Episodes
Sunday Sep 03, 2023
A SUSPICION - CLIMATE & CULTURE WARS
Sunday Sep 03, 2023
Sunday Sep 03, 2023
Join me on my constitutional as I entertain the suspicion that the UK right-wing government is on the brink of refocussing its culture wars on net zero, and eco-concern generally, and throwing everything it can muster at it. I place these speculations in a context of a brief and rough explanation of the hermeneutics of suspicion. The podcast ends with the trailer to our upcoming series of live zoom talks. See http://peteyates.uk/live-events/ [Free. 28 minutes.]
Saturday Aug 19, 2023
LAO TZU 64
Saturday Aug 19, 2023
Saturday Aug 19, 2023
In this podcast, we reflect on Chapter 77 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Here, Lao Tzu contrasts the human way with the way of Tao in a way which is highly apposite for our current condition. The human way, according to Lao Tzu is nothing other than our 'trickle up' economic system in which the few get wealthier and more powerful and the many are increasingly immiserated. The contrasting way of Tao is one of spiritual abundance to which giving and helping are intrinsic. We include a trailer for our upcoming series of events, The Apocalypse and You. [For details and to book a place see - http://peteyates.uk/live-events/] [Free. 28 minutes.]
Friday Apr 01, 2016
ON THE BODY [PART FIVE]: SEX, NATURE, CULTURE & ENLIGHTENMENT
Friday Apr 01, 2016
Friday Apr 01, 2016
As always this is wide-ranging. We discuss the nature of sexual arousal, sexual practices and the ideas people have about sex, attempting as we go to free ourselves from the conceptual straight-jacket imposed by the popular binary nature-culture. This naturally {!} leads to a consideration of sexual taboos and the transgression of them in Dionysiac/Tantric orgies and a fleeting analysis of the emancipatory potential of raw joy - ananda. We find it useful to identify two recognizable modes of consciousness aroused by sex. In one, fantasy is intensified. In the other fantasy is attenuated and 'immediate' sensations take over. [Free. 53 minutes.]
Sunday Dec 06, 2015
WAR & PEACE ('GIVE PEACE A CHANCE')
Sunday Dec 06, 2015
Sunday Dec 06, 2015
This is a rant against war and the culture of the war machine. It starts off with the presupposition that every sane person desires a peaceful world, now and for future generations. It then ranges quite wide, describing the military industrial complex in terms of its costs relative to those of creating and maintaining peace, arguing against the notion that war is 'natural' and attempting to expose the ideological character of most of the media discourses around current and past conflicts. It concludes that peace must be given a chance. [Free. 39 minutes.]