104 episodes

Discussions about the role of media in sustainable and participative communities, providing an alternative to mass media. We look at how we build our capabilities to tell our own stories and think about the importance of what we become in producing and sharing our own media content. As we face the challenges of a rapidly decentralising society, in which the creation of social value is spread more widely, we need to prepare for a time when institutions will be less central to public discussion because trust will be circulated and distributed using blockchain technologies and systems. What will this new decentered media environment feel like, and how should we prepare for it?

Distraction Therapy Distraction Therapy

    • Society & Culture

Discussions about the role of media in sustainable and participative communities, providing an alternative to mass media. We look at how we build our capabilities to tell our own stories and think about the importance of what we become in producing and sharing our own media content. As we face the challenges of a rapidly decentralising society, in which the creation of social value is spread more widely, we need to prepare for a time when institutions will be less central to public discussion because trust will be circulated and distributed using blockchain technologies and systems. What will this new decentered media environment feel like, and how should we prepare for it?

    Distraction Therapy 081 - Driving Around or Living a Meangful Life

    Distraction Therapy 081 - Driving Around or Living a Meangful Life

    Ryan and I got together at the recently extended Phoenix Cinema and Digital Arts Centre in Leicester, for a chat about what makes for a meaningful life. Ryan shared his experience of getting a car and being stuck in endless traffic trying to get to work. This was the first time we’ve met in the evening and had a beer as well!

    • 1 hr 4 min
    Distraction Therapy 080 - 2022 Review

    Distraction Therapy 080 - 2022 Review

    In our final podcast of 2022, Ryan and I met for a coffee and chatted about how we are coping during the festive season, what films and books we’ve been watching and reading, and how to show sincerity when attempting to get the Christmas Feeling when buying tat in an out-of-town shopping centre!

    • 1 hr 3 min
    Distraction Therapy 079 - Literary Leicester

    Distraction Therapy 079 - Literary Leicester

    It was really nice to have a coffee this morning with Jonathan Taylor and Paul Whitehead, who are based at the University of Leicester’s Centre for New Writing. We chatted about the way that literature has faced the challenge of the consumer society, and what role literature plays in a progressive and democratic society.

    As well as sharing their professional insights, Jonathan and Harry shared who and what they have been inspired by, and how they hope to promote and support the uptake of all forms of literature in Leicester.

    Jonathan’s website has links to his publications, writing and poetry. Harry’s focus is on the Literary Leicester Festival in March 2023.

     

    • 52 min
    Distraction Therapy 078 - Dafydd Roberts Listen to the Voice of Fire

    Distraction Therapy 078 - Dafydd Roberts Listen to the Voice of Fire

    Today I chatted with Dafydd Roberts, about Listen to the Voice of Fire, Dafydd’s music project that encompasses sound art and experimental music performances. Since relocating to West Wales, to pursue a PhD in the alchemical writings of Thomas Vaughan (fl.1650), Dafydd has been active in DIY underground music networks since the early 90s. His projects synthesise his academic interest in hermeticism and sound. Dafydd’s music has been released on labels in the USA, Germany and Australia, played by John Peel, BBC Wales on Resonance FM.

    We chatted about the process of developing an aesthetic approach to music that is diffused and promotes a sense of imagination informed by poetry, mystery and hermetic engagement with stories.

    Tracks played are available from Bandcamp, and include:

    In A Strange Chamber

    I Saw a Sword Lay Shattered

    Kemel Atlantis

     

    • 1 hr 23 min
    Distraction Therapy 075 - Emergent Arts and Media

    Distraction Therapy 075 - Emergent Arts and Media

    Ryan and I caught up for a coffee again this morning, to find out what films and books we’ve been reading. We chatted about how forms of media can be thought of as emergent, and considered what a metamodern radio station might feel like. Ryan mentioned Arrow Cult Films, the films of Anton Tarkovsky and Gaspar Noe.

    • 1 hr 6 min
    Distraction Therapy Podcast 074 - Surviving the Heatwave

    Distraction Therapy Podcast 074 - Surviving the Heatwave

    What was the heatwave like for you? That was our starting topic in this latest episode of Distraction Therapy. Ryan and I chatted about what insight we gained about climate crisis, and what manifestations of anxiety we might see emerging in films, songs and creative media, that compensate for the need for urgent action? We’ll see responses of one form or another coming through in our popular culture, beyond the antagonism of the news cycle, so what should we be looking out for?

    • 1 hr 6 min

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