Two and a Mic - The Social Podcast

This is podcast number 7 with Tanja, and her input continues to surprise and inspire in equal measure. She is striking in her strength of thought, her clarity of vision and her thoughtfulness. She weighs every word and gives it value and in that truth lies the depth to her sentiments. Today we start with a simple quotation from TED : A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is...

Kristine is the consummate professional. She works exactly as any boss would love for her to work; dedicated, focused and always willing to learn. Luckily enough for Kristine she is also the kind of boss people would love to work for. She is patient, instructive, approachable and consistent. As it happens, Kristine runs her own company Andris Capek Consulting, she is both employee and boss. She ha...

Hannah More was a religious British playwright, abolitionist and philanthropist born in 1745. In reading her poem entitled Slavery, it is clear how strong her thoughts were on the disgusting trade of humans from Africa. She was a voice for the abolition of slavery which eventually came in 1807. It is very modern to view people who are conscious of the suffering of one group of people to express a...

The Road to Tar Valon is a podcast based upon the bestselling Sci-Fi fantasy series of books known as the Wheel of Time, written by Robert Jordan. The story is epic! The length of the series is mammoth. The undertaking of doing a podcast which involves both a complete read-through plus keeping up with all the news, the TV show, managing a community and doing the necessary background work that make...

Meeting new and mysterious people online has often been the content for murder mysteries and savage dramas, not to mention some very sad and very real life tales. On this occasion, separated by thousands of miles, the threat ratio was within acceptable limits. Drab is in California, I am in Berlin. Drab ( in case you hadn’t guessed it this is not his real name) is a member of Twitter of Time, a fa...

Tatiana is a human rights activist and fundraiser for charities and organisations and an organiser of events with clear policy goals aimed at creating a sustainable future for people on our planet. It’s worth emphasising these points because Tatiana has been doing this for some time now and to maintain the energy and dedication that she has for so long is more than admirable. Running uphill agains...

When Tanja expressed the wish to speak of the passing of her father, there was no need to think long about it. The idea of this podcast is to give voice to people whose experiences are meaningful and whose sentiments and awareness may prove insightful and comforting to others. Tanja has often talked very openly about other deeply sensitive topics and so this ability she has to address such points...

The investigation into events surrounding the January 6th attack of the Capitol continue to move forward. Subpoenas, contempt, denial and accusation! Somewhere inside this story is a bastion of democracy, smothered by rage, hearsay and corruption. Certain people, whose job it was to protect the constitution lost their way and instead sought to undermine it from within. Since when has the use of wo...

Claudia is a former student of mine from Parma. In this podcast we catch up for the first time after almost 10 years. Claudia has experienced different realities in her life, having moved cities a number of times and even gone to live in another country. It is not an easy undertaking. She has studied in the field of science and works professionally in a challenging area. She is a mother and like m...

Florian at Schønlein Media is a podcaster with a vision and the determination to bring those visions to fruition. He works with similarly minded and creative people and the method behind their wonderful rise to success shows exactly why their material is fresh, new and demanding. Florian came to talk about his work and his projects and in this podcast he shows exactly how open he is to voicing his...

This is me checking in and out. It has been some time since I produced a podcast simply with some thoughts and I wanted to do a podcast specifically to say thank you to Amber and Traci from the Road to Tar Valon podcast for allowing me to take part in one of their brilliant episodes on the Wheel of Time. I am off on holiday now with my family so I have to keep this short, otherwise I am going to m...

Today’s talk with Tanja covers some familiar ground. We talk about SensualTalk, but this time we focus on atmosphere, participation, approach and welcome. We also speak of magic, a sensual form of magic, the type that every mortal can experience if we only allow ourselves the opportunity of doing so. So much of what we experience, or do not experience in our lives, is a matter of choice. It sounds...

How do we treat people who are dissimilar to ourselves? Why? How do we decide what is the correct way of interacting with others? We are all the result of millions of years of evolution and yet so often we act as though the evolutionary process simply passed us by. We are almost like the discarded refuse of evolution, the crap that some intelligent body simply released for the purpose of carrying...

Alexander and I are son and father and yet we sit here and talk as equals. We talk from different perspectives. Age is a telling factor in a person's view of the world. We see things with a different level of cynicism, awareness or experience. Yet it's also more than just that. Values differ. Neither one nor the other is inherently correct. Views simply differ. Commonality can unite even the most...

What is the role of the government in protecting the public interest? "Protecting the life and livelihood of the people and to manage the interaction of good government." Our vote gives people power to control our lives to a certain degree. We need to reassert the connection between our allowance of a government to come into being and the manner in which they conduct themselves on our behalf. Tran...

Poetry is a deep lake with a strong current, or at least, it can be. Why one set of words can move us so much is a mystery, or it is an art. There are so many wonderful poets who have achieved this divine feat and I have only savoured but a few. I aim to slowly but surely address this oversight. I have chosen this poem because the subject matter is clearly relevant to the hateful side of our conte...

On 16th October 2017 Daphne Caruana Galizia sat in her car going about her business. A bomb that had been placed beneath her seat was remotely detonated, ensuring she would never have the chance of doing so again. Her assassins were caught and arrested and tried. Those persons who ordered the killing however, remain unknown… Karin worked for PEN for many years and experienced many difficult storie...

Karin poses the questions and invites debate on topics of analytical import and introduces them to the question currently before us, Afghanistan. It is close to Karin’s heart for a number of reasons and she is following the story with great interest. Karin also draws parallels with the Afghanistan of today and the former Yugoslavia of yesteryear, the chaos, the bloodshed, and the needlessness of t...

The Lady of Shalott is a magical and mystical piece from Tennyson. I will not dare to analyse the deeper meanings of the work, that is best left to others. I will only say that I appreciate the movement in the poem. There is often meaning, depth and morality in poetry, there is thought and change and hope, yet not always movement... These poems are to be appreciated, constantly...relived, revived...

Tom Mackintosh is an elite rower for New Zealand, a dedicated athlete, a champion in his field and now, since his team’s unbelievable feat at the Tokyo Olympics, a gold medallist! Tom is also generous with his time, a great person to talk with and is full of passion and dedication to himself, his team, and his sport. He is gracious and respectful of his fellow competitors, and grateful to his frie...

No introduction is necessary into the work of this master poet. Analysis of his work is also best sought elsewhere onto the pages of those who are far more knowledgeable than I. As a suggestion this link is wonderfully informative and well worth a look: The Eight Greatest Poems of William Wordsworth | Society of Classical Poets My interpretation is that of an amateur, I make no claim of artistic m...

It is a rare pleasure to be able to start a conversation with an epic topic and to drift through other topics without ever reducing the significance of the debate. Karin talks about courage as an abstract concept but then in relation to her life and experiences. There is no rebuke in her words, only observation; clear and penetrating. It is no surprise thereafter that our minds turn to Afghanistan...

It’s always great to be able to speak with and listen to younger generations. This is especially the case when the younger person is your own child. Here I have the pleasure of Alexander’s company, a 15-year-old who lives in London. I feel we always think we know how those younger than us feel or think or should think and yet we never really take the chance to listen and to understand. As adults a...

There is no other way to introduce the cultural artistry of writing to different cultures without translating them. That representation can take so many different forms and there is perhaps no absolutely correct method. However there is success and failure. A masterpiece of literature might rise high in one land but stumble miserably into the dust in another, without the original author having pla...

Having received her first-class degree with honours Anna has set her sights on the next challenge and one hopes that the diplomatic corps will see sense when she comes calling. Anna has an authentic voice that needs to be heard and a passion to bring people together that should always be valued highly. It’s not always about what we want to see, it’s also about what we have to see, and face and the...