Conversations that feature or focus on discussions of LDBTQIA issues and rights.

LGBTQIA Issues and Rights

This week I chatted with the critically acclaimed, and multi award winner and nominee, podcaster Dave Pickering about podcasts.

You will hear:

 - Dave doing an intro about their podcasts and history with them
- why people might listen to them, what are the motivations
- the danger of neoliberalism 'self improvement' and podcasts 
- the parasocial relationships that we have with podcast hosts and guests and how much that is part of why we listen (atomised, alienated from those around us we might turn to these kinds of relationships maybe?)
- recommendations for good shows

Dave’s own projects are
 
Getting Better Acquainted
Stand Up Tragedy
The Family Tree
Down to a sunless sea: memories of my dad (I’ve listened to the first of these, it’s really moving and excellent. 
 
Current (Client) projects: 
Who Hurt You (formally Made of Human) (I sort of mentioned this)
The Restart Project 
Race Reflections AT WORK
The Breakup Monologues 
 
Check all those out via Dave’s website http://dave-pickering.squarespace.com/ 

Also follow them on twitter for their excellent recommendations (usually on a Friday) https://twitter.com/goosefat101 

Please consider supporting the Patreon for this show patreon.com/culturesexrelationships Your support means that I can get paid to make the show and I can also pay other freelance guests. The more support I get the more shows I can make. 

Speaking of shows, the easiest ones for me to make are the 'Ask Justin' advice shows. So if you have any questions about relationships, sex, your relationship to your self, you can ask me. I will anonymise your question and will also give an excellent, long, and thoughtful answer. Email culturesexrelationships at gmail dot com

Dave Pickering: Podcasts

In GBA 172  we get better acquainted with Sophia Walker. She talks about going round the world in 8 mistakes, drawing on her experiences of working in the care industry to create a new piece of spoken word theatre, experiencing 9/11 through the wider social context of her international school classmates, filming documentaries in warzones, the etymology of the words and so much more.

Sophia plugs:

Can't Care, Won't Care 2-24th August 1.40pm at the Banshee Labyrinth: http://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/event/420338-cant-care-wont-care/

Around the World in Eight Mistakes 9-24th August at the Pilgrim 5.30pm:
http://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/event/420579-around-the-world-in-eight-mistakes/

Both shows are part of The Free Fringe.

Her first book Opposite the Tour Bus coming out this year from Burning Eye Press 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SophiaWalker

Twitter: https://twitter.com/poetwalker

I plug:

Stand Up Tragedy at the Free Fringe - 7.30pm every day from 2nd-22nd August at the Banshee Labyrinth: www.facebook.com/events/316554115169995/

Sophia Walker will be performing with Stand Up Tragedy on 6th and 23rd.

Getting Better Acquainted Live at the Free Fringe 3.15pm every day from 18th-22th August at the Royal Oak: www.facebook.com/events/773670469351784/

We mention:

Free Fringe spoken word album: http://pbhfreefringespokenword.bandcamp.com/album/a-maze-of-breaths-spoken-word-at-pbhs-free-fringe
Lucy Ayrton: http://www.lucyayrton.co.uk/
Dogstar: http://dogstarbrixton.com/
Stand Up Tragedy: http://www.standuptragedy.co.uk/
Andrea Gibson: http://www.andreagibson.org/
Arts Council: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/
Kevin Cadwallender: http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poetry/poets/kevin-cadwallender
Ted Talks: http://www.ted.com/
BBCQT Watchalong: https://twitter.com/BBCQTWatchalong
Moscow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow
Washington: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.
Soviet Union: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union
UPI: http://www.upi.com/
National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
The Mountain People: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountain-People-Colin-M-Turnbull/dp/0671640984
David Pluth - Green Peace: http://www.ugpulse.com/heritage/1-on-1-with-national-geographic-photographer-david-pluth/530/ug.aspx
IkLand: the worst people in the world http://iklandmovie.com/index.php  
Boston International Film Festival: http://www.bifilmfestival.com/biffhome.html
Hanoi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanoi
George Bush: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush
Haringey: http://www.haringey.gov.uk/
Baby P: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Baby_P
Spark London: http://www.sparklondon.com/
Ross Sutherland: http://www.rosssutherland.co.uk/
Jordan - spoken word: http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/11/16/jordan-s-female-slam-poetry-scene.html
Upworthy: http://www.upworthy.com/
Shane Koyczan -  To This Day  : http://www.tothisdayproject.com/the_poem.html
Talha Ahsan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Talha_Ahsan 
Stonewall: http://www.stonewall.org.uk/
Keith Jarrett  - Gay Poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g81EKU1lXbw
Sophia Walker - Faggots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8muDiSOjOQY
Chumbawamba - Revolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbXvfVlXt4s
300 to 1: https://www.facebook.com/events/607036452716549/
Monkey Poet: http://www.monkeypoet.co.uk/

You can hear Getting Better Acquainted on Stitcher SmartRadio, Stitcher allows you to listen to your favourite shows directly from your iPhone, Android Phone, Kindle Fire and beyond.

On-demand and on the go!

Don’t have Stitcher? Download it for free today at www.stitcher.com or in the app stores.

Help more people get better acquainted. If you like what you hear why not write an iTunes review?

Follow @GBApodcast on Twitter. Like Getting Better Acquainted on facebook. Tell your friends. Spread the word!

GBA 172 Sophia Walker

A live recording of a GBA recorded at #edfringe 2014 at the Royal Oak as part of the PBH Free Fringe.

This recording is unedited and posted in a no frills way due to the intensive workload of the festival, and for that reason these shows will also not have shownotes attached to them.

20th August: 20th August: Fay Roberts: http://www.fayroberts.co.uk/

Fay Roberts is a performance poet and peripatetic percussionist. By day she pokes projects and by night she projects across a microphone. She runs the Cambridge chapter of Hammer & Tongue, along with her own arts label/ brand/ movement/ “nebulous poetry concept” Allographic Press. And she is the director of Spoken Word at PBH's Free Fringe and runs Other Voices Caberet.

GBA Live 12 - Fay Roberts

In GBA 185 we get better acquainted with Mike Jackson. I met Mike at theFocus E15 Mothers Occupation earlier this year and he is one of the real people who are fictionalised in the film Pride. We talk about the personal and the political, going through class experience and class struggle, LGBT rights, solidarity between differently oppressed groups, consciousness raising, activist and trade union history and so much more.

Mike plugs: 

The reformed LGSM who can be found here: http://www.twitter.com/LGSMpride

And in the future they'll be on facebook too here: LGSM 2014 

We mention:

GBA 179 Focus E15 Mothers (feat Mike Jackson): https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-179-focus-e15-mothers

Focus e15 Mothers:

https://twitter.com/FocusE15

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Focus-E15-Mothers/602860129757343

http://focuse15.org/

Spark London: http://sparklondon.com/

Pride: http://www.pridemovie.co.uk/

Billy Elliot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Elliot
Brassed Off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassed_Off
The Full Monty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Full_Monty
Stephen Beresford: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Beresford
Marc Ashton: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ashton
Joe Gilgun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gilgun
This Is England: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_England
The Miner's Strike: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_miners%27_strike_(1984%E2%80%9385)
Margaret Thatcher: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher
Pricewaterhouse Coopers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers
Neoliberal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
Neoconservative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism
Von Hayek:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek
Milton Friedman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman
Tony Benn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn
Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything: http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Changes-Everything-Capitalism-Climate/dp/1451697384
Freddie Fox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Fox_(actor)
Pink Triangle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_triangle
Print Workers Strike: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wapping_dispute
Still the Enemy Within: http://the-enemy-within.org.uk/
Women Against Pit Closures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_Against_Pit_Closures
Clement Attlee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Attlee
Accrington: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrington
1967 Sexual Offences Act: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Offences_Act_1967
Johnathan Harvey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Harvey_(playwright)
Beautiful Thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Thing_(play)
Canary: http://www.amazon.co.uk/22Canary-22-Modern-Plays-Jonathan-Harvey/dp/1408131048
"Equal" Marriage Bill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_(Same_Sex_Couples)_Act_2013
Mark Ashton's Fund: https://www.facebook.com/markashtontrust
Soma Mining Disaster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_mine_disaster




You can hear Getting Better Acquainted on Stitcher SmartRadio, Stitcher allows you to listen to your favourite shows directly from your iPhone, Android Phone, Kindle Fire and beyond.

On-demand and on the go!

Don’t have Stitcher? Download it for free today at www.stitcher.com or in the app stores.

Help more people get better acquainted. If you like what you hear why not write an iTunes review?

Follow @GBApodcast on Twitter. Like Getting Better Acquainted on facebook. Tell your friends. Spread the word!

GBA 185 Mike Jackson

In GBA 189 we get better acquainted with Heather. She talks about how faith and theatre has influenced her passion for working with young people and in getting involved with LGBT rights, her methodist upbringing and personal relationship with God, the experience of being pregnant and how she first knew me as "Pajama Boy".

Heather Plugs: Speaking up for other people's rights.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

We mention:

Tim: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-188-tim
Mencap: https://www.mencap.org.uk/
PGCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postgraduate_Certificate_in_Education
I Have 2 Mummys books: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Has_Two_Mommies
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Some-people-have-Mums-SomeFamilies-net/dp/1484097122
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tale-Two-Mommies-Vanita-Oelschlager/dp/0982636679
Central Park Penguins book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Tango_Makes_Three
Heteronormativity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteronormativity
Methodism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodism
Rowan Williams (The Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of recording): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_Williams




You can hear Getting Better Acquainted on Stitcher SmartRadio, Stitcher allows you to listen to your favourite shows directly from your iPhone, Android Phone, Kindle Fire and beyond.

On-demand and on the go!

Don’t have Stitcher? Download it for free today at www.stitcher.com or in the app stores.

Help more people get better acquainted. If you like what you hear why not write an iTunes review?

Follow @GBApodcast on Twitter. Like Getting Better Acquainted on facebook. Tell your friends. Spread the word!

GBA 189 Heather

In GBA 198 we get better acquainted with Jack Rooke. He talks about co-writing a show about the death of his dad with his Nan, the barriers to education and the arts that people from working class backgrounds have to deal with, how suicide is presented in the media, watching daytime TV and so much more. 

He *is* crowdfunding his show: http://t.co/TWiOZCoU3K
Here he is in a video telling you about it: http://t.co/pZ50wGETXV

Content Note: Bereavement and reference to suicide and mental health.

Jack plugs:

@JackRooke: https://twitter.com/jackrooke
Good Grief: http://www.thegoodgriefproject.com
Child Bereavement Network: http://www.childhoodbereavementnetwork.org.uk/
Plan If: http://www.planif.org.uk/


I plug:

The upcoming #GBA200 season where I will be celebrating 200 hundred episodes of Getting Better Acquainted with a week of conversations where the table is turned and other people run the show and I am the guest.

We mention:

Roundhouse: http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/
Spark London: http://sparklondon.com/
Wilderness Festival: http://www.wildernessfestival.com/
Charley Harrison: http://charleylucyharrison.com/
About A Boy: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276751/
Owain: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-16-owain
University of Westminster: http://www.westminster.ac.uk/
Trafalgar Studios: http://www.trafalgar-studios.co.uk/
Meera Syal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meera_Syal
Arts Council: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/
The Free Fringe: http://freefringe.org.uk/
This Morning: http://www.itv.com/thismorning
Loose Women: http://www.itv.com/loosewomen
The Chase: http://www.itv.com/thechase
Doctors: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mh9v
Bang Said the Gun: http://www.bangsaidthegun.com/
The Surgery - Radio One: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wkj8
Widow's Parents Allowance: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/15/widowed-parents-allowance-cut
Bono: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bono
CALM: https://www.thecalmzone.net/
My Aunt: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-125-margaret
Lana Del Rey: http://lanadelrey.com/
L'Wren Scott: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Wren_Scott
Mick Jagger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Jagger
Samaritans: http://www.samaritans.org/
Bowl of Oranges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUym7n7fJTQ
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0W1v0kOELA



Follow @GBApodcast on Twitter. Like Getting Better Acquainted on facebook. Tell your friends. Spread the word!

GBA 198 Jack Rooke

In GBA 10 we get better acquainted with Richard. He talks about being an employment lawyer, coming to terms with his sexuality, and his dual passions for law and politics. He also mounts a valiant defence of the coalition government.

