Life And Life Only

To mark Life And Life Only’s half-century, I drove back to my original home town on the day I celebrated another journey round the sun, to share a few personal reminiscences and also muse on nostalgia, memories, socio-economic status and a few other things…   There’s a nice bit of relaxing music to finish today’s episode and an announcement of a rather special guest coming up for LALO 51   I since...

And so we bring to an end another podcast series as we conclude our whistle-stop journey through some of the highlights of John Cleese and Robin Skynner’s very readable, entertaining and insightful book ‘Life & How To Survive It’, which is presented as an ongoing dialogue between the doctor and the intelligent layman. The topics and sub-topics this time include spiritual experiences and the va...

We continue our sprawling but hopefully enlightening trawl through John Cleese and Robin Skynner’s very readable, entertaining and insightful book ‘Life & How To Survive It’, which is presented as an ongoing dialogue between the doctor and the intelligent layman. One of the many strengths of the book is how it takes concepts and ideas and shows how they can be adapted to various contexts. Amon...

As the podcast nears its half century, we venture into another multi-parter, this time on John Cleese and Robin Skynner’s very readable, entertaining and insightful book ‘Life & How To Survive It’, the sequel to their ‘Families & How To Survive Them’. As with ‘Families’, this book is presented as an ongoing dialogue between the doctor/expert and the patient/layman.   As is the usual format...

We conclude our discussion centred on W Timothy Gallwey’s book ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ by talking about nerves, including citing some famous cases of ‘choking’ in sport, and then engaging in a little fun speculation as to who might win the remaining tennis Grand Slams of this year and beyond, in both the men’s and women’s tours.    We hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, shar...

Darrell & Antony continue their discussion of W Timothy Gallwey’s book ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’, which expertly uses that sport as a context to give wider insights into the nature of performance, the mental traps we set for ourselves and how to overcome challenges and be your best self. Although not an easy thing to do, you may find that at least it’s simpler than you think, and the book (an...

For our first podcast series of 2024, we welcome Darrell Swan to talk about some of the benefits of Life Coaching before we deep dive into the book ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ by W Timothy Gallwey. Darrell is a former Life Coachee of Antony’s and also a tennis player with a great interest in sports psychology.   Gallwey’s book expertly uses tennis as a context to give wider insights into the nature...

And so we finally reach the end of this podcast odyssey with the longest episode of the 4-part series... The main topics here are fame (linking neatly to LALO episode 40) and the interestingly similar trajectory it shares with money in terms of how its escalation affects -or doesn't affect- a person's happiness, and then the granddaddy of all topics- death. There’s also some talk about mindfulness...

The next part of this epic journey through Derren Brown’s book ‘Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine’ and the general topic of happiness takes us further into fate and accepting the downsides of life while finding its way back to some core themes of the book. These include our construction of narratives with little evidence, catastrophising and ‘mind-reading’ (ours, not Derren’s!)...

Antony appeared on ‘Luke’s English podcast’ in April/May this year to profile Life And Life Only, and here is a compilation of the two episodes, which originally went out on video (see links below). The topics discussed by Luke and Antony are the podcast itself, Cats, Titanic, Travelling, English Teaching, Life Coaching, David Blaine, Food & Diet, Films, Conspiracy Theories (including the weap...

Inspired by the recent U.S. Open tennis tournament, here’s my take on the grand slam singles finals won by Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic, the G.O.A.T. debate and the sport and its culture in general. From here, we look at two things that are inextricably linked to top-level tennis and sport- media and fame. There’s also discussion of a very important argument put forward in the seminal 1974 tennis...

We continue our foray into the surprisingly complex world of happiness, with extracts from Derren Brown’s 2016 book ‘Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine’ to guide us through, along with host Antony’s interjections and musings. In this part, we look at a wide range of sub-topics including more on the history of happiness, a look at the Stoics and Marcus Aurelius and their influenc...

