Life Happens. We're just the storytellers.
On previous episodes we’ve talked about narrative therapy and telling stories through character.
This episode we investigate the intersection of these two ideas. Can identifying personas as characters improve mental health? Rod Evans, turntablist, music producer and the other half of Angus McAlpine’s rap duo “Broken Aesthetiks”, joins us to share his story.
Because, apparently character-based therapy is already a thing!
Angus McAlpine recently ran as a Greens candidate for the seat of Footscray, using the campaign slogan “Put a Plumber in Parliament”.
His campaign was derailed when the media discovered he had been a rapper in a past incarnation and had created some hip-hop tracks featuring lyrics that contained potential references to date rape and violence against women.
Now, we all know the media has a tendency to sensationalise stories for ratings, but this was a rare opportunity to investigate a real-life example of media duplicity, and find out exactly how far from the truth the media is willing to stray.
Today I sit down with Angus and get his side of the story, and discuss the real-life impacts of stories the mainstream media tells.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Intro clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmM8rE_LdFA
Grhyme Productions on Bandcamp: https://grhymeproductions.bandcamp.com/
News stories on Angus’ campaign:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/more-video-of-rapping-greens-candidate-emerges/10496640
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/greens-candidate-exposed-as-rapper-called-fatgut-who-wrote-about-date-raping-women-and-hurting-his-girlfriend/ar-BBPE15z
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-13/victorian-greens-stand-by-footscray-and-sandringham-candidates/10494022
http://www.starweekly.com.au/news/footscray-greens-candidate-apologises-sexist-hip-hop-past/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-12/victorian-election-greens-woes-not-due-to-preference-deals-alone/10612276
https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/9wxh02/greens_defend_rapping_candidate_angus_mcalpine/
Jay Ridley joins Harv in the studio to discuss music — why it attracts us, why we create it, how it affects the brain, and how it might just be linked to the collective consciousness.
Or not, we can’t really work it out either. But it’s an interesting conversation nevertheless!
Intro Clip – “A Star is Born”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SnMhTOGh3E