Episodes
Friday Feb 09, 2024
THOUGHT FOR TODAY - INTERESTING TIMES 75
Friday Feb 09, 2024
Friday Feb 09, 2024
In this podcast we take a critical look at the output of BBC Radio 4's Today Programme which has an influential position in the distribution of news to the UK. We take a couple of examples for closer scrutiny, the daily homiletic Thought for Today slot, and a particular interview with opposition shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, on her back-peddling on green issues. [Free. 28 minutes. Strong language.]
Friday Jun 23, 2023
SOCRATES & THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Friday Jun 23, 2023
Friday Jun 23, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss the resonances between the question asked by Socrates in Plato's Republic, 'How should life be lived?', and the TV series, The Walking Dead. [Free. 50 minutes.]
Sunday May 14, 2023
CLICK BAIT, RAGE BAIT & CALM BAIT
Sunday May 14, 2023
Sunday May 14, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss rage bait and its role in the manipulation of behaviours through news and social media and what seems to be the deliberate arousal of strong emotions. We consider the application of behavioural science in conjunction with massive amounts of data collected by big tech in the persuasion business, especially as applied to nudging election results. The discussion ranges wide and includes a comparison of psychoanalytic approaches to behaviour manipulation with those derived from behaviourism. [Free. 34 minutes.]
Thursday Jan 12, 2023
INDIVIDUAL & COLLECTIVE, (& FARMING)
Thursday Jan 12, 2023
Thursday Jan 12, 2023
This podcast is a wide-ranging discussion which ends up entertaining the suspicion that the individual and collective do not make up a stark opposition, as much right-wing propaganda presupposes. The journey includes some thoughts about soil and ecological degradation and cultural shifts taking place regarding struggles over how agriculture should be best conducted. Not to mention, a stab at answering the pressing conundrum, "What is woke, exactly?" [Free. 32 minutes.] (Click on the link to buy me a coffee.)
Sunday Jan 08, 2023
PATHOLOGICAL IRRATIONALISM IN THE UK AND BEYOND
Sunday Jan 08, 2023
Sunday Jan 08, 2023
In this rambling rant, we attempt to outline a mass and individual psychology of Thatcherism and trace its fallout in our current situation. We note that science denial which is prevalent on social media is also often promoted by extreme right wing people. We the move on to a suggestion that Thatcher's denial of the social character of human existence is an example of the same pathological irrationalism that is a core feature of historical fascism. (Click the link to by me a coffee.) [Free. 59 minutes.]
Monday Jun 13, 2022
LAO TZU 50
Monday Jun 13, 2022
Monday Jun 13, 2022
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.]
Thursday Nov 04, 2021
ADVENTURES IN THE TWITTERVERSE - IMPENDING REVOLUTION?
Thursday Nov 04, 2021
Thursday Nov 04, 2021
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.]
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
REMARKS ON FREUD PART 2 - THE TOPOGRAPHICAL MODEL
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
This podcast continues with our series of Freud's thought. It focusses on Freud's lecture Dissection of the Psychical Personality (1933), outlining it and critically appraising it's main features. [Free. 55 minutes.]
Wednesday Sep 15, 2021
LAO TZU 41
Wednesday Sep 15, 2021
Wednesday Sep 15, 2021
This podcast deals with Chapter 54 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. In this chapter, Lao Tzu once again outlines his meditative method and indicates how it might produce benefits not only to the individual but to several interlocking systems, namely the family, the village, the nation and the world. The benefits arise out of a clarity of seeing which in turn generates a understanding of the processes of psyche and social existence. [Free. 20 minutes.]
Thursday May 14, 2020
THE CONVERSATION OF HUMANKIND
Thursday May 14, 2020
Thursday May 14, 2020
In this podcast, we consider the conversation of humankind over millennia and the way philosophy can be understood this way. We give reasons for wanting to encounter it and share that encounter. The first is to equip ourselves with tools for enquiry, so that we are not 're-inventing the wheel'. The second is for its own sake, to delight in its sublimity and beauty. The third is so that we may be good ancestors. [Free. 14 minutes.]