Citizens Of Nowhere
46 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago -Comedians Nick Doody and Carey Marx discuss issues in the world and try to work out what they think.
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Episodes
Mansplaining the Election
November 14, 2019 19:12 - 1 hour - 62.9 MBCarey hasn't been keeping up with the news so Nick does his best to walk him through the latest on the upcoming General Election. Along the way we find Carey's MP shutting down an opponent by accusing him of mansplaining, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain in what seems like a drunken tirade where he appears not to understand his own trade deal. We talk about tactical voting, how uninspiring all the options are, and get sidetracked by trying to order a pizza mid-episode.
Wrong Apples
October 23, 2019 18:01 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBSometimes a movement, or a whole group of people, suffers from the actions of a few extremists in their midst. From feminism, through climate protesters to trans activists, to just men in general, there's always someone who provides opponents with all the ammunition they could ever want, by being unlikeable, unreasonable or just plain psychopathic. Nick and Carey set out to identify the 'bad apples' who skew the debate on both sides. That's the plan, anyway, but along the way they each get t...
The View From The Fence
October 13, 2019 19:57 - 1 hour - 75.2 MB‘Centrist’ is a dirty word in some quarters, but the centre is also where we’re always told all the important votes lie. What is Centrism? Are we Centrists? Or - more excitingly - are we ‘radical centrists’? Carey and Nick try to nail down ‘the Centre’, along the way pondering why some people get upset if you don’t buy ‘the whole package’, having no strong opinion about Greta Thunberg, and of course, the age-old Centrist question: what is a ‘reasonable number of Jews to kill’?
Nick in Edinburgh: Konstantin Kisin
September 21, 2019 19:55 - 1 hour - 76.7 MBKonstantin Kisin is a stand-up comedian with an unusual back story. Born in the then Soviet Union, his family were forced to flee to the UK. Luckily, they had oligarch money. Until they lost it all. More recently, he acquired some notoriety after refusing to sign a 'behavioural agreement' before a student gig. His 2019 Edinburgh show, 'Orwell that Ends Well', was an impassioned defence of free speech, and was directed by previous Citizens of Nowhere interviewee, Andrew Doyle.. Konstantin al...
Chaos!
September 07, 2019 20:51 - 1 hour - 63.6 MBA government with no majority, an Opposition refusing to succumb to the offer of an election, 21 Tory rebels voting against their government, which reacts by effectively ending their careers, a Prime Minster who is saying he will defy the law, a Labour Party that says if they're in power they'll campaign against whatever deal they strike, lies, bluffs, double-bluffs... British politics is in a state of utter chaos. Nick and Carey finally manage to get together to try to make sense of it all...
Nick in Edinburgh: Andrew Doyle
August 29, 2019 18:50 - 1 hour - 91.9 MBWe’re 40 episodes old! To celebrate, it's another of the 'Nick in Edinburgh' interviews. This time, Nick chats with Andrew Doyle. Andrew is a comedian and writer, probably best known for his fictional creations, Jonathan Pie and Titania McGrath. He also writes a column for Spiked and runs the comedy club, Comedy Unleashed. This is a long chat (or two long chats with a break for tea) that takes in Edinburgh, comedy, free speech, democracy, Brexit (Andrew is pro-Brexit, unlike most comedic v...
Nick in Edinburgh: Simon Evans
August 23, 2019 16:27 - 55 seconds - 51 MBNick is at the Edinburgh Festival. Carey isn't, so this is a chat between just Nick and comedian Simon Evans, during which they try to avoid spoilers about Simon's Edinburgh show, which contains some frankly astonishing revelations. Simon is one of those people you can just wind up and let talk, so this is a typically wide-ranging chat.
Edinburgh!
July 29, 2019 23:05 - 1 hour - 65 MBYet again, it's that time of year when everyone in the comedy industry, except for Carey, heads up to Edinburgh (or down to Edinburgh, depending where you live [or stays in Edinburgh, if you already live there]) for the Fringe Festival. In this episode Nick and Carey talk about how long they've been going to the Fringe, their memories of early shows, how preview season works, how much the whole thing costs, and how the Free Fringe has changed it all. This year it's been even more difficult...
End of Days
July 24, 2019 23:34 - 1 hour - 69.8 MBBritain has a new Prime Minister, and is about to have its hottest ever day. Nick and Carey take refuge in a friend’s flat in London and talk about what the hell is going on. They also discuss people using inaccurate quotations when it suits their tribe (Michael Gove didn’t exactly say that thing about people being sick of experts; Trump actually did condemn the white supremacists in Charlottesville; there’s a context for the oft-quoted lines used to paint Boris Johnson as a racist). Then t...
The Tropes! The Tropes!
July 07, 2019 11:22 - 1 hour - 55.8 MBAs the Labour party continues to be mired in accusations of antisemitism, Carey talks Nick through some of the antisemitic tropes that crop up again and again.
Boris Johnson, with Kirsty Newton
June 27, 2019 09:54 - 1 hour - 67.8 MBNick and Carey are joined by Kirsty Newton to talk about Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race and, therefore, the most likely next British Prime Minister. Recently, police were called to the flat of Johnson's girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, following a domestic disturbance. They were alerted by a neighbour, who also recorded the audio of the incident and then sent the recording the the Guardian newspaper. Nick and Carey discuss the rights and wrongs of all this, and the su...
Milkshake or Battery Acid?
June 17, 2019 12:40 - 56 minutes - 51.5 MBA bit of a sprawling episode, this, eventually getting round to the question: Is it ok to throw milkshake at your enemies? And, with regard to the fuss about some recent comments by Jo Brand, is it ok to joke about throwing battery acid instead? Along the way, we talk about trying out new material (Nick's just done his first Edinburgh Festival preview) and how surprisingly up-for-it an audience can be, even for very potentially divisive material (in this case, the question, 'Are trans women...
Is Heaven Full of Sperm?
June 02, 2019 11:50 - 1 hour - 54.9 MBThese are strange times, whether you've already been born, haven't been born yet, or have died but are technically still Prime Minister. In this episode, we cover: How to set up a room for comedy; how Donald Trump is like a stand-up comedian; having a ghost Prime Minister; the Tory leadership election; citizens' juries (aka citizens’ assemblies); religious people's rights over their kids' education and, finally, abortion. In recent weeks, abortion rights have come under intense legislativ...
The Flat Earth
May 19, 2019 13:09 - 1 hour - 59.6 MBIs the Earth flat? No. So why do some people think it is? Nick and Carey watch the documentary 'Behind the Curve' so you don't have to (although feel free to; it's quite entertaining). It turns out they already know one of the people featured in it. Why do some people hold completely false beliefs? What can be done about it? Should anything be done? Does it really matter?
Chimpstorm
May 11, 2019 22:31 - 52 minutes - 48.3 MBNick's in London for a moment, so he and Carey take the opportunity to record an episode, this time about Danny Baker's unfortunate tweet of a picture of a chimp, titled 'The Royal Baby'. Let's be clear: neither of us think it was a good idea, but the ensuing storm and his incredibly quick sacking by the BBC are an interesting model of how quickly and unforgivingly the social media outrage machine operates. Is is possible to be accidentally racist? If you are, does that make you a racist? A...
We're back!
May 02, 2019 10:14 - 111 MBCarey's back from Australia, the land of not-good-enough-internet-to-remotely-record-a-podcast. No planned topic for this episode; it’s just a catch-up. We talk about audiences, Australia, America (Nick's been to America), and whether you'd rather be laughed at by men or women.
Episode 29: Matt Kirshen and Holly Gabrielson
January 07, 2019 11:53 - 1 hour - 58.6 MBIt's another guest episode! This time, Nick and Carey are joined by comedian, writer and ex-housemate, Matt Kirshen, and 'industry insider' Holly Gabrielson, who are on a trip over from L.A. We kick off by talking about the etiquette of '@-including' artists when you criticise their work on social media (don't), and the painful whining that met Greg Jenner when he gently pointed this out on Twitter last week. We also talk about learning history in different countries, and trying to write...
