Murmurations Darren Kelsey

Welcome back! After a lengthy hiatus, the Murmurations podcast returns to share a conversation Darren recently had with the magician and psychological illusionist, Derren Brown. This was a guest talk that Derren kindly delivered to students studying "Storytelling and Collective Psychology" at Newcastle University, UK. Reflecting on some of the ideas covered in Darren's recent book about Derren’s work, they talk about social connection, Stoicism, the environment, Jungian psychology, transcende...

In the final episode of this series, Darren speaks to his colleague, Dr Sarah Hill about disability, society and popular culture. They discuss Sarah's research on representations of disability and how we can do more to understand the social challenges and lived experiences of being disabled. They discuss both positive and problematic developments in popular culture and some of the shifting public perceptions around disability. In the closing few minutes of the podcast, Sarah shares some advic...

In this week's episode, Darren talks to his colleague Dr Tina Sikka about media, ideology and social justice. They discuss the importance of studying media and communication and consider its value as an interdisciplinary field - with some attention to the recent UK exams controversy. They also discuss Tina's research on food, gender politics, the Intellectual Dark Web, social justice movements, cancel culture, campus culture and the importance of nuance in conversations about sensitive ...

In this episode of the Murmurations podcast, Darren speaks to Dr Veronika Koller (Lancaster University) on the role of language and metaphor in society. They discuss what we mean by discourse and how we analyse it critically - covering a number of current topics, including populism, immigration, COVID-19 and much more. Veronika is also a co-host on the Words and Actions podcast and they finish up with some chat about podcasting in academia. The Words and Actions blog can be found here: h...

In this episode of the Murmurations podcast, Darren speaks to Dr Richard Thomas (Swansea University) about media, money and politics. They discuss Richard's journey through higher education, stories about mid-life crises, banking and economics, alternative media platforms, the politics of polarisation and a touch of optimism on how we might move forward as a society.CreditsMusic: https://www.purple-planet.comLogo: Archie Cameron#academia #media #journalism #research #representationmatters #re...

In this week's episode of the Murmurations podcast, Darren speaks to Dr Ross Garner (Cardiff University) about fandom, cult media and community. Darren sets Ross the task of convincing us why we should care about fandom and why it is an important area of research. Ross does a great job and they discuss lots of fascinating texts and topics including fan stereotypes, audiences and identity, the politics of popular culture, and much more...#media #popularculture #audiences #representations #repr...