Chat – Rob Watson Media

Distraction Therapy 081 – Driving Around or Living a Meaningful Life

3 March 2023 Rob Watson 0

https://robwatsonmedia.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Disstraction-Therapy-081-2023-02-03-Mixdown.mp3?_=2

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Android | TuneIn | RSS | MoreRyan and I got together at the recently extended Phoenix Cinema and Digital Arts Centre in Leicester, for a chat about what makes for a meaningful life. Ryan shared his experience of getting a car and […]

Distraction Therapy – What is a Meaningful Life?

23 February 2023 Rob Watson 0

Occasionally as we journey through life we reach a fork in the road presenting us with a choice. Do we go one way along the well-worn path, or do we head along the lesser-known route and see what we can discover? I feel I have reached one of those points of choice. I can either […]

Dying Myths of British Exceptionalism

20 January 2023 Rob Watson 0

“Government is a shared myth. When the myth dies the government dies” Leto II, God Emperor of Dune, Frank Herbert We live according to the myths and stories that we tell ourselves. During my lifetime, the dominant myth has been that the free market will solve all our problems, and that individualistic market economics will […]

Is the UK a Massive Ponzi Scheme? What Madoff Teaches Us

8 January 2023 Rob Watson 0

The Netflix series Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street is an excruciating examination of greed, hubris, denial and corruption on a grand scale. Joe Berlinger’s enthralling account of Bernie Madoff’s rise to power, and his spectacular fall that left a trail of destruction around the world, demonstrates how warped and broken speculative finance is. When […]

Brutal Birmingham?

21 December 2022 Rob Watson 0

Despite the much-needed redevelopment of Birmingham city centre, I still find visiting to be a brutal experience. I’m uncertain if it is the sheer volume of people crammed into a relatively small area, or if it is the design of the city which prioritised cars and industry rather than people. I can only relate my […]

Bordeaux – Civil City

28 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

I’ve just had a couple of very pleasant days in Bordeaux. The French city on the River Garonne is defined by its passion for wine, food and a cuisine-based culture that draws on the traditions established and prized in the region of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine. With many cafés and restaurants supporting locally grown and created produce, […]

A Rainy Day In Manchester

25 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

I’ve not been to Manchester for a few years, so I was intrigued to find out how much has changed since I last visited. I’m visiting overnight with my sister. The first obvious thing to notice is there has been a flurry of building that has changed the skyline, and there seems to be lots […]

Emergent Communities

22 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

I was reflecting the other evening on the journey I’ve been on, and which I can now say encompasses the better part of my life experiences. Given that I’m well into my middle-age, I’m both liberated from the pressure to find my place in the world, and pleased that I can start to apply some […]

Leicester Space Centre – Shock or Inspire?

16 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

Yesterday I visited the Leicester Space Centre for the first time. The outing was arranged as part of the Y-Heritage project, where a group of young people get to visit different arts and heritage places. Despite heavy rain for most of the day, it was good to be out and about. We started in the […]

Protest or Noise Pollution?

12 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

It’s my dream to live in a noise pollution-free neighbourhood. I’d like to be able to walk about without having my thoughts or conversations drowned out by traffic noise or extra-loud music spilling out from bars and cafés. It’s the reason I always wear noise-cancelling headphones when I’m wandering in a city. Unless there is […]

How Bad is Terrestrial Television?

8 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

After a couple of days visiting Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil, and staying is a room at the Railway Inn in Llandaf, wich was very nice, I can confirm that terrestrial television in the UK is awful! How does anyone watch this stuff? It was raining last night, so rather than going out, I decided to […]

Why I Never Learnt to Drive

7 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

I’ve never learnt to drive. The reason I’ve never wanted to learn to drive a car is because I’m not happy with the experience of overseeing a metal box on wheels travelling at thirty mile an hour. I realise that lots of people do like driving, and by extension the culture that goes with cars, […]

Unpicking the British Cult of Narcissism

2 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

It is a truism in politics that the people get the leaders they deserve. This must mean that the British people – well, the English at most – are a bunch of delusional narcissists who have no idea that their inflated egos do not accord with the reality of their circumstances! Watching the political scene […]

Schopenhauer – The Wisdom of Life

1 November 2022 Rob Watson 0

I picked up a copy of Schopenhauer’s The Wisdom of Life, in which he outlines a number of principles for recognising and understanding how we can live a well-adjusted life. Contrary to the postmodern claims that we can reinvent ourselves based on a fluid sense of identity, Schopenhauer details the well-established and long-standing idea, that […]

Political Come-Downs and a News Detox

27 October 2022 Rob Watson 0

After the intensity of British politics over the last couple of weeks, today has felt like a massive come-down. I’ve been glued to Twitter, my news channels and Sky News for the last couple of weeks, as the chaos of the premiership of Liz Truss fell apart. I’ve heard other people say that they have […]