In this more laidback episode, we create something of a time capsule, discussing our thoughts on how lockdown has shaped communities, the role that celebrities play (or have tried to play) in a time of crisis, social distancing while shopping, lockdown drinking habits, Captain Tom Moore and clapping for carers.

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Edited by Connor.

Still under lockdown, Sam and Connor discuss "flow". A man with an unpronounceable name, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, coined and developed the concept in the last half of the 20th century. Whether you're absorbed in work, sport or music you're probably experiencing flow. When musicians, sufi mystics, sportsmen, soldiers and artists are "in the zone" they're usually in a flow state. Religious and secular arts have been coveting and teaching flow as critical parts of their practices for hundreds of years but understanding it in broader contexts could be the secret to happiness itself…

The red-pill diagram we mention: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Challenge_vs_skill.svg/300px-Challenge_vs_skill.svg.png

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIeFJCqsPs

Explaining Flow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h6IMYRoCZw

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Edited by Connor.

Stay safe, connected and appreciate the small things. Loneliness is a killer so reach out to anyone you can and never feel that feeling alone is abnormal or a burden.   

Connor, Joe and one of the Two Joes (this is getting confusing) talk about how society has reacted to recent events…   

Recorded quite early into the lockdown, we talk about how the economy will be affected and change, that relaxing and being away from work aren't necessarily bad things, how everybody has suddenly joined the neighbourhood watch and ways the situation can be turned positive for those not affected by poverty and poor health. We also discuss the animal trade, clapping for the NHS, the misuse of wartime parallels and how society might change in the coming years.  

How modern stoicism can help in a pandemic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em_qw... 

"Somme" comments: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...

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Edited by Connor.

The Forest of Dean is an area in and around Gloucestershire brimming with local heritage and communal history. We talk about the Forest's mining culture, as well as some of its historical quirks, before hosting the world's first (and only) Forest dialect quiz!

We then explore the controversy of the decline of mining culture and its impact on communities, the dilemmas of wild boar and finally solve the age-old mystery of who killed the bears.

Finally we finish up with some ghost stories, folklore and ponder whether the Beast of Dean is a load of old bollocks.

 We'd love to chat more about history, heritage and culture on these podcasts so let us know if you know any spooky stories or interesting places…   

- The story of who killed the bears can be found, as well as many other of the tales we mention can be found http://deanweb.info/history5.html 

 - Some dialect poetry about sheep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aifa-MPt-80&feature=emb_title  

- Here is some info on freemining:

- A documentary on Freemining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKIHH3BD4ik  

- Some stuff on Dennis Potter: https://intranet.yorksj.ac.uk/potter/  

- The world's strangest place: https://littledeanjail.com/

- Some of our thoughts: https://twobeersuntilphronesis.weebly.com/thoughts-on-the-forest-of-dean--gloucestershire.html

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Edited by Connor.  

Hope everyone is having a nice Easter despite the current circumstances. This will be the first episode we release during the lockdown and we've got loads more on the way…   

In this episode Connor, Nye, Joe & Zach take a look at some of the weirdest Easter traditions on Earth; from anti-Satan butter to willow whipping. Finally Zach can rest easy knowing the true date and religious significance of Easter, Connor goes on a rant about neo-paganism and we learn the dastardly ingredients of chocolate eggs.   

Butter lamb number 1: https://townsquare.media/site/10/files/2019/04/Butter-Lamb.png?w=980&q=75

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Edited by Connor.

Spanish Museums would have you believe that Spain once enjoyed a "Golden Age" of interfaith relations. That's right, after the Islamic Conquests and (according to some) even during later Christian rule, all the Abrahamic Religions got along just swell… or did they?   

Connor and Joe dig out some old undergraduate essays from their time at university and try to remember their field trip to Córdoba in Southern Spain as they answer this question. Focusing mainly on the Jewish experience of rule under the Caliphates and Christian Kings, it turns out that history is a lot more complicated than people are letting on…  

Here are some photos of some of the things we reference… https://twobeersuntilphronesis.weebly.com/spain-pictures.html

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Edited by Connor.

This is kind of a sequel to our episode "alcohol & sobriety". 

There was once a day when you could smoke in pubs, lager was considered a lady's drink and pints would cost 11p.   

(It was decided Zach's scream didn't need any special effects) 

- Henry Weston's Cider: https://www.westons-cider.co.uk/ciders/

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 Edited by Connor.

Well our plan was to dig into some of the conventional questions surrounding the philosophy of sport… however in true philosophy fashion we ended up bickering for half an hour about how to define sport itself!

After we were finally done with the semantics we explored some aspects of self-realisation through control and harnessing skill. Drawing inspiration from experiences with boxing, e-sports, jujitsu, darts and more, we discussed how sport can challenge and encourage personal growth.  Identity is distilled into the expressive form of sports - not dissimilar to art. As we discuss, its all about learning boundaries while incorporating the shadow of the self; both testing and tempering our physical and moral limits. We also talked a little about "accessing" sport and fan culture.

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Editing by Connor.

"If you could, overnight, suddenly transform physically and acquire all the skills and knowledge to become the best in the world at a particular sport, which sport would that be?". What would that mean for your identity? And would it be unethical to compete in that sport? We have a few more of these improvised questions to come.

Think teleporting is cool? Think again. As Nye and Connor continue to ask each other random questions, Nye explains why he would never let Scotty beam him up...