The ClearOut

In this episode, Dara is scratching his head over the idea of brotherhood. One of four sons, he feels he has a reasonably reliable perspective on his own experience of brotherhood, one he admits was not, nor continues to be, straightforward. In the online space at least, 'bro culture' seems to be thriving, and certainly in the world of podcasting there is a prolific number of shows hosted by male...

In this episode, Dara is rolling over some recent themes. He is convinced that cultivated internal calmness is a key part of responding healthily to the chaos of the world. When he talks about the importance of a 'proportional response' to whatever afflicts us, he acknowledges the connection of that idea to the philosophy of traditional martial arts practice. The implication of control is central...

In this episode Dara tries to understand the connection between the advancement of AI-generated images and his desire for the simplicity and austerity of certain places and practices. There is something about the ornate and ostentatious perfection of AI images that reminds him of the roots of the Protestant movement as a response to the grotesque greed and riches of the Catholic Church. Thinking o...

In this episode, Dara reflects on a few days spent at a writers' retreat and his attempts to slip into a writing flow. Among other things, he talks about identifying his preferred voice, the subject matter he finds himself drawn to, and trusting that his own process would reveal to him what he should be trying to write. He describes as luxurious the gifts of headspace and optimal conditions for cr...

This episode does exactly what it says on the tin. Dara settles in to discuss a film he just watched, a concert he just attended, and a theatre production he recently saw. The film was Paul Thomas Anderson's underappreciated 2002 dark comedy, Punch-Drunk Love, which was notable at the time for giving Adam Sandler a leading dramatic role. Upon rewatching, Dara realised how much like a musical it wa...

In this episode, Dara responds to a music podcast he found surprisingly moving by exploring the idea of connection. Why do certain things or people connect with us more powerfully than others? What is it that speaks to us about a particular individual, or their work? And what is it about music and musicians and movies and actors that can so enrapture us? Dara argues that it is all about relationsh...

WARNING : The content of this episode may be confronting and/or triggering as it contains detailed references to suicidal ideation. The subject is treated respectfully and carefully, but unambiguously. In this very personal and occasionally difficult episode, Dara decides he can't not examine his near four-decade-old impulse to destroy himself. A follow-on from last week's episode in which he spok...

In this episode, Dara tries to remind himself of the existential power of understanding life as an unending path that leads to endless unknown destinations. In relation to a recent rough mental health episode, he is also happy to be reminded that the path of life will continue past the present moment, no matter how challenging it might be. Dara discusses destinations, end points, and arrivals in t...

Dara has just turned 50, and in this episode he lets his mind hover over the moment in an attempted stocktake. Even as he argues for gratitude, he acknowledges how challenging the world is right now. This leads him to consider whether enough weight is attached to softer impulses and emotions. In these times of fracture and isolation and estrangement, should we attach greater significance and worth...

Dara reviews his year in watching on screens big and small over the last twelve months. Some of the obvious big 2023 releases are covered, including Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon and Anatomy of a Fall, but also mentioned are older movies that were watched during the year at home - Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley, for example, or Paul Schrader's Hardcore. Dara also loo...

Following the previous episode's last-minute production, Dara does another late night recording, this time in the wind and rain, with at least two interruptions from a sleeping dog. He's determined to maintain his line, and that means he refuses to put out another delayed episode. This week it's all about Maestro, Bradley Cooper's biopic of the American conductor and composer, Leonard Bernstein. D...

In this hard-fought-for episode, Dara soldiers on alone to deliver this year's Christmas special. Coming in at the eleventh hour, Dara presents a brand new story that he completed only a day before recording. An old woman lies stricken on the floor of her hallway. Who will come to her aid, and will she welcome their assistance? A meeting of minds old and young that reveals an unexpected commonalit...

In this episode, Dara jumps in feet first to Christmas tales of yore. Reading from a compendium of Yuletide tales, he selects two contrasting entries that brought some balance to proceedings. The first is A Christmas Inspiration, a sweet and somewhat sentimental tale by L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) of a group of young women coming to the aid of a lonely cohabitant of their boarding house...

