Dara Clear

Leaving the Room – Cheating Death, Solving Life, and a Planet Where Nobody Dies! – Episode 219

In this episode, Dara is thinking about what comes next. Prompted by an article about Irish people signing up for their bodies to be preserved at death in the hope of waking up in the distant future, he finds himself perplexed by the desire to outlive a natural lifespan. While it is tempting to dismiss the participants as deluded fantasists, he recognises that something deeply anxious lurks beneath the aspirant futurism.

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Reaching for the Tourniquet, or How to Stop the Bleeding – Episode 218

In this episode, Dara admits to being a bit exhausted after moving house for the fifth time since the pandemic. It is not the most fun he has ever had and the ongoing grief ripples over Pepper the dog are adding to the load. However, the glass is (probably) half-full and at least the nickname for the new home has come very quickly and easily.

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The Selling of Women’s Bits, or Sydney Sweeney’s Sassy Chest! – Episode 215

In this episode, Dara is looking at women’s bits and how they continue to exert such a hold on so many onlookers, many with cash in hand, some holding other things. If the names Sydney Sweeney and Bonnie Blue are not instantly familiar to you, you have not been keeping abreast of things topical and pertinent this week. Sweeney is a Hollywood hot property who has made no bones about her need to make money to keep the show on the road. Blue is an English porn star who has just been the focus of a Channel 4 documentary following her facilitation of a jaw-dropping sex stunt.

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It’s Emma Thompson, Stupid! (She’s a Dame, Don’t You Know…) – Episode 214

This episode is as on the nose as a John Lee Hancock film! No ambiguity, no grey areas, it’s a celebration of the career of Emma Thompson. After recently rewatching 1995’s Sense and Sensibility, Dara was reminded of how much he has always admired Thompson and her work. So he decided to dedicate an hour to her (almost) entire filmography.

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The Assumption of Imperfection, or Where Are the Serious Men? – Episode 213

This week’s episode is all about men and their flawed humanity. Reflecting on his childhood and adolescence, Dara is struck by the fact that he cannot identify a single serious, or substantial man. He wonders if this is a reflection of his unrealistic idealism or whether it is an indication that men embrace a certain model of infantilisation that is tantamount to self-sabotage.

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Out of Sight, Out of Mind – The Cruelty and Arrogance of Power – Episode 212

In this episode, Dara has historical wrongs on his mind. He went to see In Plain Sight at the weekend, a striking and confronting piece of site-specific documentary theatre that addressed the history and legacy of the Mother and Baby homes in 20th century Ireland. He watched it with his wife and with his sister, who was born in one of the homes featured in the work. To say it was a powerful experience would be a gross understatement.

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I Am Not my Thoughts and Emotions! Or Maybe That’s All I Am? – Episode 211

In this episode, Dara picks up a point from last week and wonders if we can simultaneously be and not be our thoughts and emotions. He asks of what use our emotions are to others. Are we just being self-indulgent when we unload on others or is there room for more self-regulation? He also offers a way into better understanding relational estrangements and resentments.

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The Comfort of the Familiar, or Your Brain Would Like a New Pathway, Please! – Episode 210

In this episode Dara is trying to disembed some of his thinking in an attempt to do better. The well-worn pathways in his brain contribute to narratives that he can’t stop regurgitating and which are no longer serving him. Time for change – but that’s easier said than done.

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