Richard plugs:

Voting yes for AV and voting for the Liberal Democrats: http://www.libdems.org.uk/



Help more people get better acquainted. If you like what you hear why not write an iTunes review?

Follow @GBApodcast on Twitter. Like Getting Better Acquainted on facebook. Tell your friends. Spread the word!

GBA 10 Richard

General content note for the series: death, dementia, old age, mental health issues

This episode is about creating things: imaginary worlds, homes and friendship. It's also about walls: drawing on walls, putting up boundaries, and pulling down the walls inside your mind and heart.

Artwork by my brother Tony Pickering: http://www.pick-art.co.uk/

The BPA Fund has a survey that I’d really appreciate you filling in if you have a few moments. You can find it here: http://podcastviews.com

For some extra incentive if you fill it in you can be entered into a draw for a £50 Amazon voucher. For the purposes of this survey “Getting Better Acquainted” counts as "Down to a sunless sea" whether you are listening to it via the GBA feed or not.

Down to a sunless sea: memories of my dad

Down to a sunless sea: Episode 10: Friendship Part 2

General content note for the series: death, dementia, old age, mental health issues

Extra content note: PTSD, dependency/addiction, rape (touched on lightly, no descriptions)

In the fifth full episode of the podcast using content funded by the British Podcast Awards and the Wellcome Trust I talk to psychologist and epidemiologist Dr Suzi Gage from the podcast Say Why to Drugs about researching recreational drug use and mental health.

Say Why to Drugs with Dr Suzi Gage: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/say-why-to-drugs/id1114492774

Say Why to Drugs by Dr Suzi Gage: https://www.hachette.co.uk/contributor/suzi-gage/

Artwork by my brother Tony Pickering: http://www.pick-art.co.uk/

The BPA Fund has a survey that I’d really appreciate you filling in if you have a few moments. You can find it here: http://podcastviews.com

For some extra incentive if you fill it in you can be entered into a draw for a £50 Amazon voucher. For the purposes of this survey “Getting Better Acquainted” counts as "Down to a sunless sea" whether you are listening to it via the GBA feed or not.

Down to a sunless sea: Episode 11 - Drink Sangria in the park

General content note for the series: death, dementia, old age, mental health issues

Additional content note: war, medical operations, suicidal ideation

I’m still pretty terrified of my dad stopping existing. He has been such a part of my life that it feels like a world without him in it is impossible. But ever since I was a child, I have been imagining that world. I’ve played out his death so many times. I’ve written it into fiction and songs. I’ve spent hours in my mind going through how it will be. What I might think and do. How it will affect me. How it will affect my family. And I’ve always thought it would probably happen soon. But it never has.

This episode is about confronting death and confronting love. It includes the story of my dad's war and of his heart attack and quadruple heart bypass.

Artwork by my brother Tony Pickering: http://www.pick-art.co.uk/

The BPA Fund has a survey that I’d really appreciate you filling in if you have a few moments. You can find it here: http://podcastviews.com

For some extra incentive if you fill it in you can be entered into a draw for a £50 Amazon voucher. For the purposes of this survey “Getting Better Acquainted” counts as "Down to a sunless sea" whether you are listening to it via the GBA feed or not.

Down to a sunless sea: Episode 12:  Hearts Breaking

General content note for the series: death, dementia, old age, mental health issues

Extra content note: operations, medical procedures, assisted dying, euthanasia

In the sixth full episode of the podcast using content funded by the British Podcast Awards and the Wellcome Trust I talk to sociologist Dr Gill Haddow about embodiment, replaceable hearts, everyday cyborgs, humanimals and unhealth. This is an episode about possible futures and how we feel about our bodies.

Gill on twitter: https://twitter.com/gillhaddow

Everyday Cyborgs and Humanimals 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WilTY5FF5w

Animal, Mechanical and Me: https://animalmechanicalandme.com/

Artwork by my brother Tony Pickering: http://www.pick-art.co.uk/

The BPA Fund has a survey that I’d really appreciate you filling in if you have a few moments. You can find it here: http://podcastviews.com

For some extra incentive if you fill it in you can be entered into a draw for a £50 Amazon voucher. For the purposes of this survey “Getting Better Acquainted” counts as "Down to a sunless sea" whether you are listening to it via the GBA feed or not.

