Life And Life Only

We complete our talk with Guy Rowland, the creator of the ‘Botched’ series which relates to the Cheshire Police investigation of Lucy Letby and her subsequent trials.   After discussing the rest of the original trial, including the issues around defence witnesses, air embolism and insulin, Antony and Guy move on to a range of topics, including two very important past miscarriages of justice. The c...

Following mentions of Lucy Letby in previous episodes, we embark on a journey of over 2 hours into the case, aided by the extensive knowledge of Guy Rowland, the maker of the ‘Botched’ series which covered the more-than-questionable investigation and trials of Letby   In this part, we begin with Guy’s background, Guy and Antony give their Letby origin stories, and then Guy talks about the making o...

We move away from animal issues this time for 100 minutes of free-range conversation (excuse the pun) and accessible psychology with film analysis legend Rob Ager.   This discussion actually took place face-to-face in Rob’s house in Liverpool in August, quite a rarity for podcasts nowadays, and the idea was to pool our wealth of collective knowledge and experience to offer some useful and hopefull...

We complete our slightly gentler follow-up to the 'Animals For Food' series by hitting a few more topics around animals and life itself.   'The wild' (natural world) is basically the most dangerous ghetto imaginable, and Antony muses on the brutality of it all and whether the contrast between this ultimate survival test and the benevolent calm of a sanctuary might give a clue as to the innate aggr...

Out of the darkness of the recent ‘Animals For Food’ series comes something a little more hopeful, though not without a few more difficult details   Antony talks about the aftermath of the series, including the reading of some recent feedback from valued listeners and how the research and production of the episodes, which involved immersion in a hopelessly dark and twisted world, has changed his o...

The series completes itself with a look at the grandaddy of them all, Shaun Monson's 'Earthlings'. Although food has been the main focus of the series, this documentary also looks at the use of animals as pets (even that isn't always pretty), for clothes, for entertainment and finally for scientific experiments. Shaun's 2015 sequel 'Unity' is in the show notes below.   Antony also mentions a coupl...

Continuing with this most upsetting but vitally important topic, Antony completes his look at 'Land of Hope And Glory', discusses the big myth about tradition and change and then switches to a new documentary called 'The Dying Trade'.   This film was made by Jack Hancock, who gives the issue a new spin by exploring his relationship with his father, who just happens to be a man-and-boy slaughterhou...

This is the first part of a series on a topic which could be the most important and urgent ever covered on this podcast. There's no doubt that the research, including lots of video footage, has been the most upsetting and harrowing, but there has been a strangely cathartic quality to it as well.   In this part, Antony talks about his relationship with animals, the video that was the final trigger...

Acting as a ‘gentle’ introduction to what will be a very challenging upcoming series of episodes, Antony offers some observations and questions on a sprawling range of topics, mostly focused on the harsh realities of this glorious world we inhabit.   How much do we want to know about what really goes on in our name, and what we inadvertently or actively support? What do, or should, we feel about t...

The encounter between Piers Morgan and Russell Brand in April was, if nothing else, compelling and revealing. Despite their very different personae, they have had strangely similar journeys through some of the darker aspects of media and come out the other side, each now positioning himself as part of ‘alternative media’, whatever that exactly means, while still in contact with the mainstream.   A...

For our final episode of the year, we look at a yuletide classic from a philosophical and existential angle, gently challenging the fairytale ‘happy ending’ and looking at other inconsistencies within what is close to being a perfect Hollywood tale of darkness rescued by light and hope. George Bailey and the other characters are archetypes that stay just the right side of being clichés, but there...

We complete our journey into Axel Rudakubana’s darkness with a look at some of the wealth of information uncovered by the recently-completed first phase of The Southport Inquiry, which has taken place at Liverpool Town Hall.   Special attention is given to the testimonies of Gary Poland, the unfortunate taxi driver who delivered Axel to the place of his atrocity, Axel’s brother Dion and their pare...

We conclude our latest follow-up episodes on Axel Rudakubana and his darkest of deeds on a summer’s day in Southport last July. In this part Antony looks at apparent ‘events’ involving Rudakubana - and the media coverage of them in a world awash with rumours and agendas - since his sentencing hearing in January and the award of a 52-year minimum term life sentence.   Parallel to this is the extrao...

