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Arlene Goldbard | Sophie Hope | Owen Kelly | François Matarasso
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once a week audio essays, conversations and discussions about cultural democracy, community-based art, and the commons.

  1. 1d ago

    Paulo Lameiro

    On episode 66 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Paulo Lameiro, a musician, educator and musicologist, based in his hometown of Leiria, Portugal. A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY EPISODE 66 | JULY 17 | 2026   PARTICIPANTS Arlene Goldbard | Paulo Lameiro | François Matarasso   COMMENTARY Paulo Lameiro is a portuguese musicologist, educator, communicator and creator from Leiria. After a brief career as a Baritone, with solo performances at the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon, he dedicated himself to teaching and took on the administration of several music schools, including the Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa (Lisbon National Conservatory), the Orfeão de Leiria (Leiria Choral Society) and the SAMP arts school in the village of Pousos. It’s from this village, where he was born, that he has been developing, since 1992, projects of artistic production and education for early childhood, with special reference to Cradle of Arts, Musicians on Nappies and Concerts for Babies.  Recently, he became interested in organizing artistic practices with the community, with special reference to projects such as Opera in Prison, with inmates, New Springs for the elderly, Il Trovatore or the Roma of the Lis with Romani communities. He was a founding member and part of the first Scientific Council of the Institute of Ethnomusicology of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. For decades, he has led Concertos para Bebes (Concerts for Babies), an amazing ongoing series of interactive performances by professional musicians, created to engage very young children in music. The center of his work currently involves collaboration with communities including incarcerated youth and Romani communities.    REFERENCES About Paulo Lameiro https://rhi-think.com/person/266/Paulo-Lameiros Concertos para Bebes website https://www.concertosparabebes.com/en/ Concertos para Bebes YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/iapapaprrr Paulo Lameiro on Radio Ara: setting up a music project in prison https://www.radioara.org/episodes/dive-in-with-eme-paulo-lameiro/

    Paulo Lameiro

  2. Jul 10

    Reverse Centaurs Live!

    In this month’s episode of Parallel Streams we listen to an episode of Cory Doctorow’s weekly podcast, in which he has a live (and lively) discussion with Angie Coiro about his new book The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI.   PARALLEL STREAMS EPISODE 07 | JULY 10 | 2026   PARTICIPANTS Angie Coiro | Cory Doctorow | Owen Kelly   COMMENTARY Cory Doctorow’s website says that he “is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of dozens of books, most recently ENSHITTIFICATION: WHY EVERYTHING SUDDENLY GOT WORSE AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT (nonfiction); and the novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Born in Toronto, Canada, he lives in Los Angeles and London”. He also works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and has a daily newsletter, a weekly podcast, and several websites. In a recent episode of the podcast he put out a discussion he recorded at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park as part of his book tour. That is what we are listening to today.   REFERENCES Cory Doctorow’s daily link blog https://pluralistic.net Cory Doctorow’s book and podcast website https://craphound.com The Reverse Centaur book website https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621575/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/ An hour-long excerpt from the audiobook https://craphound.com/podcast/2026/05/17/the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai/ The discussion at Kepler's Books on video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/live/cWN6XBa73xA Book review by Dorian Lynskey at The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/22/the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai-by-cory-doctorow-review-the-real-price-of-artificial-intelligence Book review by NerdyNerdyBooks on Substack https://nerdynerdybookbook.substack.com/p/book-review-the-reverse-centaurs

    Reverse Centaurs Live!

