Eclecticist

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Synopsis

Eclecticist is an exploration of everything, one topic at a time. Based in London, we take a very British perspective with a heavily colloquial bent on topics that either interest us or we feel warrant investigation. Our mission is to educate ourselves while researching and discussing a spectrum of interesting and mostly contemporary areas with the fringe benefit of distributing the value to any and all listeners. Please spend a little time, have a conversation with your friends and if you will, give us some feedback. Our method of operation is as simple as we could engineer: agree and research a topic then discuss our findings through the filter of our viewpoints. After each show, we publish the working document. Eclecticist.co.uk.

Episodes

  • ECLECTICIST 8: Cenk Uygur Interviews Sam Harris

    25/04/2015 Duration: 01h24min

    An analysis of the conversation between Cenk Uygur and Sam Harris and a wider discussion of the reflexive Harris bashing (and bashing of anyone) in certain liberal circles being critical of Islam. Is it fair to be marginalized for making similar noises to right wing bigots? Hitler may have been right regarding certain tenets of evolution by natural selection, but for the most part, intelligent people don't reject that evolution is a fact. What's with this double standard? Also, How big a part does 'white guilt' play into this? Criticising islam is tantamount to criticizing a race of dark skinned people. Harris and others often preface their comments with reminding us that Islam is a collection of ideas and that any criticism leveled at it applies just as much to white converts. It just so happens that the vast majority of Muslims aren't white so you just can't say these things, honkey. Wait, Ayaan Hirsi Ali isn't white and she gets a heck of a lot of pushback, particularly from Uygur who's thrown a fair few b

  • ECLECTICIST 7: The Music Industry

    16/01/2014 Duration: 01h15min

    Music is the art form most concerned with precision wobbling of the air in order to produce pleasing sounds. Since time immemorial, the motivations to achieve such auditory delights have included religious exultation, regal salutation, military motivation, sexual stratagem, social ascent, poetry and whimsy. As with any human endeavour, over the course of time, an industry is formed through the natural selection of assembled componentry—codification, methodology, agreed nomenclature, commonality of goals to name but a few. Music is one of the oldest common pursuits for which arguably, the most conspicuous industry has arisen. Beautiful sound can transport us; does knowledge of the machine behind the curtain spoil the magic? Eclecticist.co.uk.

  • ECLECTICIST 6: Car Design

    29/10/2013 Duration: 01h15min

    When the automobile became a commodity, manufacturers felt pressure to not only improve function, but to 'improve' appearance. There are a number of contributing factors in determining a car's aesthetics—the style of the age and technological advances are just two obvious examples. Even with that in mind, manufacturers appear to burn a lot of energy creating generations of cars which bear as little (superficial) resemblance as possible to their predecessors—so much so that any car plucked out of the automotive timeline is essentially a snapshot of the zeitgeist. Why is this necessary? And despite the steep ramp in change over time across the board, why does it appear that so many manufacturers collectively churn out the same car? Laziness or perhaps cars are now fully evolved? Who knows. There was a time when cars didn't all look the same. For example in the 1970s a Citroen looked like a spaceship, a Mercedes a breezeblock, A Jag E-type a phallus. These days if you gaffa tape over the badge, it could be anyth

  • ECLECTICIST 5: Gun Ownership

    03/10/2013 Duration: 01h12min

    Gun control is a vital component of any society that values the rule of law. However, the availability of weapons and the freedom to defend oneself and one's property using firearms could be equally vital. Is it possible to maintain a safe and just society with free and easy access to ballistic weaponry? Should gun possession be criminalised and wielded only by democratic governments? In this show, we will discuss the polarising dilemma of gun ownership. Eclecticist.co.uk.

  • ECLECTICIST 4: Alternative Energy

    30/08/2013 Duration: 01h20min

    Bodies of ancient biological organisms buried, compressed and cooked over billions of years have produced Petroleum, a complex, hydrocarbon rich, liquid fuel. As a species, we have been burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale for centuries and it has benefited us in terms of standards of living immeasurably. However, there is only so much petroleum underground. It's getting increasingly harder to extract and will one day, completely run out. There are consequently, environmental, socio-economic and political implications to our dependence. There are many initiatives across the globe dedicated to raising public awareness of our potentially worsening energy situation and an increasingly fruitful effort to make renewable energy solutions realistic. Eclecticist.co.uk.

  • ECLECTICIST 3: New Atheism

    22/08/2013 Duration: 01h20min

    Since the religiously motivated terror attacks on America in 2001 subsequently known as '9/11', a wave of animosity towards structured religions in general and Islamic nations in particular has produced the meme 'New Atheism' and the many volumes that undergird it. In this show we discuss the derivation of the term, key players, effects on religious communities and the potential trajectory of an inflammatory vocal attack on faith. Is there anything new about atheism? Eclecticist.co.uk.

  • ECLECTICIST 2: Professional Critics

    12/08/2013 Duration: 01h09min

    Everybody's a critic. In essence, review is criticism which is judgement. We all do it and we all commonly listen to the criticism by others. In our day to day lives we develop opinions and judge the merits and demerits of virtually everything with the intention of basic discrimination. In this show, we will talk about criticism in the celebrity sense as used by those in the trade, we're criticising professional critics, their motivations, values, weaknesses and utility. Eclecticist.co.uk.

  • ECLECTICIST 1: Apple Design

    07/08/2013 Duration: 01h37min

    Apple Incorporated is an American computer hardware and software manufacturer founded in the 1970s that has grown steadily and then explosively into the largest company in the world (in terms of market capitalisation). Designers at Apple are renowned for agonising over every aspect of functional and aesthetic design, an attribute that has garnered them respect from the design community at large and discerning consumers in equal measure. Our discussion ranges from the rationale of their design ethos, effects on hardware design and technology and how the Apple 'design DNA' formula may propagate into the future. Eclecticist.co.uk

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