Earth Beat, 30 December 2011. Our producers pick their favourite pieces from 2011. From spending summers looking for fire, to a man who sees in black-and-white and hears in colour, the toughest footrace in the world and the man who’s part-man, part-goose, we revisit what we liked best about Earth Beat over the past year. Comment on the show.

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Gooseman (from Odd Jobs, 19 August 2011)

Trizin Hof is a Dutch Buddhist who loves geese. And he’s made it his life’s work to save them from the gas chamber.

Trizin has set up a sanctuary in the Netherlands that has 250 of them, as well as lots of ducks, pigeons, dogs and forty cats.

He gives host Marnie Chesterton a tour and tells her why geese don’t deserve their bad reputation. More photos below.

Hofganzen website (in Dutch).

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The world’s toughest race (from Going Places, 3 June 2011)

Dubbed the hardest race to run in the world - the Barkley Marathons live up to their name.

The 100-mile course on an unmarked track through a Tennessee state park takes runners across streams and up mountains – and temperatures on the weekend that the Barkley is held fluctuate so much they can threaten heatstroke and hypothermia.

Marnie spoke to 'Frozen' Ed Furtaw, one of a handful to have ever finished, and Gary Cantrell, who organises the race, and once described it as a "sick joke". More photos below.

Web extra - Gary explains how the Barkley Marathons differ from a normal race - listen in new player.

Matt Mahoney's Barkley Marathons site.

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Looking for fire (from Summer, 24 June 2011)

Every year, all around the world, wildfires seem to be part of the landscape of summer.

Philip Connors works in a fire tower on a 10,000 foot high peak in southern New Mexico, looking out over nearly one million acres of roadless wilderness.

And each summer, that million acres gets hit by lightning more than 30,000 times. Which is why he’s there.

He speaks to Marnie about what his summers are like. More photos below.

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Life in black and white (from Colours, 26 August 2011)

Neil Harbisson was born with a condition that means he only sees the world in black-and-white and shades of grey. And yet colour fascinates him. So much so that’s he’s made it central to his work as an artist and a musician. But how is that possible when he can’t see colour? Neil Harbisson talks about how he can hear colours - with the aid of something called an 'eyeborg'.

Colour Scores are a series of paintings where Neil transforms into colour the first 100 notes of well-known musical pieces.

Sound Portraits are portraits of people that he creates by listening to the colors of faces.

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Recycling for the end of the world (from The End of the World, 1 April 2011)

Comedian Joel Stickley paints a humorous picture of post-apocalyptic recycling services, with colour-coded bins for body parts.

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Smell hunter (from Odd Jobs, 19 August 2011)

Dr Roman Kaiser has a very sensitive nose. As smell hunter for the famous Swiss parfumier Givaudan, he travelled the world tracking down rare and exotic scents. Marnie met him in his rambling laboratory, where he explained his work. Dr Kaiser's book is Scent of the Vanishing Flora.