The ClearOut

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...

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this very straightforward episode, Dara marks the passing of Hollywood icon Robert Redford by revisiting his career as an actor and director. From his true arrival as a Hollywood A-lister in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, all the way to his last leading role in The Old Man and the Gun (2018), Redford held the screen with an effortless charisma and presence, only enhanced by his matinee idol good looks.

The high points of his career came in the 70s, after which he made his much-lauded directorial debut with Ordinary People (1980) for which he won his only Academy Award. Dara makes a case for Redford's best acting work being attributable to his innate coldness and paranoia that, when deployed skilfully, brought out exceptional performances. In other words, he was most effective when he was playing not fully likeable characters.

Do you know which director he collaborated with most often? You might be surprised to learn the answer. Dara chooses one of those movies for his top Redford picks.

Dara also reviews the latest film from two other famous collaborators - Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, who have just released their retelling of Kurosawa's High and Low (1963), the exciting and colourful Highest 2 Lowest.

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Embattled by consecutive migraines, Dara is reckoning with a system under pressure. He attempts to own the state he's in while advocating for a deeper connection with what lies beneath all the turbulence. This line of enquiry leads to thoughts on observing a month's mind for Pepper, the family dog. A phrase used by the Venerable Bede in relation to that tradition inspired a new poem, which is shared.

Dara wonders if we know what should and shouldn't be prioritised. He argues that only by doing our own internal work can we really meet the world with confidence and clarity. And when we do that, it is so much easier to connect with others. That connection is what many have been missing as technology encroaches more and more on our ability to separate the wheat from the chaff of our genuinely important concerns.

Dara argues that we are energised by both life and love and that in being interested in and caring for others we locate our humanity. Contact, in the flesh, with warm-blooded creatures is the key to our wellness!

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dara is thinking about what comes next. Prompted by an article about Irish people signing up for their bodies to be preserved at death in the hope of waking up in the distant future, he finds himself perplexed by the desire to outlive a natural lifespan. While it is tempting to dismiss the participants as deluded fantasists, he recognises that something deeply anxious lurks beneath the aspirant futurism.

This type of scientific pioneering nestles very closely to conceptions not just of highly advanced future existence, but also to spirituality, faith, and the afterlife. Dara reflects on his own atheism and the tension that exists between it and his belief in a universal life force that animates us all. He also admits to praying in the aftermath of his dog's recent death. What was he praying for and to whom did he pray?

A funeral at the weekend had Dara recalling the impact of a very significant figure in his young life. He shares his thoughts on a natural end to a long life and the essential quality of a life remembered. He also talks affectionately about his father's grandiosity and how that informs a conception of a life well lived.

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dara admits to being a bit exhausted after moving house for the fifth time since the pandemic. It is not the most fun he has ever had and the ongoing grief ripples over Pepper the dog are adding to the load. However, the glass is (probably) half-full and at least the nickname for the new home has come very quickly and easily.

Dara found considerable solace from four different podcasts that he is happy to recommend - two movie-related, one about the psychology of grief, and the last about the very nature of being, knowing, and consciousness.

One of the film-related podcasts featured a clip from the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men (2007), and Dara found what was expressed so compelling that he tries to unpack its significance as a key tool of sustainable wellness and profoundly meaningful survival.

It's mortality, it's laughter, it's vulnerability - it's The ClearOut!

The Rewatchables do 'Witness' - https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/the-rewatchables/2025/08/25/witness-with-bill-simmons-and-mallory-rubin

The Big Picture 2000s series 'Mission Accomplished' - https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/mission-accomplished

Hidden Brain podcast on trauma, loss, and grief - https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/the-trauma-script/

Rupert Spira and Federico Faggin on consciousness - https://rupertspira.libsyn.com/episode-77-federico-faggin

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Dara is reflecting on masculinity for a couple of reasons. One is the continuing aftershock of the death of Pepper the dog, the other is because of the continuing presentation of a narrow version of masculinity that seems somewhat inadequate for purpose.

Dara thought he was coping reasonably well on his grief journey, but he shares two unexpected moments that completely opened him up. It makes him think about the depth of feeling within all of us that can so easily be untapped.

Jason Wilson is a prominent men's advocate in the US, but he speaks about masculinity and its relation to femininity in very traditionally gendered terms that Dara finds himself resisting a little. That said, the fundamental struggle between male vulnerability and toughness is very recognisable and relatable. What is the path most likely to lead to a type of masculinity that can easily contain both?

Finally, a little acknowledgement of the late Terence Stamp and a further callback to the recently departed Michael Madsen.