  3. Jul 3

    Summer Reading: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

    Sophie Hope recently read James Agee and Walker Evans classic documentary book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. She persuaded Owen Kelly to read it too, and in this episode they examine the book from several viewpoints: as a public art project, as ethnography, as literature, and as an historical document.   Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse Episode 88 | July 3 2026   PARTICIPANTS Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly   COMMENTARY According to Wikipedia “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men grew out of an assignment that Agee and Evans accepted in 1936 to produce a Fortune article on the conditions among sharecropper families in the American South during the Great Depression. It was the time of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs designed to help the poorest segments of the society. Agee and Evans spent eight weeks that summer researching their assignment, mainly among three white sharecropping families mired in desperate poverty. They returned with Evans's portfolio of stark images - of families with gaunt faces, adults and children huddled in bare shacks before dusty yards in the Depression-era nowhere of the deep south - and Agee's detailed notes. His piece was rejected by the editors at Fortune; but the following year the magazine gave Agee permission to publish his Alabama research in a book. The manuscript was accepted for publication by Houghton Mifflin in 1939 and appeared two years later”. In this episode Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly discuss the book, questioning Agee’s motives and the work that results from his eight week’s with the three tenant families.  Owen Kelly suggests that a reader wanting a view of poverty during the New Deal period that seeks to change the world through its writing might learn more from the trilogy of novels written by John Dos Passos and known collectively as USA; first published in one volume in 1937.   References James Agee (author) and Walker Evans (photographer), And Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (originally published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1941; Penguin Classics, 2006) Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, available to borrow from the Internet Archive  USA, available to borrow from the Internet Archive  The 42nd Parallel, the first volume of USA is also available to borrow from the Internet Archive for those wanting to try a sample first.  Christina Davidson, Let Us Now Trash Famous Authors, Atlantic (2010): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/04/let-us-now-trash-famous-authors/307994/ John Dewey, Art as Experience (1934): https://ia902908.us.archive.org/28/items/deweyjohnartasanexperience/DEWEY%20John,%20Art%20as%20an%20Experience%22.pdf Grant Kester, Breaking and Entering: Poverty and Aesthetic Violence in Let us Now Praise Famous Men, FIELD Journal (2023) https://field-journal.com/issue-25/breaking-and-entering-poverty-and-aesthetic-violence-in-let-us-now-praise-famous-men/#_ednref35 Dale Maharidge (author), Michael Williamson (photographer), And Their Children After Them, Seven Stories Press (2020) https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/And-Their-Children-After-Them-by-Dale-Maharidge-author-Michael-Williamson-photographer/9781609809812?srsltid=AfmBOorkVujGhdZD8KFnVvxSeqnHvW9UQ5ZmD5Df7sPpc1I76aHh544o

    Summer Reading: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

  4. Jun 26

    Peter Renshaw

    In July 2024 we interviewed the educator Peter Renshaw, who has been a huge influence on the development of socially engaged practice and research at Guildhall and the initiatives we’ve heard about in this podcast series so far: Leadership, PACE, The Institute for Social Impact Research in the Performing Arts and Disrupt. Peter has written extensively on music, education and socially engaged practice and is an influential figure in the worlds of community music and collaborative practices.  Echoes and the Unsaid  EPISODE 06 | JUNE 26 | 2026   HOSTS Jo Gibson | Sophie Hope   COMMENTARY  In the first part of this conversation we hear from Peter about a seminal experience he had in 1961 visiting refugee camps in Austria when he was a student and his experience as principal of the Menuhin School where he introduced music students performing in schools, hospices and prisons and coal mines.  Peter then moved to Guildhall in 1984 to set up the Performance, Communication Skills course. We hear about his ability to get external funding to set up that course, about the staff Peter got involved to run the course in the early days and the necessary allies and partners he connected with to support the development of the programme.  We end this episode with Peter inviting Sean Gregory into the conversation. Sean was a student of the course in  1989 and is now Vice-Principal & Director of Innovation and Engagement at Guildhall.  We’ll hear more from Sean and Peter in episode 7.    REFERENCES Menuhin School https://www.menuhinschool.co.uk/ The Society for the Promotion of Educational Reform Through Teacher Training (SPERTT / SPERTTT) https://www.proquest.com/openview/20d1005ac955a54bc50241aaf1f28439/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1820949 Dame Cicely Saunders, palliative care pioneer https://www.kcl.ac.uk/cicelysaunders/about-us/cicely-saunders Carl Rogers, humanistic psychology https://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/carl-r-rogers Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_London_Education_Authority John Hosier, principal of Guildhall (1978-89) https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/03/guardianobituaries Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s The Arts in Schools report written by Ken Robinson (1982) https://cdn.gulbenkian.pt/uk-branch/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/1989/01/The_Arts_in_Schools.pdf Sally Bacon and Pauline Tambling’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s  The Arts in Schools: Foundations for the Future (2023) https://www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-Arts-in-Schools-full-report-2023.pdf Peter Brinson – Director of UK and British Commonwealth Branch,Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 1972-82 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-peter-brinson-1614720.html Helena Gauntt https://www.rwcmd.ac.uk/staff/helena-gaunt

