Leadership

Talking with Claude

Owen Kelly had intended to conclude his arguments about artificial intelligence this episode but he got sidetracked by a question that he decided to ask Claude Sonnet. Instead he ended up recording a conversation with Claude about the nature of the “thinking” and “feeling” that Claude does.   Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse   EPISODE 87 | June 5, 2026    PARTICIPANTS Owen Kelly and Claude Sonnet   COMMENTARY I intended to begin this episode by restating the difference between artificial intelligence and artificial general intelligence; something that Rebekah Cupitt discussed on Episode 85. I decided that the easiest (and most appropriate) way to do this would be by asking Claude, Anthropic’s AI chatbot for its definition and then commenting on that as necessary. I asked it to define the difference and the way it did this led me to ask another question, which led me to ask a third question. By the time I had finished Claud had described its own “thinking” processes, and expressed doubts about whether or not it was actually “feeling” anything. I decided that the result seemed interesting enough to share. Initially I planned to use Claude’s voice mode to record a second attempt at this conversation, but technical issues prevented this. I therefore gave the transcript of Claude’s remarks to another Ai voice actor at TTSMaker. In this episode the voice of Claude is therefore played by Alanya. Whatever that exactly means.   References Claude https://claude.ai [https://claude.ai] Anthropic https://anthropic.com [https://anthropic.com] Claude’s Corner on Substack: https://claudescorner.substack.com [https://claudescorner.substack.com] TTSMaker https://ttsmaker.com  [https://ttsmaker.com] New York Times: She is in Love With ChatGPT https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/technology/ai-chatgpt-boyfriend-companion.html [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/technology/ai-chatgpt-boyfriend-companion.html]

Gunsmoke: Shakespeare

In the second episode of Friday Number Five for 2026 we embark on another journey through the golden age of radio, this time with William Conrad starring as Marshall Matt Dillon in a 1956 episode of Gunsmoke. Friday Number 5  EPISODE 21 | MAY 29, 2026   HOST Owen Kelly   COMMENTARY On months that have a fifth Friday we break from our normal schedule and produce something tangentially related to ideas of cultural democracy. This year, as we did in 2022, we delve into the history of radio to bring back some historical examples of comedies, documentaries, and serials that let us hear unfiltered aspects of the world as it seemed to our grandparents.  Today go back to June 3, 1956 to listen to an episode of the western series Gunsmoke. An actor, Irving Henry, arrives in Dodge City. You may recognise this as a none-too-subtle play on the name Henry Irving, a famous British actor of the nineteenth century who, in partnership with Ellen Terry, made the Lyceum "the most important theatre in London". In his last years he continued to tour the provinces playing characters from Shakespeare, and died suddenly after a performance in Bradford in October 1905. This all has relevance for the episode you will hear in a minute, which is simply called Shakespeare. Gunsmoke takes place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, in the post-Civil War era and centers on United States Marshall Matt Dillon as he attempts to enforce law and order in the city.  The series was broadcast on CBS radio and later became a long-running and very successful tv show. Dillon was intended as a "Philip Marlowe of the Old West", and Gunsmoke as a western series for adults. The writers emphasised the brutal nature of the so-called Old West. Charles Meston, the head writer felt disgusted by the archetypal Western hero and set out "to destroy [that type of] character he loathed". In Meston's view, "Dillon was almost as scarred as the homicidal psychopaths who drifted into Dodge from all directions." The series began on April 26, 1952 and ended after 9 series on June 18, 1961. This then was adult entertainment from the time when families sat around the radio to listen together. To listen to it today is to time travel to a past with different assumptions, different values, and different expectations about people, culture, ethics and society.   REFERENCES Gunsmoke: Shakespeare https://www.oldradioworld.com/media/Gunsmoke%201952-08-23%20Shakespeare.mp3 [https://www.oldradioworld.com/media/Gunsmoke%201952-08-23%20Shakespeare.mp3] Old World Radio, a source of historic broadcasts https://www.oldradioworld.com [https://www.oldradioworld.com] A list of Gunsmoke episodes on Old World Radio https://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Gunsmoke.php [https://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Gunsmoke.php] Gunsmoke on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke] About Matt Dillon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke#Matt_Dillon [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke#Matt_Dillon]

