In this topical episode, once he’s dealt with a Hollywood actor’s less than enthusiastic response to Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, Dara gets straight into the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He discusses Putin and looks at his possible motivations for such aggression, and also considers the larger geopolitical implications of the conflict.
He tries to contextualise how people in the west have responded to the conflict, and argues that the limitations of its analysis in the popular media negatively impact our perceptions of the combatants. From there, Dara moves on to look at the word ‘stakeholder’ and explains why he doesn’t care for it outside a business context, seeing it as manipulative, disingenuous, and evocative of Orwell’s 1984.
Finally, Dara offers some counsel in relation to getting overwhelmed and unduly anxious by all the bad news in the world – controlling what and how much we consume is central to maintaining a healthy degree of wellness.
Apart from that, there’s Western recommendations, Strontium Dogs, and ‘mowldy’ days…
Marc Maron talks to Sam Elliott: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1309-sam-elliott
Dara’s article on identity politics, featuring the use of ‘stakeholder’: https://theclearout.com/2021/08/30/wishing-others-away/
The ClearOut episode on the comfort of ignorance: https://shows.acast.com/theclearout/episodes/getting-comfortable-with-chickens-and-ignorance