The Tools at Hand with Harrison Gardner
Podcast

The Tools at Hand with Harrison Gardner

harrisongardner

20 episodes

We live in a complex world. And navigating it as the complex, hopeful, emotional, ambitious human beings that we are takes a very real set of tools. The Tools at Hand is a podcast about people who have done the work of finding and developing those tools. People who saw a problem, or felt one, and instead of waiting for someone else to fix it, started figuring it out for themselves. In their community, their discipline, their craft, or their own inner life. Each episode in conversation with one guest who gives an honest account of what it actually took to build something real. The question underneath every conversation is: what did you have to learn to build this? The Tools at Hand podcast is brought to you by Bord Gáis Energy. New episodes drop every Thursday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

What this show covers

dance cultureJimmy Graltoncommunity spacesIrish historyEdwina Guckianwomen in farmingrural economysocial mediasustainable agricultureIrish farmingsustainabilityLGBTQ+ inclusionpolar explorationadventure travelAntarctica

What listeners will find here

When dancing was outlawed: Ireland’s fight over music, morality, and community
Ireland’s 1935 dance hall law turned ordinary social dancing into a licensed activity and reshaped community life. Edwina Guckian explores how church and state tried to control dancing, the violent story of Jimmy Gralton’s hall, and why rebuilding shared social spaces still matters.
A young Irish farmer on making the land pay without doing it the old way
The future of farming in Ireland is the focus here, through Sophie Bell’s experience running her family’s 56-acre farm in County Cavan from age 17. The episode digs into money, succession, gender, bovine TB, and how social media and alternative ideas can give farmers more control.
A polar expedition leader on curiosity, risk, and life at the edge of the world
Polar expedition leader Sarah Schwimmer shares how sailing across the Atlantic at 19 led to a decade guiding more than 125 expeditions. The episode moves from Antarctica and Svalbard to queer identity, inclusive travel, and the unusual job of being a polar bear guard.
Can you cross seven continents by trading only your photography?
Shantanu Starick talks about The Pixel Trade, a three-and-a-half-year journey across all seven continents funded through exchanging photography for food, shelter, and transport. The episode digs into trust, burnout, money, and what it means to return to ordinary life after living through trade.
Bell X1 bandmates reunite to explore vulnerability, therapy, and a new musical chapter
Paul Noonan and Brian Crosby trace the path from Bell X1 and years apart to Pilgrims, a new project born from a COVID-era voice note and remote recordings. The conversation widens into music therapy, breathwork, fear, collaboration, and what changes when perfection stops leading the process.

Episodes

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