iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dr Ruth Smith

Susanne Hart @hartsue.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I find @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social's commentary so insightful. What she was saying about conditions of worth reminded me of one of my favourite therapy memes ...

Top image shows two workmen in orange high viz work wear. One is lying on a plank which is balanced on a bucket. He's hovering over newly laid concrete which he is smoothing with a trowel. The other man is lying on another plank and is acting as a counterweight. The word "Therapist" is written at the bottom of the image.
Bottom image shows a a hissing cat that has just run across the newly laid concrete behind it, leaving a trail of footprints. The word "Parents" is written at the bottom of the image.

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Dr Ruth Smith @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

What a treat this delightful addition to the Podyssey podcast is!

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Alex Andreou's Podyssey @alexpodyssey.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Thank you! Such loveliness.

Ratings & Reviews
4.9
out of 5
380 Ratings

Smart, Engaging and Beautifully Narrated
☆☆☆☆☆
Alex delivers Greek mythology with a level of craft and care that feels closer to a theatre production than a typical podcast. His narration is exceptional, rich, expressive, and full of passion, with language and more
Richard A1989

Perfection
☆☆☆☆☆
Alex has brought his searching mind and narrative skills to reexamine Greek Myths and their continuing relevance. He makes striking connections between these vivid tales of human archetypes and more
David Cottam

Probably the best podcast
☆☆☆☆☆
Perfection.
Woodyface

Brilliant
☆☆☆☆☆
This is a brilliant podcast. Beautifully narrated and researched. It just makes me very happy. Thank you.
Susie Gabriella Olga

So good
☆☆☆☆☆
This pod is simply wonderful. A fascinating look at Greek myths. But not just a re-telling, an exploration. The music is wonderful, the tone so soothing. It's so, so good.
Tabieth

Exceptional work - a careful, considered and c...
☆☆☆☆☆
This is my go to pod for my long Sunday run. This podcast does the remarkable trick of educating whilst entertaining. Alex leads us through a wonderful review of the myths and legends, archeology and human more
Sir vin

Wonderful
☆☆☆☆☆
Surprising, all encompassing, beautifully crafted and very listenable. I love it. Thank you so much.
arabellagrace

So good, you need this in your life!
☆☆☆☆☆
What a glorious surprise this pod is! Incredibly well researched, this deep dive into the Greek legends hit me on both an Intellectual and emotional level.
Woody Manchester

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Dr Ruth Smith @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I maybe biased as I’m a contributor to this podcast, but even if I wasn’t I know I’d be a big fan. The live Q&A sessions with Alex and one of the experts is a great way to learn more, explore ideas and have fun. Plus, just look at that amazing illustrated guide, it’s fab! ⬇️

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Samira Ahmed @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I made a whole BBC TV series (2020) about the remarkable resilience of the people of Iran and their culture over centuries of threat and callous rule. You can watch it right here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Four - Art of Persia

Broadcaster and journalist Samira Ahmed reveals the remarkable story of Iran.

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

1/ NYT out with a huge piece on the decision to go to war. It's much as we thought: Bibi sold Trump a rosy scenario that he heard over the mild to moderate warnings that it was BS but the details are so...appalling/demoralizing. Vance clearly a source: GIFT LINK 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/u...

nytimes.com

How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran

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Dr Ruth Smith @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

An absolute Easter treat from @quietriotpod.bsky.social with two episodes filled interesting conversations, served with a healthy dose of fun. Please let’s make @ayeshahazarika.bsky.social a regular guest.

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Mary Anne Franks @maryannefranks.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Palantir CEO promises that his technology will reduce educated women's economic and political power newrepublic.com/post/207693/...

newrepublic.com

Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power

They’re saying the quiet part out loud now.

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Dr Ruth Smith @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

If you’re feeling as concerned as I am about domestic and international politics, I recommend subscribing to this fabulous podcast @quietriotpod.bsky.social It is a rare show that manages to bring the political temperature down without dumbing down, and is a tonic in the current political climate.

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Nigella Lawson @nigella.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Tip-top listening recommendation!

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Alex Andreou's Podyssey @alexpodyssey.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

🆕 2.2 PANDORA: Worst. Unboxing. Video. Ever. 📦 Wicked troublemaker or the victim of history's longest smear campaign? This episode is one WILD ride. And it includes some of my favourite cinematic references. 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/4E7j... 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

podcasts.apple.com

PANDORA: Worst. Unboxing. Video. Ever.

