Just a little bit over four years ago, my friend (And now practice colleague) Shaun Sellars and I recorded the last episode of Incisive Decisive in a live recorded interview with Simon Thackeray right at the early edges of the Covid pandemic lockdown.
We did that on Zoom.
Gosh, remember all of that?
Podcasts were recorded online as people tried to grab as much attention as possible in a shutdown World.
So much has passed under the bridge since then, obviously for many of us, but I find myself in a situation now where three days per week Shaun works with us in the Clinic, which is a fabulous privilege but also the opportunity to start to have conversations about ethics and philosophy related to our profession again.
Shaun has massively cemented himself as the ethics author for the British Dental Journal and writes a regular column in that publication, so he has much more credibility in this area than I do.
But we have decided to pick up Incisive Decisive, where it left off only now, with Nancy as our producer (Nancy produces the TCA podcast) in an event to re-spark our 'podcasting careers' and also to reignite me to finish this season of the podcast for TCA that I do.
And so, in our discussion yesterday, we looked at the position of NHS dentistry after the election and tried to speculate as to what might happen and what the trajectory might be from here.
We decided to take two positions in the discussion and argument. Colin, the nihilist (that fits pretty well) and Shaun, the optimist (perfect for Shaun).
Shaun took the position of the optimistic individual who felt that with a good bit of political strategy, NHS dentistry could be salvaged and made into something that works best for the people who need it most in society.
I took the nihilistic view that this is unlikely to happen, and we're likely to privatise dentistry by stealth more and more (and the overall health service) so that the politicians don't have to take the clout and the blame for damaging healthcare.
We had a brilliant conversation. It was a joy.
I get more out of recording a podcast than anybody ever gets out of listening to it; I get the chance to talk to some extraordinary people over time, where I learn things and feel great joy in the experience I have in interchanging and sharing.
I'm not quite sure what the publication is for Incisive Decisive mark two, but it's coming.
Shaun and I will have many more conversations to record, and we have many more projects to do together, which I look forward to.
Blog Post Number - 3890
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