Episode 28: Advertising Standards
December 21, 2018 18:34 - 54 minutes - 49.7 MBThe UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has announced new guidelines for advertising content. From next year, 'harmful gender stereotypes' will be banned. Nick and Carey talk about this, and about the 'research' behind it. 'Research' is in quote marks there because the ASA's 'public consultation' isn't, as the ASA claims, academic literature that evidentially demonstrates 'harm', but more like a marketing survey that asks people what they think. Nick gets pretty exasperated with this....
Episode 27: Christmas
December 16, 2018 00:48 - 30 minutes - 28.1 MBIt's Christmas! Well, nearly. Nick and Carey decide to find a quiet spot in Central London to record an episode. This turns out to be impossible, so they end up standing in the cold in the gardens of the Royal College of Physicians, where they talk about awful Christmas gigs and what it's like to lose your religion (if you're Nick).
Episode 26: Dave Gorman
December 04, 2018 12:25 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBApologies for the hiatus! Usually we'd put something like, 'Nick and Carey manage to get hold of Dave Gorman and grab an interview, etc.' but it would be more accurate to say, 'Carey manages to grab Nick and Dave' as Nick's been supporting Dave on tour for the past 3 months. It's not a long episode, recorded as it is in the dressing rooms, pre-show at the Royal Festival Hall, but Dave is, as ever, interesting, analytical and funny. Among other things, we discuss how Dave developed the genre ...
Episode 25: Moral Panic
October 02, 2018 20:48 - 1 hour - 55.5 MBFrom Reefer Madness to Satanic Abuse, Nick and Carey discuss the nature of moral panics - that social phenomenon where public alarm spreads like viral wildfire. It's threatening the very fabric of society, don't you hear me? We also discuss the tribal factions forming around the current Brett Kavanaugh investigation. Listeners are warned: there's a lot of dead kids discussed in this episode.
Episode 24: From Russia with Guff
September 16, 2018 12:54 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MBThe two men named as suspects in the Salisbury poisoning, Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, recently gave an interview to Russia Today that was as baffling as it was comical. Join Nick and Carey post-gig in a Cardiff hotel room as they talk about the interview, the case, Russia's current strategy in the world, the conspiracy mindset, and people who are wrongly convinced they know how a magic trick is done.
Episode 23: Louis CK and the White Male Effect
September 03, 2018 10:35 - 50 minutes - 46.1 MBComedian Louis CK drops in to join - NOT REALLY. But he gets discussed: is his reported 'comeback' appropriate? Too soon? An example of the 'white male club'? Nick and Carey also look back at this year's Edinburgh Festival, chat about being invited as a guest on 'Newsnight', and discuss the so-called 'White Male Effect', which appears to show that white men perceive environmental risk as lower than any other group (it does show this, but also - SHOCK - it's a bit more complicated than that)...
Episode 22: Daniel Sloss
August 25, 2018 16:22 - 1 hour - 70.8 MBFor this Edinburgh Fringe guest episode, Nick and Carey are joined by the prodigiously talented stand-up, Daniel Sloss, for a fascinating and very funny chat that hits subjects such as writing comedy about the death of a loved one, tackling taboo subjects in stand-up, and when you don't respect the audience enough to give them your best material.
Episode 21: Simon Evans
August 24, 2018 15:51 - 1 hour - 65.7 MBComedian Simon Evans joins the Citizens of Nowhere for a discussion that's as wide-ranging and interesting as you'd hope from this thoughtful comic. A by-no-means exhaustive selection of topics alighted on: the shortcomings of democracy, finding 'your' audience, Japanese sex pillows, the disappointing lack of brilliance in our public servants, complaining about your boss when you are your own boss, and how to get a Roomba to pleasure you sexually.
Episode 20: Jen Brister
August 21, 2018 18:07 - 1 hour - 60.2 MBThe latest of our Edinburgh guests is stand-up Jen Brister, who chats with Nick and Carey about being in a female couple raising a couple of boys, nature vs nurture, growing as a comedian, and when it's ok to do period jokes.
