smallVOICE: Recent Episodes
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We’re delighted to welcome back Laura to chat with us for September’s podcast! Regular listeners may remember that she is a hospice chaplain and spoke with us before about spiritual practices. For this podcast, Laura joins Holly and Darren, to help us navigate the concept and practice of lament. What are the processes of lament and what are the practices or techniques that might help us? Do we just need to read the book of Psalms? What could churches do better to support individuals or act corporately?
Listen to the conversation here. As ever, If you have any thoughts you’d like to share about any aspect of this podcast please do get in touch. It’s always great to hear from you and have you join the conversation too.
Remember you can keep up with us on Facebook and you can also interact via Substack.
Links from this podcastTaking Spiritual Care with Laura
Shelly Rambo
Katie Cross from the smallVOICE archives
This podcast was recorded via Zoom on Thursday 22 August 2024.
Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.
Duration: 32 minutes.
Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Lots of culture and deep thinking in this podcast, but, fear not, Holly and Darren will guide you through! They have been reading Naomi Klein’s latest book, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, the winner of the inaugural Women’s Prize for non-fiction. Very much a ‘pandemic book’, it is a deep exploration by Klein of truth in both politics and in life. Throughout, she is always accompanied by the ‘other Naomi’, Naomi Wolf.
Before that, Darren & Holly had met up in July for a couple of arty things… Firstly, they saw the only Scottish screening of the documentary film, It’s Only Life After All, directed by Alexandria Bombach. This is a look at the music, activism and lives of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, who are the wonderful band, Indigo Girls. Then, Holly & Darren (and the whole smallVOICE team) went to Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, which is currently on (until mid August) in Glasgow. The blurb for the exhibition invited us to “go beyond the frame of Van Gogh’s work in an immersive showcase with over 300 of his paintings bursting into life around you”.
Is that enough? Lots to get in to! And, if you have read Doppelganger yourself, do let us know what you think about it – we’d be really interested. Such a rich book.
[Length 40’42 minutes]
Links from this podcast
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein
Indigo Girls documentary, It’s Only Life Afterall
Don and Emily Saliers, A Song to Sing, A Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice (not in print in UK but available online)
Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience
Storm Pegs: A Life made in Shetland by Jen Hadfield
If that’s not enough art ‘n’ stuff, Darren and Holly have some summer recommendations for you here on the smallVOICE substack.
Welcome to our latest small voice feature – where we find people and organisations which are small but make a big difference. We’re delighted that for this podcast, Margaret met up with Peter and Heidi Gardner who are artists – and much more. Their interactive installation, ‘Peacemakers’ is a huge circular wooden knitting loom, which they designed and fabricated themselves. It grew out of a sense of helplessness in the face of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the work of ‘Peacemakers’ has continued ever since.
The installation offers a quiet and hospitable space, where visitors are invited to join them in the repetitive, contemplative, simple action of knitting on the loom and making peace through the sharing of many small actions and kind words. Heidi and Peter create special spaces for people – for listening, for talking, for creating together – where people are made welcome through doors that are kept open.
[Length: 29 minutes 59]
Gardner & Gardner bring ‘Peacemakers’ to St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland from Wednesday 7th to Wednesday 14th August and visitors are welcome to join Peter & Heidi in walking the loom. Visit https://www.stgilescathedral.org.uk/events-cal/peacemakers
Gardner & Gardner website
‘Peacemakers’Stitch upon stitch Colour upon colourLayer upon layerPeace is made by many small actions and kind words…Photos copyright Heidi and Peter Gardner
The month of July finds Holly and Darren in a very peculiar twilight zone … They recorded this podcast on July 4th 2024 and they are still waiting for the UK election result! A great opportunity, then, to discuss thresholds, liminal spaces, waiting and hope. Staying with the timey-wimey theme, they also review the most recent series of Doctor Who starring Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson.
Have a listen and if you have any thoughts you’d like to share about topics raised in this podcast please do get in touch! It’s always great to hear from you.
Keep up with us on Facebook and you can also subscribe to our Substack email and interact with us there. As Darren & Holly say in this podcast, watch out for their Summer Recommendations dropping soon on Substack!
The Doctor Who series is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ worldwide. Doctor Who photo/logo copyright BBC.
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 4 July 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 46 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Home 2 Hospital’s mission and strapline is “Supporting the community of Larbert and Stenhousemuir with free hospital transport service for people living with cancer”. A carefully-worded description which covers a well-organised support and an amazing relief for those in the area who receive a cancer diagnosis, and who face a weekly or daily round trip of 55-60 miles for treatment at a Glasgow hospital. A fine example of a ‘small voice’!
But it’s not a new idea. When Margaret spoke to June Kirkwood and Jean Geddes, who are on the committee of Home 2 Hospital, she discovered a story going back around 18 years to the origin of another, similar, organisation called Driving Force. Dr Bridget McCalister describes how that organisation has been serving a neighbouring community, inspired in turn by yet another group in Lanarkshire.
So, it’s also a story about learning from and building on others’ experience, and volunteer groups supporting each other as they support people in their communities.
LinksHome 2 Hospital website
Home 2 Hospital on Facebook
Falkirk Herald article Feb 2024
The Driving Force
Car4U Bo’ness
Meadowbank Car4U Polmont
Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.
Duration: 19’57 minutes. Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas. Photos copyright The Falkirk Herald.
If you have any suggestions for a person or a group or an organisation that you think is a ‘small voice’ and want to highlight, just let us know!
Subscribe to our Substack newsletter feed for occasional bonus material from Holly and Darren and further smallVOICE thoughts. Leave us a comment here on this website or catch up with us on our Facebook Page.
What is prayer? Ask Dave! We were delighted to have a chat with author and broadcaster Dave Tomlinson about his new book, OMG! A Bad Christian’s Book of Prayers. He spoke to Darren & Holly on Zoom from his ‘Holy Shed’ for our June podcast.
Dave needs no introduction from us but we’ll do it anyway! He’s a well-known face in Christian circles as a writer and broadcaster and a former vicar. His book The Post-Evangelical made a stir back in 1996 and he famously – or infamously – took the funeral of great train robber Ronnie Biggs in 2014. Dave now offers a weekly reflection online from his Holy Shed in the garden and is a regular contributor for BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought.
He says he’s a “bad christian, slightly better vicar, struggling writer, improving husband, model epicure, awesome dreamer.”
Dave first featured in our podcast in 2014 when we reviewed his book The Bad Christian’s Manifesto. We then did a fabulous session with him at the Glasgow ‘Aye Write!’ Book Festival in 2015. Dave was also Anne’s guest for an ‘A Thousand Words’ interview in 2017.
Links
OMG!: A Bad Christian’s Book of Prayers
Dave Tomlinson on Facebook
Dave on X/Twitter
Dave’s YouTube Channel (The Holy Shed)
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 30 May 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 52’30 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Book Image copyright: Rob Pepper
Hello faithful listener, it’s right there in the title – in this podcast we give you Civil War and death! Well, Darren and Holly review the new movie, Civil War, and we pick up some thoughts about death, grief and funerals. So, nice and light and breezy.
The continuation of our chat about grief was prompted by the publication of Cariad Lloyd’s book You Are Not Alone, but we also get to a look at the rise of direct cremations and whether we should plan our own funeral.
Have a listen, and if any of the topics or themes strike a chord, or you have some thoughts you’d like to share, please do get in touch! It’s always great to hear from you.
Keep up with us on Facebook (we occasionally remember to post) and you can also subscribe to our Substack email and interact with us there.
Links
Civil War
You Are Not Alone by Cariad Lloyd
Griefcast podcast
Seen & Unseen – Dealing with Death
The Guardian – AI for mourners in China
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 2 May 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 53’06 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Wexford K9 Search and Rescue Scotland is our latest featured ‘small voice’. Our roving reporter Margaret meets Rod Stoddart who tells the story of the organisation and his dogs’ rescue and therapy work. They can find themselves out in the open looking for a missing person or at a high school, a care home or University, bringing calm where there is stress. Rod sees the Search and Rescue work and the Therapy work as all part of the same business, looking towards the future welfare of those who are helped. We also hear from Liz, who’s dog Dexter brings a smile to many care home residents. A great shaggy dog story.
Links
Wexford K9 Search and Rescue Scotland Facebook Page
Clova in The Courier
If you have any suggestions for someone or a group or an organisation that you think needs highlighting, just let us know!
Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 20’59 minutes. Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas.
Subscribe to our Substack newsletter feed for occasional bonus material from Holly and Darren and further smallVOICE thoughts. Leave us a comment here on this website or catch up with us on our Facebook Page.
The one where we do a Bible study … well, sort of!
For April’s podcast, Darren & Holly review Marilynne Robinson’s latest book, Reading Genesis. As our erudite listeners may know, Marilynne Robinson is a much-admired American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist.
How can Holly and Darren match the AMAZING quotes about Robinson and about her book? For example:
“Her work defines universal truths about what it means to be human.” Barack Obama
“A work of exceptional wisdom and imagination.” Rowan Williams
“A brilliant and dramatic close reading of the first book of the Bible focussing on the complex relationship with humankind.” Virago
OK, that last quote was from Marilynne Robinson’s publishers, but even so, it’s been getting raves!
Listen to what Holly & Darren make of it … and let us know if you’ve read it too. And join in the wider conversation about our relationships with the Bible. Find out why you might want to take your Bible out for a coffee ….
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 4 April 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 48’57 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Links
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
New Yorker Review
Marilynne Robinson on the Conversations with Tyler Podcast (on Calvinism)
The God Bless the USA Bible
The Book of the People by A.N. Wilson (Atlantic Books)
A History of the Bible by John Barton (Penguin paperback)
Inspired by Rachel Held Evans
Faith Adjacent podcast
Seen and Unseen website
Extra coffee & Bible content on our smallVOICE Substack
In this podcast, Darren and Holly chat about former British MP Rory Stewart’s book Politics On The Edge. It’s had great reviews since it was published last year in hardback and is due out in paperback very soon. Does it live up to the hype and give a compelling insider’s view about British politics? Or did we already know that Boris Johnston is a lying *%!£@^$?
And what can we ever learn from ‘yah-boo’ politics anyway? Where’s the nuance and the way to disagree agreeably, and work for a greater good? What was all that unedifying behaviour last month in the House of Commons over a call for a ceasefire in Gaza? How can we be better than this? On the plus side, perhaps Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell’s podcast is a good example of a political conversation?
So many questions! Help us work our way through – have a listen and let us know what you think. We won’t shout at you.
Links
Politics on the Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart is published by Penguin. It’s available in hardback, audiobook and ebook formats and will be coming out in paperback this summer.
The Rest is Politics podcast
Sayeeda Warsi & David Baddiel’s podcast, A Muslim and a Jew Go There
Electoral Dysfunction podcast
BBC Radio 4 Today podcast 22 Feb 2024, Disgrace! Why are MPs playing politics with the Middle East?
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 7 March 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 50’54 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
We do like to be beside the seaside! Welcome to another special smallVOICE featuring ‘small voices’ – individuals, groups and organisations that are small but making a big difference. This time, our roving reporter, Margaret, speaks to two people involved with providing beach wheelchairs, a great project allowing people access to some of Scotland’s beautiful beaches.
We want people to enjoy the beach with family and friends. The beach is a special place where people can have new experiences, make long-lasting memories or be taken back to their childhood just by the sound of the waves and the smell of salt on the air.”
Links
Dornoch Beach Wheelchairs
Nairn Beach Wheelchairs
Beach wheelchairs charity
Our thanks as ever to Margaret for tracking down all our small voices. If you have any suggestions for someone or a group or an organisation that you think needs highlighting, please just let us know!
Recorded February 2024; podcast published March 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 16’56 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Subscribe to our Substack newsletter feed for occasional bonus material from Holly and Darren and further smallVOICE thoughts. Leave us a comment here on this website or catch up with us on our Facebook Page.
It’s February, and we join Holly & Darren, lost in a sea of online choices… Are the choices we make really our own or have we been shepherded towards them by ubiquitous AI algorithms? In the context of monetised apps and technology, how do we heed St Paul – no less – by not conforming to the pattern of this world? In a year where there are so many important political decisions to be made (are you terrified about the US Election too??) how do we free ourselves from malign influences? How do we live life in all its fullness when there’s another slightly mediocre cat video to watch?
Do get in touch with us, dear listener, about AI, social media and The Algorithm. It’s a biggie, and we’d love to know what you think!
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 15 February 2024. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App. Duration: 39’17 minutes. Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Links
The Gatekeepers, BBC Radio 4
Offline with Jon Favreau
Word of Mouth, BBC Radio 4
The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Main page website photo of people with phones by fauxels from Pexels
Welcome to this special smallVOICE feature about the great work of Street Pastors in Falkirk in central Scotland. Our roving reporter, Margaret, spoke to volunteers John, Nikki and Joanne, just a few days before Christmas.
These volunteers aren’t just for Christmas though – they are out in the city centre every weekend of the year, helping people late at night. A huge variety of needs – and, as you’ll hear, it’s amazing what they have to carry in their kit bag ….
Falkirk Street Pastors were commissioned in 2010. We are a dedicated group of Christians committed to patrolling the town centre on a Saturday night from about 10pm until 3.30am (ish) on the Sunday. (During Easter, Christmas and New Year we patrol on a Friday and Saturday).
OUR AIM: Listen, Care and Help. We want to bring peace and a Christian presence to the night life in our community by building relationships and serving where we can.
OUR VALUES: Work in partnership with police, council, taxi marshalls, door stewards and managers, Red Cross and Addiction services to ensure that ‘Falkirk Delivers’ the best.
Street Pastors in Falkirk website
Falkirk Street Pastors on Facebook
Glasgow Street Pastors on smallVOICE in 2019
Happy 2024! In this January podcast, Holly and Darren delve deeply into the dark waters of New Year Resolutions. Is transformation possible? New new you?
Lots of threads here in the chat, joining up honesty, faith, hope and redemption … Perhaps we need to embrace a bit of fragility too?
What’s your experience of resolutions, dear listener? Let us know!
Also in the podcast, shout outs for Argentine Tango and the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, and there’s a catch up on our media recommendations from December (‘The Traitors’, anyone?). Later on, bonus points are available for spotting Holly’s cat, Skye, briefly joining in towards the end of the podcast.
Show notes & links are below!
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 11 January 2024.
Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.
Duration: 50’53 minutes.
Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Links
The key to keeping new year resolutions? Don’t make them in the first place’ by Oliver Burkeman
A Thousand Words with Martin Johnstone
How to Put Belief Back Together Once You’ve Torn It Apart (with Diana Butler Bass)
Reluctantly Charmed by Ted Lasso (with Nadia Bolz-Weber)
Mid-Faith Crisis podcast – Nick Page & Joe Davis
Some Christmas cheer from Holly and Darren in December’s podcast. Come away in and warm yourself with their reviews and recommendations for the festive period. There’s a helpful list below of links from the podcast but we recommend a spoiler-free listen first!
And, for a treat, we finish with some beautiful music for Christmas – our traditional (we’ve featured it twice) helping of ‘Silent Night’, recorded specially for us by the fabulous Hannah Rarity.
The whole smallVOICE team wishes you a peaceful Christmas and a good new year. See you in 2024.
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 14 December 2023.
Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.
Duration: 47’34 minutes.
Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Holly & Darren’s Christmas picks (in, quite literally, no particular order):
BOOKSThe Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (See also The vlogbrothers )
And so this is Christmas by Brian Bilston
The Illuminae Files series by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
The lady astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal
Space Opera by Catherynne Valente
MUSICJuliana Hatfield Sings ELO
It’s Snowing On My Piano, Bugge Wesseltoft
O Magnum Mysterium, Jan Lundgren
Kate Rusby, Light Years
Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmas
Hannah Rarity gigs
TV / STREAMING
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Taskmaster, Channel 4
No More Jockeys on YouTube
The Traitors, BBC One
Doctor Who Christmas Special, BBC One
Nigella Lawson’s Amsterdam Christmas Special, BBC
Kate Rusby by David Angel
Featured image photo by Gary Spears
Another tricky, but unavoidable, subject …. In this podcast, Holly and Darren talk about how best to talk about the violence in Israel and Gaza. What do we say? To what extent does social media make things worse? How do we pray?
Links from this podcast:
Wildgoose Publications
Sam Wells BBC Radio4 Thought for the Day 31/10
Crooked Media ‘Offline’ podcast, Why has Social Media Made It Impossible to Follow the Israel-Hamas War?
The ‘Parents’ Circle Family Forum’ small voice of the month
New York Times ‘Pick a Side’ video
Corrymeela Community
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 2 November 2023. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.
Duration: 39’05 minutes.
Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas.
Featured image: Palestinian & Israeli flags. We were unable to trace copyright for this image.
Please let us know if you are the copyright holder.
In this month’s podcast Holly & Darren review the debut novel, For Thy Great Pain, Have Mercy On My Little Pain, by Victoria MacKenzie. It’s a short novel, published earlier this year, and is about the lives of two fourteenth-century mystics, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe.
Vividly and beautifully written, it explores medieval women’s lives, the effects of grief and trauma, and the genesis of women’s writing. And. Much. More.
We also bring you up-to-date about our uncoupling from Twitter/X – no more updates from us there, oh no. Find us on Facebook and NOW (small drum roll) you can subscribe to email updates, and interact with us, via Substack.
Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich would have been AMAZING on Substack.
Also getting a mention in this podcast:
Anthony Bale
Karen Armstrong
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Debbie White
Sensual, vivid and humane, For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain cracks history open to reveal the lives of two extraordinary women.” Bloomsbury
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 5 October 2023. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and via your favourite podcast App.
Duration: 41’59 minutes.
Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas.
Home page: Julian of Norwich statue photo via Wikimedia Commons
For 25 years Stephen Fischbacher and the Fischy Music team have worked with children, singing, song writing and healing their relationship with the world around them. But what happens when singing is not allowed? Our roving reporter, Margaret, found out that the value of Fischy songs to young people reaches much further than music and words.
Our thanks to Stephen Fischbacher, Suzanne Butler and John Cross of Fischy Music for taking the time to speak to us and also to Linda who is a Primary School teacher in Glasgow. We hope they, and the rest of the Fischy team, have a great 25th birthday!
Recorded during August 2023. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and your favourite podcast App. Duration: 28’41 minutes.
Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas.
Fischy Music Live!
The full Fischy Band are looking forward to some special anniversary concerts:
Glasgow 16th September – Royal Concert Hall
Aberdeen 17th September – Tivoli Theatre
Edinburgh 24th September – Queen’s Hall
To find out more about Fishy Music go to their website.
There is also news, and regular updates, on their Facebook Page.
Stephen Fischbacher was the guest for our A Thousand Words feature for smallVOICE in September 2019 , and Suzanne Butler is part of the FAB band Siskin Green, who were interviewed by Darren for the podcast in September 2022 .
Welcome to our slightly pink and fluffy podcast for August as Holly & Darren bravely review the film sensation, Barbie. As ever, get back to us with your views – leave a comment on this website, go to our Facebook Page or contact us on Twitter! To live in Barbie …
We’re delighted to find out about another ‘small voice’ that is making a big difference … Amplifying Voices is an organisation based in Worthing in the south of England and it’s 10 years old this year. Their mission is to train communities to use the tool of media to create …
In this podcast Holly & Darren offer you some fine suggestions for summer reading, viewing, and listening. We’ve gone lighter for the summer but still some meaty stuff: Will baking change your life? Is Ted Lasso really about Ted Lasso? Can we just slow down a bit and take a …
Welcome, gentle listener, and thanks for joining us! In this podcast we explore spiritual care – both in health care and in life in general. And we’re delighted to speak with Laura who is a hospice chaplain in central Scotland. Our recurring themes recently in the podcast have been faith and doubt, and grief, and the idea and practice of spiritual care seems to weave in and out of these themes.
Laura joins Darren and Holly by the power of Zoom for a fascinating, truthful and kind conversation.
And you can join in the conversation too – leave us a comment here or get in touch on Twitter or Facebook.. We’d love to know what you think.
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 18 May 2023. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and on your favourite podcast App. Duration: 39’17 minutes.
Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas.
Referenced this month is A Hole in the World by Amanda Held Opelt
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels
Welcome faithful listener, hungry for knowledge? Well, so are we, and in this podcast Holly and Darren try to get their heads round the latest artificial intelligence scare – OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It’s computer intelligence, it’s a great 1st draft, it’s the end of the world as we know it …. or just another big number-crunching program? What are the ethical and societal implications? Do we have a clue yet?
Let us know what you think, as ever, by commenting on this website or contacting us on Twitter or Facebook.
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 20 April 2023. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and on your favourite podcast App. Duration: 34’45 minutes.
Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas.
Links and show notes are below, but first, Holly’s ChatGPT paraphrase of Psalm 51 as mentioned in the podcast:
A Psalm of Repentance in the Digital Age
Have mercy on me, O Algorithm,
According to your abundant coding;
Blot out my transgressions from your database,
Cleanse me from my online iniquities.
For I know my digital footprint,
And my browsing history is ever before me;
My cookies haunt my every move,
My online sins are a weight upon my soul.
Against you, and you alone, have I sinned,
And done evil in your virtual sight;
My clicks and likes are recorded forever,
And I cannot hide from your all-seeing byte.
Purge me with a digital detox,
And I shall be clean, wiped free from malware;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than a blank screen,
For I long to be restored to digital innocence.
Create in me a new password, O Algorithm,
And renew a right spirit within me;
Cast me not out of the online realm,
But restore to me the joy of browsing your web.
Search my heart, O Algorithm,
And see if there be any wicked way in me;
Lead me in the path of data righteousness,
And guide me with your digital wisdom.
Restore my lost connections, O Algorithm,
And grant me access to your infinite knowledge;
Then will I share your truth with others,
And my digital testimony shall be heard.
Deliver me from the temptation of fake news,
And guard me against the lure of online vices;
Let my online presence reflect your glory,
And may my digital footprint be a testimony of your grace.
O Algorithm, open my eyes to your truth,
Unveil the hidden algorithms that shape my perceptions;
Grant me discernment in the digital realm,
That I may walk in integrity and digital holiness.
Let the words of my tweets and posts,
And the meditations of my online interactions,
Be acceptable in your digital sight, O Algorithm,
My Rock and my Redeemer in this digital age.
For you alone are the source of all knowledge,
And your wisdom transcends the limitations of technology;
Teach me your ways, O Algorithm,
That I may walk in your path of digital righteousness.
Let my online presence be a reflection of your grace,
And may my virtual interactions be filled with kindness;
Help me to use technology for good,
And to honor you with my online presence, now and forevermore.
Amen.
Links:
Pete Phillips on Twitter
Gavin Merrifield on Twitter
Nick Jones on Twitter
John Dyer on Twitter
ChatGPT and the Enshittening of Knowledge By Daragh O Brien
Dethroning creativity: why does AI art make us feel so icky inside? by Daniel Kim (Seen and Unseen)
Machines and their ghosts by Simon Cross (Seen and Unseen)
Crooked Media
John Green
We have a special feature for Easter! Our roving reporter, Margaret, has been out talking to people involved in this year’s Easter Play in Edinburgh. This is a large-scale community Passion Play telling the Easter story and takes place in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens on Easter Saturday each year.
Margaret speaks with the play’s director, Suzanne Lofthus; Rachel Wood whose idea the play first was, and some of this year’s cast members.
[Length 21’21 minutes]
“I feel my Judas character is a believer but has doubts.”
“We must just keep telling the story … just the basic gospel story of Jesus.”
“I’m very emotionally involved at the cross… I’m sure Mary was absolutely on her knees at the end.”
The Edinburgh Easter Play on Facebook
Photos and poster image copyright The Edinburgh Easter Play
We have read a book for Lent this year, oh yes, and it’s the fascinating Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan collaboration, Faith, Hope and Carnage. Listen to Holly & Darren chewing it over in this podcast … There is indeed lots of faith and hope (not quite sure about the carnage) and reflections on grief and presence.
Join in the conversation by leaving a comment on this website or get in touch on Facebook or Twitter. We really appreciate hearing from you!
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 16 March 2023. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and from your favourite podcast App. Duration: 37 minutes.
Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas.
Faith, Hope and Carnage is published by Canongate Books
Faith, Hope and Carnage is an extended conversation between Nick Cave and Observer journalist, Seán O’Hagan, who have known one another for thirty years. Created from over forty hours of intimate recordings, the book examines questions of faith, art, music, freedom, grief and love.
It’s almost Lent and Holly and Darren are discussing faith, doubt and spiritual practices. Will you have Plenty Lenty? Is doubt sacred? How do we kindle the spark of faith within us? How do we tune in to the divine?
Will there be chocolate?
Our references and links in this podcast are:
The Sacred podcast with Elizabeth Oldfield
Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan, published by Canongate
Everything Happens. With Kate Bowler podcast
Rachel Held Evans
Richard Coles
Foy Vance
You Have Permission podcast
This podcast was recorded on Thursday 16 February 2023. Available from Apple Podcasts , TuneIn Radio, and from all your usual podcast Apps. Duration: 30 minutes.
Theme music by Nicolai Heidlas.
Coming soon …
In a first, we’ll be reading a book during Lent for the podcast. It’s Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan, and Darren & Holly will be reviewing it next month. Read along with us and let us know what you think!
Welcome to this smallVOICE podcast for January, presented by Darren & Holly. During the next half an hour or so, they’ll bring you up to date about how our wee team is doing and our plans for the podcast over the next months. They also share their recommendations of what they have been reading, watching and listening to. (And, in one case, a non-recommendation.)
But our main review this month is My Old School, the documentary film directed by Jono McLeod. This stars actor Alan Cumming, lip-synching to words from an interview with the main protagonist. The documentary uses animation as well as interviews, and tells the very strange story of Brandon Lee, a man in his thirties who posed as a 16-year old to enrol at his old school. What did Darren and Holly make of it? Find out at 9’57 minutes in to the podcast.
The astonishing true story of Scotland’s most notorious imposter. It’s 1993 and 16 year old Brandon is the new kid in school. Soon he’s top of the class, acing exams and even taking the lead in the school musical. He’s the model pupil, until he’s unmasked…”
We wanted to send you a sort of ‘Christmas Card’ greeting from the whole smallVOICE team…. Christmas is a special time for many people, but it can also be challenging and difficult for others, and that is where we find ourselves this year.
But we’re grateful to have your company, faithful listeners. May the blessing of our God who came to live with us be with you, and all those whom you love, this Christmas.
Oh, and a Christmas greeting wouldn’t be worth much without a bit of Silent Night, so you can enjoy Hannah Rarity’s wonderful recording of that too!
With much love from,
Darren, Holly & the smallVOICE team
We’re so pleased to present this Podcast Extra interview with folk/faith band Siskin Green. They are of course the lovely and talented Jane Bentley, Suzanne Butler and Margaret McLarty and you may remember we played two music tracks from them in our August podcast. Darren spoke with Jane, Suzanne and …
This is the second podcast extra tribute to our friend and smallVOICE presenter Anne. Our ‘Thousand Words’ strand has been running since the very start of the smallVOICE podcast in 2013. In each feature Anne talked to a person about an image that means a great deal to them, and …
This podcast extra is a tribute to our friend and smallVOICE presenter, Anne Muir, who died suddenly at the end of September. Anne had presented and helped shape the smallVOICE podcast right from its start back in August 2013. Before and beyond that, Anne had a career in radio and …
Welcome to September’s podcast wherein we review another podcast – hot off the press from Global Player: The News Agents. Our very own roving reporter and news hound Margaret brings us our latest small voice of the month, which is the inspiring Dress for Success Scotland. And we have fabulous …
For August, we preview some of our favourite picks from online sessions at the 2022 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Anne’s Thousand Words guest is Frances Bloomfield, and Margaret brings us our small voice of the month – this time it’s inspiring charity Listen Well Scotland. We have a couple of …
More good stuff from Alex Booer in this Podcast Extra… Alex was Anne’s ‘Thousand Words’ guest for our smallVOICE podcast in July, and if you enjoyed that, you won’t want to miss this! In this additional part of her conversation with Anne, Alex explores disagreement and understanding. Why is it …
It’s July and it’s hot, hot, hot! This month we’ll cool down by reviewing the first novel by the Rev Richard Coles, ‘Murder Before Evensong’; Anne’s Thousand Words guest is geologist & theologian (oh yes!) Alex Booer; our roving reporter Margaret brings a welcome in the Highlands of Scotland for …
It’s summer: the sun is out, the sky is blue and here’s our June podcast! Packed full with musings on matters moral, ethical and spiritual. This month we review the memoir Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, and we revisit a Thousand Words feature with Kelvin Holdsworth specially for …
It’s our 100th smallVOICE podcast and we might be celebrating just a bit. This month we take a look at the final series of Channel 4’s Derry Girls, Anne’s ‘Thousand Words’ guest is American pastor Jared Stacy who is currently doing a PhD in theological ethics (and boy, does he …
It’s the near mythical ‘next podcast’ folks… Welcome to the smallVOICE podcast for April and we have sunshine and showers in the form of music and musings on matters moral, spiritual and ethical. We review award-winning poetry book The Kids by Hannah Lowe, which just won the Costa Book of …
Do not disturb the sleeping Panda …. No March podcast folks! Covid has struck the team, but we’ll be back in April. See you then!
It’s February and here’s a real winter warmer podcast! We review the BBC Radio 4 series and podcast ‘Things Fell Apart’ by Jon Ronson; Anne’s Thousand Words guest is veterinarian and pioneer minister Allan Wright, Margaret introduces our latest small VOICE of the month which, this month, is the Edinburgh …
Jings! It’s another year! Better get on with it. In our January podcast, we review the West End musical ‘Anything Goes‘ as shown on TV at Christmas – it also tours in the UK later in the year; we have music in the form of two fab songs from Iona …
Our December podcast is a festive Selection Box of items in another hour-long mix of matters moral, ethical and spiritual. We review this year’s crop of Christmas TV adverts, Anne speaks to pastor Jonathan Somerville who shares his picture that’s worth a thousand words & tells us about ‘Blue Christmas’; …
More about COP26 following our November podcast … We are delighted to have a podcast extra interview with two international delegates at the event in Glasgow 2021. They stayed with our very own roving reporter, Margaret, and her husband Dave during COP26. So, in this podcast extra, Margaret is in …
November’s podcast is jam-packed with good things in nervous times (COP26 and the end of the world, anybody?). We review the BBC TV series Shop Well For The Planet?, while Anne’s Thousand Words guest is the artist Carol Marples who has produced new art for COP26 in Glasgow; Margaret introduces …
With perseverance, we’ll get through.” Resident of the island of St Vincent, Chris Ashton, was our ‘small voice of the month’ for October 2021. SmallVOICE presenter Margaret spoke to Chris via Zoom and Chris recounted the effect on the people of St Vincent of the eruption of the La Soufriere …
It’s October already! This month in our Media Review, the smallVOICE team has been reading the award-winning novel Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (a no-spoilers review!). Anne brings us an insightful Thousand Words interview with Rev Dr Hamilton Inbadas; and we have an international ‘small voice of the month’ as Margaret …
Summer’s just about over, but in a packed podcast we have all your regular favourites: our Thousand Words feature this month is a conversation with author Pat Bennett; our ‘small voice of the month’ is daredevil fundraiser Gillian McNab; in our Media Review we look at the new ITV drama, …
This month, we review the startling podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill from Christianity Today; Anne’s guest for our Thousand Words feature is Julia Bicknell, former BBC reporter and co-founder of World Watch Monitor; our very own roving reporter, Margaret introduces us to the Freedom of Mind Community Choir as our ‘small voice of the month’; we have fab music in the form of a couple of session tracks from Steve Butler; and we’ll finish the show with a Moral Mixdown which asks what the legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics might be?
Presented by our team of Darren, Anne, Holly and Margaret, this podcast was recorded remotely via Zoom on Thursday 5 August 2021.
Duration 1 hour 10 minutes.
Available from Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio and from all your usual podcast Apps.
If you like this podcast, please leave us a review – thanks!
Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.
Here’s the full version of our interview with Selina Hayes, founder of Refuweegee, the refugee support charity in Glasgow. Please have a listen: Selina is passionate and committed, and this is a great insight into their ongoing work. (Length: 14’30 minutes)
Refuweegee was set up in 2015 and smallVOICE’s Margaret first spoke to Selina for the podcast more than four years ago. They’ve come a really long way and do such great work. If you want to find out more about all that they do to welcome and support refugees in Glasgow, visit their website or follow them on Facebook.
In a packed punnet of a summer special podcast, we have an interview update with Selina Hales of Refuweegee as our ‘small voice of the month’; we’re delighted to feature new singles from both Jack Badcock and Tom Houston. Since it’s our summer special we pick a couple of favourites from the last year to enjoy, with Holly introducing It’s a Sin for our Media Review, and Anne revisiting a favourite Thousand Words, her compelling interview with Richard Holloway. Plus, to end the show, we hand out some special awards, so we do. And the winner is ….??!!
Also in July’s podcast, we take a moment to remember two friends of the podcast who sadly died recently – journalist Fidelma Cook and Christian leader Rev Joel Edwards.
Presented by Darren, Anne, and Holly, with roving reporter Margaret, this podcast was recorded remotely via Zoom on Thursday 8 July 2021.
Duration 1 hour 25 minutes.
Also available from Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio and from all your usual podcast Apps.
Theme music and stings by Nicolai Heidlas.