smallVOICE

What is prayer? Ask Dave! We were delighted to have a chat with author and broadcaster Dave Tomlinson about his new book, OMG! A Bad Christian’s Book of Prayers. He spoke to Darren & Holly on Zoom from his ‘Holy Shed’ for our June podcast.

Dave needs no introduction from us but we’ll do it anyway! He’s a well-known face in Christian circles as a writer and broadcaster and a former vicar. His book The Post-Evangelical made a stir back in 1996 and he famously – or infamously – took the funeral of great train robber Ronnie Biggs in 2014. Dave now offers a weekly reflection online from his Holy Shed in the garden and is a regular contributor for BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought.

He says he’s a “bad christian, slightly better vicar, struggling writer, improving husband, model epicure, awesome dreamer.”

Dave first featured in our podcast in 2014 when we reviewed his book The Bad Christian’s Manifesto. We then did a fabulous session with him at the Glasgow ‘Aye Write!’ Book Festival in 2015. Dave was also Anne’s guest for an ‘A Thousand Words’ interview in 2017.

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This podcast was recorded on Thursday 30 May 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 52’30 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

Book Image copyright: Rob Pepper

Hello faithful listener, it’s right there in the title – in this podcast we give you Civil War and death! Well, Darren and Holly review the new movie, Civil War, and we pick up some thoughts about death, grief and funerals. So, nice and light and breezy.

The continuation of our chat about grief was prompted by the publication of Cariad Lloyd’s book You Are Not Alone, but we also get to a look at the rise of direct cremations and whether we should plan our own funeral.

Have a listen, and if any of the topics or themes strike a chord, or you have some thoughts you’d like to share, please do get in touch! It’s always great to hear from you.

Keep up with us on Facebook (we occasionally remember to post) and you can also subscribe to our Substack email and interact with us there.

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This podcast was recorded on Thursday 2 May 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 53’06 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

Wexford K9 Search and Rescue Scotland is our latest featured ‘small voice’. Our roving reporter Margaret meets Rod Stoddart who tells the story of the organisation and his dogs’ rescue and therapy work. They can find themselves out in the open looking for a missing person or at a high school, a care home or University, bringing calm where there is stress. Rod sees the Search and Rescue work and the Therapy work as all part of the same business, looking towards the future welfare of those who are helped. We also hear from Liz, who’s dog Dexter brings a smile to many care home residents. A great shaggy dog story.

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If you have any suggestions for someone or a group or an organisation that you think needs highlighting, just let us know!

Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 20’59 minutes. Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter feed for occasional bonus material from Holly and Darren and further smallVOICE thoughts. Leave us a comment here on this website or catch up with us on our Facebook Page.

The one where we do a Bible study … well, sort of!

For April’s podcast, Darren & Holly review Marilynne Robinson’s latest book, Reading Genesis. As our erudite listeners may know, Marilynne Robinson is a much-admired American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist.

How can Holly and Darren match the AMAZING quotes about Robinson and about her book? For example:

“Her work defines universal truths about what it means to be human.” Barack Obama

OK, that last quote was from Marilynne Robinson’s publishers, but even so, it’s been getting raves!

Listen to what Holly & Darren make of it … and let us know if you’ve read it too. And join in the wider conversation about our relationships with the Bible. Find out why you might want to take your Bible out for a coffee ….

This podcast was recorded on Thursday 4 April 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 48’57 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

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In this podcast, Darren and Holly chat about former British MP Rory Stewart’s book Politics On The Edge. It’s had great reviews since it was published last year in hardback and is due out in paperback very soon. Does it live up to the hype and give a compelling insider’s view about British politics? Or did we already know that Boris Johnston is a lying *%!£@^$?

And what can we ever learn from ‘yah-boo’ politics anyway? Where’s the nuance and the way to disagree agreeably, and work for a greater good? What was all that unedifying behaviour last month in the House of Commons over a call for a ceasefire in Gaza? How can we be better than this? On the plus side, perhaps Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell’s podcast is a good example of a political conversation?

