Mary-Ann Ochota on Private Passions with Michael Berkeley 14th May 2023

Mary-Ann Ochota is an anthropologist and broadcaster. She is fascinated by what it means to be human and why we behave as we do.

Her work has taken her around the world from the poorest parts of Dhaka and Delhi to the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster zone. She has lived with Yak herders in the high plains of Tibet and sailed across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Closer to home, she’s written two books about British archaeology, full of tips on how to read the landscape from ancient burial mounds to medieval woodlands.

Landscapes have inspired some of her musical choices – from the Scottish Highlands to Mount Fuji in Japan