Getting Better Acquainted

In GBA 113 we get better acquainted with Donna. She talks about fitting in, sticking out, dressing up, social awkwardness, creating your own reality, dancing, working with children and more. Donna is a very unique person and we met in her very unique office filled with the interesting bric a brac that she uses to entertain children. She discusses the time when she would only wear green clothes and...

In GBA 112 we get better acquainted with Dan. He talks about being superstitious about songwriting, where songs come from, making music for film, Primary School, the tension between popular music and academic musical theory, growing up as a skater in the suburbs in the 90's, quitting jobs and more. The conversation was recorded a few years ago, in Bristol during the night before St Paul's Carnival...

In GBA 111 we get better acquainted with Jess. She talks social work, running, having a perfect time, travelling, transitions, finding yourself, music, change, friendship and more. The conversation was recorded a few years ago, in Bristol during the St Paul's Carnival, late at night after a long day, drinking gin. Jess plugs: Her family. Her partner Dan. And me(!) Dan's Music: http://www.danielwel...

In GBA 110 we get better acquainted with Bill. He talks God is in the TV Zine, music, media, blogging, Cardiff and more. It was recorded during my first GBA Cardiff pilgrimage: http://www.soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-17-cardiff Bill Plugs: A music night he's running at Dempsey's in Cardiff on the 23rd of May, featuring Glasgow's Three Blind Wolves, North Walians Shy and the Fight, Sw...

In GBA 109 we get better acquainted with Patrick. He talks British documentary film, the process of history, an academic appraisal of my dad, and romance verses analysis. We get into questions of art, inner life, the different effect of the two world wars in UK society, social documents and lots more Patrick Plugs: 2014 anniversary of WW1 - "it had a truly profound effect at the micro and macro le...

In GBA 108 we get better acquainted with Bryony. She puts up with me treating her as an ambassador for people in their early 20's! She talks studying radio production, teenage years, Canada, pets, memory, interviewing, living in the countryside, generations and lot's more! There is also a cameo from the cat that I had at the time. Bryony Plugs: Stand Up Tragedy: http://www.standuptragedy.co.uk/ Ne...

In this GBA Extra I talk to Steve, Alex and Owain about the band we were in when we were at school. It features clips from some of the bands songs. We talk music, artistic differences, and teenage friendships. It's a rather chaotic conversation that took place in Steve's back garden in Cardiff the day after his wedding. We mention: The Middle Class Bastards: https://soundcloud.com/themiddleclassba...

In GBA 106 we get better acquainted with Steve. I talk to my school friend Steve in his house in Cardiff surrounded by furniture he made himself the day after his wedding last year. He talks about being someone who constructs things, the birth of his son, what being a builder means these days, running a DJ business in your teens, being a Master Carpenter and Joiner, growing up as "the man of the h...

In GBA 106 we get better acquainted with Jack and George. Whilst drinking brandy & chain-smoking Jack, George and me trade differing views of the legal system and ask whether you change significantly after childhood: what stays the same and what changes. This episode includes an account of being arrested for destroying a house, an account of being a witness to an assault, an account of a bus kidna...

In GBA 105 we get better acquainted with Bec Hill. She talks talks loving puns, creating comedy for children and adults, coming from Australia to the UK, going straight from school to stand-up, where her comedy influences came from, giving up the day job and more. Bec plugs: Pun Run: April 18th Pheonix 7.30 £3 / £10 Pun Run Pun Size: May 18th Camden Head https://www.facebook.com/thepunrun https://...

In GBA 104 we get better acquainted with Jessie. She talks about living through an earthquake, connecting to cultures and expressing artistic impulses through food, her complicated relationship with her father, written and radio journalism, her experience of China and more! Jessie plugs: Women and Health - Camden: http://www.womenandhealth.org.uk/ Her Website: http://jessielevene.com/ Twitter: Chi...

In GBA 103 we get better acquainted with Ben. He talks style, substance and content, sexuality and fitting in, being a teenage actor, coming from the Caribbean to London, hipster culture, making art, digital media and so much more! We met in the coolest cafe I know on a day when I was wearing a bowler hat and had a really open, connected conversation captured on a mic with only one bar of battery....