Episode 19: Zoe Lyons
August 16, 2018 13:11 - 1 hour - 59.5 MBAnother guest episode, this time with comedian Zoe Lyons. A bulletproof circuit comic, Zoe has recently moved into touring and doing radio and TV. This wide-ranging chat is less about socio-political issues and more just about being a stand-up comic, both generally and at the Edinburgh Festival. We talk about different types of audience, dealing with that one face in the crowd that clearly hates you, moving from the weekend club circuit to touring under your own name, whether homophobia ...
Episode 18: Ayesha Hazarika
August 13, 2018 16:18 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBAyesha Hazarika is a comedian, political commentator, and former advisor to Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman. She joins Nick and Carey to talk about her experiences in politics, the #metoo movement, the mainstream media's obsession with presenting everything as a two-sided confrontation, and Boris Johnson's recent theft of an old bit of Carey's material about burkhas. She is, as we’d hoped, a fantastic guest, but we hope she’s wrong about Boris being the next Prime Minister.
Episode 17: Marcus Brigstocke
August 09, 2018 15:08 - 1 hour - 67 MBIt’s Citizens of Nowhere’s first guest episode! Nick and Carey are joined by comedian Marcus Brigstocke for a candid conversation about self-censorship, what you can and can't say onstage, getting into arguments with people who know too much about you, and other pitfalls that await the comedian who deals with big issues. Marcus’s new show, 'Devil May Care', is currently playing at the Edinburgh Festival, as are Nick and Carey. Links below. https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/marcus-bri...
Episode 16: Cisagreement
August 08, 2018 13:38 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBThis is a fun one, cut short because Nick had to go. But before that, we have one of the first real disagreements between Nick and Carey, regarding being called/categorised as 'cis'.
Episode 15: Gunn Control
July 24, 2018 23:44 - 55 minutes - 126 MBIn the last few days, James Gunn (writer/director of 'Guardians of the Galaxy') was fired by Disney because of some tweets he sent years ago. This poses the question: where does your 'employee' identity end and your online identity begin? Do you have the right to have your online life considered separately from your work life, or are you always a representative of your employer? And should anyone ever lose their job over a joke, even one that's in bad taste? How does this compare to Roseanne...
Episode 14: Change
June 25, 2018 17:39 - 51 minutes - 118 MBThis episode came out of the question, 'What do we do now that we think will become unacceptable in the future?' Things have changed a lot in the last couple of hundred years, and not just technologically; human values have also changed. Attitudes that were commonplace just a few generations ago now seem prehistoric. So do we have to forgive the people of the past because 'it was a different time', or are they all just as guilty as if they were born now? And how long will we keep the value...
Episode 13: Cultural Appropriation
May 22, 2018 11:26 - 43 minutes - 99.4 MBYou may recently have heard accusations of 'cultural appropriation'. Examples range from white people wearing dreadlocks or chopsticks in their hair to Elvis's musical 'inspirations' to an 18-year-old being attacked in a social media storm for wearing a Chinese-style dress to her prom. So what is cultural appropriation? Is it a real, well-defined phenomenon? Is it as serious a problem as those who complain about it seem to think? Should we care about it at all? Nick and Carey try their very...
Episode 12: Free Speech
May 12, 2018 17:04 - 47 minutes - 108 MBShould there be limits on free speech? Do we have too much of it in the UK, or not enough? What does the term even mean, really? We talk about all this, throwing in some experiences we've both had in countries where there definitely isn't free speech.
Episode 11: The Crown (or, Should We Throw The Royal Baby Out A Window?)
May 03, 2018 17:03 - 1 hour - 139 MBTo commemorate the birth and naming of a new Royal Baby, we discuss whether it would be better for the country if we threw it out a window. Yes, this episode is about the Royal Family. Are they worth it to the country? Does it really matter? What are the alternatives? We talk about the baffling public hysteria over the death of Princess Diana, the weird fact that the public would rather see William become King than Charles, the surprising degree to which the Royals interfere in the runni...
