The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 6 - Beech and Azariah - Conversations 4
Release Date: 03/26/2019
Announcement - Down to a sunless sea
The Family Tree
Later this year I will be launching a mini series called ‘Down to a Sunless Sea: Memories of my Dad’. I've received funding from the Wellcome Trust and BPAs to make some additional episodes looking at the science behind the issues the show covers. As part of the requirements for this funding I'd really appreciate it if people who have listened to GBA could fill in this survey:
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The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 30 - The Christmas Oak
The Family Tree
This Christmas special functions as an epilogue, a coda, an outro and a final thought, for The Family Tree. Dave spends Christmas with Philip Beech and the Sullivans, and Jen reads a special Christmas story written by Mia.
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The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 29 - Ending 5 - The Great Unknown Other
The Family Tree
In the final episode of the show, Dave and his brother go to visit their dad to say hello, and also to say goodbye: endings are more complex than a simple full stop.
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The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 28 - Ending 4 - Cutting 6 - The Final Cut
The Family Tree
Dave reflects on accountability and forgiveness, and considers the best ways to end things. Past guests, new guests and listeners to the show, who talk about how they approach these issues. Dave's partner, Jen, talks about how she experienced the making of The Family Tree, and we're introduced to a song written by Martin Zaltz Austwick.
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The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 27 - Ending 3 - The End of the Mystery
The Family Tree
Dave talks to Mark about his role in the trauma his family has experienced, and reflects on the importance of accountability and justice.
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The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 26 - Ending 2 - The Family Never Ends
The Family Tree
Family is about more than blood. Dave continues rounding up the end of Season 3 by catching up with the extended family.
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The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 25 - Ending 1 - The Beginning of the End
The Family Tree
As Season 3 starts to come to a close, Dave catches up with the Sullivan family to find out how they’re all doing and what the future holds for them.
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The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 24 - Cuttings 5 - Identity
The Family Tree
In the fifth Cutting of Season 3, Dave considers different elements of identity. He talks to Scout Pup about furries and puppies, and speaks to Alex Iantaffi about genograms, intergenerational trauma and mind plasticity. The episode features more clips from the Meg-John and Justin podcast, which consider hierarchies of love and relationships.
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The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 23 - The Ultimate Pounce
The Family Tree
With no need to hide anymore and a firm plan for her future, Violita is finally ready to tell Dave exactly what happened when she became a liminal person.
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The Family Tree Season 3 - Episode 22 - A Tinder for Changelings
The Family Tree
Sam is back from Australia, and eager to update listeners on their new life. They introduce their friend, Tee, and Dave witnesses a new kind of liminal lifestyle.
info_outlineDear Listeners,
I hope this finds you well. It truly is a pleasure to be writing to you again, and I’m delighted to be able to connect with you through The Family Tree.
It perhaps won’t surprise you to learn that I have faced many challenges since David and I had our little excursion to St James’s Park to visit the oak tree. I find I am quite changed, and I don’t mind telling you, I’ve found it rather difficult to process some of the thoughts and feelings I’ve had since I became a changeling, or a liminal person, as David likes to call us now.
David very kindly put me in touch with his friend Azariah, a fellow man of the cloth, and with him I talked through some of the difficulties I’m having. I found his counsel to be very valuable, and I want to share our conversation with you, with the hope that it may serve to help others as much as it helped me.
Yours Faithfully,
Philip
P.S. My parishioners have often preferred to address me as ‘Reverend Beech’, or simply ‘Beech’. I think it has allowed them a separation from me that they’ve found useful, and over time, I’ve found myself thinking of myself that way too. But I think I would like to try being a little less separate, and from here on will sign my letters to you with my Christian name, if that’s alright with you. I find it extremely poignant to see how I titled this episode; Azariah’s comfortableness with his first name while I shelter behind my surname.
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The Family Tree is a magical realist dramatic fiction about family, belonging, change and identity.
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