Heart Yoga Radio

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.]

In this podcast, we reflect on the resignation of Boris Johnson from the UK parliament after having been found by the Commons Privileges Committee to have lied to Parliament. We take it that Johnson's subsequent and immediate appointment on a six-figure salary as a columnist for the Daily Mail is significant as a kind of culmination of the UK's deep immersion in post-truth confusion, which has for some time been an advantageous state for global oligarchs in a time of wide-spread unrest. [Free. 26 minutes.]

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.] 

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.]

In this podcast, I examine the development of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) by many of the world's central banks, including the Bank of England, and its possible ramifications. I examine both liberal (in the original sense) and right wing anxieties about the dystopian possibilities of this development and conclude, that though the anxieties are well-founded, they are easily misdirected into culture wares and other divide and rule distractions. [Free. 57 minutes.]

In this podcast, I examine the  Genesis story and the notion of original sin, considered as a kind of foundational myth for "the West". I entertain the suspicion that this foundation myth doesn't provide a viable answer to the question of why we humans suffer and what to do about it. Not only that, it actually inhibits our abilities to use our ingenuity to secure and enhance human life. (Click the link to  buy me a coffee.) [Free. 20 minutes.]

In this podcast, we appraise the recent demonstrations in 50 UK towns and cities by the Enough is Enough movement, which has largely been instigated by a number of active trade unions to combat the cost of living crisis. We find the broad base of the movement encouraging as well as its grounding in the lived experience of the working class, economically understood. Click BUY ME A COFFEE to make a small donation. [Free. 23 minutes.]

In this podcast we discuss the recent UK mini-budget and its immediate consequences. We draw out the necessity for a wide range of co-ordinated radical activisms to bring about necessary system change, the inter-relatedness of the many crises facing the UK and the world beyond, and the centrality to any cogent analysis of an understanding of economic class-antagonism. [Free. 41 minutes.]

This podcast is a meditation on the contrast between natural ecstasies which affirm the human enterprise and can emphasise our connectedness to all things and the chaos engulfing the world as ecological, economic and cultural systems increase in instability, all at the same time. I arrive at a few practical suggestions which arise directly out of the meditation. Buy me a coffee by following the link. [Free. 18 minutes.]

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.]