In GBA 102 we get better acquainted with Julie. She talks about becoming a stand up comedian in her 70's, living through political and personal tyranny, her relationship to ageing, telling stories, living all over the world, surviving three tyrannies, being part of the computer revolution, how Elena Ceaușescu stole her desk and more! Julie plugs a great many things but ends up with: "There is alwa...

In GBA 101 we get better acquainted with Alex. He talks international law, Canadian identity and politics, studying in America and the UK, falling into radical research, strange jobs, being a part of a reality style TV show that was also a university course and more! If you are a US listener and you want to help podcasters and others fight patent trolls this is the place to go: https://www.eff.org...

This is a short piece for the SoundCloud AudioBiography project: http://blog.soundcloud.com/2013/02/06/audiobiography/ I have created completely from clips from my podcast series Getting Better Acquainted. __________ Getting Better Acquainted is a weekly podcast where we join Dave Pickering on his journey to get better acquainted with the people he knows. There are lots of shows about famous peopl...

Part 2 of The GBA 100th Episode Special: To celebrate 100 episodes of the show I gathered a bunch of my favourite people together in a room and made them sit and listen to a special live episode of the show. There was talk and there was food. Part 2 features more clips from the first 100 episodes, in this second part the listeners pretty much programme the clips, the much of the focus is on corres...

Part 1 of The GBA 100th Episode Special: To celebrate 100 episodes of the show I gathered a bunch of my favourite people together in a room and made them sit and listen to a special live episode of the show. There was talk and there was food (including a cake). In part 2 they’ll even be some live music from the GBA house band A Room Full of Friends. Part 1 features clips from the first 100 episode...

Episode 4 of GBA Live: 5 conversations recorded as part of my Invisible Picture Palace (http://invisiblepicturepalace.com/) residency for In the Dark Radio (http://www.inthedarkradio.org/) that took place in November 2012. These episodes are going to come out daily in the week leading up to the GBA 100 two-part special. Each one has a different audience of people who came out to a greenhouse in Wa...

Episode 3 of GBA Live: 5 conversations recorded as part of my Invisible Picture Palace (http://invisiblepicturepalace.com/) residency for In the Dark Radio (http://www.inthedarkradio.org/) that took place in November 2012. These episodes are going to come out daily in the week leading up to the GBA 100 two-part special. Each one has a different audience of people who came out to a greenhouse in Wa...

Episode 2 of GBA Live: 5 conversations recorded as part of my Invisible Picture Palace (http://invisiblepicturepalace.com/) residency for In the Dark Radio (http://www.inthedarkradio.org/) that took place in November 2012. These episodes are going to come out daily in the week leading up to the GBA 100 two-part special. Each one has a different audience of people who came out to a greenhouse in Wa...

Episode 1 of GBA Live: 5 conversations recorded as part of my Invisible Picture Palace (http://invisiblepicturepalace.com/) residency for In the Dark Radio (http://www.inthedarkradio.org/) that took place in November 2012. These episodes are going to come out daily in the week leading up to the GBA 100 two-part special. Each one has a different audience of people who came out to a greenhouse in Wa...

In GBA 99 we get better acquainted with Sam. He talks rhythm, SantaCon, Burning Man, chasing the pony of enlightenment and "that" gig. He also turns the tables and grills me on my writing history and creative process. Sam was the last drummer in my old band Apples for Everyone and we get into music, drumming, bands and whether being drunk on stage is always a good thing. http://www.myspace.com/app...

In GBA 98 we get better acquainted with Natti. She talks writing, leaving her job, race, identity, faith, class, gender, politics, change, being part of the early days of Occupy London Stock Exchange and more. This is one of the conversations where I end up talking a lot. Some guests have referred to doing GBA as a therapeutic experience. I found this one a bit like therapy myself. We get into the...

In GBA 97 we get even better acquainted with Angela and Sofia. I follow up with them both at our writers retreat in Ramsgate in August 2012, catching them both in very different moments of transition. We talk writing, work, happiness, balance, jungles, guns, bullying, breasts & more. This episode does stand alone but you may want to listen to their previous GBA conversations either before or after...

In GBA 96 we get better acquainted with Angela. She talks about being a librarian, being a teenage Goth in Michigan, being a "start up wife", being someone who follows their wanderlust to New Zealand, being an A & R person for hair metal bands, being a writer with a flair for editing and lots more. This is the first instalment of Angela this week. She returns with along with GBA 95 guest Sofia on...