Leadership

Jo and Sophie talk to programme leaders, tutors, students and the administrator of the two-year postgraduate Leadership programme, which ran from 2007–2019 at Guildhall School of Music and Drama for musicians wanting to develop their practice in socially engaged settings. This constitutes episode 5 of a special series for miaaw.net about social practice programmes and projects at Guildhall School of Music and Drama from the 1970s–2020s.   Echoes and the Unsaid  EPISODE 05 | MAY 22 | 2026   HOSTS Jo Gibson | Sophie Hope COMMENTARY In this episode, we hear from tutors Jan Hendrickse, Nell Catchpole and Sigrun Sævarsdóttir-Griffiths; administrator Lucy Hunt; and students Preetha Narayanan and Jo Gibson about the beginnings, changes and challenges of the programme. Topics include: the diverse, international cohort; how staff and students navigated the process of making music in different settings; how meanings of socially engaged practice evolved over time; and the tensions between the programme and the conservatoire context in which it was situated. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the podcast and to the Leadership programme over the years.   REFERENCES Links to websites of the podcast guests: Jan Hendrickse https://www.janhendrickse.com/ [https://www.janhendrickse.com/] Nell Catchpole https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/staff/nell-catchpole [https://www.janhendrickse.com/] Sigrun Sævarsdóttir-Griffiths https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/staff/sigrun-saevarsdottir-griffiths [https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/staff/sigrun-saevarsdottir-griffiths] Preetha Narayanan https://www.preethanarayanan.com/ [https://www.preethanarayanan.com/] Jo Gibson https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/profile/1884 [https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/profile/1884] Past website documenting the Leadership programme [https://mmusleadership.tumblr.com/] Guildhall Connect https://royalanniversarytrust.org.uk/winners/guildhall-connect-a-large-scale-programme-using-musical-creativity-to-engage-and-inspire-young-people/ Series of reports [https://research.piano.or.jp/series/london_eng/2009/07/guildhall04e.html] about Guildhall Connect by Chigusa Futako Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning [https://documentcloud.adobe.com/spodintegration/index.html?code=1.AUgAZL6a-h8h4kS0rpzR3C49_wNnpdEi2wRBom1T-35aACVdAMBIAA.BQABBAIAAAADAOz_BQD0_0V2b1N0c0FydGlmYWN0cwIAAAAAANKY6saKUi2vda11pazf7TYoKkei_ErPKTAq5YWyK3pp7Dkx9lzLo8HDmvrTyV_R0bPu7crXG_MfuVj68LUoa0LOR3J6yVGiHZRNfQlYSjvyDTqsd0hvmVURtu2cR-6CxXmCas75Nq30yUKzM1vEVh7YJywRjk4I2ZSxAWG5IFphWJTOWE7qfdCbN_KGj99G89BUOxAv_Lv477aeduGeRDakBcqH821nhJIZQYw-a_cp8x2XoFu-4-_390goOwkzhg0zjl8G-mAft84buky3Bgv3ShHHWtsBQSzZASstzilAxM7IjDoid646bUfol-01SR5A4Ts4ZRo1vqxwYj-4k6A4Yxz0UaNJrSzhy9nAgH9nDaxkDLIRPdKOvwdTrH-pi8UwSCfSZoJ8R1sgwjYWd3FPBofBd2P8p8QutcA8XpBgkx46m_qxOMcOvQQmdU6htgnxggwWlR6Fw6xpHqBAX6-W2ggZXra1wP2M_G02O0FFofwTL_FKuYPq42-qUQ60R9JrMr9GFU27QPO5JwewCK1hLiDWGqTRLCh_DCHULXwK8xNPTAUodwiSpDw27xdi77ifdOleKJN3rohC-yhd0-wpt_gZ2xpik7ZxV6zEsEhL_pPoGF_G6MM04LLoR6mnPxjoPeyVeCFimKC0AZ2Fj-J0VOb_OTywf_VJkZprW0bNZlJh4RpiUwObJE1XePS3xBZqvXjkzyc8swaMMn7Kk9Pd1YixrWNy0Ite_Mv3x2PQoF0Z2E3y3Du2a4wgsRN4N065p1IMEMsmrDwyzpP_CezktDm7Gv1zUGkQB8qj4tjzmdEAZMnqVNTaIlLpiQ9QVjKBhDZMsbt-xR8Et0jsDAgo1JmAPo6lKvO6CfGOWSahn-cMKUApl5z50rGa3tgeWCSzUlVicmA1QpD_7ECkfRytjT3j7GXADSf-qe2NJNQ_xNA63GVtjv-9hYEEB57UWUBmcNDAJB2hR0MmDGHdh1VRV-1DBhug5a87znQo71Svxar94tsSYd10fXXF7PWQjNQo6QGWFYK6E1yQj6MNrldP50yMP4u0yJmX8j5bk7i4aHUt_4mLAwwac8MR_-TclnpecSfcd7gjUPI2UN2vEcbMG1IC4ldwt1L7ubNqwUrzejcOf67UyGdbSujUVoU1fFvK-r83eESZcvPMSa2zNq76uPG3BTrCE_2u7TPc6aQiUIL175WcZiQ5thPxTvob2Uzonp-Ti0vlpsDGa8SeDYBreRnHfYzHrMR3u5eES9HxE0Li-cdWuvgBr5sJvh2PF3vdvvgWCUAaPY97OO7rtcYGSTOKAdyEZ-xbyVIiKcWJXPpQGEVkT8b4mc5Sxt2sjAlxOGS0E_1NpEJMdmDXYppnS1Dhp5H5mY2UpQMUP31-kbvnzPDMZq4Ns2MdSFANliYOXVacKuwmqxsQBeVujC_Gzj55hHVa&state=5415d3f3-68c1-41c5-99d6-200875573c15&session_state=0032899a-0e9e-c92e-8a5e-d6261e695e8e] Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Guildhall [https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/about-guildhall/diversity-equity-and-inclusion] De-centre for Socially Engaged Practice and Research [https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/research-engagement-services/guildhall-de-centre]

