I opened this one with the usual mischief, a shed report from Eric, and a bit of frustration about the political theatre of the week — especially the drum-beating around conscription, Russia, media manipulation, and the managed absurdities coming out of government. The heart of the show was my conversation with David Adelman, better known as The People’s Lawyer. David talked through his path from qualifying as a solicitor in the 1980s to walking away from the profession, teaching languages and bridge, and eventually becoming a public educator during the Covid years. We got into his book School – No Place for Children, the dumbing-down of education, the Prussian roots of mass schooling, and his view that most institutions are structured to manufacture compliance rather than real learning or independence.From there the conversation went wider and deeper: language as a tool of control, legal identity, voluntary roles people unconsciously accept, honour and dishonour in commerce, and how people might start standing in their own authority. After the break, David also shared some strikingly optimistic thoughts about aging, human potential, and the younger generation’s refusal to submit to stale systems. In the final hour, Etta Volk joined us from Chicago and we compared notes on the state of the UK and US: media fakery, military recruitment, AI infrastructure, social tensions, and whether ordinary people are finally losing patience with the script. Strange times, lively company, and plenty to chew on.Paul English Live: https://paulenglishlive.com/Food For Thought Radio (FFT): https://www.fftradio.com/Paul English on FFT: https://www.fftradio.com/djs/paul-english/The People’s Lawyer: https://thepeopleslawyeruk.com/The People’s Lawyer Reality Check (FFT schedule): https://www.fftradio.com/schedule/School – No Place for Children (via The People’s Lawyer site): https://thepeopleslawyeruk.com/English Bridge Union: https://www.ebu.co.uk/Glastonbury Symposium: https://glastonburysymposium.co.uk/Cambridge University: https://www.cam.ac.uk/Rumble: https://rumble.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/Telegram: https://telegram.org/Mozilla Firefox: https://www.firefox.com/en-US/Brave Browser: https://brave.com/Microsoft Edge: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edgeGoogle Chrome: https://www.google.com/chrome/John Taylor Gatto: https://johntaylorgatto.com/Deliberate Dumbing Down / Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt: https://deliberatedumbingdown.com/ddd/Mary Rodwell: https://www.maryrodwell.com.au/Mark Attwood Show: https://themarkattwoodshow.com/Republic Broadcasting Network: