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PODCAST

The ClearOut

Welcome to the turbulence!Join Dara Clear, a domesticated Irishman who is trying to work out the best ways to cope with what life throws at him.Husband, father, actor, writer, teacher, karate instructor and sea swimmer, Dara wants to take the wuss out of wellness.Mixing storytelling, philosophy, humour, psychology, and emotional honesty as a recipe for increased wellness, positivity, and resilience.Become a Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

health & fitness mental health

All Episodes

1:16:09

Life Above and Below the Surface, or Listening to the...

The ClearOut ·

2022/04/27

In this mental health-focused episode, Dara reflects on a recent spell of bad form and speaks openly about some of the personal trickiness he has faced over the last couple of years. He talks about his marriage and his skirmishes with depression and presents an argument for being okay with a range of emotions and perceptions that are conventionally considered to be negative.He argues for perspective-shifting as a tool of detachment and re-setting. Rising out of ourselves and above our predicaments

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1:22:12

The Merits of Tolerance, or The Wisdom of the Two...

The ClearOut ·

2022/04/20

In this episode Dara is prompted by a recent homophobic hate crime in Ireland to examine tolerance in a social context. He wonders whether the moral good of tolerance is as effective as the moral good of intolerance. He asks if the dogmatisation of the good can succumb to conspiracies of silence, and looks back at Ireland when it was in the grip of Catholic authoritarianism.He shares his own beliefs about homophobia and refers to the work of English liberal philosophers John Locke and John Stuart

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1:20:25

The Four Agreements of Don Miguel Ruiz

The ClearOut ·

2022/04/13

In this episode Dara has a good look at the bestselling 1997 New Age text, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, the Mexican spiritualist and New Age thinker. The four agreements in question relate to how we speak or use language; how we receive the actions of others; the limitations of what we can know about anybody else; and the commitment to always trying to use the best of ourselves. Easier said than done, but Dara tries to examine them in a context of personal responsibility and everyday

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1:28:44

The Attraction of Protagonists: Three Singular Selves...

The ClearOut ·

2022/04/06

In this episode Dara reflects on a recent conversation he had about where and in what way the self should feature in the pursuit of happiness. One argument emphasises total immersion in self as a mode of psychic excavation and rebuilding, whereas an alternative, more Eastern approach, is a wilful eradication of self as the pathway to radical acceptance of what is. Neither is easily achieved, but the discussion is worth having.Regardless of philosophical and psychological musings on self, Dara argues

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1:21:21

The Slap That Wasn't Mine, or The Puppetry of Persona

The ClearOut ·

2022/03/30

In this episode, Dara lets the topic be led by the Will Smith slapping incident at last Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. He unpacks some of the possible lines of analysis in the current climate of identity politics and culture wars. He also looks at his own history of being slapped and breaks down the gendered implications of the open-hand slap, particularly when it is called a 'bi**h-slap', looking at how it can be used as a tool of emasculation.Dara discusses the idea of being one's own

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1:14:41

Where the Magic Happens, or Winning in the Empty Spaces

The ClearOut ·

2022/03/24

In this week's episode, Dara is set off by a tweet from a female account that first explicitly requests pictures of beautiful men - 'rides' is the term of desire used - and then disclaims accusations of objectification. Is objectification of men by women better, or less loaded, than objectification of women by men? Dara isn't sure...He reflects on the nature of attraction and thinks back to how he viewed his own body and how that played out in his early romantic relationships. He feels lucky in that

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1:25:52

Platonism and Sport, or The Impossible Pursuit of...

The ClearOut ·

2022/03/17

In this episode Dara presents his thesis that all sports fans are embroiled in a philosophical engagement with the team or sportsperson that they love. Namely, the relationship of our desire and emotional investment to a higher aspiration - the symbiotic realisation of sporting perfection. Dara argues that this desire is in essence a Platonic impulse to contemplate not only the ideal sporting moment, the physical and psychological expression of something exquisite that elevates fan and player alike,

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1:20:00

A Musician's Life - Interview with Gavin McCaffrey

The ClearOut ·

2022/03/10

It's the dawn of a new era for The Clearout as Dara hosts his first interview on the podcast.Musician and actor Gavin McCaffrey first made money in the arts as a child performer as one of Ireland's legendary Billie Barry kids, gracing stage and screen in professional appearances. Many years later he and Dara shared a dressing room together when they were cast in Shay Healy's The Wiremen, a colourful musical about Ireland's rural electrification scheme in the 1950's.Gavin talks about plying his trade

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1:18:31

Lovely Horse, Shame About the Tool on Top

The ClearOut ·

2022/03/03

In this topical episode, once he's dealt with a Hollywood actor's less than enthusiastic response to Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog, Dara gets straight into the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He discusses Putin and looks at his possible motivations for such aggression, and also considers the larger geopolitical implications of the conflict.He tries to contextualise how people in the west have responded to the conflict, and argues that the limitations of its analysis in the popular media

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1:05:55

The Cartography of a Small World, or It's Lovely to...