Happiness seems to be simple to understand, but profound and lasting happiness is actually a complex business, as brilliantly illustrated by Derren Brown in his 2016 book ‘Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine’. Derren’s very readable 500-page tome forms the basis for this series of episodes on the many aspects of happiness, including its history. After musing on his recent illness...

This time around, Antony reads two of his short stories, referred to in the title of the episode, and muses on various things, including Chris Ryan and his ‘Tangentially Speaking’ podcast, Thai memories, a surreal Valium-fuelled overnight trip, a wonderful review from a listener, the magic of cats, normies vs truthers and a couple of other things. I don’t always have answers but I’ve got plenty of...

David Blaine is known around the world and a magician and illusionist. However, he has also had a parallel life doing endurance stunts, apparently for real without illusion (though some believe otherwise). This episode deals with my personal favourite of these stunts, when he tested the limits of human endurance, both physical and psychological, living in a plexiglass box for 44 days in London in...

We complete the reading of Antony's longform essay with the dramatic sinking and its aftermath. Ordinary humans of all levels of means and status fight for their lives against the slow, inevitable creep of death, and after the disaster there's equal measures of genuine humanity and ugly scapegoating   The story of R.M.S. Titanic and its unfortunate fate seems to have everything, both good and bad,...

The story of R.M.S. Titanic and its unfortunate fate seems to have everything, both good and bad, in terms of how society views itself, its apparently superior relationship to nature and people’s relationships to their fellow man. This is a historical event but it’s also a story full of drama and human interest, and one that has been subject to constant revision in the 110 years since the ship san...

In an edited version of what was originally a video podcast (link below), Antony and Luke Thompson dissect the seminal Canadian documentary written by law professor Joel Bakan and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. Although often run by people with decent intentions, the modern corporation, complete with its legally-determined 'rights of a person', has become a monster that seeks to devo...

Nicnac Marsh has a podcast that delves into his psyche and the challenges of the complex business of existence in an ever-changing and increasingly confusing world. I was delighted to make 2 appearances on his show around this time last year so this latest offering is a compilation of the two. Our talk goes to many different places but there is particular emphasis on creativity and also discussion...

The BBC, once considered the bastion of fairness in journalism, has in recent times begun to wear its propaganda on its sleeve. Antony attempts to give a fair but critical overview of their recent 'Unvaccinated' documentary and point out both the overt and more subtle propaganda techniques used in a piece of programming whose agenda is clear from the very start.    I hope you enjoy the show! If so...

Yes Minister, which later became Yes Prime Minister, was a BBC sitcom that ran from the late 1970s to the late 80s. On one level it was an extremely well-scripted and funny comedy, but it also offered a very profound and only slightly exaggerated look at the very interesting but also rather dark and slightly insane way in which we and our lives are governed by those at the top of the power game. I...

On this episode, Antony discusses 'Life And Life Only' on the podcast about podcasts known as 'Pods Like Us', hosted by 'Marv' Quibell   Marv and Antony get into some LALO topics including self-coaching, self-education and conquering (and embracing) your fears, as well as some discussion of social compliance and the limitations of mainstream media. Antony talks about previous episodes of the show...

In what will hopefully be an inspiring edition of the podcast, documentarian Simon Weitzman joins Antony to talk about depression (and hope) from a variety of angles. We talk about some of our own experiences and then look at this thorny topic from the perspectives of creativity, diet, sleep, technology/social media, music, comedy and the importance of perspective itself. We also give book & other...

Patrick Humphries wrote the first biography of Nick Drake in 1997. To celebrate the 25th anniversary, Patrick spoke to Antony about his memories of writing the book and we also discussed the many Nick Drake myths and his music, life and legacy. Patrick also talks about his latest writing project, an upcoming biography of a fairly well-known band from Liverpool… Hope you enjoy the show! If so, plea...

In this final part of our look at the highly-recommended 1998 book, Antony reads extracts related to bringing about change in a realistic way, dealing with anger & anxiety, building self-esteem, mindfulness/meditation, and the basic spiritual values that can lead to a truly spiritual life (with no necessity to move to Tibet and become a monk!) East meets West as Tensin Gyatso, better known as 'The...