Five By Five Times

It’s taken nearly 60 years but finally I’ve accepted my nature as an introverted person, delighted to be alone. I’m no longer furtive about or ashamed of it. And the process, paradoxically, has got me slowly un-hibernating. Being alone is deprogramming in a frantic world. I can rejoin it now that I’m far more myself. Perhaps you can relate to this?

Steve Johnson taught at the University of South Wales for many years on outward-facing, employability-focused modules, partnering with external organisations. He also led its 'Community of Engagement’ programme, enabling ground-up routes of progression. Now ‘retired’, one of his main interests still lies in finding sustainability models for community radio in Wales. He hosts the Cardiff City Phone In and Creatrium podcast series, and works with award-winning on-demand hospital radio service YYFM. We had a wide-ranging discussion about all this and more.

The special guest for this episode of The Bite is political writer, podcaster, and all-round good guy Don McGowan. Join us as we talk about resistance and UK politics, podcasting, and whether and how to make use of the free publication platform Substack.

Jill Ebsworth is a Canadian and Welsh poet and artist who, like many, experienced many obstacles to creativity until it started breaking free in later life. Join us as we chat about midlife creative renaissance, generational curses, and being enough.

In this episode connected to the Five By Five Times Substack, I peek through the hole of what is unknown through the stone of the known, to explore the myths and meanings of hagstones. Read along here: https://fivebyfivetimes.substack.com/p/h-is-for-hagstone

You’ll know the sublime actor Elizabeth Saunders from IT, Orphan Black, Schitt’s Creek, Mary Kills People, and so much more. And, most recently, from FROM. It’s a delight to have her as the first of many guests on this podcast, not least because we’ve known each other for a very long time. Join us as we chat about the 80s, why we’re not goddesses, Catherine O’Hara, and how we’re coping with diagnoses of neurodivergence later in life. Read more about the latter subject here: https://plottwistplay.substack.com/

Why are normal people acting like norms are still the norm? Nice people need to stop expecting that not-nice people will play nicely. Read along and see relevant memes & etc here: https://takethebite.substack.com/p/disappointed-but-not-surprised

Sometimes you keep circling back to things you’ve given up. This is true of ‘Morning Pages’ for me. I learned of them around 20 years ago by reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Read along with this episode and see its images and links here: https://theacornmagazine.substack.com/p/mourning-pages

A love song to a remarkable film. And something I didn’t say and should have: it has a superb screenplay. Read along here: https://fivebyfivetimes.substack.com/p/b-is-for-?

A bit rambling because *tired*, but looking at how to reframe things so as not to frighten your brain, and some questions you might ask when beginning to explore and reassess your life after the plot twist of neurodivergence awareness.

The traditional model of journalism is broken in multiple ways. Here I lay out the case for why hublication and other innovative, inclusive models are desperately needed. Read more here: https://payhip.com/CymruConversations

Is the UK Labour Government casually continuing crimes against humanity? Read along here: https://takethebite.substack.com/p/silent-social-murder-by-the-left

When we reimagine ourselves or bring old imaginings into reality, and grow to feel proud rather than weird, we reinvent what life itself can be. Reinvention, paradoxically, means becoming more yourself. Read along here: https://theacornmagazine.substack.com/p/becoming-more-you

Another Small World Story for your delectation, involving firm friends, forest fires, and Farrah Fawcett. Read a long [sort of] here: https://fivebyfivetimes.substack.com/p/h-is-for-hotspots

Can we really leave the past behind? Should we? Can the past, in fact, be changed? Talk therapy, going over and over the past, doesn’t work for everyone. But might it be beneficial for people who’ve learned after many years of life that they’re neurodivergent? And if so, how do we approach such reassessment?

There should be a public inquiry into austerity, which has killed far more people than Covid has in the UK (around 250,000, though that’s likely an undercount. It’s 1 in every 278 people, compared to perhaps 1 in every 65 souls through austerity and other ‘levelling down’. 1 in 65! This episode is an excerpt from Levelling Down: Austerity in Wales, by a community of writers in and of Wales, though it doesn’t just relate to Wales by any means. You can download the book here: https://payhip.com/CymruConversations

“We will quietly do whatever we want and they will never know,” said Elon Musk’s four-year-old son to Tucker Carlson. Read along with this episode, and watch some relevant video clips, at https://takethebite.substack.com/p/anything-can-be-hacked

You don’t have to be insane, or French, or a child savant, to be an artist. You just have to enjoy playing with paper, colour, atmosphere, and concepts, and trust the small voice inside that tells you when to stop. Connect the dots you see in the world, fill the empty spaces. Then, if you want, if you dare, throw what you’ve done at the walls of the world outside and see if anything sticks; walls that once you built inside, out of fear. Read this episode here: https://theacornmagazine.substack.com/p/art-is-life-life-is-art

When the world is full of triggers, what you really need is glimmers. Tune in every Friday for moments of joy and mystery, and sometimes magical guests. Read along with the original article and its illuminating images here: https://fivebyfivetimes.substack.com/p/j-is-for-just-magic

If, like me, you’ve been diagnosed or have self-diagnosed as being in some way neurodiverse – especially in midlife and older, though there will be something for all ages here – then you’ve experienced a massive plot twist. I’m beginning to explore and reassess, creatively, my nearly 60 years of life in the light of this knowledge, to help me come to terms with it and adjust my self-esteem accordingly. Join me and others on this journey, and share your own experiences and techniques. Read a shorter version with meme and quote examples at: https://plottwistplay.substack.com/p/welcome-to-plot-twist

As the Coordinating Editor of Cymru Conversations, every Wednesday I’ll be talking about what’s going on in Wales and promoting the voices of Welsh writers – sometimes solo, sometimes with great guests. Today I’m letting you know about a new model of self-expression I’m experimenting with: hublication. You can read more about it here: https://payhip.com/CymruConversations

Welcome to Five By Five Times on Tuesdays, devoted to The Bite: potty-mouthed international politics and society with snark. Read along here: https://takethebite.substack.com/p/leader-of-the-free-what-now

Did you know oak trees don’t start dropping acorns until they’re 40 or 50? Mondays at Five By Five Times are all about The Acorn, inspiring and supporting creative renaissance in midlife and up. Read it here: https://theacornmagazine.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-acorn