In My Own Time: Thoughts from Fort Buggeration - Introduction

Getting My Throat Cut — A Calm Thyroidectomy Tale: My experience with thyroid removal on the NHS 02.08.2025 5:31 ↓

In this episode, I recount my surprisingly serene experience of having both thyroid glands removed on the NHS — from diagnosis and hospital gown, to anaesthetic bliss and a quick recovery. A gentle reflection on healthcare, goitres, and gratitude.

Bums and Benefits: My Colonoscopy via the NHS (National Health Service UK) 28.07.2025 3:32 ↓

In this episode, Paul shares a very personal tale from the far end of the body. At 73, he's no stranger to medical prodding—and in this frank, gently humorous account, he recalls his two NHS colonoscopies with curiosity, gratitude, and not a hint of embarrassment. With a nod to his father's experience with bowel cancer, Paul explains why this intimate procedure is worth facing head-on (or rather,...

We Are Never Fully Known; Do we know one another or even ourselves? 21.07.2025 7:26 ↓

The mystery we are to ourselves and others.1

Here's not looking at you: The Gen-Z stare 18.07.2025 5:39 ↓

The Gen-Z stare The cover art is an AI generated image

Bugs and me: Large insects and small 18.07.2025 4:04 ↓

My encounters with a few noteworthy bugs

Bugs and me 18.07.2025 4:04 ↓

My encounters with a few bugs

Bugs and me. 18.07.2025 4:04 ↓

A short podcast about a few bugs I've encountered.

George: My mentor and friend. 17.07.2025 7:44 ↓

This podcast is about someone very special to me, whom I met on my first day working at a Children's Home during my period as a Trainee Residential Social Worker in Hertfordshire in the mid 1970s.

First placement of my Social Work course 16.07.2025 4:48 ↓

My first placement on my Oxford Polytechnic social work course was in the Probation Department in Gloucester, where I was living at the time. This is a brief podcast concerning my placement supervisor and an offender pulling the wool over my eyes. In future podcasts, I aim to describe various experiences I had over a period of almost 40 years.

My journey to social work 15.07.2025 9:44 ↓

This is, hopefully, the first of an intermittent series on my life as a social worker. This episode is not as polished as I would have liked. There are parts of this podcast which I may expand upon in future podcasts. Thank you for your time and interest.

Simple pleasures: A puck, a tweet and silence 13.07.2025 3:44 ↓

The pleasures in life can be tiny things of no consequence.

Weeding out the flowers 13.07.2025 6:00 ↓

MAGA beginning to eat their own?

Reflections on Authoritarianism and the Future of Democracy in America 10.07.2025 9:16 ↓

The Trumpification of the USA Followers can fall from grace

Reflections on a Lifetime of Lackluster Sports Experiences 10.07.2025 6:35 ↓

Sports and me? Really!

Navigating Heat and Climate Change: A Personal Reflection on Trusting Science 10.07.2025 3:50 ↓

What it says on the tin!

Heat Waves and Memories: Podcast Reflections from the UK 10.07.2025 2:04 ↓

Heatwaves in the UK and remembering 1976

Coffee n stuff 09.07.2025 4:47 ↓

Coffee! Espresso and Aeropress. 'n' stuff

Trouble with printers 09.07.2025 7:23 ↓

Printers can drive you crazy

An Ancestor and Those Long Gone 09.07.2025 3:00 ↓

My great-great-grandfather, Edward Stedman, and Jack How well do we know those who have gone before?

Memory and ageing 08.07.2025 8:55 ↓

Memory as identity The unreliability of memory Reconstructed memory Gaslighting and its psychological impact The fear of dementia and its effects

Slavery USA 08.07.2025 2:55 ↓

Comments on an email published by Timothy Snyder, about the concentration camps being set up in the USA.

A bit about me 08.07.2025 3:02 ↓

A little background information.

Episode 1: Introduction 08.07.2025 1:17 ↓

Please accept my apologies for posting this before. I'm new to this, and I'm trying to sort out the best and easiest (!) way to publish my podcast to multiple sites. Please bear with me.