Podcast Episode · Alex Andreou's Podyssey · 25 February · 1h 31m

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Prof Nisreen Alwan @nisreenalwan.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

What’s ‘family voting’ and ‘Sectarianism’ refer to here, I wonder? Are they by any chance hinting to muslim men forcing the females in their households to vote for a white female plumber who belongs to a Party led by a gay Jewish man? 🤔 Thank you for the laughter this morning btw. I needed it 😂

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Alex Andreou's Podyssey @alexpodyssey.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

🆕 PROMETHEUS: I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire One man; several contradictory myths. Is he protector or disruptor? Genius or arsonist? Season 2 of Podyssey kicks off with an absolute belter. 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/0s0L... 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

podcasts.apple.com

PROMETHEUS: I Don't Want to Set The World On Fire

Podcast Episode · Alex Andreou's Podyssey · 08/02/2026 · 1h 28m

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Aaron Parnas @aaronparnas.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Do you feel overwhelmed? Tired? Exhausted with the constant news cycle? I want you to know: that's their goal. They want you checked out. They want you burnt out. I get it. I feel it. Take a break, but don't give up. When you give up, they win.

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Alex Andreou's Podyssey @alexpodyssey.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

BRAND NEW 🍏 How Do You Like Them Apples? 🍎 From the Garden of Hesperides to the Garden of Eden, from the Atalanta and the Trojan War to The Beatles and the iPhone, apples are laden with often conflicting symbolism. 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/70jw... 🎧 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

open.spotify.com

BONUS - How Do You Like Them Golden Apples?

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

This is what is happening. It is cynical. It is strategic. It is organised. It is well funded. And we need to pay attention. The far right - and their cheerleaders, mimics, tribute acts, and handmaidens have identified two presentational frameworks that give them cut-through and traction. 1/7

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KimBo @zapperfan7.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

On #BBCQT - Fiona Bruce said that the audience and public didn't want to press Reform UK on their dodgy links to Russia. I disagree. RT if you agree it's in the public interest for Reform to explain about their links to Russian money and bribery!

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 23/09/2025

Nigel Farage wants to drag Britain down the same road as Trump’s America: chaos, division and fear. Our NHS, our rights and our communities are at risk. Do not let Trump’s America become Farage’s Britain.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

I need you to understand what this country feels like right now for those of us who look different. I'm sitting here, trying to plan for Saturday, make sure I don't even need to go to the corner shop for milk, like it's Christmas Day or lockdown. Why? Because I live near where Yaxley-Lennon will 1/

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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

I wrote about Trump’s comments trivializing domestic violence, and tried to chart the parallels between his own theory of governance and the logic of abusers. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What might be more surprising is how closely Trump’s view of the prerogatives and entitlements of abusive husbands towards their abused wives mirror his own sense of his prerogatives and entitlements as president towards his abused country. Throughout his second term, Trump has spoken of the 2024 election in terms similar to the way that Hale spoke of the marriage vow: as an irrevocable grant of total power. He believes, he says, that because he won the 2024 election, that there are now no more rights that Americans have that he must respect: that he can discard the will of Congress, fire civil servants at will, kidnap our neighbors and invade our cities.

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

I’ve never been more scared about the state of the world

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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 03/09/2025

Farage has gone to the US to tell them Britain is ”awful” - If you don’t like it over here Nigel maybe don’t catch a return flight?

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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

When centrists adopt far-right rhetoric, they don’t make themselves stronger. They make themselves look inauthentic, legitimise the far right, and shift the political debate onto terrain defined by their opponents. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

theguardian.com

Cooper suggests asylum seekers could be moved into warehouses instead of hotels – UK politics live

Home secretary says government aims to ‘shrink the whole asylum system’ and is looking at ‘military and industrial sites’

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

NOT a small part. A big, big, big part. I am a glorified audio stenographer, to these fabulous women.

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Sorry, but wtaf? This does absolutely nothing but ensure that even more people, including children, have to use irregular crossings, and blocks people who even this government have recognised are refugees from being with their families. This is utterly sickening from Labour. 1/

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Dr Ruth Smith @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Season Finale! I’m so proud to have been a small part of this podcast with my fellow experts. But the credit goes to @sturdyalex.bsky.social who has worked incredibly hard and produced an outstanding podcast. He really is as lovely, inclusive, funny and clever as he comes across on his podcasts 💜

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Alex Andreou's Podyssey @alexpodyssey.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

🐍 MEDUSA - Here's Looking At You, Kid 🪦 Before Medusa was monstrous, she was beautiful. And before she was beautiful, she was powerful. She is a riddle that defies solution, from a time before the shape of things was settled. 🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/67sR... 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

podcasts.apple.com

MEDUSA - Here's Looking at You, Kid

Podcast Episode · Alex Andreou's Podyssey · 01/09/2025 · 1h 35m

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POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 28/08/2025

🚨 BREAKING: Russia has struck the EU delegation building in Kyiv. Read the developing story: ow.ly/N2RW50WNllP

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David Gould. @dgouldtherapy.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Here’s my take. I resent having to hear voices that I trust endorsing a platform that erodes the value and viability of our profession. As a kicker, they are helping to line the pockets of US tech bros and investors whose values I (and I suspect they) find repellent. 🤑💰 #podcast #advertising

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Dr Ruth Smith @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Fellow therapists: do you also feel uneasy with BetterHelp ads on every podcast? I can’t identify the source of my concern but I’m aware of the criticisms (low pay/high caseloads, mismatch in client needs and therapist expertise) Does it erode trust in #therapy? #counselling #psychotherapy

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

This is probably the episode that I would Clockwork-Orange-force every Labour politician to listen to. The amount of work that went into this 75 minutes almost killed me. I hope you get a lot of joy and insight from it. x

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Actual question: It has been only 72 hours since the disastrous puppeteer/puppet show in Anchorage. Has there yet been a background story on how, and by whom, this emergency intervention of *eight* big-time world leaders was pulled together, over a weekend?

