Joining John and Andy this week are Natasha McEnroe, the Keeper of Medicine at the Science Museum in London, and novelist Lissa Evans, Backlisted's old friend and the show's Original Guest, both of whom are Betty MacDonald superfans. The Plague and I (1948) is the author's unflinching and hilarious memoir of the nine months she spent as a patient at a TB sanatorium in the Pacific North West of America. We discuss this book and the eventful life of its million-selling author (The Egg and I, Anybody Can Do Anything, Onions in the Stew), are exposed to a selection of TB-related public information films and music, and there is even a 'communicable disease in literature' quiz. Also in this episode Andy is grabbed by Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper (1943) by Donald Henderson, reputedly Raymond Chandler's favourite crime novel; while John has been enjoying Olivette Otele's recently published history African Europeans, which traces a long African European heritage via the lives of individuals both ordinary and extraordinary.

Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
08:16 - Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper by Donald Henderson
15:49 - African Europeans by Olivette Otele
20:37 - The Plague And I by Betty Macdonald

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The Plague and I by Betty MacDonald

An old guitar idea I finally turned into a full song.  Vocals and lyrics by CP Roscoe Martin.  You can find him on Bandlab.  Song and all instrumentation by me.

What's in the Bag

Indespicable

Ambient track to sit back and dream with.  Trying to evoke that feeling of travelling, exploring and seeing the world.

Going Walkabout

I wrote this for a local Videographer quite a few years ago.  A nice, gentle waltz with a cello solo.

Hopeful Nostalgia

I created this in 2019 for a friends art presentation.  It's a little ambient, a little classical and (to quote Eric B and Rakim) a journey into sound.

The Story - 2019

A song about power and privilege.

Written, performed, produced by Kar Stanton
Mixed by Joe Rodwell
Mastered by Nick Lewis
Bass, trumpet and guitar solo at the end played by Joe Rodwell

Lyrics:
If you play with fire
You're gonna get burnt

You make it so easy
how can you blame me?
For taking what's laid out right here before me
I just give them what they want
I just give them what they want
If you're coming after me
you better watch out

I am taking action
I'm the captain
And I will do whatever it takes to defend the nation
I am taking action
I'm the statesman
And I will do whatever it takes to make it right
To save our way of life

If you play with fire
You're gonna get burnt
If you play with power
You're gonna get hurt

I was born to this
I was born to this
I was born to this
I accept nothing less

Born To This

Ten years ago, bell hooks astonished readers with Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Now comes Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope - a powerful, visionary work that will enrich our teaching and our lives. Combining critical thinking about education with autobiographical narratives, hooks invites readers to extend the discourse of race, gender, class and nationality beyond the classroom into everyday situations of learning. bell hooks writes candidly about her own experiences. Teaching, she explains, can happen anywhere, any time - not just in college classrooms but in churches, in bookstores, in homes where people get together to share ideas that affect their daily lives.

In Teaching Community bell hooks seeks to theorize from the place of the positive, looking at what works. Writing about struggles to end racism and white supremacy, she makes the useful point that "No one is born a racist. Everyone makes a choice." Teaching Community tells us how we can choose to end racism and create a beloved community. hooks looks at many issues-among them, spirituality in the classroom, white people looking to end racism, and erotic relationships between professors and students. Spirit, struggle, service, love, the ideals of shared knowledge and shared learning - these values motivate progressive social change.

Teachers of vision know that democratic education can never be confined to a classroom. Teaching - so often undervalued in our society -- can be a joyous and inclusive activity. bell hooks shows the way. "When teachers teach with love, combining care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust, we are often able to enter the classroom and go straight to the heart of the matter, which is knowing what to do on any given day to create the best climate for learning."

teaching-community_5min-sample

TheSkyIsEverywhere - Demo

Leeland Chocolates - Commercial Voice Over

WHERE HOPE PREVAILS - Demo

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teaching-community_5min-sample

Post Hypnotic Press Inc.

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