GBA Episodes that talk about and with Coventry.

Coventry Episodes

Conversations with academics or about academia: People who teach, people who study, people who believe in academia and people who challenge and question it. 

Academics

The Coventry Years

International Women's Day 2015

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 #4 we get better acquainted with Liz. She talks about an amazing amount of things including; class, social policy, personal history, cultural identity and her family. 

Find Liz on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/veritasgrey / @veritasgrey

Liz plugged:

http://www.thebrickbox.co.uk/ 

http://www.mssociety.org.uk

http://www.symphonyspace.org/ 

http://www.selectedshorts.org/

http://www.radiolab.org/

http://www.npr.org/



Help more people get better acquainted. If you like what you hear why not write an iTunes review?

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GBA 4 Liz

In GBA 179 we get better acquainted with Focus E15 Mothers.

I talk to some of the people involved in the political struggle taking place at the Carpenters Estate, where a group of mothers and their supporters have turned some uninhabited (but perfectly fit to be inhabited) flats into a social centre serving the community and raising awareness of the harsh realities of local and national housing policy.

https://twitter.com/FocusE15

https://twitter.com/E15OpenHouse

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

https://www.facebook.com/pages/E15-Open-House-Occupation/1630838387142657

https://www.facebook.com/events/322455237939436/

Also in the episode is a talk given by Mike Jackson one of the members of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners the activist group featured in the recent film Pride.

http://www.coolcave.co.uk/blog/video/all-out-dancing-in-dulais-1986.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsFY0wHpR5o


More info on Focus E15:

http://t.co/A5mO2CKqmj

http://t.co/ySKSDDOKKj

http://t.co/xcFAZ24103

https://t.co/C7ssh19igq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAjCiXwP46w

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/23/real-politics-empty-london-housing-estate



We mention:

South London Revolutionary Communist Group:

http://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/

https://www.facebook.com/southlondonrcg

Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbians_and_Gays_Support_the_Miners

Robin Wales:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Wales

Newham Council:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newham_London_Borough_Council

Toll Puddle Martyrs: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolpuddle_Martyrs

The Chartists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartism


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GBA 179 Focus E15 Mothers

In GBA 182 we get better acquainted with Reni Eddo-Lodge. She talks about coming to mainstream journalism via activism and blogging, analyzing how power works, how the both the left and the media are held back by viewing everything through the lens of middle class white men, the "Great Intersectionality Wars" of 2012, black feminism, cultural capital, critical race theory and more. If that makes the conversation sound academic and dry then let me assure you it really isn't. The conversation takes place in a busy cafe in Hackney, Reni is battling the end of an illness, I am battling my privilege based ignorance, but despite that we manage to have a great conversation about race, class, gender and the media.

http://renieddolodge.co.uk/

Reni plugs:

Email her if you want her to speak at things you are doing: http://renieddolodge.co.uk/contact/

You can find her online at: https://twitter.com/renireni

I plug:

Stand Up Tragedy: Tragic Horror: https://www.facebook.com/events/707597412628896/
Tragic Friends Act 3: https://soundcloud.com/standuptragedy/tragic-friends-act-3

We mention:

Focus E15 Mum's: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-179-focus-e15-mothers
https://twitter.com/FocusE15
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Focus-E15-Mothers/602860129757343
Facebook Egg Freezing: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/oct/21/facebook-apple-egg-freezing-virgin-unlimited-holidays-business-benefits
Channel 4 Best Young Blogger Award: http://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2010/oct/25/channel-4-britains-best-young-blogger-louise-jones
Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/
Intersectionality: http://www.feministtimes.com/call-yourself-an-intersectional-feminist/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10572435/Intersectional-feminism.-What-the-hell-is-it-And-why-you-should-care.html
Billy Bragg: http://www.billybragg.co.uk/
Critical Race Theory:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory
Kimberley Crenshaw: http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/04/kimberl-crenshaw-intersectionality-i-wanted-come-everyday-metaphor-anyone-could
Kimberley Crenshaw's LSE lecture: http://www.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2014/03/20140326t1830vOT.aspx
Marx: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
New Statesman: http://www.newstatesman.com/
Intersectionality Wars of 2012: http://www.utne.com/community/intersectionality-zm0z14uzwil.aspx#axzz3Gs0ZAAWL
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2012/10/a_problem_that
Sheryl Sandberg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheryl_Sandberg


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.

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GBA 182 Reni Eddo-Lodge

In GBA 197 we get better acquainted with Toni. She talks about being a sex worker and sex worker rights activist, decriminalisation, the problems with the Swedish Model, the language and stigma around sex work, harm reduction, how various systems of oppression intersect around the lives of sex workers and more. 

Toni is a member of the Sex Worker Open University: http://www.sexworkeropenuniversity.com/

Content Note: Some reference to violence against sex workers and to rape and sexual assault, although none of these references are graphic or personal accounts.

Toni plugs:

@SexWorkerOU: https://twitter.com/SexWorkerOU
CONFIDE: Helpline: http://confideinfo.com/about/

I plug:

Tragic Winter @ Hackney Attic: 28th February: 
http://www.facebook.com/events/1516191711967276/

We mention:

International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers: http://www.december17.org/
Carol Leigh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Leigh
Tres Cosas Campaign: https://3cosascampaign.wordpress.com/about/
Decriminalisation: http://prostitutescollective.net/2010/09/28/decriminalisation-of-prostitution-v-legalisation-2/
Swedish/Nordic Model: http://www.sexworkeropenuniversity.com/blog/swou-statement-on-poverty-sex-work-and-the-swedish-model-poverty-is-objectifying-demeaning-and-coercive1
Amnesty International - the backlash: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/agm-decisions-to-date
http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2013/06/amnesty-human-rights-and-criminalisation-sex-work
Friends: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends
Petite Jasmine: 
http://titsandsass.com/the-bloody-state-gave-him-the-power-a-swedish-sex-workers-murder/
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alex-bryce/petite-jasmine-sex-workers_b_4439049.html
Arrested Development: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrested_Development_%28TV_series%29
Tina Fay: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Fey
Morecambe Bay Cockle Picking Disaster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Morecambe_Bay_cockling_disaster
ECP:  http://www.nswp.org/members/europe/english-collective-prostitutes
http://prostitutescollective.net/
x: talk: http://www.xtalkproject.net/
NSWP: http://www.nswp.org/
Ipswich Serial murders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipswich_serial_murders
Associated Press: http://www.ap.org/



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GBA 197 Toni

In GBA 11 we get better acquainted with Clive. He asks himself the question, "What is the point in Anthropology?" He provides many answers and some arguments against them. And sometimes he forgets what he's supposed to be talking about. Living with tribal people, if the world can be made a better place and how can humans be happy are some of the main themes of the conversation.

Clive plugs:

Survival International: http://www.survivalinternational.org / http://twitter.com/survival


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GBA 11 Clive

In GBA 18 we get better acquainted with Sam.  She talks about having a premature baby, being a young mum, nearly marrying a man she met on holiday in the Dominican Republic when she was 16 and other stories of innocence and experience. 

It's a brave and frank discussion full of hope and warmth as well as sadness and her young baby provides a soundtrack and commentary for this intimate and moving conversation.

Sam plugs: Nothing.

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GBA 18 Sam

This is an introduction to Dave who is the host of GBA. It was Episode 1 of  the series and had 130 plays at the time of it being ACCIDENTALLY DELETED. It has been re-posted out of sequence because there was no way of putting it back where it belonged.

Dave tells stories from his past, some funny, some sad, some a mixture of both, featuring two live stories told at Spark London events: http://www.sparklondon.com/

GBA 1 Dave

In GBA 26 we get better acquainted with Angela. She talks about programming computer simulations of Jaguars and Hedgehogs and being Welsh and  proud amongst other things. We meet for the first time in 10 years, compare notes and talk how we have come to know ourselves better as we get older. It even has a cameo from a dog.

Angela plugs: 

The University of Southampton: Complex System Simulations DTC: http://www.icss.soton.ac.uk/ 

Her blog: http://computationalecology-angelawatkins.blogspot.com/

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GBA 26 Angela

In GBA 41 we get better acquainted with Chris. He was my one of my lecturers at university. He talks about academia, journalism, media, the Iraq War and the cuts being imposed by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition Government. It was recorded on a university campus so it was a trip down memory lane where I faced my past lessons and past prejudices. 

