The ClearOut

In this episode, Dara goes hard at Shakespeare! Following an urge to wrap his mouth around some Elizabethan verse, he stumbled across a perfect collection of Shakespearean monologues to quench his appetite. So, with thanks to Rachel, whose curation it was, and apologies to enemies of The Bard, the greasepaint was applied, the voice warmed up, and the curtain raised!Drawing from the histories and tragedies, Dara represented spurned sons, grief-stricken widows, vengeful queens, frantic lovers, traumatised children, heartbroken mothers, dodgy politicians and more. Following his own advice, he tried to stay out of the way and let the language do the work, but it was hard not to chew just a little scenery...Pace, Amore, Libri - the source for the monologues featured in the episode: https://paceamorelibri.wordpress.com/2021/03/19/favorite-shakespeare-monologues/Website: https://theclearout.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/YouTube: The ClearOut PodcastEmail: theclearoutlive@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

In this episode, Dara quietly reflects on 200 episodes of this thing that he does and tries, for the umpteenth time, to define what the podcast is all about. After all this time on the microphone, it's funny and fitting that he still isn't really sure. Is it a glitch or a feature?All he knows is that he has continually tried to be honest and authentic, and appropriately transparent, about where he's been at at any given time over the course of the show. Whether the subject matter has been movies, philosophy, psychology, politics, martial arts, or simply events and dramas from his own life, he has always strived to share something relatable and real. It's how he understands wellness - it's owning the mess of imperfection!This episode is no different as Dara attempts to contextualise doing the podcast throughout one of the most personally challenging periods of his life. Is it time to call it quits? Is this the end of the road? He knows changes are coming, he just doesn't know what they look like.Thinking about his daughter and the changing landscape that her pre-adolescent world is presenting provides an opportunity for Dara to laugh at his own devolving reality.Website: https://theclearout.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/YouTube: The ClearOut PodcastEmail: theclearoutlive@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

In this episode, Dara shares his response to the compelling drama series 'Adolescence' that recently launched on Netflix. Covering the harrowing events around a 13-year-old schoolboy murdering a female schoolmate, the show is an extraordinary dramatic and technical achievement that has found itself at the heart of the dark side of the zeitgeist - namely, the changed social landscape that shapes the minds of boys and young men in insidious online spaces that are ubiquitous, ever-accessible and distressingly persuasive.Through his involvement with What Does He Need? - the long-running community arts project exploring contemporary masculinity in boys and young men, Dara feels like he has a foot very firmly in the world of 'Adolescence'. He discusses the work and his own experience with the young people he has spent time with. He also talks about performing masculinity, and how he was very clear from a young age about the type of masculinity he was not attracted to.Further to that, Dara advocates for placing love at the centre of male engagement. He remains convinced that the confident expression of love is key to building the safety, trust and vulnerability that will allow men of all ages to thrive. His vision is one of collaborative leadership rooted in caretaking - men and boys taking care of themselves, and caring for those they share this world with.Finally, Dara recommends an interview with Delroy Lindo on Marc Maron's WTF podcast as a complement to this discussion of masculinity.Celena Ribeiro article on Adolescence from Guardian Australia: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/mar/29/the-adolescence-alarm-if-theres-a-problem-with-boys-behaviour-its-because-of-usDelroy Lindo speaks to Marc Maron: https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1630-delroy-lindoWhat Does He Need? masculinity project: https://www.whatdoesheneed.com/Website: https://theclearout.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/YouTube: The ClearOut PodcastEmail: theclearoutlive@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

In this episode, Dara is recalling an early cinema experience that only succeeded at the second attempt - but it was ET, so it was totally worth the wait. At that time, all his objects of desire were heroic archetypes and it would be another few years before an actress on the big screen stopped his breath. The year ET came out, 1982, also saw the release of Robert Towne's Personal Best, which placed Mariel Hemingway as the focus of longing in the world of aspirant Olympic athletes. Former athlete Patrice Donnelly was cast as the older athlete who competes with Scott Glenn for her affections and her chemistry with Hemingway jumps off the screen.There are also palpable sparks between Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in 1951's A Place In The Sun, a nasty treatment of social climbing and complicated pasts that leaves one in no doubt about the privileged lives of beautiful people. The moral of the story? Don't presume to desire something that's not meant for you.That's one of the problems facing Marlon Brando's repressed army officer in John Huston's Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967), also featuring Elizabeth Taylor. Dara recalls seeing that peculiar and slightly kinky film when he was a teenager and being surprised not only by the messy sexual themes of the film, but also by Robert Forster's pivotal role in proceedings.Finally, why does a song from the Robert Towne-scripted Days of Thunder (1990) hold such particular resonance for Dara?Website: https://theclearout.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/YouTube: The ClearOut PodcastEmail: theclearoutlive@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

