Getting Better Acquainted

In GBA 133 we get better acquainted with Paul. He talks equal marriage, immigration, life changes, the death of his father and so much more. It's a really warm and open conversation with the theme of history running through its centre. Paul plugs: The recognition of same sex immigration and equal marriage rights for all. We mention: Louise's episode: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/...

In GBA 132 we get better acquainted with Nina. She talks bullying, complicated childhoods, feminism(s), mental health, France, twitter and more. The first GBA conversation with someone who had made a spider diagram of their life for me to follow during the conversation. And the first time Nina and I had met in person. Until then our friendship had been via email and twitter. Nina first reached out...

In GBA 131 we get better acquainted with Carl. He stops off in the middle of travelling around the world to talk neuroscience, culture, the merely real and share some stories of his travels. Carl plugs: "Have joy if you can in the merely real." "Do stuff while you can because there's a fine line between can and can't and you don't want to discover it on the wrong day." His Blog: http://themerelyre...

In GBA 130 we get better acquainted with Charley. She talks childhood, family, divorce, storytelling, comedy, bitcoin and more. We swap our differently complicated childhoods, covering everything from rat based tragedy to everybody's wall's. Plus there's a performance she gave at Stand Up Tragedy. Charley plugs: Twitter: https://twitter.com/charleylucyha Make Me Funny: https://soundcloud.com/charl...

In GBA 129 we get better acquainted with John. He talks playwriting and theatre, how to fit writing plays into your life and if and if it's a medium that is relevant the modern world. It's a conversation about process, using writing as a way of trying to understand the world, a way of expressing things you can't quite put into words in your everyday life. "I know you need your sleep now, I know yo...

In GBA 128 we get even better acquainted with Sam. It's a follow up conversation to the one we had in Episode 18: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-18-sam We talk about infidelity, her relationships falling apart, becoming a single parent, getting your life back together and embracing a new start, spirituality, growing up with dual heritage, spirituality, blogging, travel, photogr...

In GBA 127 we get better acquainted with Robin the Fog. He talks radiophonics, records, finding sounds, Resonance FM, why he's called the fog and so much more. We go from The Prodigy to John Cage to Simon and Garfunkle to Thundercats, all the time talking about how you find sounds and how you find ideas. Robin at one point quotes Charlie Parker: "Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, yo...

In GBA 126 we get better acquainted with my Uncle Willie talks about going from a transitory, working class Scottish background through a life as a military engineer and into the comfortable life of a successful entrepreneur. His episode makes an interesting addition to this week's episode with his wife my Aunty Margaret: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-125-margaret In many ways...

In GBA 125 we get better acquainted with my Aunty Margaret. We learn a lot about each other that we didn't know in a conversation that covers singing in choirs, suicide attempts, God, the WI, depression, medication, boarding school, yoga and more. It's a really special moment captured on microphone where two people who know each other and share many things but have never really sat down and talked...

In GBA 124 we get better acquainted with the Stand Up Tragedy team and our journey up to be a part of the PBH Free Fringe at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival. This show is a kaleidoscope of the fringe experience, mixing together intimate conversations, the sounds of the Royal Mile, stories, reviews and so much more. From stories late night conversations about sex to an 8 year old interviewing me about...

In this special GBA Live recorded at the Banshee Labyrinth as part of the PBH Free Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival. I get better acquainted with Peter Buckley Hill the creator and director of the PBH Free Fringe. We talk about the creation of the Free Fringe, his parents attitude to creativity, transferring from the Folk circuit to the comedy circuit, the way running the Free Fringe has affected...

In this special GBA Live recorded at the Banshee Labyrinth as part of the PBH Free Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival. I get better acquainted with Bec Hill and Brydie Lee-Kennedy from the Gods of Comedy podcast. We talk comedy, religion, belief and more. We plug: Gods of Comedy: http://godsofcomedypodcast.com/ Sugar & Vice: All the Men We've Never Slept With Venue: Gilded Balloon Teviot ​ Date:13-2...