So many questions! Help us work our way through – have a listen and let us know what you think. We won’t shout at you.

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This podcast was recorded on Thursday 7 March 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 50’54 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

We do like to be beside the seaside! Welcome to another special smallVOICE featuring ‘small voices’ – individuals, groups and organisations that are small but making a big difference. This time, our roving reporter, Margaret, speaks to two people involved with providing beach wheelchairs, a great project allowing people access to some of Scotland’s beautiful beaches.

We want people to enjoy the beach with family and friends. The beach is a special place where people can have new experiences, make long-lasting memories or be taken back to their childhood just by the sound of the waves and the smell of salt on the air.”

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Our thanks as ever to Margaret for tracking down all our small voices. If you have any suggestions for someone or a group or an organisation that you think needs highlighting, please just let us know!

Recorded February 2024; podcast published March 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 16’56 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter feed for occasional bonus material from Holly and Darren and further smallVOICE thoughts. Leave us a comment here on this website or catch up with us on our Facebook Page.

It’s February, and we join Holly & Darren, lost in a sea of online choices… Are the choices we make really our own or have we been shepherded towards them by ubiquitous AI algorithms? In the context of monetised apps and technology, how do we heed St Paul – no less – by not conforming to the pattern of this world? In a year where there are so many important political decisions to be made (are you terrified about the US Election too??) how do we free ourselves from malign influences? How do we live life in all its fullness when there’s another slightly mediocre cat video to watch?

Do get in touch with us, dear listener, about AI, social media and The Algorithm. It’s a biggie, and we’d love to know what you think!

This podcast was recorded on Thursday 15 February 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 39’17 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.

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Main page website photo of people with phones by fauxels from Pexels

Welcome to this special smallVOICE feature about the great work of Street Pastors in Falkirk in central Scotland. Our roving reporter, Margaret, spoke to volunteers John, Nikki and Joanne, just a few days before Christmas.

These volunteers aren’t just for Christmas though – they are out in the city centre every weekend of the year, helping people late at night. A huge variety of needs – and, as you’ll hear, it’s amazing what they have to carry in their kit bag ….

Falkirk Street Pastors were commissioned in 2010. We are a dedicated group of Christians committed to patrolling the town centre on a Saturday night from about 10pm until 3.30am (ish) on the Sunday. (During Easter, Christmas and New Year we patrol on a Friday and Saturday).

Street Pastors in Falkirk website 

Happy 2024! In this January podcast, Holly and Darren delve deeply into the dark waters of New Year Resolutions. Is transformation possible? New new you?

Lots of threads here in the chat, joining up honesty, faith, hope and redemption … Perhaps we need to embrace a bit of fragility too?

What’s your experience of resolutions, dear listener? Let us know!

Also in the podcast, shout outs for Argentine Tango and the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, and there’s a catch up on our media recommendations from December (‘The Traitors’, anyone?).  Later on, bonus points are available for spotting Holly’s cat, Skye, briefly joining in towards the end of the podcast.

Show notes & links are below!

This podcast was recorded on Thursday 11 January 2024.

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Some Christmas cheer from Holly and Darren in December’s podcast. Come away in and warm yourself with their reviews and recommendations for the festive period. There’s a helpful list below of links from the podcast but we recommend a spoiler-free listen first!

And, for a treat, we finish with some beautiful music for Christmas – our traditional (we’ve featured it twice) helping of ‘Silent Night’, recorded specially for us by the fabulous Hannah Rarity.

The whole smallVOICE team wishes you a peaceful Christmas and a good new year. See you in 2024.

This podcast was recorded on Thursday 14 December 2023.

Holly & Darren’s Christmas picks (in, quite literally, no particular order):

BOOKS

MUSIC

TV / STREAMING

Kate Rusby by David Angel

Featured image photo by Gary Spears