Filed under: Radio | Tags: Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Alcoholism, Amateur Boxing, Ardoyne, Ballylongford, Belfast, Boston, Boxing, Catholics, Chiltenham, Class, Cystic Fibrosis, Drinking, Ireland, Larne, London, Marlon Brando, Martial arts, Michael Mason Saunderson, Northern Ireland, Protestants, RADA, Smoking, Tattooes, Travellers, Ultimate Fighting Championship
Michael
Michael Mason Saunderson started boxing at 11 with a tube in his stomach, thanks to his cystic fibrosis. He abandoned it around 17, when he was drinking heavily, getting tattoos and eating poorly. But now, at 21, he’s an amateur boxer in Belfast once again, living cleanly, and foraging careers in television and theater.
In today’s episode, Michael takes on an onslaught of questions. Does he expect to have a career in boxing? How is it to be from a Protestant background, fighting in a predominantly Catholic club? When he walks down the street, does he size up every passing man for whether he can take him? What’s his personality in the ring? And, if he’s so intent on never returning to a hospital, why does he fight?
Filed under: Radio-Video | Tags: Belfast, Belfast City Hall, Body-building, Donegal, Hunger Strikes, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Republicanism, The Troubles, UK Strongest Man, Weightlifiting
Filed under: Radio | Tags: Belfast, Bombs, Cliftonville Road, Falls Road, Ireland, Jordanstown, London, Marks and Spencer, Nervys Young, North Belfast, Northern Ireland, Northern Irish Accent, PSNI, Queen's University Belfast, RUC, Sectarianism, Shankill Road, University of Ulster
Belfast past midnight
Thriteen years ago, Nervys Young came from a village outside of London to Northern Ireland. She intended to stay for a three year degree program and has not left since. Ned talks about how totally naive she was when she first moved here, whether she’s ever considered herself a local, how people react to her accent, and why she hasn’t run for the hills yet.
Filed under: Radio | Tags: Ancient Order of the Hibernians, Belfast, Bikers, Hitchhiking, Ireland, Irish-Americans, Kornel Andrys, Mt. Lebanon, Normandy, Northern Ireland, Pittsburgh, Poland, Service Stations, Smoking, The Celtic Cross, Tom Macic, Truck Drivers
Kornel in Normandy
This summer Kornel Andrys quit his job as an architect in Belfast and hitchhiked back home to Poland. In today’s episode, he recounts his journey: how he found truck drivers to take him, which countries were best and worst for hitchhiking, how he stayed hygienic, and whether he’d ever trade office work for life on the road.
In the second half of the show, Tom Macic, the owner of The Celtic Cross, in the South Hills of talks about his Irish shop. He sells all kinds of Irish clothing, sweets, music, and miscellany to Pittsburghers and Irish and British expats. Tom explains what sells, what tea makes American tea taste like boiled popsicle sticks, and what the Irish American scene in Pittsburgh looks like.
