Adventures in Nutopia

John Lloyd was producer for TV’s Spitting Image, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy and all four series of Blackadder. He is the creator of the News Quiz on Radio 4 and BBC2’s iconoclastic comedy series Not the Nine O Clock News. He is the host of Radio 4’s Museum of Curiosity and creator of the long-running TV comedy panel show QI. He even once shared a flat with Douglas Adams. John has won numerous awards for his work and has a happy, stable loving relationship and three children. Despite this, he has struggled with depression and in his early forties experienced a long dark night of the soul, out of which he came to some profound revelations. In this extra topping to conclude series three John shares his wisdom and ignorance on life, the universe and everything. 

With guest John Lloyd 

The self-styled entertainer philosopher Alan Watts wrote his first book on Zen in 1936 when only nineteen and grew to become a world expert on Eastern philosophy. A prolific author, public speaker and radio presenter he wrote over twenty books, gave hundreds of public lectures and sought out a life in which (in his own words) he could ‘swing’.  Watts had a rare genius for expressing with clarity and humour complex and challenging ideas about reality and how we came to relate to the world in the way that we do.  In this episode, AIN’s David Bramwell explores Watts’ fondness for seeing the universe as essentially playful, and asks the question: had Watts been alive today, what words of wisdom he might have had for our culture wars, our divisive political leaders and how to find compassion and understanding in times of conflict. 

https://alanwatts.org/

With special thanks to Mark Watts for kind permission to use the archive footage of the late Alan Watts for this episode.  

Search Google for the ‘most intelligent’ people who ever lived and the names most commonly thrown up are Galileo, Da Vinci, Einstein, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawkin. All men, all western, all united by their contributions to science. Why is our idea of intelligence so skewed? How did IQ come to be our standard measure for intelligence? Is there a deep intelligence in the more-than-human world of animals, plants, fungi and bacteria?  What about AI? Or politicians?

Big questions for one episode but with the help of an eminent guests, James Bridle, Emma Kilbey and QI’s John Lloyd – none of whose IQs we could give two hoots about – let’s see what we can uncover.

With guests Emma Kilbey, Sir John Lloyd and James Bridle 

https://www.qi.com/

www.jamesbridle.com

https://www.emmakilbey.com/

Lucy Cooke’s Bitch tells a wildly different story of reproduction, gender and sexual habits in the animal kingdom to those passed down to us by Darwin, Dawkins and other highly influential male scientists. Bitch challenges outdated preconceptions and biases around the female of the species being sexually coy, monogamous and passive and males being sexually dominant and promiscuous. It also challenges broader expectations around male and female roles and why binary ways of looking at the world and ourselves are increasingly being challenged. David meets up with zoologist, broadcaster and author Lucy Cooke in a woodland in Sussex to talk birdsong, bonobos, same sex parenting, sex changing fish, menopausal whales, parthenogenesis and murderous meerkats.

Trigger warning: this episode contains discussions about vomit bubbles and sexual cannibalism.

With guest Lucy Cooke http://www.lucycooke.tv/

Is mind contained within us, or us within it? When it comes to what science calls ‘the hard problem’, we still have no understanding about the nature of consciousness. That it could be a field, rather than isolated within us, might explain what appear to be the group minds of termites, ants and bees or the pulsating murmurations of starling. It could even help explain the pervasive global practise of prayer and magic, and non-contact forms of healing like Reiki. 

This episode is not setting out to prove or disprove the existence of a field of consciousness but – in the Nutopian spirit of enquiry – to offer a voice to a variety of individuals and scientists doing pioneering work in consciousness studies.. For the making of this episode our intrepid presenter spent a week at Broughton Sanctuary for an event called Science and Consciousness: Making Wyrd the Norm. Here he learned the fascinating history of thought experiments at Princeton and Northampton Universities, tries his hand at remote viewing and meets Wyrd Experience founder Peter Merry. 

With guests Jeff Dunne, Peter Merry, Karin Valis, Annette Grathoff, Chris Roe, David Luke, Kirsty Allan and John Lloyd

https://gowyrd.org/

www.ubiquityuniversity.org/annual-science-and-consciousness-event/

Peter Merry https://petermerry.org 

ICRL (Jeff Dunne) https://icrl.org 

Kirsty Allan https://kirstylucindaallan.com

David Luke https://www.instagram.com/drdluke/?hl=en

Karin Valis https://www.instagram.com/mercurial_minutes/

Alan Turin’s ‘automatic machine’ remains the blueprint for nearly all of our modern computer systems. In an early paper however Turin wrote: ‘of course another type of machine is possible. This is the Oracle Machine and I will not speak of that.' Our guest for this mini episode however, will.

James Bridle is the author of Ways of Being and an artist whose work deals with the ways in which the digital, networked world reaches into the physical, offline one. James shares their thoughts on why computers can’t do random and what our computers of the future might look like. We also touch on the role that randomness play in evolution and how it can radicalise our political systems. 

With James Bridle and special guest ORAC 

www.jamesbridle.com

In S2E1 we met Rogan Taylor, author of The Death and Resurrection Show a book which traces a path from popular entertainment to the darkened yurts of our nomadic ancestors. After writing this book Rogan went on to pioneer the world’s first post-graduate ‘football’ degree and write many books on the subject. During our conversation he talked about football in relation to myth, ritual, suffering and community. It’s a unique and fascinating perspective on the sport that will stay with you. 

Are our listening habits changing? What effects can sounds like drones and sine tones have on us physically and emotionally? Can we imagine a future in which we might receive audio prescriptions for wellbeing? Why does music played badly make us laugh? Does beetroot really taste better if serenaded with sound? And what might the national anthem of Nutopia sound like? 

With guests Richard Norris, Paul Devereux, Fiona Miller, Jude Rogers, David Velez and Harry Sword. 

https://pauldevereux.co.uk/

https://richardnorris.bandcamp.com/

https://fionasallymiller.bandcamp.com/

https://davidvelez.bandcamp.com/music

https://oddfellowscasino.bandcamp.com/

https://greyhoundliterary.co.uk/authors/harry-sword

Our ancestors invested great importance in the power of dreams. Across traditional, indigenous and pre-industrialised cultures – including the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians – they were an integral part of the healing process and a tool for divination. So why do most of us give so little consideration to them now? What is hypnagogia? What techniques can help us lucid dream? What might precognitive dreams tell us about the nature of time? This episode dives into the poetic realms of dreams and even offers insomnia sufferers fresh advice on how to get a better night’s kip. 

With guests Sarah Janes, Gary Lachman, Philip Carr-Gomm and Kate Alderton. 

https://themysteries.org/

https://www.gary-lachman.com/

https://philipcarr-gomm.com/

https://dreamfishingsociety.com/

If our capitalist economic model of perpetual growth was presented as a myth it would read something like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. As for our economic unit of measure, in a speech in 1968 Robert Kennedy described GDP as ‘measuring everything except that which is worthwhile’. Are there economic models out there that might allow for a paradigm shift from the need for constant growth to a system that is more sustainable, regulated, and nurturing of life? In this episode David attempts to get his head around doughnut economics, de-growth and how our financial systems might be radically reimagined.

With guests Sir Tim Smit, Kate Raworth, David Barmes, Timothee Parrique, Inez Aponte and Sara Osterholzer.

https://www.edenproject.com/

https://www.kateraworth.com/

https://positivemoney.org/

https://timotheeparrique.com/

https://www.resilience.org/resilience-author/inez-aponte/

https://saraosterholzer.com/

https://revbilly.com/