Talk4Meaning

Men’s brains/women’s brains and swearing in sign language. Or how sexism becomes entrenched through research and dodgy journalism. With help from Carly Simon, Emmylou Harris, Little Feat, Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane!

Date posted: Monday 29th June 2015

‘Wake Up, Shake Up‘ for the Woodstock Generation?

‘When the truth is found to be lies/ And all the joy within you dies/
Don’t you want somebody to love?’ Jefferson Airplane, ‘Somebody to Love’ at Woodstock, 1969

“How do I prepare when a girl asks to visit my bedroom for the first time?” (more…)

Are scientists ‘unemotional’ or ‘on the spectrum’? Or why we love doctors who are in touch with their feelings. With help from The Piano Guys, Shirley & Co, Queen and George Michael!

Date posted: Tuesday 5th May 2015

When my daughter was two and a half she had a sudden raise in temperature. She went blue, then grey and we couldn’t get her to breathe. It was terrifying. I put my finger in her mouth and she nearly bit it off. That’s when I realized she was having a febrile convulsion and that her tongue was blocking her airway. We tipped her upside down, laid her on her front and she started breathing again. We rushed to the downstairs neighbours and bundled her into their car and rushed our floppy little daughter to hospital. (more…)

Bronies, Trekkies, Cosplay, AGSM, Furries and Otherkin. Just a bit of fun or another reality? With help from Arthur of the Britons, Lulu, Ylvis and Mud!!

Date posted: Friday 24th April 2015

Arthur Daily

Arthur Daley

It was 1978 and I was a student speech therapist at the Central School of Speech and Drama, North London. It was not uncommon to see actors on the drama course walking around the building or local street dressed and acting in role, (I’ll never forget the time we were sitting an exam and looked up to see a student leaping across the rooftop with a cutlass between his teeth.) So it didn’t strike me in the least bit odd to see a man dressed as an ancient Briton riding his horse up the Finchley Road. I just assumed it was a local method actor limbering up for a part in Arthur of the Britons. (more…)

“Do you want to look at my jugs?” Or possibly an adventure in Asperger Syndrome? With help from Mungo Jerry and The Grateful Dead!

Date posted: Tuesday 14th April 2015

I’ll never forget the first time I went to Jessica’s house. We were 16 and her parents weren’t at home. Jessica – “Don’t call me ‘Jessie’, I don’t like the sound of it” – and I first met at the local church ‘encounter group’ for teens. We hit it off immediately, and the next day she phoned me up and invited me round for a cup of tea and to inspect her jugs. That was certainly an offer I wasn’t going to refuse, but I was a little startled when I was immediately ushered into her bedroom. “What about my tea?” (It was a hot Summer’s day and I had dashed over on my bike.) “Oh, you can have that when we’ve finished” Jessica replied, without batting, or even fluttering, an eyelid. (more…)