The ClearOut ·

2022/02/24

In this deceptively positive episode, Dara is emerging from a fortnight of disruptions and disturbances that have laid him low. Over the course of the show, he examines not only the necessary compromises and recalibrations that must accompany a successful recovery, but also the contradictions that can occur in normally reliable wellness strategies.He discusses the cartography of our inner world and argues for the strength to be gained from pursuing a deep knowledge of one's emotional and

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1:20:04

The Things We Shouldn't Stomach, or The Violent...

The ClearOut ·

2022/02/17

This week's episode is all about getting rid of the bad stuff in your life, and it starts with having a good old vomit! Having had that unpleasant experience recently, Dara decides to hang this episode's theme around the body's singularity of purpose when expelling something evil from the gut.He foregrounds the discussion with a scattergun look at poison and how it speaks to a primal dread in us. Poison is looked at in the world of reptiles, historical figures, literature, songs, and of course,

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1:18:29

Defiance and the Autonomous Self

The ClearOut ·

2022/02/10

In this episode, Dara looks at defiance as a central attitude and strategy of wellness. Understanding defiance as an expression of personal conviction allows it to be utilised in the service of personal autonomy. It can inform and be informed by one's certitude, but that certitude is best deployed with an understanding of imperfection and flexibility.Also discussed is the idea of ownership and authorship of self and narrative. Using Roland Barthes' theory of the Death of the Author, Dara asks

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1:22:07

Girls in Love, Sex on Screen, and the Female Gaze

The ClearOut ·

2022/02/03

In this episode, Dara starts off by looking at our need for light and also our desire for novelty. These ideas are both connected to how we are visual creatures and how the internet has capitalised immeasurably on this aspect of human behaviour.Celine Sciamma's brilliant film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a film very much concerned with the power of seeing, is discussed in this context, but also prompts an exploration of female sexuality, and specifically lesbian sexuality, as presented in film. In

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1:16:37

Snowflakes, Pain Storage, and the Power of Subjectivity

The ClearOut ·

2022/01/27

In this episode Dara delves into the places we carry and store our pain. He looks at how unaddressed wounds can wield a disproportionate amount of power over us and how that relates to our fear of uncomfortable places.He wonders if how different generations have evolved with access to different vocabulary and frames of reference for emotional and psychological wellbeing has shaped their resilience and toughness differently. He uses 'Snowflake' culture to refract this theory.He discusses the

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1:40:09

Scared women, Damaged Men, and the Crisis of Broken...

The ClearOut ·

2022/01/20

I want to write this week's information in the first person because I want to unequivocally own all the ideas and opinions expressed in the episode. As a response to the murder of a young Irish woman in Ireland last week, I discuss at considerable length the topic of male violence against women as an expression of broken masculinity, and I offer a defence of my experience of masculinity.I also look at the discourse that has arisen in the aftermath of the murder, and how in my opinion, in spite of

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1:21:27

Living in the Human Zone, or Liminality isn't...

The ClearOut ·

2022/01/13

In this week's episode, Dara is very much focused on zones and spaces - not physical ones, but experiential ones. He argues that we are always entering and taking our leave of different states of mind and emotion and how we behave in different spaces depends on where we are at in ourselves at any given time.He looks at how the human brain recognises different zones of behaviour and interaction and at how those zones can be made toxic and dangerous by people who betray the understood rules of

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1:10:38

Restructuring Time and the Pursuit of Evolution

The ClearOut ·

2022/01/06

In this episode of the podcast Dara has a good look at why the arrival of a new year makes us feel change is both possible and something to which we have all been conditioned. He argues that we shouldn't have to wait a whole year before we try to effect change in our lives.He discusses his own relationship with recording time through an almost lifelong diary-keeping habit - a habit that has been frustrated this January. Dara reveals his own goal for change this year and accepts that it is no small

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1:15:12

A Quiet Moment to End the Year, or The Wag of a Dog's...

The ClearOut ·

2021/12/30

In this episode Dara takes a very chilled look at the year that was, touching on some specific moments, but being more focused on the end-of-year energy that he considers to be contemplative and calming.He refers to Frank Capra's 1938 movie You Can't Take It With You and discusses some points raised by the movie that seem relevant to this moment.And Dara's tail is wagging and he would like you to know why.The episode ends with a meditation on emerging from burnout that Dara created earlier this year

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1:07:19

The Christmas Special!

The ClearOut ·

2021/12/23

This week's episode brings you a brand new Christmas story written by Dara. What happens to the little girl who runs away from her mother in a posh department store? Will she be taken away by the in-house security team? Will her mother regain her Christmas spirit? Will she accept the help of a stranger? Find out when you listen to 'Caramel'. The story can also be found in written form on theclearout.com, where Dara's other Christmas stories can also be found in both written and audio formats.This

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1:24:11

The High Stakes of Great Christmas Movies, or Why I...

The ClearOut ·

2021/12/16

It's an unmitigated movie-fest this week as Dara goes deep into his love of Christmas movies and of watching movies at this time of year. He revisits his childhood exposure to Hollywood classics and reflects on how the unlimited access to content and devices nowadays means that the home movie watching experience has lost its allure for modern children.He argues that the best Christmas movies require a genuine threat that results in the highest possible stakes for the characters we are being asked to

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229 results

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