Dead Medium

Everybody Wants to Love You is a new podcast about love, sex, and the things that get left unsaid. Hosted by former comedian Gareth Stack and one time actress Nicole O’Connor, the show features interviews, listener problems and intimate uncensored discussions of sexuality in the age of chaos.

Download: Everybody Wants To Love You – Episode 1

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Download: Why do people kill? Psychology in Mind Episode 6
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A new series in which psychologist Dr Andrew P. Allen and writer and broadcaster Gareth Stack, turn to psychology for answers about our minds, brains and personalities.

We’ll be exploring the topic of murder – more specifically spree killings. Joining us is Dr. Robert King of University College Cork. Rob’s  controversial work uses evolutionary and anthropological perspectives to examine the ultimate motivations behind human violence and sexual behaviour.

In a wide ranging discussion we examine the status protecting evolutionary motivations behind ‘spree killings’ by ‘spare males’. Rob’s work has identified two separate populations of spree killers, older men who have ‘failed’ in keeping their families together and younger socially isolated men. We also discuss Hybristophiles – the women who fall in love with killers, including spree killers like James Holmes. Other topics touched on include the headhunters of Borneo, Mira Hindley’s nazi fixation, Margaret Mede, the Shankill Butchers, lynchings, and ‘non violent’ tribal cultures, ‘an heroes’, and Gregory Stanton’s 8 Stages of Genocide.

Questions Explored

Do we live in a particularly violent time?
Have spree killings really increased? Or were they underreported in the past?
Do media depictions increase the amount of spree killings?
How does psychopathy interact with wealth and power from Gengis Kahn to Wallstreet traders?
How has the concept of psychopathy evolved – from Cleckley’s the Mask of Sanity to Hares Psychopathy Checklist to the DSM definition of anti-social personality disorder, to John Ronson’s Psychopath Test?

References

● Hive Mind (Rob’s Blog at Psychology Today)
● Mass Killings: An Evolutionary Perspective
● Deficits in fear conditioning in psychopaths 
● Frequency dependent selection in psychopaths 
● The demonisation of evolutionary psychology, as typified by Cordelia Fine’s ‘Testosterone Rex’ 

Download: Are Psychedelics good for us? Psychology in Mind EP5

A new series in which psychologist Dr Andrew P. Allen and writer and broadcaster Gareth Stack, turn to psychology for answers about our minds, brains and personalities.

Todays Question: Are Psychedelics Good For You?

Psychedelic drugs, are they the gateway to greater self knowledge, an enhanced appreciation of the natural world, and deeper empathy and interpersonal connections? Or merely a risky doorway into schizophrenia and mental illness? Today we look at some of the psychological research into psychedelics and speak with Alexander Lentjes of the Irish Psychedelic Society. Can we have a productive discussion, or will the incommensurability of academic psychology and psychedelic consciousness reduce us to gibbering stoned apes. Find out in the latest episode of Psychology in Mind.

Links to Things Discussed

Credits

Presented by Gareth Stack and Andrew P. Allen. Music by Marc Remillard.

Logo rendered in Blender, based on Brain by dgallichan, Bulldog smoking pipe beyondmatter and Felonous Fedora by Jacob Ragsdale.

Download: Psychology in Mind – Episode 4

A new series in which psychologist Dr Andrew P. Allen and writer and broadcaster Gareth Stack, turn to psychology for answers about our minds, brains and personalities.

Todays Question: Are People Irrational?

In everyday life we have make many decisions. We can gather exhaustive information relevant to the topic, or we can use a mental shortcut or “heuristic”. Since the 1970s psychologists have studied not just how we think, but how our thinking fails. How limits to human memory, processing speed and other cognitive capacities shape our problem solving, and creativity. In this episode of Psychology in Mind we take a look at the problem solving shortcuts native to the human mind, and examine how they both limit our ability to think rationally and enable us to think faster than we otherwise could.

Credits

Presented by Gareth Stack and Andrew P. Allen. Music by Marc Remillard.

Logo rendered in Blender, based on Brain by dgallichan, Bulldog smoking pipe beyondmatter and Felonous Fedora by Jacob Ragsdale.

Download: Mic Drop

Mic Drop is a new one off drama, starring Adam Tyrell, based on the play that debuted to critical acclaim at the ‘Scene + Heard’ Festival in Summer 2017. This one-man show tells the story of Irish web entrepreneur Perry Pardo. Perry is the living embodiment of the new Ireland. A working class boy made good, Perry moved to San Francisco to make his fortune, and now he’s back to teach a room full of eager listeners how to replicate his success. This satirical business seminar rapidly descends into a dark exploration of contemporary Ireland, as Perry’s hard partying catches up with him and he undergoes a breakdown – revealing his background and failings through fragments of story and song. In the process Perry reveals the anxieties and hypocrisies that can underlie the success stories of Irish entrepreneurship, and the dark side of wealth.

Credits

Perry Pardo – Adam Tyrell

Sound Effects

Download: The Listening Stage

Each year, legendary radio dramatist Roger Gregg teaches a unique intensive course in radio drama. The Listening Stage follows students of The Gaiety School of Acting’s radio drama course, as they pursue their hopes and dreams of fame. This fly on the wall doc embeds us in Roger’s annual weeklong workshop, introducing actors to the exciting world of audio theatre. The course culminates in a live performance of a radio comedy. We follow the crafting of this production from initial script reading to rehearsals, to the development of sound effects and music, the creation of memorable characters, all the way through to the final performance. Taking a look, for the first time ever, behind the curtain of this legendary drama school’s radio drama workshop.

We’ll join the students as they learn to tailor their voices for the microphone, create characters, and explore an astounding array instruments and old school practical sound effects.

We’ll follow the student’s journey, learn about their backgrounds and ambitions, their dreams and hopes for the future. Joining them as they discover how sound and music punctuate and amplify the dramatic and comedic effects of performance, tempo and suspense. This will be a unique journey into what it means to be an actor and an exploration of the oldest form of recorded storytelling as it exists today. Finally we’ll hear excerpts from the student’s final production, recorded live at a performance in the Boys School Theatre in Smock Alley.

Writer / Director Gareth Stack’s previous documentaries include ‘Getting into the Game’, an introduction to videogame development aimed at school age children; and ‘Mad Scientists of Music’ an exploration of experimental alternative music in Ireland.

Credits

Music – Mattia Cupelli, Sad Piano Music, Jos Lis – various.

Clip from ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane’, and ‘The Party’, fair use for educational purposes.

Clip from original recording of ‘Whose Afraid of Rottwang Krell’ used with permission.

With thanks to the Gaiety School of acting.

Special thanks to Roger Gregg and Gaiety School of Acting Class 2017.

Starring:

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