Listen:
It’s solosode time again, which means if you’re reading this on release day, your humble host’s stomach is doing flip-flops and his head is pounding.
No, wait – maybe that’s just residual food poisoning.
The fourth solosode is not for the faint of heart, gentle listeners. It includes a diplomatically graphic account of on-the-road food poisoning and a somewhat distasteful confession about a Donald Trump campaign hat.
But there’s good to balance the disgusting. At long last new music has arrived from the wonderful Sarah Harmer, along with 90s indie darlings Archers of Loaf (see below). As ever, if you’re reading this, Sarah, I’m sitting here waiting and ready for the call!
There is also some discussion of the concept of needing permission to do the things you want, as well as inspiration from our old friend Seamus Evely (Episode #6) and some of the work he’s doing with the Drumeogab Podcast and with Drumeo itself. Finally, we have some levity and some profundity from the latest Tom Papa special.
The Tom Papa thing is important. He talked in his special, You’re Doing Great, about turning off the news – something I decided to do a couple of years ago after I traced my growing anxiety in part to repeated exposure to bad and fearful news. Tom Papa can make that funny, but I can’t. So much of how you view the world is shaped by the information you take in. If that information is fearful, violent, threatening, negative, etc., how can you help but have a worldview that reflects it?
I was developing that worldview and it had to stop for my own sanity. If you find yourself anxious and fearful about the world all the time, I recommend you curb your news intake too. Focus instead on what uplifts you. What encourages you. What illustrates peace and patience and joy. You don’t have to bury your head in the sand (in fact, some people would argue that ignorance is an abdication of responsibility), but you should at least attempt some balance in your information. I know it’s helped me.
And, you know, so has good music.
With that in mind, I recommend putting on music that moves you. You might even start here, with new Sarah Harmer and Archers of Loaf.
I framed this episode as me talking about five things: one good thing, one thing to check out, one inspiring thing, one educational thing, and one funny thing. I want to know what your five things are right now too! And if there are things you want me to try to tackle on the show, I’m all ears. Message me here.
Now let the music play:
Sarah Harmer
Archers of Loaf