Whyte
In our Bridging the Gaps podcast series, the hosts, Seán O’Conláin and Caroline Whyte, explore a range of topics with guests from a wide variety of backgrounds. As with our previous series in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020, and our 2019 podcast series Beyond the Obvious, it is co-organised by Feasta and the European Health Futures Forum (EHFF). Please feel free to comment below.
Special thanks to Laoise Kelly who gave us permission to use her harp music. The piece is ‘Waltzing Daisy’ from her album ‘Just Harp’. You can find our more about Laoise’s music here.
Thanks also to Leontien Friel Darrell (@LFDDesigns) for designing our podcast logo.
Podcasts are listed below from the newest to the oldest.
Podcast 7: Rethinking Marketing
Oct 7 2024
Doctor Sarah Browne from TCD Business School explains why she moved away from a traditional, mainstream approach to teaching marketing, which included such subjects as micro-targeting and brand equity. Instead, Sarah and colleagues, both in the Business School and elsewhere, are now taking much a more critical stance which questions the prioritisation of demand generation, growth at all costs, and the targeting of vulnerable consumers. They are exploring ways to harness the power of communications expertise in order to help bring about greater awareness of the need to achieve a wellbeing economy, and ways in which economic transformation could take place.
Sarah gave her impressions of the Rethinking Growth conference in June 2024, in particular the sessions on the role of academics in rethinking growth, and the conversation session with Minister Paschal Donohoe. She spoke about the compelling and frightening narrative that assumes that zero or negative economic growth must always equal austerity and regression, and how this needs to be addressed with powerful, positive counter-narratives. Topics covered in the discussion also included the need to push back against corporate capture of academic research and find alternative funding sources, and the need to fill gaps in empirical research on post-growth and degrowth policy.
Featured image on the home page by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash
Podcast 5: Care and the Wellbeing Economy
August 1 2024
David Somekh and Caroline Whyte spoke with Dr Mark Garavan, who is a senior lecturer in Social Care at the Atlantic Technological University and the author of the recently-published book ‘Care’. Topics discussed include the double-edged role of technology; the power of dominant narratives – including those concerning inequality and economic growth; modernity’s quest to eliminate all suffering; and the adaptability of human beings.
Featured image on the home page by gundolf on Freeimages.com.
Podcast 4: Avoiding polarisation
July 18 2024
In this podcast Seán Ó Conláin spoke with Philip McDonagh. Philip is the author of several poetry collections and the Director of the Centre for Religion, Human Values, and International Relations at Dublin City University. A former diplomat, he was involved the Good Friday Agreement peace process in Northern Ireland, and he served as ambassador to India, the Holy See, Russia and Finland.
The topics that Philip and Seán discussed included:
– the truth expressed by poetry
– links between Classical thinking on community, indigenous group governance and the role of the commons
– the need for awareness of history, politics and language in spiritual disciples
– attitudes towards private property and the role of money in the economy
– the view expressed by many (including Minister Donohoe at the recent Rethinking Growth conference) that endless economic growth is necessary to human wellbeing
– the skill involved in working on visions of reality
– past examples of visionary thinking during dark times that bore tangible fruit
Featured image on the homepage by Jr Korpa on Unsplash.
Podcast 3: Bridging the gaps between traditional and conventional medicine
May 31 2024
David Somekh and Caroline Whyte speak with Takis Kotos, the founder of the Cambridge Medical Academy, about his work on integrating conventional and traditional medicine, including research on herbs, while also making use of new technologies to help ensure that patient care is personalised as possible.
Podcast 2: Achieving a Just Fossil-Fuel Phase-Out
May 28 2024
In this podcast, Seán Ó Conláin and Caroline Whyte spoke with Harjeet Singh. Harjeet is the Global Engagement Director at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative (FFNPT). He is currently also a member of the United Nations’ Technical Expert Group on Comprehensive Risk Management.
Topics covered in our interview included the history of the FFNPT initiative and its current status. We discussed the limitations of the UNFCCC COP process for climate negotiations and the need for a complementary global fossil fuel phase-out framework, and to ensure that those who are most responsible for the climate crisis are obliged to respect this framework. We identified important alignment between the Treaty initiative and the “Cap and Share” fossil-fuel-phase-out campaign that Feasta is working on with a group of partners, and we discussed possible next steps for the Treaty initiative.
Featured image on the slideshow link: https://unsplash.com/photos/white-and-yellow-plastic-pack-H9c9HuYfbbc
Podcast 1: Reports from the COP28 frontline
January 31 2024
Caroline Whyte interviews four of Feasta’s delegates to the COP28 climate summit which took place in Dubai, in November 2023: Hania Imran (Pakistan), Angel Smith (USA), Theresa O’Donohoe (Ireland) and Barbara McCarthy (Ireland). Topics discussed include:
– the influence of civil society on COP negotiations
– the potential for ‘side-treaties’ that develop alongside the UNFCCC process
– the shadow cast at the COP28 by war and militarisation
– the under-representation of delegates from war zones and Small Island States
– the dangerous power of corporate lobbyists
– the Loss and Damage Fund: pluses and minuses
– the manipulation of the negotiation process by some to suppress certain voices
– the complexity of organising protests during COPs
– the important work being done by Climate Action Network International
– and whether it’s better to attend or to boycott COPs
You can also read written reports from all of our COP28 delegates here.
Featured image source on the homepage: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artificial_Archipelagos,_Dubai,_United_Arab_Emirates_ISS022-E-024940_lrg.jpg