It's a conversation about ideas but also about people. Chris tells us of his journey from plumber to van driver to academic and critic. And he makes the argument for how, in a world so influenced and controlled by the media, media studies is far from being an irrelevant subject.

This is the first time someone with the same name as a previous guest has been aired. It won't be the last. Hope it doesn't get too confusing!


Chris plugs: 

His Blog: http://chr1sr0berts.wordpress.com/

Any work he does for http://www.newleftproject.org/ and http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network

And of course his book when it is published. His full name is Chris Roberts so look out for this in the future.

He also plugs Dan Hind's The Return of the Public:

http://thereturnofthepublic.wordpress.com/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1844675947/






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GBA 41 Chris

In GBA 63 we get better acquainted with Steve. Steve was my best friend when I lived in Coventry, between the ages of 10 and 13. We talk about our shared history and catch up with who we are now we're 30. Games workshop, fantasy worlds, Stephen King's It style childhood adventures, getting into music, losing touch and then being brought back together by the Internet.

This conversation is the prelude to an EPIC GBA Special that's coming out on Friday where I return to Coventry the city we grew up in. I tour the town with Steve. 

Both episodes are about that strange time of life: late childhood. The years before you are fully teen but when you are no longer a toddler. 

They are also about re-establishing and developing friendship. A friendship where we knew each other before we were fully formed. 

They are about the danger and the magic of being a child. And that strange nostalgic emotion that comes when you try and look back. 

We discuss stories that I talked about in GBA 1: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-1-dave

Steve Plugs:

His band at the time, The Sequins, who have now gone their separate ways: http://www.thesequins.co.uk/

UPDATE: Here is his new/old band: Late Starters: http://www.youtube.com/latestartersuk

We also talk about my old band Apples for Everyone: http://www.myspace.com/applesforeveryone

My previous podcast Four Days in a Room: http://www.fourdaysinaroom.co.uk/

And my current music project a Room Full of Friends. What we’re up to has had one public airing at the night I was running earlier this year and you can hear us in these two podcasts:

http://soundcloud.com/standuptragedy/stand-up-tragedy-17

http://soundcloud.com/standuptragedy/stand-up-tragedy-18

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.

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GBA 63 Steve

In GBA 64 we get better acquainted with Coventry:

It's an epic document of my return to a city I hadn't been back to in 12 years.  I lived there through some dark and strange times 17 years ago.

In the show I really do get better acquainted with the city. I get to know its character. With my childhood friend Steve as my co-host I take you around Coventry's Cathedrals and shopping centres and we cover how the city was changed forever by the blitz. 

http://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/

Then we journey back into my past, returning to the estates that I lived in as a child and the schools that we both attended together, through a barrage of memory and new perspectives. 

Steve mounts an inspiring defence of the city he has lived his whole life in and tells us why he loves the city so deeply. 

I take a long hard look at my past, re-evaluate my relationship to it, reconsider who I am, and get to know a different city to the one I left. Or is the city the same and it's me who has changed? Have I really changed at all?

Either way come and join me as I make my peace with Coventry.

As a prelude to this episode I released Steve’s GBA earlier this week:  http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-63-steve

Both episodes are about that strange time of life: late childhood. The years before you are fully teen but when you are no longer a toddler. 

They are also about re-establishing and developing friendship. A friendship where we knew each other before we were fully formed. 

They are about the danger and the magic of being a child. And that strange nostalgic emotion that comes when you try and look back.

Other good “extra listening” that compliments this episode are:

Episode 1 of GBA where I tell at least 3 stories set in Coventry during this time: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-1-dave

One of which is this http://www.sparklondon.com story which we talk about extensively at the end of the Coventry Special: http://www.mixcloud.com/sparklondon/two-cathedrals-david-pickering/

And George’s GBA is given a brief mention too: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-6-george

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 http://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?

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GBA 64 Coventry

In GBA 66 we get better acquainted with Iris. Sitting in my childhood home away from home we talk about Histories: personal, social, local and shared.

