In this episode, Dara has thoughts on December coming round so quickly and the accompanying temptation to collapse in a heap. Does the festive season differ in any significant way from the rest of the year? Christmas really did used to be something special and genuinely indulgent - but does that still land when the rest of the year seems to involve frequent indulgence too?

The popularity of a new masculinity book has Dara scratching his head - are the apparent insights remotely new or insightful? Does the millionaire author have anything substantively useful to share other than 'make money' and 'be kind'? At least he has learned how to cry at the ripe old age of 61! For some, the learnings come later in life. The masculinity crisis remains unsolved for now...

Dara is more concerned by growing wealth and opportunity inequality and he argues for a type of radical thoughtfulness that chooses not to focus on gender or identity, but rather on an understanding of shared resources and mutual consideration. What an idiot!

Maybe bartering is the way to go. Why did that nice man give Dara cakes in the car park? Positive impulses were followed and reciprocated (That's not a euphemism!).

Scott Galloway's masculinity tips: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/03/scott-galloway-masculinity-crisis-notes-on-being-a-man

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In this episode, Dara considers the power of defying expectations. Partly prompted by a conversation with his dementia-affected father, his thoughts are also informed by a New York psychologist who worked with first responders to World Trade Center attacks. Role-reversal can be both destabilising and disarming, but it rarely goes unnoticed, and it often provokes both consternation and resentment.

To explore it further, Dara looks at a handful of female-centred films where the protagonists fail to behave as expected, or in a couple of cases, the lead actresses don't conform to their previous character types. One such film is Jane Campion's In the Cut (2003), in which Meg Ryan gave a performance that obliterated her image as America's sweetheart that she had so firmly established in the romantic comedies of her earlier career. Films like Olivia Wilde's Booksmart (2019) and Emma Seligman's Bottoms (2023) present female characters who had historically been on the fringes of the story, not at its heart.

Also - the right to keep a flame alive, affirming unseen victories, men's need to speak, and decorating your internal house exactly as you see fit!

My 2023 Christmas story, which touches on the right to self-identify and defy expectations: https://theclearout.com/short-story/mrs-hennessey-and-the-womens-christmas/

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In this episode, Dara confesses to having had a very teary twenty-four hours. But what could have caused him to weep like a baby?

It wasn't Troy Parrott's match-winning goal (and raw and emotional post-match interview) that means Ireland still have a chance of going to next year's world cup, was it?

It wasn't Chase Infiniti's exquisitely vulnerable performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, was it?

It wasn't a Bosnian-born, New York-based milliner sharing her heart-rending story of bereavement, sickness, and recovery, was it?

It wasn't a written account of a historic football match between the two unrecognised states of Palestine and the Basque Country, was it?

Yes! Yes, it was all those things! Football and acting and hats (and babies) and more football!

But really it was about hope and pride and the unexpected.

It was about innocence and fear and defiance and love.

It was about friendship and tragedy and resilience and rebirth.

It was about solidarity and sovereignty and identity and visibility.

Dara tries to explain what it all meant and what it all means. It's an episode about sport and storytelling and small kindnesses.

Sid Lowe on an unforgettable night in Bilbao: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/nov/17/it-touched-us-from-the-start-palestine-savour-historic-night-in-bilbao

Behida Dolic Millinery: https://behidadolic.com/

Behida Dolic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behidadolic/

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After watching Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, Dara finds himself wondering about the director's world view, and specifically his perspective on beautiful, sincere women and their superficially unattractive love interests. The Mexican director has an established sympathy with those considered ugly and monstrous by society - could a Freudian reading be applicable?

Following this idea of male directors and their presentation or objectification of women in their work, Dara considers female characters as featured in the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino - two very unstraightforward male auteurs. What do their heroines say about them? And does it have anything to do with how they have been treated or perceived by the opposite sex off-camera?

Finishing up, Dara considers how he has presented female characters in his short stories. Has he unintentionally revealed something about his own hidden desires? Or is he just painfully sincere himself?

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A week under the weather had Dara running for the comfort of old Hollywood classics. In this episode, he reports his findings.

Influenced by the spooky season, he reached for a couple of Hitchcock staples of the older variety - 1940's Rebecca and 1941's Suspicion. Two very different but no less complicated love stories, one featuring espionage and seduction, the other - gulp! - murder!

He followed those with something altogether frothier - George Stevens's Woman of the Year (1942), the film that saw the first pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. On screen sparring partners and off-screen lovers, the sparks fly as they first made movie magic.

Dara reflects on the gender roles permitted to female stars of the day and what would happen to them if they didn't conform to type.