Episode 10: Antisemitism
April 24, 2018 17:22 - 69.2 MBWhat is antisemitism? What's a Jew? Why would anyone hate them? What are they up to? Do they control the media? Really? Not even the Jewish Chronicle? And is there a real problem with antisemitism on the left? Have either or both of Nick and Carey experienced antisemitism? And if both, why, given that only Carey is Jewish? Listen to find the answers to a couple, if not some, of these poorly-framed questions.
Episode 9: The Maths of Privilege
March 13, 2018 18:38 - 1 hour - 152 MBWhat starts as an informal chat with no planned focus becomes, at one point, a discussion (by two comedians with no maths background) of the difference in chances for a group seen as a whole, and the chances for any individual member of that group. Along the way we talk about comedian Sofie Hagen's recent mini-twitterstorm about an ad by Cancer Research UK, and an incredibly abstract example involving a lottery where black people are given more tickets than white people. This lottery does no...
Episode 8: Optimism, Guns and Trump
February 27, 2018 15:29 - 133 MBThis episode may sound like the sequel to 'Guns, Germs and Steel', but in fact Nick and Carey talk about Steven Pinker's new book, 'Enlightenment Now', which continues from his previous book, 'The Better Angels of our Nature' in that it claims that things are, broadly, improving for humanity. Is this true? And if it is, why does claiming it make some people so angry? Carey explains the Mean World Syndrome, then they get sidetracked onto school shootings, gun control and, inevitably, Trump.
Nymphs, Grid Girls and #metoo
February 08, 2018 01:00 - 56 minutes - 129 MBIn this episode, Nick and Carey talk about a couple of related items: the decision by the Manchester Art Gallery to remove the painting 'Hylas and the Nymphs' by John William Waterhouse, in order to 'provoke debate', and Formula One's announcement that they will no longer use 'grid girls' (they're to be replaced with 'grid kids' We talk about objectification, changing attitudes and the implications for porn if all titillating female roles are now going to be taken by children. We also take i...
Jordan Peterson and Cathy Newman
January 29, 2018 21:05 - 64.9 MBNick and Carey discuss the recent interview on Channel 4 News between journalist Cathy Newman and psychologist Jordan Peterson. They are significantly less drunk than the previous episode, but it's still Sunday. You can see the interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcjxSThD54
5: The New Year Episode
January 16, 2018 21:14 - 46 minutes - 106 MBEvery so often there's bound to be one like this: a hurriedly-recorded episode where one or both of us is drink. That's what this is. We talk about a few studies that we've half-read, and a bit about religion.
Language!
December 20, 2017 12:57 - 47 minutes - 109 MBNick and Carey discuss 'offensive' language. Merry C*****mas! ('trigger warning' warning)
Disgust, discussed.
December 11, 2017 20:08 - 44 minutes - 103 MBAre you easily disgusted? If you are, then you're probably more socially conservative, according to several experiments discussed in this talk by psychologist David Pizarro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YL3LT1ZvOM In this episode, Nick & Carey talk about what - if anything - disgusts them, and wonder whether disgust could be used to change people's minds. Oh, and they're both sick, so enjoy this recording of two men talking about disgust while bodily fluids stream from their faces.
Episode 2: School uniforms and 'your mum' jokes.
November 16, 2017 23:10 - 102 MBThere's strong language in this one. Plus we both really recommend the book: 'The Righteoud Mind' by Jonathan Haidt.
Pilot. And we can't fly.
November 09, 2017 23:44 - 42.2 MBCITIZENS OF NOWHERE - a podcast in which comedians Nick Doody and Carey Marx discuss issues in the world, and their failures to slot into the most convenient categories regarding our opinions on them. CLICK HERE for RSS feed.
Backstage in Cardiff / llwyfan yng Nghaerdydd
November 28, 2015 22:22I bet you wonder what it's like to be a comedian on tour. That's what people wonder, I bet. It's what I would wonder, if I were a person. It's one of the unspoken facts about stand-up comedy that it involves more ironing than you'd think. It doesn't involve much ironing, but assuming you'd think it didn't involve any, it involves more than you'd think. Basically, you're away from home, your clothes have to go in a bag, and to avoid everyone on the bill looking like they were pulled out of a ...