PODCAST · health
The ClearOut
by Dara Clear
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. Become a Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
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The Cornell 7, Rape Myth Acceptance, & Not Everything Happens Online!
In this episode, Dara has a look at the Cornell 7 rape case that has found itself at the centre of the discourse. A shared female opinion that he has come across online suggests that men need to be directed in how they should respond to this case and to rape and sexual assault in general. The...
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Burned Again? Lean Closer with Nietzsche
In this episode, and not for the first time, Dara is reckoning with old wounds. Life has a great knack for shocking you out of your complacency, but what do you do when you are reminded of stuff you thought you had long since put to bed? Some things just refuse to stay down, and maybe the harder...
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Navigating Inner and Outer States
In this episode, Dara is decompressing after a week of shifting boxes and furniture. A new home and a new phase await. What is living going to be like under a different roof, between different walls, looking out at different views? And how do you recalibrate after such literal and energetic...
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Moving Day! - Home is Where the Heart Is
In this episode, Dara is recording for the last time at Hashtag Hilltop - he and his family are about to move for the umpteenth time in recent years. He finds himself reflecting on homes of the past and the countless and never reliable memories from all of them. It strikes him how important the...
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Gloria! Tribute to a Feminist Icon
In this episode, in honour of the late Gloria Steinem, Dara attempts to mansplain feminism - so women, I hope you are listening! No, rather than that foolhardy exercise, he reads in their entirety two blazing feminist articles from the 1970s. Miami by Nora Ephron documents the dynamics within the...
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Dolly, Dolls, and Puppets - The Ageless Beauty of Female Icons
In this episode, Dara is joining the dots between some recent topical news stories. He talks about a female icon of American entertainment - blonde, beautiful, independent, diminutive and unknowable; who else could it be other than Miss Piggy! And what does that embodiment of female power have in...
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Musical Youth - The Albums That Took Me From Eight to Eighteen!
In this episode, Dara is going full listicle and revisiting the albums that made up the soundtrack of his youth, from Michael Jackson's Thriller in 1982 to movie-inspired choices of the late 80s that carried him to university. Reflecting on how much the way we consume music has changed, Dara...
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Glen Hansard and the Unquantifiable Wonder of Mojo
In this episode, Dara takes the time to pay respects to the recently departed Glen Hansard, whose untimely death shocked and rocked so many, both here in Ireland and further afield. Hansard's band The Frames really were part of the soundscape of 90s Ireland as it emerged out of the dark years of...
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Christopher Nolan's Odysseus - Just Another Superhero?
In this episode, Dara is going full Greek as he embraces the epic telling and retelling of Homer's The Odyssey, now Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Notably, the film is being promoted not with a tagline, but with a declaration of the mode of its making - shot entirely on 70mm IMAX cameras! But…
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Feeling It In Your Guts! Connection vs Fracture
In this episode, Dara is apologising for going missing last week, but he has a good excuse - he was in hospital! Struck down with a level of pain he had never previously experienced, he had to abandon his journey to get help and have an ambulance come to the rescue. It turned out it was just a...
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England's World Cup Exit - Victims of Their Own Identity Crisis?
In this episode, Dara is scratching his head at yet another mammoth failure of the England football team. He has genuine sympathy for the players who have once again come unstuck at a crucial moment in a top tournament. And to add insult to injury, the destroyer of English dreams came in the form...
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Do the Right Thing! Healing the Sins of the Past
In this episode, Dara is feeling as angry as many others about the controversy around Bessborough House, the former mother and baby home that has one of the darkest legacies of any of the institutions that had Catholic Ireland in a stranglehold for much of the twentieth century. He tries to...
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The Instagram Detox! - Changing Habits, Changing Stories, Changing Pathways
In this episode, Dara is reckoning with his Instagram addiction. Why does the algorithm keep sending him such juicy morsels? Why is it so enjoyable, yet so insubstantial? And who are these women who convince so many men that a great parasocial relationship is about to begin? And what was that one...