In this special GBA Live recorded in the Soundcloud space on the royal mile we get even better acquainted with BBC Radio 4's Richard Tyrone Jones who was on the show a few years ago: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-13-richard-tyrone-jones We talk Edinburgh, spoken word, heart conditions and challenging performance art, plus Dan Simpson drops by to join us and talk pac man, poems...

In GBA 123 we get better acquainted with Daniel Simpson. He talks about his experience trying to bring Ibiza to the Balkans in a story that involves being a journalist for the New York Times, drug smuggling, the Serbian mafia, Sonic Youth, and the conflict between idealism and egotism. We also get into both the wider politics that frame this story (the media, the Balkans, The War on Terror, The Wa...

In GBA 122 we get better acquainted with Allan. He talks about being tall, being vulnerable, being shy and so much more. We discuss storytelling, acting, growing up as an introverted "dork" within a struggling single parent family in Perth, Australia and auditioning to be a giant clown in Cirque du Soleil. The episode also features a clip of Allan performing a true story at Stand Up Tragedy. At PB...

In GBA 121 we get better acquainted with Sue. She talks about friendship, judgement, the NHS, the founding of a community garden, talking to children, working in many positions within the health service, the state of public services and so much more. Sue is a close family friend to all branches of my complicated non-nuclear family. She brings the family season to a close with this warm, open and w...

GBA 120 is a special episode that was mostly recorded whilst travelling on buses a couple of years ago. For half of it you join me on a National Express bus that is going from Bristol from London and for the other half I am returning from this journey. This trip to Bristol wasn't really about travelling between locations. It was a journey about family, memory and coming to terms with various thing...

In GBA 119 we get even better acquainted with my Mum as she returns for her 3rd full episode. We talk about the tensions and similarities between us, nature verses nurture, rage, depression and mother issues! It was a hard but revelatory conversation to have. And in some ways is as personally revealing as last weeks episode with my dad. Another one I'm nervous to share. We talked about my mothers...

In GBA 118 we get even better acquainted with my Dad as he returns for his 3rd full episode. We compare losing virginity stories and our first sexual experiences (which were many generations apart), infidelity, sex workers, male sexuality, women, love, romance, attraction and lots more. It's a very personally revealing episode that I'm nervous about sharing with the world. These are the other GBA...

In this very special GBA extra the guest host is my older(half) sister Rebecca when she was 8 years old, she is interviewing her Nanny Annie Jones who was born in Victorian times about what life was like back then. It was recorded by Sheila who was last Wednesday's guest: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-117-sheila This is Rebecca doing her GBA as an adult: https://soundcloud.com...

In GBA 117 we get better acquainted with Sheila. She talks World War Two: her experiences being an evacuee, going dancing during the bombings, rationing, war being declared, the war ending, the way the war influenced the role of women in society and the Austerity Olympics. We also talk about taking up teaching late in life, falling in love with Cornwall, age and lots more. Sheila was my dad's firs...

In GBA 116 we get better acquainted with Janet Varney (from the JV Club podcast). Janet talked to me via Skype from LA. We talk about The JV Club, teenage years, interior design, recording conversations, divorce, acting, comedy, Joni Mitchell and more. This is an episode in the strand of GBA where I talk to other podcasters. JV's podcast describes itself like this: "Remember what it was like to be...

Stand Up Tragedy is coming to the Dogstar in Brixton on 4th July 2013 https://www.facebook.com/events/276924519117617 http://www.standuptragedy.co.uk

In GBA 115 we get better acquainted with Alice Bell. She talks Crystal Palace dinosaurs, working in the Science Museum, knitting, academia, blogging, science communication, teenage politics, how children's non fic communicates ideas, Captain Planet, communicating on the internet, and so much more. Alice is a science/media blogger for The Guardian, The New Left Project and also has her own blog on...

In GBA 114 we get better acquainted with Mark. He talks about studying film in Russia, site specific theatre, self reflection, performing Shakespeare in supermarkets, Father's Groups and more. Mark plugs: Teatro Vivo: http://www.teatrovivo.co.uk/ Frankenstein's Army: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1925435/combined He is directing (and devising with the twitter audience) STORYLINES at The Albany in De...