Filed under: Radio-Video | Tags: Belfast, Cafes, Catholic Chruch, City Planning, Cork, Drinking, Dublin, Gaelic, Galway, IRA, Ireland, Loyalits, Nationalist Pubs, Northern Ireland, Northern Irish Accent, Republicans, Sandy Row, Shankill Road, The Troubles
Filed under: Radio-Video | Tags: Acting, Adventures, Age, Ambition, Architecture, Artists, Australia, Being Fine, Belfast, Car Parks, Catoan, Change, Characters, Children's Books, Cities, Comedy, Comic Books, Comic Strips, Communication, Conservativism, Construction Work, Credit Cards, Damien Dempsey, Damien Rice, Digital Technology, Directors, Documentaries, Dr Seuss, Duke Special, East Belfast, Education, Ethnic Minorities, Failure, Family, Feature Films, Film, Filmmakers, Gigs, Graphic Novels, Guitar, I Wanted to Talk to You Last Night, Identity, Immigration, Indie Films, Intimacy, Ireland, Irish-Americans, Jared Longlands, Jobs, Joyful Subjects, Julia Atkinson, Jumping Fish, Land, London, Magic Rats, Michael MacBroom, Mischief, Models, Money, Music, New York, Northern Ireland, Northern Irish Accent, Nutsy The Office Squirrel, Office Work, Paddy McKeown, Parties, Paul McParland, People Who Sit in Rooms and Talk, Philosophy, Photography, Poland, Polish Architects, Presents, Property Development, Protestants, QFT, Record Contracts, Religion, Rent, Risk-taking, Screenplays, Selling Out, Serious Literature, Sinead O'Connor, Singer Songwriters, Skeleton Boss, Skill, Space, Squirrels, Subcultures, The Empire, Thespians, Titanic Quarter, Travel, Urban Alienation, Vulgarity, Work, Writing, Young People
Jared Longlands (for more: smartturkey@hotmail.com)
Julia Atkinson
Paddy McKeown (for more: http://www.myspace.com/patrickmckeown)
Michael MacBroom
Filed under: Radio-Video | Tags: Belfast, Communism, Diaspora, Ireland, Loyalism, Northern Ireland, Patrick Pierce, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Republicans, Students, Tony Novosel, Unionism, University of Pittsburgh
More from Tony: http://anotherworldradio.com/2007/11/20/episode-1-tony-novosel-miroslav-budinski/
Filed under: Radio, Radio-Video | Tags: Activism, American optimism, Androids, Aristotle, Atheism, Belfast, Britain, Christianity, Conservatives, Creationism, Cults, David Cameron, Debauchery, Democracy, Denmark, Depression, Economists, Education, Egoism, Environmentalism, Epicurius, Eudaimonism, Family, General Well-Being, God, Graeme Watson, Gratitude, Happiness, Hatred of Motherly Virtues, Hedonists, Hippie Lovefest, Humanism, Ibiza, Introversion, Ireland, L. Ron Hubbard, Libertarian Socialism, Lord Richard Laird, Low-grade hedonism, Marriage, Mental Health, Middle Class Lefty Guardian Readers, Narcissism, New age, New Economics Foundation, Northern Ireland, Nutrition, Patriarchy, Pessimism, Philosophy, Physical Education Teachers, Pleasure, Political Theory, Politics, Post-Humans, Prospect Magazine, Public Policy, Queen's University Belfast, Rationalists, Richard Dawkins, Scientology, Secular Society, Social Justice, Social Science, Social Virtues, Socialism, Souls, Sweden, The Enlightenment, Theory of The Good, Tony Blair, Tories, Tragedy, Twee, UK, USA, Utopia, Voting Behavior, Welfare, Well-being, Workplace Democracy
Graeme's Chosen Image of Happiness: Picasso's Joie de Vivre
Episode 27 has Graeme Watson talking about the philosophy of happiness and the politics of well-being. He’s finishing his PhD in political theory at Queen’s, examining different approaches to achieving happiness and how politicians (especially those in the UK) have brought the notion from twee to power.
Graeme discusses the ascendancy of the notion ‘Well-Being’ into a watchword of Tony Blair’s New Labor and David Cameron’s New Tories, as well as predictions that it will be one of the ‘Big Ideas of the 21st Century’. He explains how the personal is being made political and how the consumer industry of happiness is feeding into a new kind of politics — attracting Middle Class Lefty Guardian Readers, among others.
Plus, Graeme offers some visions of our coming post-human future, his low-grade hedonism, some secrets to happiness, and his planned cult.
Filed under: Radio | Tags: Afghanistan, Belfast, Christmas, Democratization, EU, Humanitarianism, Ireland, Islam, Kidnapping, Michael Semple, Middle East, Pakistan, Politics, Reconciliation, Taliban, Tea, Terrorism, UN
Back briefly in Belfast, Michael Semple speaks about his experiences in Afghanistan, including those which recently put him in the headlines. Semple was expelled from the country on Christmas last year, after the Afghan President alleged that he engaged in unauthorized activity in the country. He works for the EU’s Special Representative in Afghanistan, focusing on reconciliation and democratization processes in the country. Semple speaks about his past decades of work in Afghanistan, the expulsion, and the notoriety that came with it.
