Episodes
Sunday Sep 04, 2022
ECSTACY AND THE APOCALYPSE
Sunday Sep 04, 2022
Sunday Sep 04, 2022
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.]
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.]
Thursday Jun 16, 2022
STARMER’S LONG-CORBYN - INTERESTING TIMES 55
Thursday Jun 16, 2022
Thursday Jun 16, 2022
This podcast is an analysis of and a commentary on a remark made by Kier Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions in the UK House of Commons on Wednesday 15th June 2022. The remark was, "Boris Johnson is the Conservative Corbyn." The guiding questions are, "How does this work as propaganda?" and, "What does the event reveal about Starmer that the people ought to know?" [Free. 37 minutes.]
Friday Jun 10, 2022
APOCALYPSE REPORT JUNE 22 - INTERESTING TIMES 54
Friday Jun 10, 2022
Friday Jun 10, 2022
This wide-ranging episode of Interesting Times deals with the recent rise of inflation in the economy in the context of the reflections on inflation, money-printing and organised labour by a variety of economist, starting with the Thatcher-Reagan guru, Milton Friedman. Amongst related topics, we note a global renaissance in trade union organisation, a global crisis in food distribution, disintegration of UK farming, and the failure of the world to be make adequate provision to mitigate future pandemics. [Free. 53 minutes.]
Thursday Jun 02, 2022
THE JUBILEE, PSYCHOANALYSIS & OTHER GOSSIP - INTERESTING TIMES 53
Thursday Jun 02, 2022
Thursday Jun 02, 2022
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.]
Thursday Feb 24, 2022
INSECURITY IN OUR TURBULENT TIMES
Thursday Feb 24, 2022
Thursday Feb 24, 2022
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.]
Saturday Nov 20, 2021
TORIES ON THE ROPES? - INTERESTING TIMES 43
Saturday Nov 20, 2021
Saturday Nov 20, 2021
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.]
Saturday Nov 13, 2021
ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN THE UK & BEYOND - PART3 [THE FUTURE]
Saturday Nov 13, 2021
Saturday Nov 13, 2021
This podcast continues our series on economic collapse. It considers what the future might involve using the COP26 climate change conference as an indicator and focussing on economic, ecological and cultural systems. [Free. 1 hour 17 minutes.]
Tuesday Oct 12, 2021
WELSH LABOUR - A GLIMMER OF HOPE
Tuesday Oct 12, 2021
Tuesday Oct 12, 2021
In this podcast, we take a brief look at a couple of the interesting and hopeful initiatives of the Senedd Cymru [The Welsh Parliament] which is currently under Labour Party control. These are the Well-Being of Future Generations Act of 2015 which requires public bodies to consider the long term consequences of their actions, and The One Planet Development initiative which encourages ecologically sustainable development. [Free. 27 minutes.]
Sunday Sep 05, 2021
TAOIST DIALECTICS
Sunday Sep 05, 2021
Sunday Sep 05, 2021
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.]