In this episode, Dara is reckoning with great creative men, two real and one fictional. The world has recently lost the bodily forms of Irish poet Pat Ingoldsby and Hollywood actor Gene Hackman, but their work remains indelibly with us. Ingoldsby was a beloved figure in Ireland whose sparkling and deceptively profound poetry arguably never received the credit it was due, although its accessibility ensured it reached legions of appreciative and dedicated readers, many of whom have expressed their grief and gratitude since he passed.Hackman was a movie icon whose performances always seemed effortlessly real and fully belonging to the world in which they appeared on screen, even when playing comic book villains or the head of a quirky New York family. The unusual circumstances of his death, and that of his wife, seemed a million miles from the litany of fierce characters he played throughout his long and varied career.Dara attempts to pay tribute to both men by sharing a couple of Ingoldsby's poems and by taking a potted journey through the highlights of Hackman's filmography.Brady Corbet's award-winning film The Brutalist, reckons with another unique talent, - the brilliant Hungarian architect Laszlo Toth and his dependency on imperfect patronage from a clumsy and spiteful benefactor. Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce excel in the respective roles in a fictional story that is many-layered and uncompromising in its depiction of artistic compulsion and torment. It is also a commentary on the migrant experience in post-WWII America and the uneasy relationship between the host nation and those it deigned to accommodate. Dara gives his verdict on a film that isn't easy to pin down.Pat Ingoldsby website - https://www.patingoldsby.org/Website: https://theclearout.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/YouTube: The ClearOut PodcastEmail: theclearoutlive@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

In this episode, Dara is looking at the value of letting others know what's important to you. How else are the people in your life meant to know what you care about? He argues that this can not only help to strengthen the relationships that matter most, but also mitigate against disappointment and unmet expectations. However, it is useful to keep those expectations fair and realistic. Resilience is something Dara frequently cites as being essential to grounded wellness and coping with life's slings and arrows. He equates it with toughness and durability, as well as being a key agent in maintaining a positive outlook. So he was intrigued to hear an extreme athlete dismiss resilience as being one step from defeat. Is that a fair indictment, or just a very different perspective?Finally, Dara has a look at the recent Oscar winners and shares his thoughts on the films and performances he has seen, including Anora, A Real Pain, Conclave, and Emilia Perez.Website: https://theclearout.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/YouTube: The ClearOut PodcastEmail: theclearoutlive@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

In this broadly care-centred episode, Dara moves from inside to out. He wonders about the sense some people have of the world owing you something and decides a more worthwhile and potentially fruitful query is to ask what you might owe yourself. He reckons care, forgiveness and love are a good place to start. But they can be particularly difficult to effectively embed in one's internal landscape.There are highly visible figures in the world who seem to not struggle at all with this dilemma. In fact, it would seem they have such high regard for themselves that it comes with a surgical shutdown of empathy or care for anyone else. Coincidentally, these figures are enormously successful and wealthy businessmen of one stripe or another who behave with an almost medieval impunity when it comes to the adverse impact of their decison-making on those far below them. Dara sees an unsavoury connection with one of the darkest figures of 19th century colonial brutality.Also, the trickiness of finding a moment's peace to stop the madness of overwhelm. How do dogs, daughters and Beethoven feature in this conundrum? Finally, why should Dara not be happy to be called charming? Ask Janet Malcolm!Website: https://theclearout.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/YouTube: The ClearOut PodcastEmail: theclearoutlive@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

In this episode, Dara is totting up the wins in his life. There aren't many, considering his age, but maybe more than enough. A cat on a wet shack roof is not one of them. Nor is revisiting 'Bridget Jones's Diary', which he did in stealth mode. But the wins he does list are pretty cool, and some are just about the most important things in his life.Reflecting on the ways in which he could be considered lucky, Dara identifies two things that seemed to just dwell inside him that are definitive proof of his theory. He realises this mode of thinking has been prompted by a recent conference he participated in on Boys in the Making - a long-term masculinity project with which he has become very involved. Just how important is it to listen to boys and men?His daughter has recently changed how she addresses Dara, and he doesn't like it. But another sign of upheaval though it is, he seeks solace in a couple of other podcasts that offer a little tonic to his troubled soul.Dara's post on the Boys in the Making conference - https://theclearout.com/reaction/caring-for-boys-caring-for-men-caring-for-myself/What Does He Need? website - https://www.whatdoesheneed.com/Website: https://theclearout.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/YouTube: The ClearOut PodcastEmail: theclearoutlive@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout