PODCAST · society
The Endless Chain Podcast
by Graham Vincent
Philosophy (mine), the world's issues (yours) and what makes us laugh (both of us) endlesschain.substack.com
Episodes
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Why
Back in the mists of time, the Brussels Shakespeare Society put on a play at a theatre in the Schaarbeek district of the town that was, at least then, known as the Scarabaeus. A scarab is an Egyptian good-luck charm, except in the case of this theatre. It is council-owned but was then leased out…
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Law enforcement on campus
Suppose we didn’t know why there are ructions at university campuses. Not suppose that they were having a food strike (which we did at school, and which I wrote about here), but let’s suppose we just didn’t know what the trouble was. That we’d never heard of Israel, or Gaza, or sliced white…
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Oh, to be in Mali, now that spring is here!
Let me tell you something: every morning, I go outside to one of the three water butts I have positioned around my house that collect rainwater off the roof. I fill two watering cans and carry them inside to the downstairs loo. And, when I want to flush the loo, I fill the cistern with my...
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The moral imperative of a trumpet
A gobshite is a stupid and incompetent person. Pronounced gob-shahyt. Realpolitik is a 19th century notion conjured by Ludwig von Rochau, which is in widespread use in today’s world. Nowadays it’s taken to mean the politics of pragmatism: achieving the possible, what is realistic, rather than...
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How do you know the Bible tells you the truth?
“How do you know the Bible tells you the truth—because we have other religions to go by?” Thus a discussion host poses a question to a believer in God. The answer comes: “Because I pray about it.” Without wanting to be dogmatic, he is right. Here’s why I think he is. Belief is like many human...
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Two rationales for atonement
A killing spree. Madness. Crazy. Makes no sense. Unfathomable. The judgments we hear day in, day out, about acts that seem to fit such descriptions. Time and again, in order to comprehend someone’s acts, whether in politics or in the movies or in our employment relations, we’re told to follow the...
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Astronomers discover Milky Way’s biggest stellar black hole – 33 times size of sun
It’s stunning news, isn’t it? The Milky Way’s biggest stellar black hole. And, wouldn’t you know it, it was there the whole time, just 2,000 light years away. It’s called BH3 and I suppose that “BH” means ... black hole. Because it’s black; and a hole. Celestial bodies get named after numbers,...
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Ermenonville, Sunday 3 March 1974
Some records are best not broken. Turkish Airlines flight 981 broke one by becoming the deadliest air crash to date, the date being Sunday, 3 March 1974. I can remember it, and it shocked me. It shocked the world. Paris Match asked whether the day had come to say “no” to jumbo jets. Their by-line...
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Standing your ground
Curtis Reeves and John Walters are both killers. Curtis shot a man dead at point-blank range in a cinema in Florida, and John shot a man dead on the forecourt of a petrol station in San Antonio, Texas. Curtis was tried on a charge of second-degree murder, and acquitted. John was never charged....
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When in Jerusalem, do as the Romans do
My father’s old 1930s encyclopaedia contains the following illustration and attendant description. There’s a common misconception that the caesarean operation for giving birth is named after Caesar, but this is incorrect. In fact, it is because the man himself was born thus that he was named...
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Good guys and bad guys
All my life, it’s been good guys and bad guys. Just like in The Virginian: James Drury and Doug McClure were the good guys, the men from Shiloh. And they took all the bad guys to task. Drury might’ve had a black hat and a black shirt, but his horse was white as the driven snow. First we learned...
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They defy the law and the law is barely fighting back
We gather here in this great hall of justice, in the Peace Palace. We are reminded of these simple words: peace through justice, peace through law. The General Assembly brought the question of Palestine before the court because our people are in jeopardy. The clarity of the law as it pertains to...
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Israel is fighting this war for all free-thinking people
When Israel attended a peace conference in Brussels on 27 January 2024, they used part of the time available to them to show a presentation of a projected rail link from Israel to India. Just to remind you, here is a map of the area between Israel and India: The route would go through Syria or...
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The rise of the right
“Love him or hate him, we all owe Snowden our thanks for forcing upon the nation an important debate. But the debate shouldn’t be about him. It should be about the gnawing questions his actions raised from the shadows.” Bernie Sanders, US Senator for the state of Vermont, on whistleblower Edward...
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They, the people
In his song L’Italia, Marco Masini sings, “È un paese, l’Italia, che governano loro”, which can be translated as Italy’s a land ruled by “them”. Masini sings of his homeland, but is it not something that we can say about every country? Famously, the US Constitution begins with the words We, the...
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A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine
Every school playground supervisor knows—or thinks they know—that there are two sides to every argument. That of the party who allegedly struck out; and that of the party that was allegedly struck. It’s a philosophy that I’ve long since adhered to: that, even though one might be persuaded by...
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Come on, get off
In a crowded bus, giving up your seat for someone else does not reduce the number of people who are standing; nor does it increase the number of people who are sitting. So, why would you do it? The reasons seem obvious: if a young, fit person gives up their seat to someone who is disabled…
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Happy New Armageddon
The wind may blaw, the cock may craw, The rain may rain and the snaw may snaw, But ye winna’ frichten Jock McGraw, The stoutest man in the Forty-Twa’ The wind is blowing and, up in Alba, there’s even snow. Rain there is a plenty, but, Forty-Twa’ or no, is Jock McGraw afeared of Gerrit’s terrible...
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The sixth sense at work on the information superhighway
This year, I attended, having received two invitations to do so, a meeting that was held at the house of someone I know. We had socialised before and I had been a guest at his home before. However, I knew that I had no great need to be at this meeting and, in fact, no entitlement. One might…
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When they went to West Africa
When they went to West Africa, they brought with them their ships; they brought their languages and, Dr Livingstone, I presume they brought their fine explorers. They brought their linguists and their cartographers, their spades and their drills, their craftsmen and their architects; they built...
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The Christmas story
Believers in God, in Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, cite the Bible as the source for their belief and yet only two of the four gospels dwell in any manner on the circumstances surrounding the Nativity. Some might regard that as surprising, given the biological miracle that Jesus’s birth entailed (the...
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Streaming boys
Streaming means now something different from what it meant when I was at school. Fifty years ago. Then, it meant sorting wheat from chaff, or boys from … other boys. I was at a boys’ school and, in my year, the intake was large enough to have three parallel classes, or forms we called them. My...
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Death: a change of perspective
The entire metaphysical, spiritual and theological aspects aside, nothing changes perspectives quite like death. Whether it’s your own or that of a close friend or member of the family. Last week, I wrote to a friend to ask whether he thought it was advisable to take up a pen-friendship with a...
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Christmas presents
From my essay "Eyes of Needles": “In God’s world, property has no value. It simply exists, but no one could tell you that a fish is worth less than a tree if there weren’t markets there to tell you what fish cost and what wood costs. There are no markets in Heaven. So, what is the benefit in...
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Substance over form
Een NL-versie van deze tekst is hier verder beneden te lezen. Readers who have been with me on this journey for some time may have seen the following sentiments before, but in a different form. The change of form is due to a change in the question that has been put to me, on this occasion from…
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Twelve men good and true
“It’s a long and winding road for Epic. The firm lost the Apple case, which is on appeal, but got the Google case to a jury.” (Matt Stoller: BIG Newsletter, 12 December 2023.) Matt Stoller is a respected blogger who discusses competition law matters, and this quote is from a recent blog post in...
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Blessed are ... America’s gun laws
Image: Salvador Ramos, perpetrator of the 2022 Uvalde massacre. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Thanks for reading The Endless Chain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. It was, I think, at a reception being held by socialite Dorothy Parker that the…
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Eyes of needles
The poor have it. The rich need it. If you eat it, you’ll die. What is it? A clever riddle is always a good riddle, but not if you’re the object of its sharper point. I’ll leave you to ponder the solution, which is to be found at the foot of the article, just above the “Share” button. Thanks for...
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Quiet, and quite happy
“A little quiet but appears to be quite happy,” is what my report card for Autumn Term, 1973 read. That was my House Tutor’s assessment, at least, and John Bairstow was renowned for his Yorkshire bluntness. One word strikes me only now, 50 years on: but. Can a boy not be quite happy and a little...
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The “The”
This article was first published in LinkedIn on 11 April 2022. Madonna and I grew up together. Not that we ever met, but she’s three years older than I am, so the times we grew up in were the same, if the experiences different. I have no idea if Madonna was ever a philatelist, but with an active...
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Hoe vrolijk je iemand op die in het ZH ligt?
[English version below] Ik schrijf lange berichten en vrienden die denken dat ze vrienden zijn, vertellen me dat ze te lang zijn. Ik besteed enorm veel aandacht aan lange berichten, en mensen zeggen dat ze te lang zijn. Mensen willen vriendschap die is afgestemd op hun persoonlijke wensen. Thanks...
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Authentic German
In his Little History of Photography essay (1931), Walter Benjamin describes the mysterious “aura” that the earliest portrait photographs had to them. For instance, he discusses David Octavius Hill’s 1840s picture of a Newhaven fishwife, in whose downcast gaze there “remains something … that…
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Ich gehe eben nach draußen; es könnte etwas dauern
Dieser Beitrag wurde am 17. Mai 2023 in englischer Version veröffentlicht. [This article was published in English on 17 May 2023.] Captain Lawrence Oates war ein Held. In mehreren Punkten, aber für einen von denen er am liebsten in Erinnerung bleibt. Verletzt und als Belastung für die immense...
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Shut that door
My gran used to tell me that her Church of Scotland minister once said there is no more awful thing to say to another person than “Shut up!” She very much liked Larry Grayson, whose catch phrase was “Shut that door!” She could laugh at Larry Grayson, but not at “Shut up.” Well, if she were here...
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Sorry seems to be the hardest word
A friend of mine was motoring down a narrow village lane the other day, passing parked cars, when, all of a sudden, she was confronted by a bicycle coming the other way. It’s a one-way street, but the bikes are allowed to come up against the flow, being just wee things an’ all as they are. This...
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Childhood memories—darkened
In June 1967, I, together with my classmates, cowered in fear at Broadgate School, comforted by our teacher, as terror rained down from the heavens. In those days, extreme weather wasn’t so common, but this day in June 1967 was exceptional. Hailstones as large as golf balls. By the time the storm...
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Water cannot be thwarted
It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 movie starring Spencer Tracey and a whole coterie of comic actors who witness a road accident, as a result of which the now hapless Jimmy Durante reveals the location of a hidden treasure. The rest of the film is the race to the treasure, which is located...
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From the river to the sea
One of the things that has long since confused me about America is that the sweet land of liberty knows so many constraints. The Americans have hi-jacked the word need and use it to mean do it, or else: “I need you to stand with your legs apart and your hands in the air as I handcuff you.” I...
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Honking and waving
France is like England, but without the hedgerows. Or like Belgium with bigger fields. Or like Germany, with fewer cows. Everything in the French countryside looks a bit over-the-hill, tired, knackered, and therefore quaint. There are opulent little houses incongruously perched on street corners,...
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The privileges and burdens of statesmanship
Click above for a voiceover to this article. All voiceovers are available on Apple Podcasts under The Endless Chain. A few years ago, King Philippe of the Belgians and Queen Mathilde were fulfilling an official function at a retirement home of their realm. Their Majesties were kindly bidden to...
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Ever-mutating anti-semitism
A friend sent me this, the day before I motor to my great-uncle’s grave in Albert, France, where he fell on a battlefield in 1915, and where his bones since then have lain. I will wear his medals, and I will kiss his penny, and I will lay chrysanthemums to beautify his horrendous death. His life...
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Slavemaan? For Peace’s sake!
Gemeente Herent is the branch of government in Belgium that regulates local affairs for me. They organise the street lighting, the removal of waste and repairs to minor roads. Herent Borough Council has responsibilities of its own, and it has responsibilities that it must coordinate with others.…
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I’ll have what she’s having
I believe you can listen to this article as a podcast by clicking up here. There. I was, some years ago, gifted by a dear friend, for Christmas, a sweatshirt bearing the legend, I am silently correcting your grammar. I wear it with pride to events where there are likely to be poor grammarians...
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Boots, boots, boots, boots, moving up and down again
Clip: Australian tenor Peter Dawson sings his hit Boots. I’m not entirely sure how it comes that police always estimate attendees at demos at much lesser a number than demo organisers do, aside, that is, from the fact that estimates usually reflect the parties’ interests in the number being low…
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Rules are made to be broken—by rules
Click above to hear this article as section 564 of the Highway Code The Portland transportation authority in Oregon, USA, has put in some bike lanes that it authorised two years ago. That has to be a good thing, doesn’t it? Well, local residents are surprised, to say the least because they allege...
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A Christmas carol
Click above to listen to this article as a ghost story. No need to wait for Christmas. The word scrooge has entered common parlance to mean anyone who grumbles incessantly at the joyous occasion of Christmas. Over a certain age, that’s all of us, to some degree. It comes from the character…
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Walk on
Click the button to hear my hoarse, equine tones resound to this ode. There are, it appears, modes of movement that monitor. They know where you’ve been, and may know where you’re headed; your sex life, your thoughts, and your feelings; and they spread muck wherever you go. Some, you know where...
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A courageous trooper, soldiering for peace
A voiceover of this article is available by clicking above It has taken me 13 months of patient waiting. In the last 13 months, I had not a sign nor a whisper nor so much as a hint in response to a question I posed when the Russo-Ukrainian war broke out. And now, I have the response I sought. The...
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Tick, tick, tick: we have ways of making you tok
A fellow on the Substack equivalent of Prime Minister’s question time—an occasional get-together of writers, content producers and a panel of people who work for Substack, to answer our questions—asked whether we couldn’t perhaps post videos to garner interest from the junior end of the age…
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Choosing our words carefully
You can hear by clicking above, what’s here by flicking below—boom, boom! Evil Nazi Threat Genocide Existential Lie Terrorism E N T G E L T = reward in German. Because ... what follows is your reward! (Corny as a Basil Brush joke: Boom, boom!) Thanks for reading The Endless Chain! Subscribe for...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Philosophy (mine), the world's issues (yours) and what makes us laugh (both of us)
endlesschain.substack.com
HOSTED BY
Graham Vincent
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The Endless Chain Podcast currently has 74 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Endless Chain Podcast about?
Philosophy (mine), the world's issues (yours) and what makes us laugh (both of us) endlesschain.substack.com
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The Endless Chain Podcast has 74 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Who hosts The Endless Chain Podcast?
The Endless Chain Podcast is created and hosted by Graham Vincent.
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