Paul English Live - 010826, From Tower Bridge to Tower of Babel: Craft, Courts, and Shakespeare’s Shadow

A rollicking, three-hour return to Thursday nights: I open with a door hanging by a single heroic hinge and settle into a freewheeling catch‑up with Eric Von Sussex. We time‑travel through the 1987 Great Storm, cheesy theme tunes, and the Swingle Singers, detour into YouTube copyright woes and DIY jingles with Audacity, and reminisce about 1980s phone‑bank yuppies. From there we jump to today’s tech and craft: AI site/app builders versus old‑school guild workmanship, good buildings, Gaudí, and why curves calm the human nervous system. I share a 1986 letter from (now) King Charles, play a clip of Jimmy Carr praising Hungary’s family tax policy, and we kick around what real, pro‑family incentives might look like—without the usual political theatre. We also preview some station‑building news and scheduling ideas for the growing community around the show. Hour two leans into words and spells—Babel, courts, and how Shakespeare still scripts our speech—before a palate‑cleansing spin of The Divine Comedy’s National Express. In hour three, returning guest Eli James joins to argue about fiat money, oil, digital cash, feminism, and why country music hasn’t drunk the woke Kool‑Aid. It’s pub‑table radio at its loosest: stories, history, language, policy, and culture—held together by tea, rain, and a very stubborn hinge. 'Paul English Live (official site)': https://paulenglishlive.com/ 'Audacity (official site for the audio editor we mentioned for DIY jingles)': https://www.audacityteam.org/ 'Opera Browser (official site)': https://www.opera.com/ 'Met Office – The Great Storm of 1987 case study': https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/learn-about/weather/case-studies/great-storm 'Michael Fish – biography (Wikipedia)': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Fish 'The Swingles (formerly The Swingle Singers) – official site': https://www.theswingles.co.uk/ 'The Divine Comedy – official site': https://thedivinecomedy.com/ 'National Express – UK coach travel (referenced with the song story)': https://www.nationalexpress.com/ 'Jimmy Carr – official site': https://www.jimmycarr.com/ 'Hungary tax policy for mothers (news explainer)': https://hungarytoday.hu/new-income-tax-exemption-for-mothers-of-three-takes-effect-today/ 'Reuters – Hungary expands income‑tax exemptions for mothers': https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hungarys-orban-launches-tax-exemption-mothers-cap-housing-loan-rates-2025-02-22/ 'Merriam‑Webster – 10 Phrases from Shakespeare (handy reference to phrases we quoted)': https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/top-10-phrases-from-shakespeare 'ZZ Top – official store (band referenced in our music chat)': https://store.zztop.com/ 'Engelbert Humperdinck – official site (referenced in the music detour)': https://www.engelbert.com/ 'Chris Rea – Wikipedia overview (we played “Working on It”)': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Rea 'Euro Folk Radio – Eli James (guest) home site': https://eurofolkradio.com/ 'Anglo‑Saxon Israel – Eli James ministry site': https://anglo-saxonisrael.com/ In this lively Episode 121, I kick off a rainy UK evening in the “radio shed” and welcome Eric Von Essex (and friends) for a rollicking, free‑range conversation that swerves from broken doors and storm lore (hello, Michael Fish and the Great Storm of ’87) to elevator music, Goons, and the Swingle Singers. We trade stories of yuppie 80s phone‑bank days, the Guinness scandal brush‑by, and the oddities of morning vs. evening radio—before diving into tech: AI site/app builders, time vs. money, and how digital overload is reshaping craft and work.From there, we roam into architecture, guild traditions, and why curvature, craft, and pride in workmanship matter—Gaudí, Hampton Court chimneys, Tower Bridge, traction engines, and why modern glass boxes feel wrong. That opens the door to language and law: Shakespeare’s authorship (Oxford theory, “shaking a spear,” spells in court), how new words unlock new thought, and a rapid‑fire tour of Shakespearean phrases we use daily. We spin through demographics and policy via Jimmy Carr’s riff on Hungary’s tax incentives for mothers, the petrodollar and fiat realities, the Venezuela turn, and the creeping digital‑money future—before a spirited third hour with Eli James on feminism’s societal impacts, family policy, cultural shifts, and why more people are starting to question the official story. All told: craft over kitsch, words as power, families as foundations, and spirited debate with plenty of laughs in between.