Down to a sunless sea: Episode 13: New answers to old questions

General content note for the series: death, dementia, old age, mental health issues

Additional content note: euthanasia/suicide

I realised that maybe our positions aren’t that different after all. And I wondered if, in the moments that I manage to believe in hope, I seem as inspiring and naïve as he does. It made me wonder if maybe the spark I see in him, that belief in people and ideas, if that isn’t also in me, despite my frequent feeling that it isn’t. If I might communicate that to other people regardless. If the world as humans know it lasts for long enough for me to reach a similar age as my dad, I wonder if I will be someone who frustrates and delights young people with my faith in them, whether I will still accept the possibility of hope and change?

This episode is about belief, hope and progress. It considers technological change, generational change, spiritual change and political change.

Artwork by my brother Tony Pickering: http://www.pick-art.co.uk/

Down to a sunless sea: Episode 14: André Gorz Tweet

General content note for the series: death, dementia, old age, mental health issues

Additional content note: euthanasia/suicide

But no matter what he forgets, it can’t take away the love we have shared, that existed, and will always have existed, even when he has forgotten it; even when he is no longer alive to remember it; even when I have forgotten it; even when I am no longer alive to remember it. It happened. And that has to be enough.

This episode is about movement, memory, change, time, distance, tears, connection, therapy, sadness, love, grief and everything else that can come in waves.

Artwork by my brother Tony Pickering: http://www.pick-art.co.uk/

Down to a sunless sea: Episode 16: Waves

General content note for the series: death, dementia, old age, mental health issues

Extra content note: grief, suicide, terminal illness, abuse, bereavement

In the final full episode of the podcast using content funded by the British Podcast Awards and the Wellcome Trust I talk to counselor and psychotherapist Karen Pollock MBACP about grief and death. This is an episode about ways of thinking (and feeling) about bereavement, therapeutic approaches to change and loss, how the systems and attitudes around and inside us effect the ways we deal with difficult things, and so much more. It is the only episode of the show that doesn't feature my dad's voice but he is very present in the conversation.

Karen on twitter: https://twitter.com/CounsellingKaz

Counselling in Northumberland: https://counsellinginnorthumberland.com/

Non-Binary Lives: An Anthology of Intersecting Identities: https://www.ubcpress.ca/non-binary-lives

The Messiness of Grief: https://counsellinginnorthumberland.com/2020/02/03/the-messiness-of-grief/

Opening the door to difficult conversations: https://counsellinginnorthumberland.com/2018/01/23/opening-the-door-to-difficult-conversations/

Death and second chances: https://counsellinginnorthumberland.com/2016/11/22/death-and-second-chances/

Artwork by my brother Tony Pickering: http://www.pick-art.co.uk/

Down to a sunless sea: Episode 17: The Box And The Jar

General content note for the series: death, dementia, old age, mental health issues

Additional content note: sex, assisted dying, war 

This episode is the last episode of the first (and possibly last) season of this show, and it's about legacy.

I’ve been planning this show for years. The earliest recording I’ve used was recorded by my dad on cassette tape in 1984. This show has covered 96 years of my dad’s life and 38 years of mine. I started recording interviews with my dad in 2011 and began writing essays about our relationship and his journey through old age towards death in 2017.

I’m glad I made this show. That it hasn’t just remained an imagined show. It’s been a tough journey at times, but it’s one I’m so glad I’ve made. Thanks for travelling on it with me.

Artwork by my brother Tony Pickering: http://www.pick-art.co.uk/

Down to a sunless sea: Episode 18: Legacy

A weekly podcast: Join Dave Pickering on his journey to get better acquainted with the people he knows. Part interview show, part oral history project and part autobiography through conversation.

British Podcast Award 2017 winner (bronze in Best Interview category)

GBA was nominated for a 2012 Radio Production Award, aired for 3 seasons on Resonance 104.4 FM and was featured on BBC Radio 4's In Pod We Trust, BBC Radio 5 Live’s Helen and Olly's Required Listening and has been recommended by The Guardian, Time Out and the Financial Times

GBA 198 Jack Rooke

Getting Better Acquainted

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