The ClearOut

In this episode Dara stays firmly in mental health territory and discusses at length our fear of the dark side of ourselves. He talks about the unexpressed and the uncomfortable and argues for disciplined, non-hysterical acceptance of the parts of ourselves that make us turn away. He reflects on the aspects of his own behaviour and personality that concern him and falls back once more on embedded...

In this episode Dara explores the American father as captured in TV sensations The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. He also looks at Arthur Miller's theatre masterworks Death of a Salesman and All My Sons before briefly visiting old Hollywood depictions of idealised fathers, both with and without collars! He resists the sentimentalisation of fatherhood and critiques his own patterns of behaviour as a fa...

In this episode Dara explores the concept of character and how its uncovering might lie at the heart of true strength, happiness and resilience. He places it in firm counterpoint to the litany of reductive names, labels and titles and other identifiers we have put on us. That prompts a reflection on the tyranny of the word 'Mother'. Drawing inspiration from Joan Didion and a key principle of tradi...

In this episode Dara asks the question - what movies really do it for you? Before giving his own answer, he explores the types of masculinity that he has been attracted to on the big screen since he was a child. From the days of Spencer Tracy, through the Star Wars and Indiana Jones era, to the modern emotional landscape of 'men's movies', he covers a lot of ground and a lot of movies that all cap...

In this episode, Dara reflects on body image and the objectification and commodification of female beauty and sexuality. He discusses the sexist rhetoric and dynamics that he has always found pervasive among many of the men he has known. Along the way, he revisits his own introduction back in the day to the sexualised female iconography of Playboy magazine. He talks about the destructive and warpi...

In this episode, Dara gets stuck into expectations and how imposing they can be if they are too rigid. He draws a connection between unmet expectations and the loss of control, and the anger that results from that. He points out the flawed thinking of anthropomorphising the family chickens, who have been giving him a particularly annoying day. A moment is taken to acknowledge two actors who recent...

In this episode Dara touches on sugar consumption and gut health and warns of the danger of big lunches if your afternoons are going to be demanding. He talks about using social media to promote his stuff and realises he can barely remember how his points of view evolved, which leads to him confessing an inability to retain information. Finally, he looks at the soiled package of middle age which b...

In this episode Dara walks the corridors of nostalgia and explores the underpinning emotion that informs that longing for the past. The journey takes him to the movies of his childhood and starts him thinking about when childhood ends and adulthood begins. He confesses an affinity with Ernie from Sesame Street and admits a boyhood crush on a short-haired Helen Slater in The Legend of Billie Jean!...

In this episode, following some thoughts on Afghanistan and the Taliban, Dara reflects on conflict in his own life and looks particularly closely at his marriage and the diverging paths that have emerged there. He wonders if we can access anybody's internal landscape, and what that unknown element does to our expectations. This leads to a discussion of disappointment, hurt and resentment buckets....

In this episode, Dara looks at the unwitting victims of a biblical exorcism before cruising through Michael Cimino's 1978 masterpiece, The Deer Hunter, with particular focus on Robert De Niro's performance in it. A case for greatness is made and De Niro is pitted against Lionel Messi, the Argentinian footballing genius. The anthemic God Bless America - the song used in the concluding scene of The...

In this episode Dara tries to unpick the puzzle of presence. He draws a line between perceived safety and protecting the precious parts of ourselves. He argues for integrity and wholeness as the pathways to self-acceptance and the tools for calm and confident presence. He also shares a very personal story to illustrate the power of unexpressed emotion. Along the way, he predicts a poor end for his...

This episode is all about stars! Dara discusses at length the many versions of A Star Is Born and their relative strengths and weaknesses, as well as their gender politics. He also uses those movies to look at trauma and the dire male response to trauma and addiction by one of the central characters that is the penultimate act of each version of the story. That leads to briefly touching on alcohol...

In this episode, Dara reveals some naming issues regarding the animals in his life and takes the opportunity to slaughter his production team in the process. He wanders into the wilderness of ignorance and wonders if we cannot become comfortable with what we don't know. Part of the discussion involves a gentle juggle of the concepts of knowledge and understanding which takes Dara back to his unive...

In this episode, Dara has a long hard look at the notion and reality of madness and places it in a context of conflict. The world of karate and traditional martial arts and the codified dynamics of attack and defence therein is a key reference point. The Joker, as featured in Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's 1988 graphic novel 'The Killing Joke', also contributes to the conversation. It is a meeting...

In this episode, Dara talks about how listening to another podcast stimulated all of this episode's talking points. He discusses the casting and similar subject matter of three very recent movies, at the end of which discussion Kevin Costner's butt puts in a brief appearance. A guest's voice from that other podcast reminds him of a friend who put down a very clear boundary. He talks about issues o...

In this episode Dara revisits his relationship with hats and head coverings and recalls a distinctive haircut from his teens that he took with him to a summer job in the USA in 1990. He also discusses a piece he wrote about a recent period of anxiety he was going through, the reaction it got, the value of articulating our pain, and an element of his coping mechanism that he didn't write about. Thi...

In this episode, Dara explains why he has a little cold and reflects on the not so great behaviour we tolerate in ourselves towards those closest to us. He takes the discussion further to reflect on the legacies of family trauma and how the challenge of not passing that trauma to subsequent generations should be embraced. Included in this section is a reflection on his own relationship with depres...

In this episode, Dara can't remember what a theremin is called. He talks about playing cricket with his daughter and then recalls watching the Detroit Tigers baseball team in Detroit 31 years ago. A discussion of the American baseball novel The Natural, its Arthurian roots, and Robert Redford's acting in the 1984 movie adaptation follows. Finally, sentimentality and resentment are discussed as opp...

In this episode, Dara relives some acting experiences he'd rather forget. He admits that clowns inspired him to want to become an actor and goes on to argue that clowns have a lot to teach about human wonder and vulnerability. Along the way he discusses being the owner of an interesting chin, a significant first date with his wife, and something fun to do with a blender! Dostoyevsky and Shakespear...

In this episode, Dara goes on a bit of a deep dive into his relationship with swimming, including revealing his fear of water as a child. This leads to a reflection on the importance of exercise in his life as a pillar of his mental health maintenance. He also wonders if he might have met a serial killer... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dara Clear - writer, actor, martial artist, sea swimmer - introduces his new podcast, a spin-off of his website theclearout.com , and elaborates on his vision for the podcast before going into how a very recent battle with his daughter got him thinking about the power of positive assumptions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.