Following on from episode 57, we delve further into the dark world of Axel Rudakubana and the horrific attack(s) he perpetrated in sunny Southport last July. This time, Antony provides more details of the sometimes bizarre events surrounding the attack (without dwelling on the gory details), and also the media framing of the killer and the handling of this shocking ongoing ‘story’.   On this latte...

After our journey in part 1 into anxiety and depression, we follow Matt Haig’s recovery, as detailed in his fine book ‘Reasons To Stay Alive’, and talk about all the great stuff in life, both big and small, with a little help from some of Antony’s friends and family -thanks again to all contributors- as he approaches his half century (hence the title).   Along the way, we explore regrets of the dy...

We present the first of two episodes in the lead-up to Antony’s upcoming milestone birthday. The main part of this episode features extracts from the first two sections of Matt Haig’s excellent and popular 2015 book ‘Reasons To Stay Alive’.   This profound, readable and sometimes humorous book details Haig’s recovery from ‘a sustained bout of anxiety and depression’, and Antony interjects with (ho...

We conclude our conversation with Peter Seal, the author of ‘The Self-Help Delusion: A Manifesto For Genuine Change’, a self-development book that seeks to help the reader evolve their way of thinking and inspire real and long-lasting life changes.   Once again, Antony and Peter discuss a range of topics, this time including anger/fear, hypnosis, NLP (neuro-linguistic programming), narratives, rol...

After entering dark territory with the previous episode, we return to lighter material with the first of a two-part conversation with Antony’s friend Peter Seal, the author of ‘The Self-Help Delusion: A Manifesto For Genuine Change’, which is a self-development book that seeks to help the reader evolve their way of thinking and inspire real and long-lasting life changes.   In this part, Antony and...

This is a rare true crime episode, trying (in vain) to understand the horrific crimes of Axel Rudakubana in Southport last summer. There is also some discussion of the Lucy Letby case and brief mention of John Lennon’s reviled killer Mark David Chapman, in terms of the psychology of crime and society's relationship to it.    We hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc...  ...

Completing our foray into advertising, mostly using Antony’s talk on Julian Charles’s excellent podcast ‘The Mind Renewed’ back in 2015, we dive deeper into Edward Bernays’s work and then segue into the darker underbelly of the craft, including the engineering of a military coup and the truly egregious and unethical snaring of innocent hearts and minds involved in advertising to children. On a lig...

Following on from the propaganda multi-parter at the end of last year, this time we dive into a topic with quite a lot of overlap, namely advertising. The bulk of the content comes from a talk that Antony did on Julian Charles’s excellent podcast ‘The Mind Renewed’ back in 2015. Despite the time that has passed since the talk, most of the general thrust of advertising has been in place for a long...

And so we bring an end to another fine journey through a fascinating topic and indeed another year of this podcast.   Part 3 of this series looks at ‘positive propaganda’ in the field of public health, multiple examples of negative propaganda by way of the demonising (sometimes literally) of political rivals and rival nations, and finally a look at how technology has brought propaganda, along with...

We continue our exploration of the fascinating and contentious topic of propaganda, using as our basis David Welch’s 2013 book ‘Propaganda: Power & Persuasion.   In Part 2, we look at the propaganda of nationhood and leadership before taking a deep dive into the chapter of the book on war propaganda. Is propaganda good or bad? Or does it just depend on who’s propagating the information? Part 3...

To round off the year, we present another multi-part series, this time on a fascinating topic that I have come to see as something of an art form. The main material being used is David Welch’s very accessible and even-handed book ‘Propaganda: Power & Persuasion, which accompanied an exhibition on the topic at the British Library in 2013.   Is propaganda good or bad? Or does it just depend on w...

We’ve got a special episode for you this time as Antony is joined by 1990s football legend and truth-seeker Matt Le Tissier. The conversation hits on a few topics such as the recent Euro 2024 tournament and some of the problems with the mentality of English football. Antony and Matt then discuss media narratives and the wider agenda regarding sport, especially its propagandistic relationship with...