In this episode, Dara has further thoughts on the ongoing Middle East conflict after listening to the concerns of a good friend who has a certain amount of skin in the game. He wonders if a peaceful end will ever be possible when key combatants on both sides are so determined to eradicate each other. It raises the existential question of what value one human life has over any other. The deaths occ...

In this episode, Dara tries to get his head around the riots that took place in Dublin recently after a violent knife attack on young children outside their school in the middle of the day. The subsequent outpouring of shock and anger escalated into a night of destruction, rioting and looting in the city centre, fuelled by anti-immigrant rhetoric. Dara wonders about the bad actors involved in inci...

In this episode Dara admits he didn't realise it was International Men's Day, and a tweet suggesting what men should be reflecting on for the big day triggered something defensive in him. Before examining that reaction, Dara talks about a recent night in with his cousin and their respective daughters that didn't go quite as he anticipated, but was arguably the better for it. In the context of sexu...

In this episode, Dara reflects on some Jewish insights into the Israel-Palestine conflict which he found both helpful and inspiring. He posits that in the act of dehumanising Palestinians, Israel ends up dehumanising itself, which is its own kind of tragedy. Dara considers the interpretations of the phrase 'our shared humanity'. He argues that it could be taken as good or bad, but explains how it...

In this episode Dara reveals that he is unaccustomed to the comfort of pajamas. This fact is relevant to a very recent late-night incident that he shares. That same incident concluded with an inherent contradiction relating to the presence of both love and rejection. In acknowledging that tension, Dara begins to talk about romance as a form of idealism. He argues that the conscious demonstration o...

In this cultural episode, Dara is in awe of two recent Shakespearean recitations he caught on small screens, delivered fifty years apart in almost identical settings by two masters of the form. He makes an effort of his own and is embarrassed by the resulting evidence of his lesser skill. Before that, he briefly shares last thoughts on the final of the Rugby World Cup, which was won by a dogged So...

In this episode, Dara is exercised by the things we don't say. Why is it so difficult to express how we really feel to those we have known longest? Why do we communicate so tangentially and clumsily? What intricate layering process happens to put truth so far out of easy reach? Dara presents a theory he calls relational dislocation, in which we can find ourselves occupying very different areas of...

In this pendulum swing of an episode, Dara is dancing between joy and pain. It is a journey that takes him from Ireland's expulsion from the Rugby World Cup last week to the birth of his daughter 10 years ago. Raking over the rugby loss, Dara tries to understand exactly why it hurts so much. He knows it has something to do with a peculiar mixture of national pride and insecurity. He also discusses...

In this episode Dara looks at dynamics of giving and receiving in relationships. He argues that having a true exchange with someone is impossible unless that dynamic is present and healthy. Talking about an upcoming project, Dara explains why he has called it The Receptive Mind and concedes he could try to access more of that mindfulness in his parenting. Do men really not talk, or is that just a...

In this episode Dara is agitated by an interview with a US politician that he has just listened to. He is frustrated by the public representative's combativeness and disingenuous line of argument. He wonders why politicians are so incapable of being honest. Dara looks at Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 film The Big Chill, considered by some to be a key generational text, in a context of racial politics and...

In this episode Dara is looking into the void and trying not to feel frightened. Thinking about the construction of identity and personality, he is curious about how comfortable or not we are with what lies beneath. He asks if you can handle being left alone with yourself. He argues for coming to peace with oneself and entering into a state of acceptance of what he calls the unnamed being that may...

In this episode, Dara goes on a deep dive into Peter Ustinov's 1962 film of Herman Melville's Billy Budd. He recalls being struck by Terence Stamp's remarkable performance and beauty when he first saw it over 25 years ago. A naval setting provides the battleground for innocence vs evil, but what was most memorable to Dara was the gay subtext and the grim denouement that it provoked. Staying on tha...