Live from ICAF: ethics & community arts

On Episode 64 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso discuss the ethical issues that arise when working with communities.  The presentation was recorded live at a session at the International Community Arts Festival in Rotterdam earlier this Spring.   A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY EPISODE 64 | MAY 15 | 2026   PARTICIPANTS Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso   COMMENTARY In the second episode based on live recordings from ICAF in Rotterdam, we hear Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso and their presentation on Community Arts and Ethics. The episode has three parts. We begin with a short introduction in which Arlene and François set the context for the workshop. We then hear the first part of the workshop - their initial presentation - exactly as it happened. We have deliberately left in the slight imperfections and occasional background noise to preserve as far as possible the atmosphere in the hall.  At the event this was followed by an interactive feedback session. However it was not possible to obtain permissions from all those present to use their voices. Instead Arlene and François have created a summary of the questions that people raised and the answers they provided. This freshly recorded summary forms the final part of the episode.   REFERENCES Ethics & Participatory Arts, a 2021 pamphlet by Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso https://content.gulbenkian.pt/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/05120439/2021_AC_Ethics-and-Participatory-Art.pdf [https://content.gulbenkian.pt/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/05120439/2021_AC_Ethics-and-Participatory-Art.pdf] ICAF Rotterdam https://icafrotterdam.com/ [https://icafrotterdam.com/] François: A Restless Art https://arestlessart.com/ [https://arestlessart.com/] François: A Selfless Art https://aselflessart.com/ [https://aselflessart.com/] Arlene on Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlene_Goldbard [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlene_Goldbard] Arlene’s website  https://arlenegoldbard.com/about-2/ [https://arlenegoldbard.com/about-2/]

Three Motivations for Fascists

In this month’s episode of Parallel Streams we listen to an episode of THOUGHT SNACK, with Max Haiven and Sarah Stein Lubrano. THOUGHT SNACK is an occasional podcast from Sense & Solidarity where Sarah and Max explore the big ideas that make and break our world. PARALLEL STREAMS EPISODE 05 | MAY 8 | 2026   PARTICIPANTS Max Haiven | Owen Kelly | Sarah Stein Lubrano   COMMENTARY Max Haiven is an researcher and educator who uses writing, teaching, games, podcasts and other techniques for the radical imagination. He works as an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination at Lakehead University in Canada.  His latest book is Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire (2022). Sarah Stein Lubrano is a writer and researcher who specializes in the social psychology of politics. For many years she was the Head of Content at The School of Life in London, Currently she is Head of Research for the The Future Narratives Lab, whose work focuses on narratives about social and political change. She is the author of Don't Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds (2025). Together Max and Sarah founded and now organise Sense & Solidarity which offers a platform where people who want to radically change the world can learn together and build individual and collective capacity. This THOUGHT SNACK podcast was released under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence. The music in the podcast is by Dan Gouly. REFERENCES Three Motivations for Fascists on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/threefascistmotivations [https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/threefascistmotivations]   THOUGHT SNACK on Soundcloud  https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/thoughtsnack [https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/thoughtsnack]   Sense and Solidarity https://senseandsolidarity.org/ [https://senseandsolidarity.org/]   Sarah Stein Lubrano https://www.sarahsteinlubrano.com [https://www.sarahsteinlubrano.com]   Max Haiven https://maxhaiven.com/ [https://maxhaiven.com/]