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

Politics

In GBA 132 we get better acquainted with Nina. She talks bullying, complicated childhoods, feminism(s), mental health, France, twitter and more. 

The first GBA conversation with someone who had made a spider diagram of their life for me to follow during the conversation. And the first time Nina and I had met in person. Until then our friendship had been via email and twitter. Nina first reached out to me as a listener to the show. Some of our initial correspondence was featured in the 100th episode.

https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/gba100-1

Nina plugs:

North East Feminist Gathering: http://www.nefeministgathering.com/

Blog and writing:  
http://fifty2stories.tumblr.com/

http://www.quailpipe.co.uk/

Twitter handle:

https://twitter.com/gourenina

Her podcast: https://soundcloud.com/nina-gray-1

Her radio play:
https://soundcloud.com/epilepsyaction/play-diagnose-it-yourself-nina-gray-ilkley-players

Epilepsy Action: https://www.epilepsy.org.uk/

We mention:

Martin's episode: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-67-martin-the-sound-man

Ally Fogg:

https://twitter.com/AllyFogg

http://freethoughtblogs.com/hetpat

The Push: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ThePush&src=hash

Artwiculate: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23artwiculate&src=hash

1 Million and Rising: http://www.onebillionrising.org/

Ira Glass - taste / ability: http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2010/09/how-beginners-get-better-ira-glass-explains/

Spark London: http://www.sparklondon.com/

Audre Lourde: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audre_Lorde

Laurie Penny: 

https://twitter.com/PennyRed

http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-penny




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GBA 132 Nina

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/



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GBA 4 Liz

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 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/






Help more people get better acquainted. If you like what you hear why not write an iTunes review?

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GBA 41 Chris

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



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GBA 66 Iris

In GBA 76 we get better acquainted with Liam. He talks industrial tuna fishing, what Marxism means in the modern world, hope, perception, environmentalism and smoking, while sitting in my back garden on a sunny day last year.

This episode is closer to a debating style than most episodes as we get into the what divides and what unites the red and the black, divisions in left-leaning activism and the roads that led us both to our current personal and political ideas about the world. It’s also one where I talk too much. So it goes!

Liam Plugs:

The documentaries of Adam Curtis

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/

http://adamcurtisfilms.blogspot.co.uk/

on google video: https://www.google.com/search?q=adam%20curtis&source=vgc&tbm=vid



Also mentioned:

Billy Collins - The Best Cigarette: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbRifIzMth0

Procrastination: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItMFWpKofSg

The Dispossessed: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dispossessed-Ursula-Guin/dp/1857988825 

Hugh's Fish Fight: http://www.fishfight.net/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/




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

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GBA 76 Liam

In GBA 89 we get better acquainted with Laraby. She talks about how storytelling and class have shaped her life, of her journey from poverty in the Lower East Side of New York to relative comfort in South London. 

This journey has taken her from an unstable home in the ghetto, Children’s Homes, running away at 14 to find a new life, the music industry, an Ivy League University, writing, immigration, working with young offenders, completing the citizenship test and so much more! 



Laraby Plugs:

Penny Arcade: BITCH! DYKE! FAGHAG! WHORE! at The Albany 15-23rd December 2012: http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/893/Theatre/Penny-Arcade-B!D!F!W!


Laraby's Spark Story (told on the night we met): http://www.mixcloud.com/sparklondon/tit-trauma-laraby/



Mentioned:

Spark London: http://www.sparklondon.com/

The Moth: http://themoth.org/




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 89 Laraby

In GBA 115 we get better acquainted with Alice Bell. She talks Crystal Palace dinosaurs, working in the Science Museum, knitting, academia, blogging, science communication, teenage politics, how children's non fic communicates ideas, Captain Planet, communicating on the internet, and so much more.

Alice is a science/media blogger for The Guardian, The New Left Project and also has her own blog on science communication and politics.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alice-bell

http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/authors/tag/Alice+Bell

http://alicerosebell.wordpress.com/

Alice plugs:

The Brain Train: 
https://soundcloud.com/brain-train-podcast
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/brain-train-podcast/id567550209
http://braintrainpodcast.wordpress.com/

Her twitter: https://twitter.com/alicebell

I plug:

The Stand Up Tragedy IndieGoGo campaign: www.indiegogo.com/projects/stand-u…oes-to-edinburgh

We mention:

Crystal Palace Park: http://www.crystalpalacepark.org.uk/
GBA Road Trips: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/cities/
Helen Zaltzman: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-65-helen-and-olly
http://helenzaltzman.com/
Darwin and the Dinosaurs audio trail (Crystal Palace): http://www.audiotrails.co.uk/dinosaurs/
Richard Owen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Owen
Natural History Museum: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/
The Great Exhibition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Exhibition
Victoria and Albert Museum: http://www.vam.ac.uk/
Jurassic Park: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107290/
Gideon Mantell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Mantell
Science Museum: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/
Martin Austwick:
http://martinzaltzaustwick.wordpress.com/
https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-67-martin-the-sound-man
The Story: http://thestory.org.uk/
Captain Planet Episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwUHHw7GL3A
Doctor Who: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who
Pokemon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon
Blue Peter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peter
Tiswas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiswas
Captain Underpants: http://www.scholastic.com/captainunderpants/
Horrible Science: http://www.horrible-science.co.uk/
Infinite Monkey Cage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/timc
Brian Cox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cox_(physicist)
Robin Ince: http://robinince.com/
Horrible Histories: http://horrible-histories.co.uk/
BlackAdder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackadder
Terry Deary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Deary
CND: http://www.cnduk.org/
Ken Livingston: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Livingstone
Militant Labour / Socialist Party: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Party_(England_and_Wales)
SWP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Workers_Party_(UK)
new left project - stop the war movement debate: http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_stop_the_war_coalition_the_socialist_workers_party_and_iraq
Andy Warhol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol
Emmerdale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmerdale
Call the Midwife: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_the_Midwife
https://soundcloud.com/brain-train-podcast/brain-train-8-vincent-plagnol

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?

GBA 115 Alice Bell

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