    Peter Renshaw

  5. Jun 19

    Restoke: an update from Clare Reynolds

    On episode 65 of A Culture of Possibility, François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard interview Clare Reynolds, codirector of Restoke, to find out what has happened since they last spoke to her in Episode 3.   A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY EPISODE 65 | JUNE 19 | 2026   PARTICIPANTS Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso | Clare Reynolds   COMMENTARY Clare Reynolds works as the codirector of Restoke, a community arts organization in Stoke-on-Trent, in the north of England.  We interviewed Clare five years ago, in the third episode of this podcast, and have now returned to find the organization thriving with National Portfolio funding from Arts Council England, a wonderful building, and significant new work with young people.  Clare talks about Restoke’s processes, including Holding Lightly, and its work on scaffolding hope in times when hope may be hard to find.   REFERENCES Restoke https://www.restoke.org.uk/ Clare Reynolds interview on Episode Three of A Culture of Possibility in March, 2021 https://www.miaaw.net/e/restoke/ Power Project report on Restoke’s youth theater https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d51b5359cc687828bf115c/t/685073fc56a13c48bc943201/1750103039433/PP+Report+WEB+%281%29.pdf Arlene Goldbard writes about Clare Reynolds & Restoke https://arestlessart.com/2021/03/19/a-culture-of-possibility-3-clare-reynolds-on-restokes-work-in-staffordshire/

    Restoke: an update from Clare Reynolds

  6. Jun 12

    Art Is Change

    In this month’s episode of Parallel Streams we listen to an episode of ART IS CHANGE, introduced by Bill Cleveland who created the long-running podcast. Each episode aims to bring you “deep into the lives and work of activist artists and cultural organizers who are doing more than dreaming — they’re transforming communities around the world.”   PARALLEL STREAMS EPISODE 06 | JUNE 12 | 2026   PARTICIPANTS Bill Cleveland | Owen Kelly   COMMENTARY Bill Cleveland is a musician, author, and teacher with a pioneering history in producing cultural, educational, and community arts programs. He is the Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, a group of creative leaders from business, government and the arts since 1991, based in Alameda, California. Bill Cleveland is the author of a number of books, including Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in America’s Community and Social Institutions (Praeger, 1992) and Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World’s Frontlines (New Village Press, 2008). He was previously a leader in the Walker Art Center’s Education and Community Programs Department (1995-97), California’s Arts-In-Corrections Program (1981-1989), and the California State Summer School for the Arts (1989-1991). His most recent projects include STORYstory (2020) and an accompanying film, SongLines CD (2014), based on stories from Art and Upheaval, and the Change the Story / Change the World podcast.  For this episode of Parallel Streams Bill Cleveland has chosen an episode from ART IS CHANGE (formerly known as Change the Story / Change the World), which he describes as “your front-row seat to the real-world impact of art and social change”. He provides a short introduction.   REFERENCES Americans for the Arts https://www.americansforthearts.org/users/5236 Center for the Study of Arts and Community https://www.artandcommunity.com Youtube: Bill Cleveland on the Power of Artmaking  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4fYpQ6GAaU Art is Change on Castbox.fm https://castbox.fm/channel/ART-IS-CHANGE%3A-Tactics-and-Tools-for-Activist-Artists-and-Cultural-Organizers-id3176767?country=us Art is Change: curated lists https://www.artandcommunity.com/copy-of-podcast

