Too Many Elephants
The Battle of Ideas Festival made me think again about what I do as a journalist
Why Substack?
I like it, it’s design makes it very readable. Which is great, because I’ve never been a consumer of books (I get my info audibly) but this platform is a big part of the reading I do manage.
It’s like a dusty old library but where you can open up and read just a few pages of a book then put it down again but being safe in the knowledge you can pick up where you left off. Also without having to wash your hands, brush down your clothes or blow your nose afterwards.
Writing isn’t something I’ve done much of in long form. In radio and digital you keep the writing short and crisp because you’ve got to be able to say it out loud.
I joined Substack because I try out almost every interesting new platform there is. I wrote something about my (no longer with us) little pal Crumble, about the grief of losing her so suddenly and the healing I sought and found in music. That was my first writing here, so she stays. I’ll never stop missing Crumble.
Anyway, long story short
I’m a journalist but after 20 years of doing the job, I feel like I’ve not really done what I set out to do. When 20 years ago, I decided to change career (from the City then running companies including my own) I did it because I was tired of suits, tired of accountants, tired of doing something all day that was all about making money. It was personally a great decision and I still love what I do every day.
I had always wanted to work for The BBC. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and prescribed some pills I refused to take. The result? I was often awake in the dark at night, with my brother in the next bed or the bunk above listening to John Peel, the World Service and Test Match Special. Those presenters and reporters around the world, with their posh accents, were a million miles away from me. Journalism was a profession that seemed illusive. I guess if I’d gone to university and not concentrated quite so much on the nihilistic consumption of heroin, I would have stood a better chance of becoming one earlier than I did.
The Battle of Ideas Festival
I really enjoyed the Battle of Ideas Festival. I lived in London for years (Dalston, Hackney before it went up in the world) but have been back home in the North for a long time now. I do notice that the culture of the street and public spaces is so different.
Les Mis
Londoners are by percentage, height and weight a substantially larger community of miserable bastards than we have in Blackpool. So after a solid, working (on time) train down on Saturday morning chatting to fellow passengers, I arrived in London. The tube was overwhelmingly glum and silent with people transfixed by an array of hand held staring machines.
The streets of Westminster were full of cow people and tourists as I marched purposefully passed that big clock, the posh church and arrived at the venue. That’s when London’s misery stopped. I entered the door and was greeted like a long lost friend by everyone at the reception. After that, I just started chatting to people like I would in Blackpool and they were happy to chat back, answer questions and all but one person I asked to interview said yes. The access I had was great too (as did everybody) it made us feel like we were part of something bigger than just us.
Reports coming soon
I spoke to Claire Fox and some other people attending the festival and a video report on the weekend from Too Many Elephants will be published soon.
My overwhelming positivity about the event is because not only were people who came discussing some pretty challenging (in all kinds of ways) ideas, which felt liberating and somewhat transgressive but I also felt free to express my own opinions on some pretty tasty subjects. It made me think just how long I have lived (as a journalist) with a self imposed filter in my brain. Seemingly incapable or empowered enough to express and report on things that are true.
Some true things I really should never have stayed silent about
You know those age old almost impossible questions humanity has wrestled with for millennia, like; What is a woman? How many genders are there? If you create (out of thin air) more money than has ever been created before will it cause housing and stock bubbles and eventually roaring inflation? Does the above benefit the rich or poor?
Such questions clearly are too much for the people who we elect but sadly they are also far too much for most of the main stream media. Working for the BBC I was more than a little horrified that an actual scientist (no lab coat though, so I am still a bit suspicious) said a woman is an adult human female and that there are only two genders. Who knew? An economist or three told us if you print that much money (I paraphrase) then your currency and economy is f****d (unless you’re the US of A.)
I guess my point is that there's stuff I see going wrong all over the place yet politicians and journalists don’t even bother themselves with discussing the detail of solutions. It’s just sound bites, click baits and personality driven drivel from both professions.
Dull behind the scenes things
It’s been a while since I have self shot and hacked together video without editing help or someone good with after effects, so I have a pretty steep learning curve but I am enjoying this so much. My next post will be my first video which introduces Too Many Elephants and is a trailer for the forthcoming chat with Claire Fox and report from the Battle of Ideas Festival alongside other stuff that interests me.
What’s occurring?
Not sure what comes next, once I have mastered hacking video again and have a consistent well designed workflow. I hope I could tackle all kinds of subjects. Politics, journalism, culture, music, technology and well… just explain some ideas and tell some stories that need telling, even though hardly anybody is interested.
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I hope I can make some journalism worthy of your time here at some point.
Sean