Heart Yoga Radio

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.]

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.] 

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.]

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.]

ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN THE UK & BEYOND - PART 2C [THE PRESENT]

This podcast considers the possibility of economic collapse in the UK and beyond with a focus of the current state of culture. [Free. 56 minutes.]

ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN THE UK & BEYOND - PART 2b [THE PRESENT]

In this episode of our series on the possibility of economic collapse in the UK and beyond, we examine the degradation of the ecosphere and its relationship to the economy and culture. [Free. 1 hour 7 minutes.]

ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN THE UK & BEYOND - PART 2a [THE PRESENT]

In this second episode of our series on economic collapse, we examine a number of current economic crises in the UK and beyond and see if they resonate with what we encountered when examining some historical examples of collapse in Part 1. We focus particularly on the economic aspects of the crises in question. [Free. 1 hour 15 minutes.]

TAOIST DIALECTICS

In this podcast we playfully and seriously outline our eccentric take on 'Taoist Dialectics'. This entails brief encounters with Plato's The Sophist and Hegel's Logic as well as an engagement with a parable told by Taoist master, Chuang Tzu. We relate all this to personal resilience in these apocalyptic times. [Free. 32 minutes.]

SAVAGE JAVID'S RANDIAN FANTASY - INTERESTING TIMES 38

In this podcast we comment on the state of the Tory Cabinet as members are 'pinged' as  a result of the Secretary of Sate for Health testing positive for COVID19 on the eve of 'free-dumb day'. We focus on contradictions within the right as authoritarian social conservatism vies with libertarian-libertinism for dominance and powerful opportunists attempt to face both ways. In this context we examine Javid's espousal of Randianism. [Free. 35 minutes.]