This is a global player original podcast.

Hello and welcome to full disclosure, a podcast project conceived entirely to let me spend more time than I'd ever go on the radio with interesting people,

which is certainly a description that fits this week's guest, Alex.

Hello, James.

Hello, Alex. It says on my notes, musician and cheese maker, but this barely scratches the surface.

I was at dinner party a while ago, and somebody said, oh, I'm a doctor, and I thought,

that's a one-word word thing saying, yeah.

But you have, I successfully straddled not just these, but also author.

So I basically do everything that monks used to do.

Because people said, you know, cheese and music, that's weird.

But it's not monks were doing music, singing in the morning, making cheese.

And also festivals. You know, making cheese. And also festivals.

You know, festivals were all originally religious festivals.

When did you realise this monastic heritage?

I think some point during the last year when it was just all descending into total

mayhem.

It clinging to that notion of some sort of historical precedent.

Just wanted to get back to my monastery

basically well just to go full circle the brew and abbey is just around the corner from where you are

in the cobbles which has got a lovely air to it hasn't it a lovely sort of just that's right around the

corner it's a ride past that on my bike on way to this is what they call research. Except it's not.

So we'll begin at the beginning.

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