The ClearOut

In this episode, Dara tries to remind himself of the existential power of understanding life as an unending path that leads to endless unknown destinations. In relation to a recent rough mental healt…

Dara has just turned 50, and in this episode he lets his mind hover over the moment in an attempted stocktake. Even as he argues for gratitude, he acknowledges how challenging the world is right now.…

Dara reviews his year in watching on screens big and small over the last twelve months. Some of the obvious big 2023 releases are covered, including Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon an…

Following the previous episode's last-minute production, Dara does another late night recording, this time in the wind and rain, with at least two interruptions from a sleeping dog. He's determined t…

In this hard-fought-for episode, Dara soldiers on alone to deliver this year's Christmas special.

Coming in at the eleventh hour, Dara presents a brand new story that he completed only a day before re…

In this episode, Dara jumps in feet first to Christmas tales of yore. Reading from a compendium of Yuletide tales, he selects two contrasting entries that brought some balance to proceedings. The fir…

In this episode, Dara has further thoughts on the ongoing Middle East conflict after listening to the concerns of a good friend who has a certain amount of skin in the game. He wonders if a peaceful …

In this episode, Dara tries to get his head around the riots that took place in Dublin recently after a violent knife attack on young children outside their school in the middle of the day. The subse…

In this episode Dara admits he didn't realise it was International Men's Day, and a tweet suggesting what men should be reflecting on for the big day triggered something defensive in him.

Before exami…

In this episode, Dara reflects on some Jewish insights into the Israel-Palestine conflict which he found both helpful and inspiring. He posits that in the act of dehumanising Palestinians, Israel end…

In this episode Dara reveals that he is unaccustomed to the comfort of pajamas. This fact is relevant to a very recent late-night incident that he shares. That same incident concluded with an inheren…

In this cultural episode, Dara is in awe of two recent Shakespearean recitations he caught on small screens, delivered fifty years apart in almost identical settings by two masters of the form. He ma…

In this episode, Dara is exercised by the things we don't say. Why is it so difficult to express how we really feel to those we have known longest? Why do we communicate so tangentially and clumsily?…

In this pendulum swing of an episode, Dara is dancing between joy and pain. It is a journey that takes him from Ireland's expulsion from the Rugby World Cup last week to the birth of his daughter 10 …

In this episode Dara looks at dynamics of giving and receiving in relationships. He argues that having a true exchange with someone is impossible unless that dynamic is present and healthy.

Talking a…

In this episode Dara is agitated by an interview with a US politician that he has just listened to. He is frustrated by the public representative's combativeness and disingenuous line of argument. He…

In this episode Dara is looking into the void and trying not to feel frightened. Thinking about the construction of identity and personality, he is curious about how comfortable or not we are with wh…

In this episode, Dara goes on a deep dive into Peter Ustinov's 1962 film of Herman Melville's Billy Budd. He recalls being struck by Terence Stamp's remarkable performance and beauty when he first sa…

In this episode, Dara argues that in the process of 'othering', many are guilty of thinking only in monolithic terms, i.e. attributing unchanging characteristics to all members of the othered party. …

In this episode, Dara responds to a confronting conversation about the podcast that raised issues of self-worth, purpose, and the validity of the podcast itself. He looks at the specific criticism le…