In this episode, Dara shares final thoughts on the US presidential election and speculates that the Democrats still haven't shaken the patronising habit of belittling those who disagree with them. He argues that if you take this attitude in the world of martial arts, you are setting yourself up to fail - the assumption of superiority is a dangerous flex of ego that can result in complacency and abdicated diligence.

Dara thinks the skill of reading the room is a primal instinct connected to threat identification and normalcy barometers. He explores what that might look like at a macro and interpersonal level, before turning the reading toolkit on oneself. Doesn't it all come back to senses and feelings? And what role does the passage of time have to play in reading the interior landscape?

In considering shared spaces, Dara wonders what kind of jigsaw piece a person might be. He identifies his own leanings very quickly and not for the first time reiterates the raison d'etre of the podcast in relation to that. It is definitely connected to the tension between ego and humility...

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theclearout2

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: theclearoutlive@gmail.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dara reacts to the re-election of Donald Trump to the US presidency. Did the Democrats and Kamala Harris once again fail to take seriously Trump and the Republican voter base? Whatever the cause, politicians of the liberal centre or centre-left have not been convincing enough to get themselves back into power. Four more years of Trump is a worrying prospect for the larger wellness of a very divided nation.

Admitting the limitations of his own political analysis, Dara turns to an incisive commentator of yesteryear - the brilliant Gore Vidal, whose sardonic voice spoke comprehensively on American public life, among other topics. In 1968, the liberal Vidal memorably featured in televised political debates with the conservative William F. Buckley, which descended into a barely controlled slanging match by their conclusion, choice epithets being volleyed back and forth with ever increasing venom.

Dara reads in full two of Vidal's pieces of writing on the US presidency. The first, The Real Two-Party System, is a short article written before the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. It questions the very idea of representation in US politics. The second, Armageddon? was written at the end of Reagan's second term and is a skewering of the president's shared and widely-publicised belief in a Christian end-of-the-world consummation. The unforgiving cynicism on display is a testament to eyes that were in no danger of having the wool pulled over them, especially by an 'Acting President'.

Vidal vs Buckley documentary, Best of Enemies - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3518012/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5_tt_4_nm_4_in_0_q_the%2520best%2520of%2520enemies

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theclearout2

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: theclearoutlive@gmail.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dara considers violence against women and the recent clear-eyed responses to it by Hollywood regulars Anna Kendrick and Saoirse Ronan, as seen in Kendrick's impressive directorial debut 'Woman of the Hour', and as heard in Ronan's bulletproof interjection on the Graham Norton show. After reviewing Kendrick's chilling movie and contextualising Ronan's comments, he recalls a key moment of Rachel McAdams' character in the second season of True Detective which laid out with absolute clarity the power differential between men and women.

Dara anticipates self-defence instruction for his daughter in the future and talks about the significance of power and strength imbalances in karate when a male and female practitioner face each other, which was often the case between him and his last instructor. He looks at the male responsibility to think about how they are perceived by women in different contexts and how easy it is to make small changes in behaviour to minimise negative assumptions. Regarding how he thinks of himself as a male of the species, he revisits memories of boyhood and adolescence where he certainly was not seen as threatening!

A key corollary of women being preyed upon is how often they are not listened to, ignored, blamed for their own misfortune, deliberately misinterpreted or otherwise dismissed. It begs the question - when will sexual or violent assaults of women be treated with the seriousness they warrant? And how is it, almost 50 years after the harrowing ending of 'Looking for Mr. Goodbar', that a female treatment of violence against women is still somehow niche or novel? As Marina Hyde in The Guardian said, women are no longer in the mood for joking about this stuff.

Marina Hyde on Saoirse Ronan's comment: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/29/chatshow-saoirse-ronan-graham-norton-women

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theclearout2

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: theclearoutlive@gmail.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.