Welcome to the turbulence!
Join Dara Clear, a domesticated Irishman who is trying to work out the best ways to cope with what life throws at him.
Husband, father, actor, writer, teacher, karate instructor and sea swimmer, Dara wants to take the wuss out of wellness.
Mixing storytelling, philosophy, humour, psychology, and emotional honesty as a recipe for increased wellness, positivity, and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to the turbulence!
Join Dara Clear, a domesticated Irishman who is trying to work out the best ways to cope with what life throws at him.
Husband, father, actor, writer, teacher, karate instructor and sea swimmer, Dara wants to take the wuss out of wellness.
Mixing storytelling, philosophy, humour, psychology, and emotional honesty as a recipe for increased wellness, positivity, and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It's the 2025 Christmas special! Dara presents his new seasonal story, hot off the press! In 'Early Service', an exhausted daughter sits down with her philandering father for their annual Christmas night out. Can they survive their oppositional tendencies? Will something magical help them transcend their differences? Why does the holiday mean such different things to each of them?
Good news for lovers of the ClearOut Christmas concert - Chiara is back! Forced out through illness the previous two years, she makes a most welcome return and succeeds in making Dara's singing sound slightly less clunky than when he is left to his own devices. Three Christmas favourites are given a serviceable run.
Happy Christmas and thanks for listening!
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In this episode it is Dara's great pleasure to sit down and have a long overdue chat with his great friend and former college buddy, Aengus Devine. Aengus is a gifted musician, singer and songwriter, and has sustained a long career as a professional musician. At the end of their long and winding conversation, Aengus plays his lovely new Christmas single 'God Save Christmas'.
Before that, the conversation stays firmly in the world of music, with thoughts on 50s rock and roll and its influence on The Beatles and The Rolling Stones; the dubious impression of being seen in public carrying a Barry Manilow album; why Pet Sounds is no Sgt. Pepper's; actors who were also singers; separating art from the artist; favourite Christmas songs and much more.
Dara takes a quiet moment at the start of the episode to briefly share his thoughts on two shocking incidents that occurred over the weekend - the terror attack on a Jewish Hanukkah gathering in Bondi Beach in Sydney, and the killing in their home of the American film director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele.
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In this episode, Dara is wondering if the spirit of the season is upon you, or if you're still waiting for that festive feeling to announce itself. The price of beef isn't helping much. Nor is the price of Christmas trees, for that matter! And why does his daughter have so much to do?
Ignoring those sources of exhaustion and exasperation, Dara launches into a sheaf of Christmas poems from both sides of the Atlantic. Christmases exotic and local, Christmases lonely and loving, Christmases urban and rural, they're all represented. Just don't tell Dara that you knew what a 'garrigue' was!
Christmas poems from PoetryFoundation.org: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/101692/christmas-poems
Christmas Crackers: https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/christmas-crackers-ten-poems-to-surprise-and-delight/
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In this episode, Dara has thoughts on December coming round so quickly and the accompanying temptation to collapse in a heap. Does the festive season differ in any significant way from the rest of the year? Christmas really did used to be something special and genuinely indulgent - but does that still land when the rest of the year seems to involve frequent indulgence too?
The popularity of a new masculinity book has Dara scratching his head - are the apparent insights remotely new or insightful? Does the millionaire author have anything substantively useful to share other than 'make money' and 'be kind'? At least he has learned how to cry at the ripe old age of 61! For some, the learnings come later in life. The masculinity crisis remains unsolved for now...
Dara is more concerned by growing wealth and opportunity inequality and he argues for a type of radical thoughtfulness that chooses not to focus on gender or identity, but rather on an understanding of shared resources and mutual consideration. What an idiot!
Maybe bartering is the way to go. Why did that nice man give Dara cakes in the car park? Positive impulses were followed and reciprocated (That's not a euphemism!).
Scott Galloway's masculinity tips: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/03/scott-galloway-masculinity-crisis-notes-on-being-a-man
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In this episode, Dara considers the power of defying expectations. Partly prompted by a conversation with his dementia-affected father, his thoughts are also informed by a New York psychologist who worked with first responders to World Trade Center attacks. Role-reversal can be both destabilising and disarming, but it rarely goes unnoticed, and it often provokes both consternation and resentment.
To explore it further, Dara looks at a handful of female-centred films where the protagonists fail to behave as expected, or in a couple of cases, the lead actresses don't conform to their previous character types. One such film is Jane Campion's In the Cut (2003), in which Meg Ryan gave a performance that obliterated her image as America's sweetheart that she had so firmly established in the romantic comedies of her earlier career. Films like Olivia Wilde's Booksmart (2019) and Emma Seligman's Bottoms (2023) present female characters who had historically been on the fringes of the story, not at its heart.
Also - the right to keep a flame alive, affirming unseen victories, men's need to speak, and decorating your internal house exactly as you see fit!
My 2023 Christmas story, which touches on the right to self-identify and defy expectations: https://theclearout.com/short-story/mrs-hennessey-and-the-womens-christmas/
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In this episode, Dara confesses to having had a very teary twenty-four hours. But what could have caused him to weep like a baby?
It wasn't Troy Parrott's match-winning goal (and raw and emotional post-match interview) that means Ireland still have a chance of going to next year's world cup, was it?
It wasn't Chase Infiniti's exquisitely vulnerable performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, was it?
It wasn't a Bosnian-born, New York-based milliner sharing her heart-rending story of bereavement, sickness, and recovery, was it?
It wasn't a written account of a historic football match between the two unrecognised states of Palestine and the Basque Country, was it?
Yes! Yes, it was all those things! Football and acting and hats (and babies) and more football!
But really it was about hope and pride and the unexpected.
It was about innocence and fear and defiance and love.
It was about friendship and tragedy and resilience and rebirth.
It was about solidarity and sovereignty and identity and visibility.
Dara tries to explain what it all meant and what it all means. It's an episode about sport and storytelling and small kindnesses.
Sid Lowe on an unforgettable night in Bilbao: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/nov/17/it-touched-us-from-the-start-palestine-savour-historic-night-in-bilbao
Behida Dolic Millinery: https://behidadolic.com/
Behida Dolic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behidadolic/
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After watching Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, Dara finds himself wondering about the director's world view, and specifically his perspective on beautiful, sincere women and their superficially unattractive love interests. The Mexican director has an established sympathy with those considered ugly and monstrous by society - could a Freudian reading be applicable?
Following this idea of male directors and their presentation or objectification of women in their work, Dara considers female characters as featured in the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino - two very unstraightforward male auteurs. What do their heroines say about them? And does it have anything to do with how they have been treated or perceived by the opposite sex off-camera?
Finishing up, Dara considers how he has presented female characters in his short stories. Has he unintentionally revealed something about his own hidden desires? Or is he just painfully sincere himself?
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A week under the weather had Dara running for the comfort of old Hollywood classics. In this episode, he reports his findings.
Influenced by the spooky season, he reached for a couple of Hitchcock staples of the older variety - 1940's Rebecca and 1941's Suspicion. Two very different but no less complicated love stories, one featuring espionage and seduction, the other - gulp! - murder!
He followed those with something altogether frothier - George Stevens's Woman of the Year (1942), the film that saw the first pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. On screen sparring partners and off-screen lovers, the sparks fly as they first made movie magic.
Dara reflects on the gender roles permitted to female stars of the day and what would happen to them if they didn't conform to type.
Two Netflix productions are also reviewed - Black Rabbit starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman as errant brothers, and Kathryn Bigelow's latest nailbiter, A House of Dynamite.
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In this episode Dara argues that at a certain moment in autumn, the whole season starts to feel like a Sunday night, and not in a good way! The shortening days, the lengthening nights, it all combines to create a sense of nature closing in to usher us into a dark resting place. And isn't that what Mondays can feel like?
Warming to the theme, Dara once again finds himself advocating for more contact with nature and less contact with tech. He wonders if we're not completely losing touch with our instincts as we become ever more subsumed by the numberless conveniences and relentless stimulation of the modern moment. For him it raises the question of knowledge. What do we believe we know? What do we use to inform our existential navigation system?
To make the show a bit more high-falutin', Dara sources a handful of autumn poems, including a couple of classics from Dante Gabriel Rosetti and Mary Oliver. Watch out for the falling leaves!
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In this episode, Dara is wondering who the enemy is. Finding himself symbolically shaking his fist at the clouds, he tries to work out who exactly he was angry with, and why. His wife used Jedi mind powers to flip the script which only stoked his fire further. The two choices available to him were obvious, and one was certainly not going to end well...
Reflecting on bad behaviour gets Dara thinking about accountability and personal responsibility - integrity is not possible without accountability. There can be no free passes. And if it can't be done in public, it surely must be done in private, which is where personal responsibility comes in.
Also in this episode, the Israel/Gaza ceasefire, another great father-daughter conversation in the car, and a furry new addition to The ClearOut family!
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Who needs women when you've got AI? That seems to be the position of AI porn providers who seem pretty confident of their feminist credentials. How could they not be when they're taking the messiness out of porn consumption. And while men are licking their lips over their fembot fantasy, female customers are enjoying committed relationships with AI partners. Welcome to love and sex in the 21st century!
Dara tries to get his head around this landscape without losing sight of the underpinning human need for connection and being the focus of somebody else's love and desire. He thinks he's doing well with a solid 'sex-positive' attitude, but then a tech bro gives an example of what you might freely say to an AI coquette, and he has to concede that something is very off. Is misogyny being normalised, or is that an overly moralistic position?
Time is set aside at the end of the episode to pay tribute to Manchan Magan, the Irish broadcaster, filmmaker, writer and passionate advocate of Irish language and culture who passed away far too soon last week. Dara reads some passages from Magan's wonderful book "Thirty-Two Words for Field" and it is striking how few AI creations there are to be found, described, or salivated over in the etymological delight. But there are cailleachs - women to be wary of - and maybe that's just what the AI porn consumers are trying to avoid!
Guardian article on AI girlfriends: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/06/rise-of-ai-girlfriends-adult-dating-websites
Guardian article on AI relationships: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/09/ai-chatbot-love-relationships
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This week's episode couldn't be simpler - it's an hour of Paul Thomas Anderson adulation. More specifically, it is sixty minutes dedicated to his new film, One Battle After Another. A propulsive story of revolution and retreat, of obsession and resignation, of manipulation and resistance. With stellar performances throughout a typically brilliant Anderson cast, it offers new and vivid highs for Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn. They are more than matched by Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti as the women who are the catalytic converters of the story.
For a film that features government fascism, white supremacy, forced detention, betrayal and murder, it is infused with heart and humanity. Perhaps this is Anderson's offer to a chaotic and unjust world? Whether it is or not, Dara loved what was served up.
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In this episode, Dara is reflecting on the killing of the prominent Christian Right thought leader, Charlie Kirk. Hailed by his followers as their Martin Luther King Jr i.e. a spiritual martyr and presumably, man of peace, it seems irresponsible not to discuss the tensions and contradictions that arise from the comparison. Kirk's documented racism, homophobia, transphobia and misogyny seem to fly in the face of Christian values, but that is allegedly what he represented.
Dara tries to figure out why Kirk's particular brand of faith seemed to have no issue with vilifying and demonising others. He also tries to establish what traditional family units look like and why other arrangements of family should be so threatening to some people. He's pretty sure he and most of his friends came from the type of social unit that Kirk would have valorised - why then does he feel so unmoved by Kirk's rhetoric?
Donald Trump's performance at Kirk's memorial service was a further reminder of his pantomime villain status. His unerring nose for what will further divide a fractured America is quite something to behold. Surely, as others have commented, it is a time for cool heads and empathy to prevail.
Also, a succinct diagnosis of the American political agenda on both sides of the aisle, an epitaph to remember, and why poultry should be afraid, very afraid...
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In this very straightforward episode, Dara marks the passing of Hollywood icon Robert Redford by revisiting his career as an actor and director. From his true arrival as a Hollywood A-lister in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, all the way to his last leading role in The Old Man and the Gun (2018), Redford held the screen with an effortless charisma and presence, only enhanced by his matinee idol good looks.
The high points of his career came in the 70s, after which he made his much-lauded directorial debut with Ordinary People (1980) for which he won his only Academy Award. Dara makes a case for Redford's best acting work being attributable to his innate coldness and paranoia that, when deployed skilfully, brought out exceptional performances. In other words, he was most effective when he was playing not fully likeable characters.
Do you know which director he collaborated with most often? You might be surprised to learn the answer. Dara chooses one of those movies for his top Redford picks.
Dara also reviews the latest film from two other famous collaborators - Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, who have just released their retelling of Kurosawa's High and Low (1963), the exciting and colourful Highest 2 Lowest.
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Embattled by consecutive migraines, Dara is reckoning with a system under pressure. He attempts to own the state he's in while advocating for a deeper connection with what lies beneath all the turbulence. This line of enquiry leads to thoughts on observing a month's mind for Pepper, the family dog. A phrase used by the Venerable Bede in relation to that tradition inspired a new poem, which is shared.
Dara wonders if we know what should and shouldn't be prioritised. He argues that only by doing our own internal work can we really meet the world with confidence and clarity. And when we do that, it is so much easier to connect with others. That connection is what many have been missing as technology encroaches more and more on our ability to separate the wheat from the chaff of our genuinely important concerns.
Dara argues that we are energised by both life and love and that in being interested in and caring for others we locate our humanity. Contact, in the flesh, with warm-blooded creatures is the key to our wellness!
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In this episode, Dara is thinking about what comes next. Prompted by an article about Irish people signing up for their bodies to be preserved at death in the hope of waking up in the distant future, he finds himself perplexed by the desire to outlive a natural lifespan. While it is tempting to dismiss the participants as deluded fantasists, he recognises that something deeply anxious lurks beneath the aspirant futurism.
This type of scientific pioneering nestles very closely to conceptions not just of highly advanced future existence, but also to spirituality, faith, and the afterlife. Dara reflects on his own atheism and the tension that exists between it and his belief in a universal life force that animates us all. He also admits to praying in the aftermath of his dog's recent death. What was he praying for and to whom did he pray?
A funeral at the weekend had Dara recalling the impact of a very significant figure in his young life. He shares his thoughts on a natural end to a long life and the essential quality of a life remembered. He also talks affectionately about his father's grandiosity and how that informs a conception of a life well lived.
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In this episode, Dara admits to being a bit exhausted after moving house for the fifth time since the pandemic. It is not the most fun he has ever had and the ongoing grief ripples over Pepper the dog are adding to the load. However, the glass is (probably) half-full and at least the nickname for the new home has come very quickly and easily.
Dara found considerable solace from four different podcasts that he is happy to recommend - two movie-related, one about the psychology of grief, and the last about the very nature of being, knowing, and consciousness.
One of the film-related podcasts featured a clip from the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men (2007), and Dara found what was expressed so compelling that he tries to unpack its significance as a key tool of sustainable wellness and profoundly meaningful survival.
It's mortality, it's laughter, it's vulnerability - it's The ClearOut!
The Rewatchables do 'Witness' - https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/the-rewatchables/2025/08/25/witness-with-bill-simmons-and-mallory-rubin
The Big Picture 2000s series 'Mission Accomplished' - https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/mission-accomplished
Hidden Brain podcast on trauma, loss, and grief - https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/the-trauma-script/
Rupert Spira and Federico Faggin on consciousness - https://rupertspira.libsyn.com/episode-77-federico-faggin
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In this episode Dara is reflecting on masculinity for a couple of reasons. One is the continuing aftershock of the death of Pepper the dog, the other is because of the continuing presentation of a narrow version of masculinity that seems somewhat inadequate for purpose.
Dara thought he was coping reasonably well on his grief journey, but he shares two unexpected moments that completely opened him up. It makes him think about the depth of feeling within all of us that can so easily be untapped.
Jason Wilson is a prominent men's advocate in the US, but he speaks about masculinity and its relation to femininity in very traditionally gendered terms that Dara finds himself resisting a little. That said, the fundamental struggle between male vulnerability and toughness is very recognisable and relatable. What is the path most likely to lead to a type of masculinity that can easily contain both?
Finally, a little acknowledgement of the late Terence Stamp and a further callback to the recently departed Michael Madsen.
Quentin Tarantino's tribute to Michael Madsen (including link to Madsen interview): https://thenewbev.com/blog/2025/07/pure-cinema-podcast-quentin-tarantinos-tribute-to-michael-madsen/
The ClearOut episode on Terence Stamp in Billy Budd: https://theclearout.com/podcast/billy-budd-russell-brand-and-the-dark-corners-of-male-desire-episode-122/
Higher Learning episode with Jason Wilson: https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/higher-learning-van-lathan-rachel-lindsay/2025/04/15/kyren-lacy-and-the-mental-wellness-of-black-men-with-jason-wilson
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In this episode Dara is stepping carefully as he negotiates a painfully recent family tragedy - the sudden death of Pepper, the beloved family dog. Still too soon to fully unpack the depth of his grief, he nonetheless attempts to convey Pepper's importance and unique brand of loveliness.
Refusing to wallow in the horror of how she died, nor wanting to indulge maudlin reminiscing, Dara instead reads 'Hilary', a short story he wrote 12 years ago about saying farewell to a loyal companion. Naturally, the story takes on a resonance that was not expected when it was written.
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In this episode, Dara is looking at women's bits and how they continue to exert such a hold on so many onlookers, many with cash in hand, some holding other things. If the names Sydney Sweeney and Bonnie Blue are not instantly familiar to you, you have not been keeping abreast of things topical and pertinent this week. Sweeney is a Hollywood hot property who has made no bones about her need to make money to keep the show on the road. Blue is an English porn star who has just been the focus of a Channel 4 documentary following her facilitation of a jaw-dropping sex stunt.
What do they have in common? They are both blonde, beautiful, and buxom - and willing to trade on their physical assets. They have both found themselves at the centre of recent controversies, one invoking moral outrage, the other more in the area of identity politics and culture wars. Dara draws a connection between these young women, the commodification of their looks and bodies, and the experience of the Hemingway sisters - Margaux and Mariel - almost 50 years ago. The story doesn't seem to change. Young, beautiful and female equates to opportunities to capitalise or be capitalised upon, and usually for the sexual satisfaction of an eager male audience.
Dara questions the value of being morally dismissive of the women in question and wonders more about the damage being done by the ubiquity of sexualised imagery. He is certain the devices we carry with us everywhere are a huge part of the problem and advocates for putting them away and immersing ourselves in things more sensory and natural before we lose our perspective completely on what is and isn't real.
Also in this episode, two excellent words, recommended texts on the porn industry, and a brilliant book on parenting teenage girls.
Sydney Sweeney's 'racist' jeans: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/05/sydney-sweeney-controversy
YMRT episode on the Hemingway sisters: https://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/2020/2/24/the-hemingway-curse-mariel-and-margaux-make-me-over-episode-7
Unherd discuss Bonnie Blue's recent Channel 4 documentary: https://unherd.com/watch-listen/should-we-morally-condemn-bonnie-blue/?lang=us
The Last Days of August: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/11/the-last-days-of-august-review-ames-jon-ronson-podcast-porn-industry
Untangled by Lisa Damour: https://drlisadamour.com/books/untangled/
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