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Props, Struts, and Straps - the Scaffolding of Self-Support
In this episode, Dara is considering the concept of scaffolding and how it might be applied as a wellness metaphor. Utilised in the world of developmental psychology to describe evolving stages of cognitive growth and early learning, the basic idea relates to baby steps and layered instruction to...
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Don't Look Now - The Scariest Movie Moments of my Life
It's end-to-end movies this week as Dara recalls his most vivid memories of the film scenes that shocked, scandalised and horrified him from as young as six up to his mid-twenties. It started on TV with the 1980 adaptation of James Clavell's Shogun. In that memorable mini-series, the beautiful...
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Keeping It Lit - The Flame of Idealism
In this episode, Dara is trying to make sense of his relationship to repetition. What compels him to adhere so faithfully to his exercise routines? What is he trying to achieve? Or prove? And do those habits cross over to other areas of his life? He argues it is connected to his liking for order...
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Lowering the Bar and Keeping Sight of What Counts
In this episode, Dara is considering the merits of low bars. How can you talk about heatwaves when it's only 18 degrees? Very easily actually, when you live in Ireland! How can you celebrate being the fourth worst team in the league? With the greatest of ease when your team has underachieved so...
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The Taste of Victory and a Life Worth Sharing
In this episode, Dara is weighing up winning and losing. His football team is driving him to the brink of all-consuming rage, so much so that he sought out escapism in a TV show dedicated to gory bloodletting, heartrending betrayals, and gratuitous equal opportunity nudity. One climactic moment…
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The Deceptive Exhaustion of Standby Mode
In this episode, Dara is wondering why he feels so exhausted. Is it because he has switched from standby mode to being fully turned off? Do we struggle to fully relax because we so seldom do it? And does this connect to more than just the usual life concerns that trouble most of us? Is it…
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Nobody Asked For This! - the 250th Episode 'Celebration'
In this episode, Dara is wondering how 250 episodes have come along so quickly. It hasn't been an effortless process by any means, but somehow the show (or 'the tell') has kept trundling along, quietly going about its business. And what business is that, exactly? Amongst other things, it has been...
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A Free Gift of Love - You're Welcome!
In this episode Dara is reckoning with the elusive nature of grace. According to the major religions, and Judaism specifically, it is 'a free gift of love' from the Almighty. But if not given by God, from where else might it come? Is it something that we can bestow on ourselves? What conditions...
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What is Your Happy Place?
In this episode, Dara keeps it in low gear as he attempts to conserve energy and resist the temptation to force anything. Most of all, he is determined to be uninteresting and anything but entertaining. He knows his credo and he's sticking to it! A conversation with a friend has him thinking…
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The Wrestle for Selfhood - Maurice Hines, Carl Lewis, and Two White Boys in Scientological Love!
In this episode, Dara is responding to three films he recently watched that all touched on themes of the expression of the individual, sovereign identity, iterations of 20th century masculinity, and the concept of success and failure implicit in those performances. Starting with two…
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The One Good Idea Episode!
Is there one good idea in this episode? Dara admits he is all over the place at the moment. He is not burnt out, just a bit overwhelmed. Between ageing parents in need of comprehensive care, trying to find work, doing a masters, and just keeping up with the normal day-to-day demands, it feels…
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Holding Space for the Manosphere Confusion Vortex!
In this strong and dominant episode, Dara shares his muscular response to Louis Theroux's new documentary exploring the dreaded manosphere. As Lori Petty said in 1991's Point Break - "too much testosterone around here for me". Why are young men so obsessed with the dubious figures that define the...
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Games, Conditions, and Invisible Cruelties - Love According to Laing
In this episode, Dara is considering Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing's proposition that "love is a cover for violence". Informed by Game Theory and the work he did with twelve female schizophrenic patients in the 1960s, Laing came to believe the manipulative interpersonal dynamics that were...
