In this episode, Dara talks about the characters we respond to in the art we consume. Having been very stirred by 'Joker: Folie a Deux', he stays in the world of movies and finds himself thinking about Jungian archetypes and the shadow self we can see reflected at us from the big screen. Speaking about that film, which has heavily promoted Lady Gaga as the joint draw of the story along with Joaquin Phoenix's compelling title character, he argues that it is what transpires between the Joker and Brendan Gleeson's prison officer that really unlocks the film and its grim depiction of human damage.
Latest Episodes
In this episode, Dara is still reeling after watching Coralie Fargeat's astonishing film 'The Substance', a scarifyingly vicious body-horror satire on the pressure that results from the extreme demands of celebrity and the beauty expectations inflicted on women. The film is centred around a TV fitness personality whose middle-age renders her undesirable in the eyes of the network. In a ferocious performance by Demi Moore we bear witness to the lengths a woman will go to to preserve her looks and corresponding status.
In this episode, Dara considers the elements that contribute to our resentment buckets and shoulder chips. He believes time and the ease of others are two key ingredients in the mix. He confesses to giving voice to some very uncharitable resentfulness around the time he became a father. He also speaks carefully around a significant source of resentment in his marriage.
In this episode, Dara shares his gripes about the utterly mediocre buddy movie Wolfs, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt as two fixers reluctantly obliged to work together through a night of yuk-filled capers (SPOILER: THERE ARE NO YUKS!). The film is an ode to laziness, self-satisfaction, complacency and vanity, and has the gall to pay tribute in its final shot to a truly great buddy movie of yesteryear, the inference clearly being that Clooney and Pitt are a contemporary equivalent of two past greats. No such luck.
In this episode, Dara reflects on a weekend spent with an old friend and his resultant fatigue, both psychological and intellectual. It prompts an interrogation of his belief and value systems and whether they are more or less valid than those of his friend's. He argues that it is healthy, and perhaps even necessary, to have someone you regard challenge you with love.
This episode is all about the presence of absence. How are your comfort levels with empty space and dead air? Do you struggle when the void isn't filled with something to stimulate? And more importantly, with what do you fill empty spaces and awkward silences?
In this episode, Dara is looking for a pulse. After he and his daughter watched Adam Sandler's 2004 romcom, 50 First Dates, Dara was reminded why he wasn't a fan of the comedian's factory line movies - there were too many moments and gags that were completely devoid of life.
A very simple and straightforward episode this week - Dara reads a lengthy unabridged extract from Marlon Brando's autobiography - Songs My Mother Taught Me, published in 1994. Brando's voice is frank and accessible and he shares his thoughts on acting, fame, and various female lovers during the time of his emergence as America's most captivating actor. He also speaks about being a damaged child and the difficulty he had trying to shake off feelings of worthlessness.
In this episode, prompted by his cat and dog, Dara is considering the idea of essentialism. He talks about core dispositions and the perennial pitching of nature against nurture. He argues that there is very little that is not in the mix when it comes to how our identities emerge. He shares his thoughts about his daughter on this stage of her journey and wonders about her essential leaning.
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.
About the Podcast
Welcome to the turbulence!
Join Dara Clear, a domesticated Irishman who is trying to work out the best ways to cope with what life throws at him.
Husband, father, actor, writer, teacher, karate instructor, and sea swimmer, Dara wants to take the wuss out of wellness.
Mixing storytelling, philosophy, humor, psychology, and emotional honesty as a recipe for increased wellness, positivity, and resilience.
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