Reading this now… christ…
@anon67050589 posted this in the neurodiversity thread, so I wanted to share my response there back here…
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It was incredibly creepy but this part was especially alarming
Torsten has knocked the table with his foot and caused it to teeter, to almost topple, before it rights itself. Immediately – like a reflex – Malcolm hits him in the face.
It is not a heavy blow, but it is a slap with the palm of his hand direct to his two-year-old son’s face that’s firm enough for me to hear on my voice recorder when I play it back later. And Malcolm has done it in the middle of a public place, in front of a journalist, who he knows is recording everything
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Agreed.
The like a reflex thing the reporter notices.
Yikes.
I sure hope someone outside that family in a position to monitor the health and safety of those children, those very young children… ye gods.
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[ETA]
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I’ve really gotten into doing crossword puzzles the last few years, and a name I started seeing a lot was Sid Sivakumar. He’s a really interesting guy.
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Old school Philosophy tube!
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Shakin’ in my boots at bit here.
Both sides of my family have had very… eventful… lives.
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If it weren’t for trauma I’d have no family history at all.
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Oh man, I went down a YouTube rabbit hole and now my head hurts.
Also, math is fun!
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[ETA]
A tough read, but…
I have some quibbles with some of their framing (downplaying the agency of the British government in the case of Ireland and Bengal, playing it up in the case of the Soviet Famine… but generally speaking, something to think about.
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What the what–
…
What Gowan had been trying to prove for years gained some traction in 2007, with pieces in the Ecologist and a Guardian article exploring how “Monsanto helped to create one of the most contaminated sites in Britain”. One was described as smelling “of sick when it rains and the small brook that flows from it gushes a vivid orange.” But then momentum stalled.Years later, in 2023, Ashby and Taylor stumbled on a recording of Sheen giving the 2017 Raymond Williams memorial lecture, which referenced Gowan and his work. Before they knew it, they were in the actor’s kitchen drinking tea and learning he had conducted a life-spanning seven-hour interview with Gowan before his death. So they joined forces. Sheen isn’t just a token celebrity name added for clout on this podcast; he is invested. For him, it’s personal as well as political. “Once you dig into it, you realise there’s a pattern,” he says. “All the places where this seems to have happened are poor working-class areas. There’s a sense that areas like the one I come from are being exploited.”
Sheen even goes to visit some contaminated sites in the series, coming away from one feeling sick. “That made it very real,” he says. “To be looking into a field and going: ‘Well, I’m pretty sure that’s toxic waste.’” Sheen was living a double life of sorts. “I went to rehearsals for a play on Monday and people were like, ‘What did you do this weekend?’” he says. “‘Oh, I went to the most contaminated area in the UK and I think I may be poisoned.’ People thought I was joking.” Sheen ended up being OK, but did have some temporary headaches and nausea, which was a worry. “We literally had to work out if we had poisoned Michael Sheen,” says Ashby, who also ponders in the series: “Have I just killed a national treasure?”
…
The whole article is… yeah… interesting alright.
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