Heart Yoga Radio

REASON ON REASON 4 - MADNESS

In this podcast we examine madness or the loss of reason to further our picturing of reason. We start out with the fact that madness, like reason has a history which offers us a variety of causal explanations of madness, treatments for it, and accounts of its meaning. We also give a brief account of nosological drift. Both of these preliminaries serve to cast suspicion on the notion that we can discern madness through contrast with a supposedly sane consensus reality. Accordingly, we are drawn to consider madness in terms of suffering people and to appraise crazy social and political situations through the employment of a critical awareness rather than accepting the status quo understanding as a yardstick. That critical awareness, we claim, entails acquaintance with ones own potential for irrationality. [Free. 54 minutes.]

EVENTS THAT DEMYSTIFY: BREXIT NOT DONE, GAMESTOP & A TRUTHFUL POLITICIAN - INTERESTING TIMES 23

In this podcast we recount and comment on three events that have been in the news over the last few days. The first is the revelation that Brexit is not done since the twenty seven EU nations have yet to ratify the agreement. The second is the Gamestop affair in which hedge funds have been confounded by the collective action of small investors co-ordinating through Reddit. The third an interview with Mark Drakeford, Welsh First Minister, on the Radio 4 Today programme in which Dr Drakeford's honesty and direct answering of questions confounded the interviewer who is usually highly aggressive towards Labour politicians. In each of these seemingly disparate events, the ideological mystification that enshrouds our public discourse momentarily parts. [Free. 27 minutes.]

PAIN, HOPE & THE STATE OF THE NATION - INTERESTING TIMES 22

Is there any hope of a sustainable human future? Confining myself mainly to the UK context, I attempt to address this question through an analysis of collective pain in relation to economic fragility, the COVID 19 pandemic, and Brexit. I start by giving the historical development of so-called neo-liberalism, focussing on its effect on organised labour and the results of FIRE sector deregulation, which together, I claim, resulted in intensified collective resentment, anomie and alienation in the midst of economic collapse. I end up recommending 'optimism of the will, pessimism of the intellect' as the way forward and draw attention to some promising events and movements. [Free. 32 minutes.]

REASON ON REASON 3 - QUESTIONING IN THE AGE OF REASON

In this third podcast in the series Reason on Reason, I investigate the rise of questioning during the Enlightenment and the accompanying scepticism towards ecclesiastical, theological and political authority. The main part of the podcast is analysis and comment on Kant's newspaper article of 1784, What is Enlightenment? This article exposes a tension between the promise of the new questioning for knowledge and it application and the possible impacts this movement could have on social cohesion. Other dramatis personae include Voltaire, Hume, per-cursor, Locke, and Blake for the ensuing Romantic back-lash. [Free. 32 minutes.]

TWITTER BANS AND FREE SPEECH - INTERESTING TIMES 21

This episode in our current affairs series is a wide ranging analysis of the significance of the banning of the POTUS, Donald Trump, by Twitter and other social media platforms. This leads into considerations of the benefits and drawbacks of free speech, and the multi-stranded power dynamics that surround it in our current discursive world, dominated by vastly influential information technology as it is. I make recommendations on how to situate ourselves in this situation and note the skills we need to proceed towards understanding and independence. [Free. 39 minutes.]

INVASION OF US CAPITOL - INTERESTING TIMES 20

This podcast gives a brief account of the invasion of the US Capitol by Trumpists who believe [without evidence] that Trump really won the Presidential Election. I attempt to discern the significance of the events and to descry both positive and negative effects into the future. I briefly give an account of UK reactions to the events and what they reveal about the state of UK politics. [Free. 35 minutes.]

MUTANTS, BORDERS AND PLAGUE ISLAND - INTERESTING TIMES 18

In this rambling rant, we consider the consequences of the announcement of a supposedly super infectious variant of the SARS-COV-2 virus which is spreading through the UK. We take a broad approach, covering the take of eminent virologists, analysing the relevance of the French blockade to the rapidly approaching Brexit, and wondering if the upcoming catastrophe will lead to a 'getting of wisdom'. [Free. 1 hour.]

REASON ON REASON 2 - THE ANTECEDENTS TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT

In this second episode of our series on reason, I take a broad brush to outline 

some of the main antecedents to the so-called European Enlightenment, also know as 'The Age of Reason'. I focus on the rise of experimental science in the contexts of church power and violence against those who contradict its doctrines, the rise of the bourgeoisie, and advances in mathematics. The figures of Descartes, Galileo and Newton loom large but Aristotle, Aquinas, Copernicus, Kepler and others also have parts. [Free. 44 minutes.]

RAW THOUGHT - US ELECTION, BREXIT, THE CORBYN PROJECT

This episode in our patrons only Raw Thought series connects three seemingly unconnected current events. These  are: the signing off of the US Presidential Election by The Electoral College, the further rescheduling of the 'cut-off' date for Brexit, and the initiation of the new Project for Peace and Justice by Jeremy Corbyn. [Patrons Only. 23 minutes.]

LABOUR'S CIVIL WAR, BREXIT, FRAGMENTATION - INTERESTING TIMES 17

This episode of the current affairs series offers comment on the suspension of Jewish socialists and critical left voices in Constituency Parties from the Labour Party on very dubious grounds. I conclude that this isn't about anti-semitism or racism in general but a purge of the left from the party. The suspicion is compounded by the soliciting of funding from billionaires by party leadership. I go on to relate this fragmentation to the fragmentary forces expressing themselves through Brexit as the clock ticks down. On the hopeful side, I mention the world's biggest strike of farmers and workers in India which involved 250 million people! [Free. 36 minutes.]