Heart Yoga Radio

ECSTACY AND THE APOCALYPSE

This podcast is a meditation on the contrast between natural ecstasies which affirm the human enterprise and can emphasise our connectedness to all things and the chaos engulfing the world as ecological, economic and cultural systems increase in instability, all at the same time. I arrive at a few practical suggestions which arise directly out of the meditation. Buy me a coffee by following the link. [Free. 18 minutes.]

RIOT AND REFUSAL - INTERESTING TIMES 57

In this podcast we compare and contrast the current situation in the UK, particularly the initiative to produce a mass refusal to pay  exorbitant energy bills, with the success that mass action had in getting the 1990 Tory Government to reverse its poll tax policy. The discussion is set in a wide historical/economic context. [Free. 42 minutes]

 

THE DAY AFTER

In this podcast we entertain the likelihood of an impending sublime moment in which a variety of people's actions bring about some fundamental  disruption of the status quo. We think that such an event is highly likely but that it will present revolutionary and civil-disobedience movements with the problem of what to do the day after the sublime moment. This is a point often elaborated by Zizek. We offer the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring as examples. We proceed by way of allowing the ideas in two recent books, both offering some utopian speculations informed to some degree by Marx,  to collide in order to produce some analytic tools. Those books are Fully Automated Luxury Communism by Aaron Bastani and Beyond Money by Anitra Nelson. [Free. 44 minutes]

LAO TZU 52

In this podcast, we consider Chapter 65 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Unusually, we take issue with a proposition put forward by Lao Tzu. This manoeuvre proves to be quite fruitful in underscoring the need to retain ones critical faculty, to push for more and better education throughout society and to  expose the forces of psychological manipulation at play in our fractured culture. [Free. 14 minutes.]

CORPORATIONS TO RUN CITIES IN THE UK SOON? [PART 1]

In this podcast, we consider the Tory Government proposal to institute eight 'Charter Cities' in the UK. Charter Cities are planned to be areas which are given over to governance by a corporation which is likely to remove workers protections, ban minimum wage laws, dismantle welfare, quash restrictions on working hours and more. All this is thought to be facilitated by Brexit and the subsequent revocation of EU regulations. For its neoliberal proponents, who are universally drawn from the big oil funded right international, this is a utopia which will end world poverty. We argue the contrary, that it will be a monstrously dystopian  anti-democratic nightmare in which workers will be treated like disposable things and which must be stopped. For background, a good shortish read is here - https://medium.com/@cormack.lawson/charter-cities-the-real-reason-for-brexit-and-the-bigger-picture-4de80dbb69fbhttps://medium.com/@cormack.lawson/charter-cities-the-real-reason-for-brexit-and-the-bigger-picture-4de80dbb69fb [Free. 58 minutes.]

RESIGNATIONS, CHAOS AND FRAGMENTATION - INTERESTING TIMES 56

STARMER’S LONG-CORBYN - INTERESTING TIMES 55

This podcast is an analysis of and a commentary on a remark made by Kier Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions in the UK House of Commons on Wednesday 15th June 2022. The remark was, "Boris Johnson is the Conservative Corbyn." The guiding questions are, "How does this work as propaganda?" and, "What does the event reveal about Starmer that the people ought to know?" [Free. 37 minutes.]

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.]

APOCALYPSE REPORT JUNE 22 - INTERESTING TIMES 54

This wide-ranging episode of Interesting Times deals with the recent rise of inflation in the economy in the context of the reflections on inflation, money-printing and organised labour by a variety of economist, starting with the Thatcher-Reagan guru, Milton Friedman. Amongst related topics, we note a global renaissance in trade union organisation, a global crisis in food distribution, disintegration of UK farming, and the failure of the world to be make adequate provision to mitigate future pandemics. [Free. 53 minutes.]

THE JUBILEE, PSYCHOANALYSIS & OTHER GOSSIP - INTERESTING TIMES 53

In this podcast, I consider the question of the nature of the UK monarchy as revealed by the current jubilee celebrations, and if psychoanalysis might be useful for answering it.  Recorded as I take my constitutional so contains some real-world sounds :) [Free. 39 minutes.]