The ClearOut

In this episode, Dara talks about the affection for survival narratives and considers the respective legacies of the recently deceased singers and songwriters Tina Turner and Christy Dignam. He wonders whether we should be defined by what we've overcome in life. He also questions the value of legacy and argues for the need to be more concerned with our present-tense impact. Is surviving enough, or...

In this hazy episode, Dara seeks solace in mindful summer moments and solitary swims. He discusses the idea of retreat and running away to the places we find most comforting and tries to identify which ones might be better for us. He shares memories of summers past and realises that most of his recollections are located in the Irish countryside, with special mention given to summers working for hi...

In this episode, Dara shares the realisation that he is not goal-oriented. He is all about the process. It's not the destination, it's the journey, man! He argues for the stabilising properties of having a process in place and tries to understand why it is that stability appeals so much. After being on the receiving end of someone's anger, Dara takes a moment to consider reactions, responses, and...

In this episode Dara looks at the idea of safety as a keystone of wellness. In particular he concentrates on environmental and interpersonal safety. This pertains to the places we live and the people we share our lives with. Are they safe? How do we understand and recognise safety? And why is it so important, anyway? Dara argues that the presence of safety allows trust to be built, and from trust...

This week's episode begins and ends with a hug, because we all need a hug sometimes, right? Dara thinks so, and he looks at the idea of self-soothing in a wellness context, arguing that it is a particularly useful practice when aligned with mindfulness. A group that Dara suspects are not feeling particularly well are those that are protesting the arrival of asylum seekers in their community in rur...

In this week's episode, Dara looks at Ireland's storied relationship with the Eurovision Song Contest, a competition in which Ireland were once utterly dominant but has long since become an arena in which they are serial losers. He recalls his own experiences of watching the event as a child and how it was a source of great national pride and fascination. Ireland was a different country then, a di...

It's been 40 years since Star Wars was the most important thing in Dara's universe. He recalls his relationship with the original Star Wars trilogy and says why he thinks it was so successful - clean storytelling and clear characters. He argues that those two things got lost in the subsequent movies. Dara compares Star Trek with Star Wars and concludes one was far sexier than the other. Having lis...

In this episode Dara moves from very light to very dark. Recorded on his 20th wedding anniversary, Dara feels duty bound to reflect on that special day in 2003, and he revisits some of the standout moments, including an unlikely mode of transport for the first night of his honeymoon. Not prompted by those memories, Dara speaks about the impact of neglect and how being overlooked is more painful th...

In this, the 100th episode of the show, Dara permits himself a stocktake. He reaffirms the recurring themes he has continued to weave through the podcast and examines what wellness with attitude means. He shoots down 'teachable moments' and what he calls the 'cutesification' of our lives. He leans into messiness and uncertainty and unknowability. He surmises that the podcast is offering a vibe and...

In this episode, prompted by Spike Lee's He Got Game (1998), Dara examines his convictions as a parent, and recalls how an ill-fated Irish journalist helped him get comfortable with the idea of becoming a father to a daughter. He identifies a pillar of his parenting approach that he hopes he will manage to keep intact. He also looks at the idea of gender-neutral parenting, something he tries to ad...

In this episode, Dara starts off with thoughts on what defines us as individuals. Is it a higher power? Or is it just what wins the battle for our identity? He believes it is strongly connected to nature, nurture and genetic legacy. After acquiring a new patron for the podcast, Dara feels it is necessary to express gratitude. He recalls a former workplace being surprised and impressed by a message...

In this episode Dara wrangles with the purpose and direction of the podcast. He wonders if he's doing the pod all right or all wrong. Before he makes any radical changes though, he remains clear that he doesn't want it to be perfectly curated content that becomes bland and generic. He tries to work out who the podcast is for so he can better understand his target audience. A clip from a George Orw...

In this episode, Dara examines the centrality of heart to his own personal philosophy. He recognises that his concept of the metaphorical heart is suffused with his natural idealism, and how that can lead him into situations where he can be easily wounded. He argues against the interpretation of open-heartedness being equal to naivete. He talks about a recent incident that he believes was the cata...

This episode looks at the problem of having access to too much information, material and opinion in the online space. So much content, and so much for free, and such ease of access, creates an imbalanced relationship that offers dubious benefits. Dara looks at his own internet consumption habits and questions the merits of unearned offerings. Connected to that theme is Dara's experience of movies...

In this episode Dara shares his thoughts and responses after a movie mini-binge. He is struck by the hackneyed plotline of CODA (2021) but thinks the film is saved by the acting and warmth of the main cast. He compares it to a couple of other movies that didn't take flight, including the risible Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), and the glorified Apple commercial that was Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of...

In this episode, Dara is brushing up against his past and walking the fine line between nostalgia and sentimentality. Spending a lot of time in Dublin recently has provoked a host of memories from over 20 years ago and Dara feels like he keeps bumping into his younger self around every street corner. He talks about being able to really appreciate Dublin's architecture for the first time and how he...

Inspired by a podcast about Julius Caesar, Dara realises he has long had a fascination with assassinations, particularly those that have played out in movies. In this episode he looks closely at the celluloid executions that most impacted him, paying close attention to Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, amongst others. Warming to the theme, he considers Mark D...

In this episode, Dara finally achieves a long-term goal of the podcast - he gets his wife to sit down for an interview at Hashtag Blessed! Chiara Clear (nee Browne) is an Australian who fell in love with music almost as soon as she first heard it. She didn't know then that it would become and remain a defining force in her life. From school through university to being an in-demand session singer i...

Dara is not in the mood for this week's episode. He simply doesn't have the headspace. But he talks himself into it and soon warms up as he mentions how a recent football podcast planted the seed for what he wants to talk about - touchstones. What are the reference points that help us negotiate the world in which we find ourselves? Who are the pillar-like figures that we feel we can lean on? Who r...

In this episode, Dara is all stirred up as a result of the theatre production he is currently working on. The subject of the work is masculinity and the nurturing and shaping of boys into men. Dara admits that the process of examining this subject closely is leaving him exhausted but also inspired and full of almost uncontrollable thought processes and emotional impulses around what masculinity me...

In this episode, Dara looks at a couple of recent news stories in Ireland that have raised some confronting questions about where we're at as a society. The first was an ill-conceived joke at one of his gigs by the stand-up comedian Tommy Tiernan that left Emer O'Neill, a woman of colour, feeling intensely uncomfortable. When she went public with her experience, the racist backlash she received wa...

After hearing his wife listening to a selection of different piano pieces in preparation for a class, Dara realised he wanted to talk about motifs. He discusses motifs in the work of film score composers before warming to the idea of motifs in one's life - what themes and fascinations have recurred over a lifetime? What has been circled back to? What has been underscored and reiterated? A friend p...

In this episode Dara shares his experience of a recent family funeral that seemed to succeed in channelling a profound communal expression of love and grief. Because of his role in the service, he had to wait to express his own feelings. He reflects on the idea from Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful LIfe that one person can have an impact on many different lives and the hole that might be left had th...

If last week was the wrap-up of the year, this week is assessing the landscape of the year to come. Dara acknowledges the generic themes he has embraced for the moment that's in it and tries to contextualise his own attitude to the beginning of another year. Part of that attitude is informed by his birthday falling in January, something that has helped him cultivate a lifelong affinity for the mon...

An attempt to wrap up the year that was becomes a review of stand out movies and TV taken in over the last twelve months. Somewhat symmetrically, Dara realises he began and ended the year watching the work of Peter Jackson - he took in Jackson's Beatles documentary in January and is finishing the year by revisiting The Lord of the Rings trilogy. There have been plenty of other memorable production...