the National Folklore Survey for England.
16 episodes indexed on PodSearch.
Recent episodes
- Kier-la Janisse, folk horror and filmmaking
For folk horror fans, Kier-la Janisse needs no introduction. She’s a Canadian publisher and producer, and an executive for Severin Films. She's the founder of The Miskatonic Institute for Horror Studies as well as the author and editor of a tonne of excellent books, including the seminal work…
- John Widdowson and a lifetime of folklore
A very special episode to close series two: Dave Clarke and Andrew Robinson interview Professor John Widdowson at home in the Peak District.For many listeners, John will need no introduction. John has been at the forefront of Folkloristics and dialect studies in the UK for decades. Following…
- Dave Clarke and UFOs, the Crying Boy, and other forays into folklore
It’d be daft of us if we didn’t speak to our very own Dave Clarke. Probably best known as a world expert on UFOs, Dave has also researched a whole host of other folklore-related stories, trends, ideas and concepts, writing numerous books and appearing frequently on documentaries and podcasts…
- Anna Milon, Christopher Ohge and Project StoryMachine
Anna Milon and Christopher Ohge are two researchers working on a collaborative project between UK and German universities that seeks to create a digital tool that helps researchers navigate large folk narrative collections. Project StoryMachine is in its infancy, but its capabilities are already…
- Mike Hankin and The Folk Union
Why is folk culture in the spotlight in the UK at the moment? What are the most exciting things going on? Do we have to think about how folk culture is organised and presented, and what are the differences between folk culture and the folk scene?The Folk Union is a fascinating project that has…
- Jack Werner, Uncanny and contemporary legend
Dave and Diane had the pleasure of meeting Jack Werner at the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research (ISCLR) annual conference in Stockholm and knew he’d made a fascinating future guest for Folklore Matters. Jack is the presenter of the Swedish version of Uncanny – he tells us how…
- Klára Feikusová and folk horror
Klára Feikusová is a Czech scholar with a penchant for horror on screen, especially folk horror, so we were delighted when she stopped by Sheffield on her trip to the UK and agreed to appear on the podcast.Klára mentions legendary Czech film director František Vláčil in the podcast. If you’d like…
- Dave Brewis and Gatherings
Welcome back to Folklore Matters! We're delighted to be bringing you more compelling interviews with people working with folklore in myriad ways, from academic research to popular culture.To kick off series two, we meet Dave Brewis, a filmmaker with over two decades of experience in filming…
- Series One digest
Now that our first ever series of Folklore Matters is out there, hosts and researchers, Diane Rodgers and Sophie Parkes-Nield, give a quick overview of their favourite moments.
- Helen Wheatley and Spooky Television
Professor Helen Wheatley is a legendary television scholar who has published seminal books, such as Gothic Television, the award-winning Spectacular Television: Exploring Televisual Pleasure, and more recently Television/Death, a study of death, bereavement and dying on television. In this episode…
- Lucy Wright and Creating Folklore
Folklore is massive on social media, and around May Day and Halloween, you may have seen films and photographs of people dancing on their own or in small groups to celebrate seasonal change. If so, it may have been at the instigation of artist and activist, Lucy Wright, our guest in this latest…
- Owen Davies, Ceri Houlbrook and Folklore: a journey through the past and present
This special episode of Folklore Matters is a recording of a live event at Off The Shelf 2025, at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield. Part of the National Folklore Survey for England team, Professor Owen Davies and Dr Ceri Houlbrook published a groundbreaking book in 2025, entitled Folklore: a…
- Dominic Hardy and Children of The Wicker Man
Contemporary discussions of folklore soon arrive at cult film The Wicker Man. In this episode of Folklore Matters, David, Sophie and Diane meet Dominic Hardy, son of Robin Hardy, director of The Wicker Man, to learn about the film's lasting cultural legacy, but also the film's impact on Dominic's…
- Andrew Robinson and the Ritual Year
It's time to catch up with another Sheffield Hallam colleague, this time photographer, folklore researcher and lecturer, Andrew Robinson.Andrew’s fascinated by the visual representation of custom and tradition in England, along with the folklore, myth and legend associated with photographs and…
- Introducing Folklore Matters
The profile of folklore in England has never seemed bigger. In Folklore Matters, folklore researchers, David Clarke, Sophie Parkes-Nield, and Diane Rodgers, want to find out more about people’s interests in the folklore of the country, how they’re working with it, collecting or documenting it.This…
- Richard Bradley and Weird Derbyshire
Richard Bradley is a librarian at Sheffield Hallam University, where Folklore Matters hosts, David Clarke, Sophie Parkes-Nield, and Diane Rodgers, are based. But in the world of folklore, Richard is known as 'Weird Derbyshire' and has been researching, attending and documenting the folklore and…
PodSearch is a free, independent podcast search engine. Read about PodSearch, the privacy policy or contact us.