By Allan Clarke & Kamron Clarke
The podcast currently has 80 episodes available.
"Corruption? That's one of the reasons I left, why I resigned."
Episode 79:
This week we're straight talking Law Enforcement with "Linda". Linda was a police officer and detective in South Africa before resigning. We discuss corruption and police brutality, the differences between racism and oppression in SA now, the impact of the job which can lead to relationship difficulties and addictions, trying to juggle being a single mother with the job and humour as a defense mechanisms.
We say goodbye to Kamron on his last episode so our own chat is a bit longer than usual. We discuss why he's smiling because it's cold, future covid restrictions, inconsiderate drivers and Allan's smiling at spectator commentary at the Ireland vs Argentina rugby match.
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"Their babies would be taken if they didn't have the money to buy them back, which happened in most of the cases."
Episode 78:
This week we're straight talking Mother & Baby Homes with filmmaker Teresa Levina. Teresa's film "Untold Secrets" focuses on survivors of the Mother & Baby homes in Ireland, with a particular emphasis on Anne Silke and her treatment in the Tuam Home, site of the Tuam Babies. The Tuam Babies are 800 babies bodies in a mass septic tank grave at the Tuam Mother & Baby home. The unmarried, often raped, mothers in the home were treated as sub human and very often the children from the homes were essentially sold as slave labour by the Bon Secours nuns who ran the homes. Anne Silke was one such child who worked for a prominent political family in the area who physically and sexually abused her. The same family continues to try and censor Teresa's film putting pressure on any film festival that screens the documentary.
Kamron goes DaVinci-esque as he paints a picture of his bad day and his concerns about another lockdown. Allan is smiling with the Irish rugby teams beating the All Blacks but he's riled by the Miami Showband Killings documentary.
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Episode 77:
This week we're straight talking our mental health. We all have a lot going on and who better to talk about mental health on our podcast than us, as we have a check in with ourselves. Peter starts meditating and turns into the Dalai Lama as he gets all philosophical. Kamron is so busy with college, work and internship that he prepares to take a break from the podcast but he's smiling because he's one of these people that likes Xmas decorations up after Halloween. Allan is riled by fuel prices and we discuss the impact of the clocks going back and the lack of daylight on our mental health.
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"Did I take my foot off the pedal (when I got to Newcastle)? If I'm being honest I would 'yeah just slightly' compared to what I was like at Bohemians."
Episode 76:
This week we're straight talking mental health in football with Republic of Ireland Under 21 Manager Jim Crawford. Jim tells us about his own career and what it was like to move to Newcastle under Kevin Keegan & Kenny Dalglish, the toll it takes on young players moving away from home as teenagers, players that don't make it big and feeling like a failure, the psychology of great players like Ronaldo and how he tries to understand the motivation of young players playing for their country for pride or to enhance their brand.
Peter jumps back in and he's smiling as he prepares to go back over to watch Man Utd for the first time in 6 years (probably won't be smiling for long) and Allan is riled by the increased cases in women being spiked.
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"I had quite a severe manic episode but nobody knew, because I was embarrassed.'"
Episode 75:
This week we're straight talking Psychosis with DJ Jadie Swales-Barnes. Jadie tells us about her diagnosis of psychosis, PTSD & Bipolar 1 and the childhood abuse and self harm from a young age which have contributed to her mental health over the years. We also discuss her multiple suicide attempts and her happiness at times at the decision to end her life, the side effects to the multiple medications she has been on over the years and how support from her partner and friends and her passion for music have pulled her out of that dark place.
Kamron is still going through the NCT rigmarole and is under even more pressure time wise after beginning her internship and Allan is riled by TikTok and female sports pundits being there just for the sake of it.
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"I'm coming out saying 'someone's trying to hurt me' and they're coming out with their guns and hands on their holsters.'"
