Heart Yoga Radio

LAO TZU 50

In this podcast, discuss Chapter 63 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. The main theme is how the sage negotiates life through wu wei, or non-doing. In astonishingly few words, Lao Tzu imparts a very detailed account of wu-wei. [Free. 37 minutes.]

LAO TZU 48

In this podcast, we discuss Chapter 61 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. We relate the description of the power dynamics between states given in Chapter 61 to current affairs, Reich's connection of sexual repression with fascism and the consequences of an inflamed reverence for sacred books and other fetish objects. [Free. 20 minutes.]

LAO TZU 47

In this podcast, we reflect of Chapter 60 of The Tao Te Ching in which Lao Tzu recommends a light touch on the part of rulers if destructivity is to be minimised in society. A light touch is possible when rulers and / or their advisors are aligned with the Tao and the processes of existence and life as they act through human beings. We relate Lao Tzu's recommendations to our current political state and the ever present realisation that governments do bad things even whilst some collective focus is necessary for our species survival. We examine variations on this insight found in neoliberal economic thought, Marxism and the anarchism. [Free. 36 minutes.]

INSECURITY IN OUR TURBULENT TIMES

This podcast is a wide-ranging consideration of individual, psychological  insecurity and material, collective insecurity and the relationship between them. We make our observations in the context of current events, especially the war in Ukraine, global  warming, and financial meltdown, whilst drawing on inspiration from process philosophers like the Buddha, Heraclitus, Whitehead, Watts, Nietzsche, Marx and Lao Tzu. We draw on a brief discussion of the sublime and the beautiful to help us identify the emancipatory comportment to our intrinsic vulnerability and mortality. [Free. 50 minutes.] 

PARYTYGATE - INTERESTING TIMES 48

This podcast is a stream of consciousness stimulated by the current discomfort of the Tory Party and its leader in the wake of partygate.  [Free. 22 minutes]

SCHRODINGER‘S PARTY - INTERESTING TIMES 44

In this podcast we consider the infamous party which both happened and didn't happen at the same time at 10 Downing Street on December 18th 2020. If it did happen [even though it didn't], a number of government ministers are ready to reassure the public that no COVID19 lock-down rules were broken with comical results. We examine the context of this spooky event in a cabal of government-right wing press connections, in the leaking of a video of the PM's press spokeswoman rehearsing how she might spin awkward questions about the event,  in Johnson's apology to the Commons, and in the general propaganda system within which our ruling elites operate. We appraise the possibility that this shit storm may have cut through to the public consciousness. [Free. 43 minutes.]

TORIES ON THE ROPES? - INTERESTING TIMES 43

In the light of the MPs second jobs scandal, we ask, 'How much more will the public put up with?' This leads to questions about the nature of ideology, and the contradictory class consciousness of Tories who make light of in-work poverty and the cutting of Universal Credit on the one hand, and then, on the other hand, plead that MPs need second jobs because they can't discharge their familial duty on £82 per annum! We underscore the point that this current scandal isn't anything fundamentally new, but a symptom of the profound and toxic entanglement of corporate and state power in the UK. [Free. 44 minutes.]

ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN THE UK & BEYOND - PART3 [THE FUTURE]

This podcast continues our series on economic collapse. It considers what the future might involve using the COP26 climate change conference as an indicator and focussing on economic, ecological and cultural systems. [Free. 1 hour 17 minutes.]

TORY SLEAZE - INTERESTING TIMES 41

In this podcast, we take a look at the resignation of Owen Patterson in the wake of the government U-turn on standards of behaviour for MPs, particularly with respect to paid lobbying. We place this in the context of the gradual turning up of the heat of criticism of Boris Johnson and his cabal by the right wing media and the grooming of Starmer by both Murdoch and the Mail. [Free. 30 minutes.]

ADVENTURES IN THE TWITTERVERSE - IMPENDING REVOLUTION?

In this podcast, we consider the uses and dangers of social media for arriving at an ongoing understanding of our world. We particularly examine the zone of rage which is Twitter and a few current issues that are making a splash there. These are; outrage at the UK government changing the rules for investigating and sanctioning MPs' misconduct so that a Tory MP gets away with earning £100k per year for lobbying (allegedly), that there is widespread anger at the government voting to allow pollution of UK rivers and the sea, that there are many personal reports of depression at the general withering of hope as a direct consequence of Tory rule, and that the COP26 is so far merely dispensing 'greenwash'. In passing, we mourn the death or adequationist truth.[Free. 31 minutes.]