How have trees shaped who we are? Branched Out unearths the intertwined histories of trees, culture, and LGBTQ+ identity around the world, Recommended by The Guardian as A Best Podcast of The Week, we delve into trees, gender, race, nationhood, war and spirituality. Soma Ghosh hosts this immersive blend of drama, travel, story-telling and expert interviews. For fans of The Rest is History and Trees A Crowd. Follow now to stay rooted.

In 'The Tree Men of Wales and Bengal', we meet two men who turned into trees: the legendary Merlin and Ramakrishna, the 19th C cross-dresssing mystic from Bengal. How did Merlin end up trapped in the Oak of Carmarthen? How did Ramakrishna turn into a tree and change our modern world?

Created, directed, produced and narrated by Soma Ghosh, audio produced by Caoimhe Lavelle. This episode was made with support from The National Library of Wales and Inclusive Journalims Cymru. Our thanks to The Welsh Merlin Project (whose new online edition of the poems of and about Merlin isforthcoming).Actors Kate Pothecary, Rob Thomas. Cover art by Aiden Saunders. Sister Green and Seclused in Light by Arun Ghosh as featured on the Arun Ghosh LP Seclused in Light appears courtesy of camoci records. The Cauliflower by Nicola Barker appears courtesy of Nicola Barker. Guests: Swami Medhananda, Dr. Sabina Stent, Dr. David Callendar, author Peter Fiennes, author Luke Turner, author Holly Müller, author Jonathan Page. Luke Turner's current book is Men at War; Peter Fiennes' is A Thing of Beauty; Dr. Sabina Stent's current writings on art and cinema are at Subsstack @SabinaStent. Swami Medhananda's books include Swami Vivekananda's Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism and his forthcoming book is Karma and Rebirth in Hinduism, followed in 2027 by a book on Ramakrishna and Sri Aurobindo, main title An All-Embracing Oneness.

More tree chat and details about Seedlings, our Spring 2026 mini-series, follow @branchedoutpodcast on Instagram.

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