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On Tuesday 24th June 2025, the Cripping Breath team held its first project-wide reading group. Our full team consists of our Community Researchers, Artists-in-Residence, academic researchers and clinicians. Organised by our brilliant research associates, the reading group is our attempt to make more space to come together as a full team, but also to explore co-reading as an inclusive research practice. 

For our first reading group, we discussed a few examples of how breathing has been written and spoken about in the mainstream media and popular culture, particularly in recent years. This included looking at breathing in popular science books, podcasts, newspaper articles and blogs, as well as creative responses to breathing difficulties. We are interested in discussing how breath and breathing is written and spoken about, what assumptions are made, and what is missing from these discussions.

Team members could choose from the following sources:

Breathing as a lost science and art 

We looked at James Nestor’s 2020 book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. This was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Science Book Prize. We could read one or two chapters of the book, depending on the time and energy we had! Written before the pandemic, Nestor’s book explores the ‘lost art and science’ of breathing:

‘There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly with grave consequences. In Breath, journalist James Nestor travels the world to discover the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices, discovering that if we make even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale, we can:

Jump-start athletic performance

Rejuvenate internal organs

Halt snoring, allergies, asthma and autoimmune disease

Straighten scoliotic spines

None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of ancient wisdom and cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head.’

Breathwork

We next discussed ‘breathwork’. The value of ‘breathwork’ and what is described as ‘better’ breathing. It has been highlighted in media reports which discuss work on breathing and wellness, and these discussions are linked to evolution, social change and particular events (particularly the COVID-19 pandemic) (for example: ).

We included a podcast that brings together people with different perspectives as an example of how these connections are made:  Here’s a summary of The Power of Breath: TED Radio Hour:

‘Breathing is essential to life. And lately, the safety of the air we inhale, or the need to pause and take a deep breath, is on our minds a lot. This hour, TED speakers explore the power of breath. Guests include former world champion freediver Tanya Streeter, journalist Beth Gardiner, activist Yvette Arellano, paleontologist Emma Schachner, scent historian Caro Verbeek and mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe.’

Artistic responses

Finally, we explored artistic responses to breathing difficulties. The flutist Kathryn Williams has responded to her own anxiety about sustaining breath when performing with a creative response. We included some background on the project from Kathryn’s blog and a performance below.

The discussions were had were rich and powerful. As a diverse team, we spoke from varying perspectives, but found key themes across our dialogue: (i) embedded assumptions in texts about 'normal' breathing and breathing bodies; (ii) a marked erasure of the social, political, economic, and environmental in populist discussions of breathing; and (iii) the ways in which, for those with the embodied privilege to breathe without difficulty or distress, how breath can also be an object of practice, play,  and sport. 

In short, we are really looking forward to our next reading group session later in the year!