For the second time in the show’s history, Dara is considering the questionable value of nostalgia. While allowing that there are wellness benefits to understanding the connection between nostalgia and loss, and the stark reality of nostalgia’s relationship to ageing, there is something offensive about a particular brand of generalised nostalgia that regularly raises its unoriginal head on social media.
Prompted by the palpable fragility of the new recording location for the podcast, and the coincidence of this week’s episode taking place during stormy conditions, Dara’s mind is cast back to a scene from The Blues Brothers (1980) in which Elwood’s apartment is shaken within an inch of its life because of its proximity to a city train track. Considering that movie, he reckons it belongs to a special trinity of favourite childhood comedies that were untouchable. But is that just his nostalgia talking? How well have they aged, really? He tried to show his daughter one of them and she walked away after five minutes!
Dara also takes a moment to accuse the positive living/wellness sector of quackery while arguing once again for his own understanding of self-care, something that involves the real work of personal inventory and facing one’s historic demons.
The first nostalgia episode from August 2021: https://theclearout.com/podcast/the-nostalgia-shark-is-coming-for-my-squirrels-episode-14/