Episodes
Saturday Jun 10, 2023
AI - THREAT OR PROMISE?
Saturday Jun 10, 2023
Saturday Jun 10, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss AI and its recent emergence into the public sphere. We examine four main aspects of AI; what the term 'AI' signifies, the knowledge status of its products, the political and economic ramifications of AI, especially its role in automation, and its position in current affairs public discourse. [Free. 61 minutes.]
Friday Jun 24, 2022
LAO TZU 51
Friday Jun 24, 2022
Friday Jun 24, 2022
In this podcast, we consider Chapter 64 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Themes we draw out are: the relationship between knowledge and mystery, the dangers of epistemological hubris and black swan events, the tension between caution and care in life-projects and the desirability of spontaneity and freedom from anxiety. [Free. 22 minutes.]
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN THE UK & BEYOND - PART 2a [THE PRESENT]
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
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.]
Wednesday Jan 13, 2021
REASON ON REASON 3 - QUESTIONING IN THE AGE OF REASON
Wednesday Jan 13, 2021
Wednesday Jan 13, 2021
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.]
Wednesday Dec 23, 2020
MUTANTS, BORDERS AND PLAGUE ISLAND - INTERESTING TIMES 18
Wednesday Dec 23, 2020
Wednesday Dec 23, 2020
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.]
Thursday Dec 17, 2020
REASON ON REASON 2 - THE ANTECEDENTS TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Thursday Dec 17, 2020
Thursday Dec 17, 2020
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.]
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
WHAT IS FASCISM? 2 - THE PRESENT DAY UK & USA
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
In this podcast, I ask the question, "Are the US and UK fascist?" I attempt to address this question by checking if any of the features I identified in the first podcast of this series are observable in the current situations in the UK and the US. [I leave aside the matter of the economy for a future podcast.] I conclude that many of the elements of fascism are present and that some are venerable, others incipient and some are being actively cultivated. I suggest briefly what needs to be done about this dangerous situation. [Free. 1 hour 2 mins.]
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
COVIDIOCY: WHO BENEFITS? - INTERESTING TIMES 10
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
In this podcast, we analyse the covid-is-a-hoax movement which demonstrated recently in London, demanding the abandonment of all remedial measures against the global pandemic. We do so primarily by asking the question that we identified in a recent podcast [Grassroots and Astroturf] 'Who benefits from this movement?' The question proves revelatory of how this movement plays to the far right and upholds the status quo, whilst claiming the contrary. The involvement of far right parties in the loose coalition of new-agers, antivaxers, climate deniers, and adherents to fantastic conspiracy theories is not accidental. These elements are stitched together by irrationalism. [Free. 24 minutes.]
Saturday May 02, 2020
LAO TZU 18
Saturday May 02, 2020
Saturday May 02, 2020
In this podcast we reflect on Chapter 31 of The Tao Te Ching. This Chapter deals with the pity and tragedy of war and the terrible nature of weapons and how the sage does not celebrate them. The sage, instead, loves peace and quiet and recommends it to rulers and peoples. We relate this to our current situation in which over $1.7 trillion are spent per annum globally on the weapons of war and in which many senseless and highly destructive wars are fought. We conclude that Lao Tzu's lesson in this chapter is one we urgently need to hear. [Free. 21 minutes.]
Sunday Aug 25, 2019
THE WORLD BURNS
Sunday Aug 25, 2019
Sunday Aug 25, 2019
This podcast briefly outlines the political, economic and ecological contexts and ramifications of the unprecedented fires in the Amazon rain forest that have hit the news this week. [Free. 32 minutes.]