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

Sophie Hope | Sara Lee

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.

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

Sophie Hope | Su Jones | Owen Kelly

Last summer Su Jones finished writing Artists' lives: ecologies for resilience, 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?

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

Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso

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?

Shadow World: anatomy of a cancellation