Hello :)

In a recent podcast episode, I talked about aesthetics a lot, and I occasionally touched on the idea of 'senses'. I figured it made sense therefore to do a full podcast on it, on how you, I, everyone uses their senses while travelling, and whether our senses affect how we travel, and the experiences we gain through them. Consider, too, how our memories of a place, of a trip, live in the senses, and we can easily be reminded of them if the same senses are activated in the same way after the event.

So here's an episode on how senses affect us while travelling, and how we use them to experience our trips.

Topics discussed in this episode are:
Parts One and Two: Housekeeping and Introduction

Part Three: Sight and Vision
* Travel is very visual
* What makes a good 'sight'
* Photography
* Being Blind (Part One)

Part Four: Sound and Hearing
* Loud v Quiet sleep spots
* Changes in sound intensity - eg cathedrals in busy cites
* Is what you hear what you'd expect to hear
* The difference in sounds between home and abroad
* Diversity

Part Five: Smell
* People don't think about smell until it hits them
* Spices and food
* Out of place aromas
* Underground railways
* Personal hygiene and busy hostel dorms

Part Six: Taste
* The cultural aspects of food
* Coffee
* Cuisines around the world
* People have different tastes
* The textures of food

Part Seven: Touch and Texture
* The feel of buildings and trees
* Things you touch in everyday living
* Home décor
* The weather
* Being Blind (Part Two)
* Barefoot Backpacking

Part Eight: Proprioception, Movement, and Spatial Awareness
* The sense of balance
* Travel-sickness
* Ways to walk through a city
* Getting lost
* Alcohol

Part Nine: Timing
* Judging how long a journey will take
* Being angsty if you don't know when or where you are
* Liminal spaces
* Jet-lag
* Relativistic effects of busy days
* Being driven blindfolded

Part Ten: Conclusion

A PDF transcript of this podcast is available.

As always, if you have anything to say about the topics, or indeed about my podcasting in general, leave a comment or let me know. I also have a Patreon - if you like what you hear, and want to access exclusive content (or just to show your appreciation), then head on over.

There are no contributions in this pod, but V provides the introduction. Singing, no less. Sort of!

Until next time, bye for now. :)

Hello :)

So this podcast is mostly concerned with my recent introduction to, and experience of, stand-up comedy, and includes the audio recording of my actual performance.

Topics discussed in this episode are:
Part One: Overview and an Interview with V
* Who came to watch me perform
* The difference between spoken word and stand-up comedy
* The difference between practice and performing live
* What the comedy course consisted of
* Comedian etiquette and callbacks
* Practice makes perfect
* The other performers
* How I was on stage
* The Future

Part Two: My routine
* What is asexuality
* That bloody flag
* Why is an asexual on a gay hookup site?
* Hookup profiles
* Some people find Matt Hancock sexy

Part Three: Queer Diary
* People knew who I was before I did
* Is it better to have loved and lost than to be lonely?
* I have no idea how to flirt Part One
* Teenage Emos
* I have no idea how to flirt Part Two
* My mother never understood me
* I have always been asexual

A PDF transcript of this podcast is available.

As always, if you have anything to say about the topics, or indeed about my podcasting in general, leave a comment or let me know. I have a newsletter with extra content, and where I'll be mentioning future podcast episodes if you want to make your own contribution.

I also have a Patreon - if you like what you hear, and want to access exclusive content (or just to show your appreciation), then head on over.

There are no contributions, aside from my friend V at the start of the pod, because she's still my default option. Here she's quoting a line from 80s pop band Fatal Charm's song "King of Comedy", which might refer to the film of the same name. It's hard to tell.

Until next time, bye for now. :)

Hello :)

Another really obvious podcast episode, and one I'm surprised I hadn't yet done, though it did, of course, require finally reading the novel. I live about 6 miles south of Wuthering Heights, over the wily, windy moors, and the recent movie adaptation, the thousandth of many, has brought it all back into the public eye, so it made sense to talk about the moorland setting, the location and inspiration for the houses, and why it's not the romantic location (or indeed storyline) that certain elements of pop-culture have made it sound.

Topics discussed in this episode are:
Parts One and Two: Housekeeping and a brief plotline to the novel 'Wuthering Heights'
* What Stand-Up Comedy might lead me to
* My 'A'-Level History course
* Heathcliff/Catherine/Hindley are not nice people
* Who is Heathcliff anyway
* Revenge is a dish best served with an awful lot of money
* Everyone dies of exposure
* Same story, same names, different generation
* Memes

Part Three: Out on the wily, windy moors
* Bleak, muddy, grey, damp, and needs walking boots
* What is a moor anyway
* Saddleworth Moor, a place of death
* Midgley Moor, a place of death
* "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at", a place of ... you get the idea

Part Four: Where is Wuthering Heights anyway?
* Top Withens is not it
* Ponden Hall might be it
* High Sunderland Hall might have been it
* Shibden Hall could be Thurcross Grange
* Ponden Kirk is definitely in the novel

A PDF transcript of this podcast is available.

As always, if you have anything to say about the topics, or indeed about my podcasting in general, leave a comment or let me know. I have a newsletter with extra content, and where I'll be mentioning future podcast episodes if you want to make your own contribution.

I also have a Patreon - if you like what you hear, and want to access exclusive content (or just to show your appreciation), then head on over.

There are no contributions, aside from my friend V at the start of the pod doing what V does best, which is helping me out with last-minute short contributions!

Until next time, bye for now. :)