The first in a new Miaaw series, in which we introduce and showcase other podcasts. In this episode the Irene Taylor Trust present Solidarity Tracks, a podcast about working with music in prisons. 
 
PARALLEL STREAMS | EPISODE 01
JANUARY 9 | 2026 
PARTICIPANTS
Sophie Hope | Sara Lee
COMMENTARY
The Irene Taylor Trust began in 1995 in memory of Irene Taylor who had a personal interest in both penal reform and music. While serving on the selection panel for the Butler Trust prison awards scheme, Irene had come across Sara Lee, who was at that time music co-ordinator at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. Following Irene’s, the Taylor family decided to set up a charity that would continue to do the work that she had been so in favour of, and invited Sara to set up the Irene Taylor Trust Music in Prisons programme.
Sara has led the trust’s music work ever since.
Sophie Hope recently met Sara Lee, and discovered that the Trust has produced a series of podcasts that describe work that fits directly into our areas of interest. Rather than interviewing Sara, Sophie decided to ask if we could republish one of their podcasts.
This has become the first in a new Miaaw series in which we invite you to listen to other podcasts we think you might enjoy; podcasts that complement, and in some cases extend, the range of actions and works we cover.
REFERENCES
The Irene Taylor Trust
Irene Taylor Trust Youtube channel
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Irene Taylor Trust
 
 

Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Su Jones about the reactions she has received to her paper Artists' lives: ecologies for resilience, and what she hopes happens next.
 Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | Episode 82
January 2nd | 2026
 
PARTICIPANTS
Sophie Hope | Su Jones | Owen Kelly
COMMENTARY
Last summer Su Jones finished writing <strong>Artists' lives: ecologies for resilience</strong>, a report formed around case studies of 14 visual artists from three English regions. She had been working on it for the last two years.
In this episode Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Su Jones about the reactions she has received, and her feelings about them. She discusses the position of an independent researcher and the influence she has, or doesn’t have. She talks about the precarious position that visual artists occupy in a country in which increasing numbers of people occupy precarious positions.
Should artists receive a basic incomes, as they have in Irish experiments, or does that simply amount to special pleading? Would a better proposal involve everyone receiving a universal basic income which artists can use to enable them to practice as artists, golfers can use to practice golf, and chess players can use to practice chess?
REFERENCES
Su Jones: Artists’ Lives: ecologies for resistance, an overview
Su Jones’ writings at Arts Professional
Su Jones’ article at Arts Professional (paywall)
Su Jones’ article at Arts Monthly (paywall)
Ireland: basic income for artists

Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk about redemption: : the understanding that we can learn from experience and choose to realign some aspect of our lives to our deepest values.
How much do people believe positive change is possible? How much are people’s ideas of possibility constrained by a certainty that our pasts over-determine our future?
 
DECEMBER 9 | SERIES 2025
STREAM A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY | EPISODE 59
 
PARTICIPANTS
Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso
COMMENTARY
On episode 59 of A Culture of Possibility, co-hosts Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk about redemption: the understanding that we can learn from experience and choose to realign some aspect of our lives to our deepest values. We were moved to explore this by the prevalence of “cancel culture” in the US and to an extent, the UK. 
Once a phenomenon of the left, now strongly influential on the right, people are singled out and vilified for things they said or did decades earlier, or they become targets of persistent, angry campaigns aimed at shaming or ostracizing them for using objectionable language or disagreeing with those in power. 
Core to community-based arts is the idea that when people speak for themselves, representing their truths, they may influence others to listen deeply and reach a more loving or just understanding. 
These days, how much do people believe positive change is possible? How much are people’s ideas of possibility constrained by certainty that our pasts over-determine our futures? 
We support freedom of expression and believe in redemption. Can people like us influence cultures that don’t? 
REFERENCES
Shadow World: anatomy of a cancellation
 

When Arlene Goldbard is not being a cultural activist or a consultant, she paints. When she is not painting she writes. She writes essays and novels. Her latest novel <em>The Intercessor</em> has just come out.
Owen Kelly talks to Arlene about how this specific burst of writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve. DECEMBER 5 | SERIES 2025
STREAM Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | EPISODE 81 
PARTICIPANTS
Arlene Goldbard | Owen Kelly
COMMENTARY
This month Owen Kelly discusses Arlene Goldbard’s new book, a novel titled <em>The Intercessor</em>, and asks why she chose to write this unusual kind of novel at this particular time.
The novel offers a linked series of short stories, each foregrounding one character from a group whose stories eventually interlock. All of the characters have political, social or spiritual issues which come to seem less like categories than like different coloured lenses through which we can approach the world.
The novel explores the Jewish Renewal movement, among other themes, without wanting its audience limited to Jews or even less to Jews with an interest in the Jewish Renewal movement.
Arlene explains how this specific writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve. 
REFERENCES
Arlene on Wikipedia 
Arlene’s website 
Arlene Goldbard: Clarity (2004) 
Arlene Goldbard: The Wave (2013)
Arlene Goldbard: The Intercessor (2025)
Jewish Renewal, described on Wikipedia 
Adin Steinsaltz: The Thirteen Petalled Rose

Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Laura Raicovich about Fall of Freedom, which begins on the day this podcast drops. NOVEMBER 21 | SERIES 2025
STREAM A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY | EPISODE 58 
PARTICIPANTS
Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso | Laura Raicovich
COMMENTARY
On episode 58 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk with writer and curator Laura Raicovich, one of the initiators of Fall of Freedom, an action beginning 21 November in the US, described as “an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation,” “activating a nationwide wave of creative resistance.” 
Artists and organizations are invited to participate by hosting public events of any size. We’ll talk about the organizers’ hopes and their sense of why and how art can resist authoritarianism.
Since this podcast goes out on November 21, it could not be timelier. Listen to the podcast, go to miaaw.net to get the links, and then look and see what is going on where you are! 
REFERENCES
Fall of Freedom website
Download the Fall of Freedom Toolkit
 
 

This month Owen Kelly looks at some of the deeper meanings of Katie Lam’s recent remarks on cultural coherence.
 
NOVEMBER 7 | SERIES 2025
STREAM Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | EPISODE 80
 PARTICIPANT
Owen Kelly
COMMENTARY
In this episode Owen Kelly looks into the idea of cultural coherence, something that bubbled to the surface after Katie Lam, a member of parliament for the Conservative Party used it in an interview with the Sunday Times. She appeared to use it one way, and then later claimed she meant it in a rather different way.
What do people mean by cultural coherence? Should we regard the idea as dog-whistle politics, or should we see it as a useful idea we need to claim for ourselves, before it gets claimed by those who would whistle to dogs…
REFERENCES
Sam Leith: In Defence of the Rules-based Order, in The Spectator 
Tali Fraser: The Tories and the search for cultural coherence on ConservativeHome
The Sustainability Directory

In this episode we explore Faircamp again, trying to find something to celebrate halloween. Then we take a peep at what we can find at Tribe of Noise.  OCTOBER 31 | SERIES 2025
STREAM Friday Number Five | EPISODE 19 
HOST
Owen Kelly
COMMENTARY
Today (or tonight, depending on where you are) we have the final Friday Number Five of 2025. At the end of January we started another irregular series of Radio Miaaw: podcasts of music issued under Creative Commons licences; a theme we last explored four years ago. This month have another dive into the contents you can find while exploring the Faircamp web ring. This covers a wide range of music so if one piece doesn’t grab you then rest assured: something different will be along in a minute or so.
Since today is Halloween we also try to find some suitable music, fail, and see what we can find at Tribe of Noise instead. 
REFERENCES
The Faircamp website
The Faircamp webring FAQ
Johann Bourquenez: Diminished Epicness & more
Blix Byrd, including Skinning a Tiger
Voodoo Economics, the EP
Nightmother: The Beach Boys In My Room
A Companion of Owls: Sketches for Aural Ataraxia
Ruby Louise Rose: projects, downloads, works in progress
Helen Bell at Faircamp
Helen Bell at Bandcamp
Helen Bell: Molecule
Olive: Halloween Party v2.0 at Tribe of Noise
Rob Dell Music: I do believe in Christmas at Tribe of Noise

Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Betsy Damon whose work with water has had a healing impact across the globe. She talks about her work from early projects in China to her current undertakings. OCTOBER 17 | SERIES 2025
STREAM A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY | EPISODE 57
PARTICIPANTS
 
Betsy Damon | Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso
COMMENTARY
Betsy Damon is an internationally-recognized artist whose public work and living systems, such as the Living Water Garden, have received widespread acclaim. 
In 1991 Damon founded Keepers of the Waters,[23] a nonprofit organization that serves as an international community to encourage "art, science and community projects for the understanding and remediation of living water systems." The nonprofit is run with a collaborative approach and was started with the support of the Hubert Humphrey Institute.
In 2006, Damon, alongside a group of artists, scientists, and funders, met in Vancouver and created a summary report for UNESCO titled <strong>Art in Ecology – A Think Tank on Arts and Sustainability.</strong> UNESCO had commissioned a report in advance of this meeting titled <em>Mapping the Terrain of Contemporary EcoART Practice</em>, of which the meeting and summary report were a result.
She is the author of <strong>Water Talks: Empowering Communities to Know, Restore, and Preserve their Waters.</strong>
On episode 57 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Betsy Damon. 
Her work with water has had a healing impact across the globe and in this fascinating episode, she talks about her early projects in China and the work she’s undertaking now. 
She also shares excellent advice for others who want to help.  
REFERENCES
 
Betsy Damon’s website
Betsy Damon’s CV
Betsy Damon in Wikipedia