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

On Sky News from 12:30 giving a view on today's stories. You can watch live here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDvs...

youtube.com

Watch Sky News

YouTube video by Sky News

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11/08/2025

Trump mentions NYC, Baltimore, and Oakland, says "they're so far gone," and adds, "this will go further. We'll starting very strongly with DC."

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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Trump whipping himself up about cracking down on DC. The language - “savagery, filth and scum” - should worry any right-minded person.

Donald J. Trump & (
@realDonald Trump
Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today!
Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN! The days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people, are OVER! I quickly fixed the Border (ZERO ILLEGALS in last 3 months!), D.C. is next!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT

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Resist 🕎🍉 @antizionistjew.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

#BREAKING | CNN’s Matthew Chance joins the Jordanian air force in a flight over Gaza and gets an aerial view of the widespread destruction caused by the Israeli military after almost two years of genocide war. This is despite Israeli limitations on recording Gaza

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

obviously that was incoherent because I'm angry, anyway I saw this on Cambridge Heath Road yesterday and thought it was nice

a sign reading "I just want to say if you are trans and reading this I love you & so do all my mates"

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Quiet Riot @quietriotpod.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

🆕 The fault, dear POTUS, is not in our stats 📉 @pimlicat.bsky.social & @sturdyalex.bsky.social welcome back sage @brianklaas.bsky.social. 🗡️ Is MAGA beginning to turn on Trump? 😫 Why is the British far right SO WHINEY? 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q... 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/13Gz...

podcasts.apple.com

The fault, dear POTUS, is not in our stats

Podcast Episode · Quiet Riot · 07/08/2025 · 1h 10m

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Dr Ruth Smith @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

@decodemestudy.bsky.social found eight genetic signals linked to #MECFS They show differences in immune and nervous system function, and how the body responds to infection. This indicates immunological and neurological causes. ME is real. We are ill. #DecodeME www.decodeme.org.uk

decodeme.org.uk

Initial DecodeME DNA Results - DecodeME

06 August 2025 The DecodeME team is delighted to announce that the initial analysis of 15,579 DNA samples is complete, and we have important news to share. Main findings from our analysis Your genes ...

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

God, the number of people who were willing to believe that the South Yorkshire police were too woke to prosecute sexual abuse cases, when in fact the police force was itself an instrument of patriarchal sexual violence. It’s like a case study in the worst excesses of the British press.

theguardian.com

Five survivors of Rotherham grooming gangs say they were also raped by police officers

Three former South Yorkshire police officers arrested in investigation into claims by the women, as young as 12 at the time

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Dr Ruth Smith @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Another wonderful episode of @alexpodyssey.bsky.social Although I am a contributor, I am an avid listener too and it’s a real treat to hear the whole episode and expand my own understanding. Alex beautifully shows us how and why the Greeks myths are still alive today.

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

All famines are man-made, all famines are political. Historians of empire and humanitarianism have known this forever. Gaza is not starving, Gaza is being starved, by Israel, and this starvation is enabled by our government and by every other government that does not step in to force food and aid.

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Dr Ruth Smith @dr-ruthsmith.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

I’ve worked as a trauma psychotherapist with refugees who experienced war, torture and sex trafficking. I’ve heard stories of what happens to civilians during war and more methods of torture than I thought possible. Without doubt: shooting starving people in search of aid is a form of torture.

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

I've wanted to say something on Gaza for days, but nothing seems adequate. Still, I must. I cannot fathom a more perverse or wicked policy - and it's happened too many times not be policy - of starving people, then shooting them as they try to get food from an "aid" location, set up as a trap. 1/2

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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

If you were born between 1970-1990 you may not have full MMR protection, even if you had parents who took you for all your jabs. The NHS will give you a free booster. With cases surging, this is a great way to protect yourself & your community. I’m getting mine tomorrow www.nhs.uk/vaccinations...

nhs.uk

MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine

Find out about the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, including who should have it, when it's given and possible side effects.

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Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Bribing Trump, firing Colbert, and now bringing on Bari Weiss. I'm not watching CBS News or reading CBS News articles. I'm not watching Paramount movies or shows. I am done with Paramount and CBS. They have sided with fascism, and we must side against them to preserve democracy. It's that simple.

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Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

After hauling butt for months, we've booked about £10k's worth of upcoming projects over at @aat-transcribes.bsky.social and I'm aiming to book between £18-30k for Q4, so I am opening up recruitment for freelance editors this week. Want to join my team and support some great projects? Email us!

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