In My Own Time: Thoughts from Fort Buggeration - Introduction

In this episode, I recount my surprisingly serene experience of having both thyroid glands removed on the NHS — from diagnosis and hospital gown, to anaesthetic bliss and a quick recovery. A gentle reflection on healthcare, goitres, and gratitude.

In this episode, Paul shares a very personal tale from the far end of the body.At 73, he's no stranger to medical prodding—and in this frank, gently humorous account, he recalls his two NHS colonoscopies with curiosity, gratitude, and not a hint of embarrassment.With a nod to his father's experience with bowel cancer, Paul explains why this intimate procedure is worth facing head-on (or rather, bottom-up).Expect brown paper pants, some inner housekeeping, and a reminder of why the National Health Service remains one of Britain’s finest ideas.

The mystery we are to ourselves and others.1

The Gen-Z stareThe cover art is an AI generated image

My encounters with a few noteworthy bugs

My encounters with a few bugs

A short podcast about a few bugs I've encountered.

This podcast is about someone very special to me, whom I met on my first day working at a Children's Home during my period as a Trainee Residential Social Worker in Hertfordshire in the mid 1970s.

My first placement on my Oxford Polytechnic social work course was in the Probation Department in Gloucester, where I was living at the time.This is a brief podcast concerning my placement supervisor and an offender pulling the wool over my eyes.In future podcasts, I aim to describe various experiences I had over a period of almost 40 years.

This is, hopefully, the first of an intermittent series on my life as a social worker.This episode is not as polished as I would have liked.There are parts of this podcast which I may expand upon in future podcasts.Thank you for your time and interest.

The pleasures in life can be tiny things of no consequence.

MAGA beginning to eat their own?

The Trumpification of the USAFollowers can fall from grace

Sports and me? Really!

What it says on the tin!

Heatwaves in the UK and remembering 1976

Coffee!Espresso and Aeropress.'n' stuff

Printers can drive you crazy

My great-great-grandfather, Edward Stedman, and JackHow well do we know those who have gone before?

Memory as identityThe unreliability of memoryReconstructed memoryGaslighting and its psychological impactThe fear of dementia and its effects

Comments on an email published by Timothy Snyder, about the concentration camps being set up in the USA.

A little background information.

Please accept my apologies for posting this before. I'm new to this, and I'm trying to sort out the best and easiest (!) way to publish my podcast to multiple sites. Please bear with me.