Episode 74:
This week we're straight talking Mental Health in America with author N. Daniel. Nick is an author and caregiver in Minneapolis who actually worked with George Floyd and he tells what his experience of George was like and his experience of the riots. Nick also opens up about his own mental health from suffering with PTSD, Bipolar 1 and anxiety to being committed to a mental health hospital by the courts. We also discuss the failings of the police in America in dealing with mental health issues and recidivism of former prison inmates.
Peter jumps back in for a week and both he and Allan just happen to be having bad days. Peter's night away sans kids is cancelled when one of the kids gets sick and Allan's pissed off with his autism and we discuss the controversy around Dave Chappelle's new stand up.
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"I had a conversation recently where, her son was bi-racial and played football on the same field that there were Klan rallies still to this day'"
Episode 73:
This week we're straight talking Immigration with author Rocky Callen. Rocky is a 1st generation immigrant who at the age of 12 was advocating for bilingual court services in the US. Rocky tells us of her parent's experience of racism being Latin immigrants, we discuss the Netflix documentary "Immigration Nation", her book "A Breath Too Late", being body conscious of the Latina body type (pre J-Lo), being an intern at NASA at 12 and the mental health issues which resulted from the pressure she put herself under to achieve. Rocky also tells us about the HoldOn2Hope collective she set up and how it is used by artists to bring awareness to mental health.
Kamron's car faces the dreaded NCT and he's riled at the prospect of lockdown restrictions not ending in Ireland. Allan gets yet another shite meal up North, gets stood up by a guest and they're both smiling as the podcast reaches number 11 in the mental health podcast charts!
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"I never knew what OCD was, I never knew about OCD until I started asking 'Why am I doing this?!'"
Episode 72:
This week we're straight talking HUH (How's Ur Head) with Mark Donnelly. Mark is the founder of HUH a clothing brand that donates 10% of all sales to mental health charities. We start from the beginning with Mark telling us about his own OCD behaviours that started around his fear of "tiger kidnappings" when he was young and it was only through researching mental health for HUH that he started to know what it was. We also discuss the GAA and mental health and how despite having a mental health charter, it doesn't manifest on a club level, Mark's setting up of HUH during lockdown, reverse culture shock as Mark returned to Ireland from America, companies jumping on the mental health bandwagon and Mark has advice for anyone interested in starting a business.
Kamron shows off his "News voice", Allan powers through the show after a root canal, we chat about Squid Games, Netflix cheating, Facebook down and we discuss how people need to be responsible for their own triggers around certain words.
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"I've never felt pain like it, I was climbing off the table begging for them to knock me out!"
Episode 71:
This week we're straight talking endometriosis with Carly Pitman. Carly explains what endometriosis is for us and tells us of her experience, how for years her condition was dismissed even by doctors, how she was so used to the pain every month from her period that what she thought was just another bad period was actually an ectopic pregnancy and we discuss why she thinks there needs to be more informed consent around the contraceptive pill. Carly also discusses her own mental health struggles from anxiety to depression and the "hell" she went through with the side effects of anti-depressants but how she believes they did actually save her life during lockdown.
Kamron is happy to be back in college properly but he is less than happy when his train home is cancelled and this time it's Allan's turn for his bank card to be hacked!
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"This is the most natural thing in the world for a woman to do, so why does my body keep rejecting my babies?"
Episode 70:
This week we're straight talking miscarriage with holistic therapist Amy Egan. Amy tells us how she always wanted children and assumed it was as easy as just deciding to get pregnant, how emotional she was when she would get her period, her first experience of a "missed miscarriage", her loss being dismissed by other people, how she punished her body for failing her, her second miscarriage and the anxiety that prevails even after her daughter was born.
Kamron adjusts to his new work and college schedule, he's riled at the housing crisis in Ireland, Allan is even dreaming at how bad the health service is and he weighs up the effort in vs reward out of the podcast.
Follow Straight Talking Mental Health on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email hello@stmhpodcast or check out www.stmhpodcast.com
The podcast currently has 80 episodes available.