Two Netflix productions are also reviewed - Black Rabbit starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman as errant brothers, and Kathryn Bigelow's latest nailbiter, A House of Dynamite.

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In this episode Dara argues that at a certain moment in autumn, the whole season starts to feel like a Sunday night, and not in a good way! The shortening days, the lengthening nights, it all combines to create a sense of nature closing in to usher us into a dark resting place. And isn't that what Mondays can feel like?

Warming to the theme, Dara once again finds himself advocating for more contact with nature and less contact with tech. He wonders if we're not completely losing touch with our instincts as we become ever more subsumed by the numberless conveniences and relentless stimulation of the modern moment. For him it raises the question of knowledge. What do we believe we know? What do we use to inform our existential navigation system?

To make the show a bit more high-falutin', Dara sources a handful of autumn poems, including a couple of classics from Dante Gabriel Rosetti and Mary Oliver. Watch out for the falling leaves!

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In this episode, Dara is wondering who the enemy is. Finding himself symbolically shaking his fist at the clouds, he tries to work out who exactly he was angry with, and why. His wife used Jedi mind powers to flip the script which only stoked his fire further. The two choices available to him were obvious, and one was certainly not going to end well...

Reflecting on bad behaviour gets Dara thinking about accountability and personal responsibility - integrity is not possible without accountability. There can be no free passes. And if it can't be done in public, it surely must be done in private, which is where personal responsibility comes in.

Also in this episode, the Israel/Gaza ceasefire, another great father-daughter conversation in the car, and a furry new addition to The ClearOut family!

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Who needs women when you've got AI? That seems to be the position of AI porn providers who seem pretty confident of their feminist credentials. How could they not be when they're taking the messiness out of porn consumption. And while men are licking their lips over their fembot fantasy, female customers are enjoying committed relationships with AI partners. Welcome to love and sex in the 21st century!

Dara tries to get his head around this landscape without losing sight of the underpinning human need for connection and being the focus of somebody else's love and desire. He thinks he's doing well with a solid 'sex-positive' attitude, but then a tech bro gives an example of what you might freely say to an AI coquette, and he has to concede that something is very off. Is misogyny being normalised, or is that an overly moralistic position?

Time is set aside at the end of the episode to pay tribute to Manchan Magan, the Irish broadcaster, filmmaker, writer and passionate advocate of Irish language and culture who passed away far too soon last week. Dara reads some passages from Magan's wonderful book "Thirty-Two Words for Field" and it is striking how few AI creations there are to be found, described, or salivated over in the etymological delight. But there are cailleachs - women to be wary of - and maybe that's just what the AI porn consumers are trying to avoid!

Guardian article on AI girlfriends: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/06/rise-of-ai-girlfriends-adult-dating-websites

Guardian article on AI relationships: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/09/ai-chatbot-love-relationships

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This week's episode couldn't be simpler - it's an hour of Paul Thomas Anderson adulation. More specifically, it is sixty minutes dedicated to his new film, One Battle After Another. A propulsive story of revolution and retreat, of obsession and resignation, of manipulation and resistance. With stellar performances throughout a typically brilliant Anderson cast, it offers new and vivid highs for Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn. They are more than matched by Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti as the women who are the catalytic converters of the story.

For a film that features government fascism, white supremacy, forced detention, betrayal and murder, it is infused with heart and humanity. Perhaps this is Anderson's offer to a chaotic and unjust world? Whether it is or not, Dara loved what was served up.

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In this episode, Dara is reflecting on the killing of the prominent Christian Right thought leader, Charlie Kirk. Hailed by his followers as their Martin Luther King Jr i.e. a spiritual martyr and presumably, man of peace, it seems irresponsible not to discuss the tensions and contradictions that arise from the comparison. Kirk's documented racism, homophobia, transphobia and misogyny seem to fly in the face of Christian values, but that is allegedly what he represented.

Dara tries to figure out why Kirk's particular brand of faith seemed to have no issue with vilifying and demonising others. He also tries to establish what traditional family units look like and why other arrangements of family should be so threatening to some people. He's pretty sure he and most of his friends came from the type of social unit that Kirk would have valorised - why then does he feel so unmoved by Kirk's rhetoric?

Donald Trump's performance at Kirk's memorial service was a further reminder of his pantomime villain status. His unerring nose for what will further divide a fractured America is quite something to behold. Surely, as others have commented, it is a time for cool heads and empathy to prevail.

Also, a succinct diagnosis of the American political agenda on both sides of the aisle, an epitaph to remember, and why poultry should be afraid, very afraid...

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