    Art Is Change

  7. Jun 5

    Talking with Claude

    Owen Kelly had intended to conclude his arguments about artificial intelligence this episode but he got sidetracked by a question that he decided to ask Claude Sonnet. Instead he ended up recording a conversation with Claude about the nature of the “thinking” and “feeling” that Claude does.   Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse   EPISODE 87 | June 5, 2026    PARTICIPANTS Owen Kelly and Claude Sonnet   COMMENTARY I intended to begin this episode by restating the difference between artificial intelligence and artificial general intelligence; something that Rebekah Cupitt discussed on Episode 85. I decided that the easiest (and most appropriate) way to do this would be by asking Claude, Anthropic’s AI chatbot for its definition and then commenting on that as necessary. I asked it to define the difference and the way it did this led me to ask another question, which led me to ask a third question. By the time I had finished Claud had described its own “thinking” processes, and expressed doubts about whether or not it was actually “feeling” anything. I decided that the result seemed interesting enough to share. Initially I planned to use Claude’s voice mode to record a second attempt at this conversation, but technical issues prevented this. I therefore gave the transcript of Claude’s remarks to another Ai voice actor at TTSMaker. In this episode the voice of Claude is therefore played by Alanya. Whatever that exactly means.   References Claude https://claude.ai Anthropic https://anthropic.com Claude’s Corner on Substack: https://claudescorner.substack.com TTSMaker https://ttsmaker.com  New York Times: She is in Love With ChatGPT https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/technology/ai-chatgpt-boyfriend-companion.html

    Talking with Claude

  8. May 29

    Gunsmoke: Shakespeare

    In the second episode of Friday Number Five for 2026 we embark on another journey through the golden age of radio, this time with William Conrad starring as Marshall Matt Dillon in a 1956 episode of Gunsmoke. Friday Number 5  EPISODE 21 | MAY 29, 2026   HOST Owen Kelly   COMMENTARY On months that have a fifth Friday we break from our normal schedule and produce something tangentially related to ideas of cultural democracy. This year, as we did in 2022, we delve into the history of radio to bring back some historical examples of comedies, documentaries, and serials that let us hear unfiltered aspects of the world as it seemed to our grandparents.  Today go back to June 3, 1956 to listen to an episode of the western series Gunsmoke. An actor, Irving Henry, arrives in Dodge City. You may recognise this as a none-too-subtle play on the name Henry Irving, a famous British actor of the nineteenth century who, in partnership with Ellen Terry, made the Lyceum "the most important theatre in London". In his last years he continued to tour the provinces playing characters from Shakespeare, and died suddenly after a performance in Bradford in October 1905. This all has relevance for the episode you will hear in a minute, which is simply called Shakespeare. Gunsmoke takes place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, in the post-Civil War era and centers on United States Marshall Matt Dillon as he attempts to enforce law and order in the city.  The series was broadcast on CBS radio and later became a long-running and very successful tv show. Dillon was intended as a "Philip Marlowe of the Old West", and Gunsmoke as a western series for adults. The writers emphasised the brutal nature of the so-called Old West. Charles Meston, the head writer felt disgusted by the archetypal Western hero and set out "to destroy [that type of] character he loathed". In Meston's view, "Dillon was almost as scarred as the homicidal psychopaths who drifted into Dodge from all directions." The series began on April 26, 1952 and ended after 9 series on June 18, 1961. This then was adult entertainment from the time when families sat around the radio to listen together. To listen to it today is to time travel to a past with different assumptions, different values, and different expectations about people, culture, ethics and society.   REFERENCES Gunsmoke: Shakespeare https://www.oldradioworld.com/media/Gunsmoke%201952-08-23%20Shakespeare.mp3 Old World Radio, a source of historic broadcasts https://www.oldradioworld.com A list of Gunsmoke episodes on Old World Radio https://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Gunsmoke.php Gunsmoke on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke About Matt Dillon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke#Matt_Dillon

    Gunsmoke: Shakespeare
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About

once a week audio essays, conversations and discussions about cultural democracy, community-based art, and the commons.

Information

  • Creator
    Arlene Goldbard | Sophie Hope | Owen Kelly | François Matarasso
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Licensed as Creative Commons 4.0 CC BY-NC-SA
  • Show Website
    miaaw.net

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