Quentin Tarantino's tribute to Michael Madsen (including link to Madsen interview): https://thenewbev.com/blog/2025/07/pure-cinema-podcast-quentin-tarantinos-tribute-to-michael-madsen/

The ClearOut episode on Terence Stamp in Billy Budd: https://theclearout.com/podcast/billy-budd-russell-brand-and-the-dark-corners-of-male-desire-episode-122/

Higher Learning episode with Jason Wilson: https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/higher-learning-van-lathan-rachel-lindsay/2025/04/15/kyren-lacy-and-the-mental-wellness-of-black-men-with-jason-wilson

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Dara is stepping carefully as he negotiates a painfully recent family tragedy - the sudden death of Pepper, the beloved family dog. Still too soon to fully unpack the depth of his grief, he nonetheless attempts to convey Pepper's importance and unique brand of loveliness.

Refusing to wallow in the horror of how she died, nor wanting to indulge maudlin reminiscing, Dara instead reads 'Hilary', a short story he wrote 12 years ago about saying farewell to a loyal companion. Naturally, the story takes on a resonance that was not expected when it was written.

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dara is looking at women's bits and how they continue to exert such a hold on so many onlookers, many with cash in hand, some holding other things. If the names Sydney Sweeney and Bonnie Blue are not instantly familiar to you, you have not been keeping abreast of things topical and pertinent this week. Sweeney is a Hollywood hot property who has made no bones about her need to make money to keep the show on the road. Blue is an English porn star who has just been the focus of a Channel 4 documentary following her facilitation of a jaw-dropping sex stunt.

What do they have in common? They are both blonde, beautiful, and buxom - and willing to trade on their physical assets. They have both found themselves at the centre of recent controversies, one invoking moral outrage, the other more in the area of identity politics and culture wars. Dara draws a connection between these young women, the commodification of their looks and bodies, and the experience of the Hemingway sisters - Margaux and Mariel - almost 50 years ago. The story doesn't seem to change. Young, beautiful and female equates to opportunities to capitalise or be capitalised upon, and usually for the sexual satisfaction of an eager male audience.

Dara questions the value of being morally dismissive of the women in question and wonders more about the damage being done by the ubiquity of sexualised imagery. He is certain the devices we carry with us everywhere are a huge part of the problem and advocates for putting them away and immersing ourselves in things more sensory and natural before we lose our perspective completely on what is and isn't real.

Also in this episode, two excellent words, recommended texts on the porn industry, and a brilliant book on parenting teenage girls.

Sydney Sweeney's 'racist' jeans: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/05/sydney-sweeney-controversy

YMRT episode on the Hemingway sisters: https://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/2020/2/24/the-hemingway-curse-mariel-and-margaux-make-me-over-episode-7

Unherd discuss Bonnie Blue's recent Channel 4 documentary: https://unherd.com/watch-listen/should-we-morally-condemn-bonnie-blue/?lang=us

The Last Days of August: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/11/the-last-days-of-august-review-ames-jon-ronson-podcast-porn-industry

Untangled by Lisa Damour: https://drlisadamour.com/books/untangled/

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is as on the nose as a John Lee Hancock film! No ambiguity, no grey areas, it's a celebration of the career of Emma Thompson. After recently rewatching 1995's Sense and Sensibility, Dara was reminded of how much he has always admired Emma Thompson. So he decided to dedicate an hour to her (almost) entire filmography.

He goes through a selective history of her most prominent roles, identifying some personal favourites and some missed opportunities, including a relatively recent film that was quietly breathtaking and possibly underseen.

Sense and Sensibility occupies a particular place in Dara's memory for a very specific reason. He shares that story as well as biting back at a disingenuous take on Ang Lee's film by a critic who sometimes seems to misread female characters and their experience.

From The Tall Guy (1989) to the Ken and Em years, to a paycheck decade, to the prolific 2010s, up to the current output, Dara hopes he has done justice to a really special talent.

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode is all about men and their flawed humanity. Reflecting on his childhood and adolescence, Dara is struck by the fact that he cannot identify a single serious, or substantial man. He wonders if this is a reflection of his unrealistic idealism or whether it is an indication that men embrace a certain model of infantilisation that is tantamount to self-sabotage.

Is there an argument that men are given too much room to be unserious and fallible, and that's what encourages their errant behaviour? Is it plausible that the burden of seriousness, of responsibility, then falls largely on women? Is that possibly a source of resentment?

At a certain point in his life, Dara realised that a significant number of women held the default assumption that all men will ultimately disappoint. He has always struggled with and fought against this terrible indictment of the male of the species, in spite of the endless presentation of evidence to support the position - the high profile Coldplay concert incident of the Astronomer CEO a great case in point.

Dara's question is what should men do with this context, this cultural frame, that they are given? His line of enquiry looks at where the battle lines are drawn between men and women and how nobody escapes the roles they are assigned.

He also wonders what constitutes a serious man - does the Coen brothers' 2009 film 'A Serious Man' have the answer?

Also, Ben Kingsley's Irish accent, Dara's hippie upbringing (again), and male support groups...

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.