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Listen, Think, Talk - The Deeper Connection Toolkit
In this episode, Dara is leaning into the power of conversation as a means cultivating deeper thought and connection, both with others and with the self. Bumping up against parts of ourselves we would rather weren't there at all, he argues for a radical humility that completely removes the ego…
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Dry Your Eyes, Mate - The Tears of Octogenarians
In this episode, Dara is thinking of the old men. Well, two old men specifically - Robert De Niro and Harrison Ford, both of whom just had very public displays of emotion. De Niro started crying on a chat show as he reflected on the state of the world and hoped for a better future. Ford made a…
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Don't Post That! - The Self-Sabotage of Online Misogyny
In this episode, Dara shares thoughts and reactions to the recent Tourette's Syndrome N-word debacle at the BAFTA awards. Rather than simply weighing in with his own perspective, he referred to Higher Learning, the Black culture podcast that he was sure would address the issue squarely and…
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Napalm, Keeping Quiet, and Sweet Country Music - The Lovely Career of Robert Duvall
In this episode, Dara revisits the careers and acting talent of two very special American actors - the very recently deceased Robert Duvall and Tom Noonan. Duvall had an amazingly long career from his breakthrough role in 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird, through the New Hollywood 70s and right on to...
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The Spectre of Mortality - Getting Older Ain't No Fun!
In this episode, Dara is reflecting on ageing and mortality as he responds to his father's current health battles. His father, who has dementia, is in a particularly vulnerable state at the moment and though he is confident the situation is only temporary, Dara knows it is an undeniable sign of…
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Dogs, Dogs, and More Dogs! The Epstein Files 2.0
With the latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files, Dara feels he wants to weigh in on the latest revelations and the famous people implicated. What can be so powerful to cause people to utterly disregard the female victims of Epstein's trafficking operation? Is it a comment on the high society...
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Hamnet, Train Dreams, and the Dark Spells of the Natural World
In this episode, Dara reviews Hamnet and Train Dreams, two very successful films in which nature is integral to the experiences of the protagonists. Jessie Buckley lights up Hamnet as a child of nature, and in Train Dreams, Joel Edgerton's solitary logman carries with him an ineffable sadness and...
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Giving Value to Invisible Living
In this episode, Dara reckons with the endless repetitions and circuits of day-to-day living - how can they be imbued with meaning? Or do we remain passive and wait for meaning to be conferred from outside? And can meaning really be found in the morning cup of coffee, or the daily stroll in the...
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One Film After Another - Movie and TV Review of 2025!
To kick off a new year of the podcast, Dara looks back at his viewing pleasure and displeasure of 2025 and drops some top tens for your consideration. Beginning with a wrap-up of last year's Oscar-winning and nominated titles, he goes on to list his favourite films of 2025, as well as his top…
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The 2025 Christmas Special!
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…
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Saving Christmas and Other Miracles - Interview with Musician, Singer and Songwriter, Aengus Devine
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...
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Mari Lwyd, a Sugar Mouse, and a Rake of Christmas Poems!
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...
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Roses, Tears, and Paying for Lunch - a Multi-Millionaire's Masculinity Hack!
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...
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Flipping the Script and Messing with Expectations
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...
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Hand Me A Tissue, Somebody Just Scored a Goal!
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...
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Can Women Love Monsters? Guillermo del Toro says 'YES'!
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...
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You Silly Girl! Gender Roles from 1940s Hollywood
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...
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It's Autumn - Get Your A** in a Cave!
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…
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The Wisdom of Humanising the Enemy
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…
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AI Love Connections - The Charm of Asymmetric Ones and Zeroes!
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...
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PTA - One Brilliant Film After Another!
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...
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Charlie Kirk, Christian Insulation, and a Lethal Amendment Cocktail
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...
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Robert Redford - The Meeting Point of Hot and Cold
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...
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What Are We Looking For? Warm Blood and Sensory Connection!
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…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
Become a Patreon!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
HOSTED BY
Dara Clear
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The ClearOut have?
The ClearOut currently has 269 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The ClearOut about?
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,...
How often does The ClearOut release new episodes?
The ClearOut publishes regularly with 269 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The ClearOut?
You can listen to The ClearOut on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The ClearOut?
The ClearOut is created and hosted by Dara Clear.
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