Dara Clear, Author at The ClearOut

The Version of You that Serves You Best – Episode 271

In this episode, Dara is reckoning with the allocation of care, the management of power, and the role of ego in personal agency. When life gets too out of control, what choice do we have but to yield? And does yielding result in a self we don’t care for? Is that cowardice, complicity, or merely compliance? Why do we have such a strong impulse to want to impose our will on events that are so beyond our control?

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A New Masculinity – Reconstruction or Remembrance? – Episode 270

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In this episode, Dara is continuing the theme from last week – namely, male culpability in the Cornell 7 case and in male-perpetrated sexual assault in general. Behaviours and attitudes generally do not self-generate. They are handed down, observed, learned, and replicated. And when such behaviours and attitudes, even if problematic, are tacitly approved, they gain a legitimacy that becomes internalised.

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The Cornell 7, Rape Myth Acceptance, & Not Everything Happens Online! – Episode 269

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In this episode, Dara has a look at the Cornell 7 rape case that has found itself at the centre of the discourse. A shared female opinion that he has come across online suggests that men need to be directed in how they should respond to this case and to rape and sexual assault in general. The assumption seems to be that men are disinclined to express disapproval of rape unless sufficiently prompted to do so.

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Burned Again? Lean Closer with Nietzsche – Episode 268

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In this episode, and not for the first time, Dara is reckoning with old wounds. Life has a great knack for shocking you out of your complacency, but what do you do when you are reminded of stuff you thought you had long since put to bed? Some things just refuse to stay down, and maybe the harder you push the more likely they are to push back.

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Navigating Inner and Outer States – Episode 267

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In this episode, Dara is decompressing after a week of shifting boxes and furniture. A new home and a new phase await. What is living going to be like under a different roof, between different walls, looking out at different views? And how do you recalibrate after such literal and energetic upheaval?

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Moving Day! – Home is Where the Heart Is – Episode 266

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In this episode, Dara is recording for the last time at Hashtag Hilltop – he and his family are about to move for the umpteenth time in recent years. He finds himself reflecting on homes of the past and the countless and never reliable memories from all of them. It strikes him how important the idea of a shared space is. Isn’t the ability to share space a profoundly important matter for all humanity? Isn’t that ability integral to humility? And isn’t it fundamentally antithetical to capitalism?

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Gloria! Tribute to a Feminist Icon – Episode 265

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In this episode, in honour of the late Gloria Steinem, Dara attempts to mansplain feminism – so women, I hope you are listening! No, rather than that foolhardy exercise, he reads in their entirety two blazing feminist articles from the 1970s. Miami by Nora Ephron documents the dynamics within the National Women’s Political Caucus at the 1972 Democratic National Convention and prominently features the animus between Steinem and Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique (arguably the core text that ignited second wave feminism).

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Dolly, Dolls, and Puppets – The Ageless Beauty of Female Icons – Episode 264

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In this episode, Dara is joining the dots between some recent topical news stories. He talks about a female icon of American entertainment – blonde, beautiful, independent, diminutive and unknowable; who else could it be other than Miss Piggy! And what does that embodiment of female power have in common with the late Dolly Parton? Quite a lot actually, but of particular interest is the nature of their apparent agelessness and consistency.

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Musical Youth – The Albums That Took Me From Eight to Eighteen! – Episode 263

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In this episode, Dara is going full listicle and revisiting the albums that made up the soundtrack of his youth, from Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1982 to movie-inspired choices of the late 80s that carried him to university.

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Glen Hansard and the Unquantifiable Wonder of Mojo – Episode 262

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In this episode, Dara takes the time to pay respects to the recently departed Glen Hansard, whose untimely death shocked and rocked so many, both here in Ireland and further afield. Hansard’s band The Frames really were part of the soundscape of 90s Ireland as it emerged out of the dark years of the 80s into a newly discovered energy and confidence that ushered in what felt like limitless frontiers.

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Dara Clear

The Version of You that Serves You Best – Episode 271

A New Masculinity – Reconstruction or Remembrance? – Episode 270

The Cornell 7, Rape Myth Acceptance, & Not Everything Happens Online! – Episode 269

Burned Again? Lean Closer with Nietzsche – Episode 268

Navigating Inner and Outer States – Episode 267

Moving Day! – Home is Where the Heart Is – Episode 266

Gloria! Tribute to a Feminist Icon – Episode 265

Dolly, Dolls, and Puppets – The Ageless Beauty of Female Icons – Episode 264

Musical Youth – The Albums That Took Me From Eight to Eighteen! – Episode 263

Glen Hansard and the Unquantifiable Wonder of Mojo – Episode 262

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