Our conversation goes places - the excitement of London in the 60's, visiting Germany after WW2, providing educational support and assistance to disabled students, the psychogeography of cities, the use of the word chav, the beauty of immigration and discovering the heritage of a tiny part of Coventry are some of those places. 

Oh yeah, and we talk about what I was like when I was 12.

Iris Plugs:

"Don't keep hankering about going a long way away to find things out, look on your doorstep because often the answer is there, and look at your own environment and learn from it, and sortof... put your roots down where you are."

And the Willenhall Local History Group that she is the secretary for and the Virtual Museum Coventry: http://www.virtualmuseum.co.uk/

She has just set up an excellent blog for the Group: http://willenhallcov.blogspot.co.uk/

This conversation took place during the events documented in: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-64-coventry

Iris is Steve's Mother: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-63-steve



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.

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GBA 66 Iris

In GBA 74 we get better acquainted with Mervyn who is still technically my Step Dad. He talks about growing up in Belfast during "The Troubles", working in factories, teaching Physics in Dubai, teaching English in China, living in a tent on a roundabout and lots more. 

This was a complicated conversation for me, for many reasons, and it moves from personal history to social and political analysis and back. A lot of ground is covered. It is also the first podcast I've recorded while drinking Guinness. 

Mervyn doesn't plugs anything, but I mention a history of Genghis Kahn that I've been listening to.

That history is made by the excellent podcaster Dan Carlin as part of his Hardcore History show:

http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive/Show-43---Wrath-of-the-Khans-I/Mongols-Genghis-Chingis

http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive/Show-44---Wrath-of-the-Khans-II/Mongols-Genghis-Chingis

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.

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GBA 74 Mervyn

In GBA 77 we get better acquainted with... Dave. In this special edition of GBA guest host Zoe talks to the man writing this blurb about "The Coventry Years".

Prompted by the way that I've hinted at and touched on this time in my life previously in the series but have never fully covered it, I decided to invite one of my closest friends along to host a conversation about it.

In this frank and candid conversation I talk about what I've learnt from looking back at those years and some of the "work" I've done on myself as a result. This work is very much connected to, and prompted by, the GBA Project.

"The Coventry Years" refers to the time I spent between the ages of 8 and 13 in a house in Coventry which had very thin walls. Some of the main things we cover is the impact of the domestic implosion that happened to my family in that house; how it influenced my character, my future and my burgeoning adolescent sexuality.

Thanks so much to Zoe for doing such a brilliant job at witnessing and responding to all this. I couldn't have asked for a better foil! I think she genuinely got better acquainted with me in the process, which was a surprise as we’re pretty open with each other and are long time close friends.



I Plug:

Considering this quote from the Bright Eyes song Bowl of Oranges in relation to yourself as well as in the context of relationships: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUym7n7fJTQ

"And we'll keep working on the problem we know we'll never solve 
Of Love's uneven remainders, our lives are fractions of a whole.
But if the world could remain within a frame like a painting on a wall.
Then I think we would see the beauty.
Then we would stand staring in awe at our still lives posed like a bowl of oranges,
like a story told by the fault lines and the soil."

And talking to your parents about their lives, even if they aren't easy for you to talk to. Which is the major theme of this GBA Special:http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-53-to-the-heart-of-it



Also mentioned:

The full Christmas Story and the Inventing Masturbation story are featured in Episode 1 of the Show: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-1-dave

The Cardiff years, and specifically my experiences being bullied in school are covered fully in the Cardiff Special: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-17-cardiff

Other parts of my life in Coventry, including Steve's valiant defence of the City, and the intro which I talk about cutting stuff out of, and some hints at the material in this episode, are covered in the Coventry Special: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-64-coventry

The GBA with my Step Dad that also touches on the events and themes from this episode is here: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-74-mervyn

There have been two GBA conversations that I did with my mum released. The one we talk about most in the episode won't be aired for quite some time. But when it is it will join the first two in this playlist: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/the-mum-episodes-1/

The set up in North Wales is explored fully in this GBA Extra: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-extra-the-partition

Zoe has a GBA all of her own, it is a good one: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-22-zoe

Spark London where the intro was recorded and which has also been very influential on where I find myself currently both personally and creatively can be found here: http://www.sparklondon.com/



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 http://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?

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GBA 77 The Coventry Years

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