The Nerve: An English and Arts Podcast

Jen Bray’s first novel, The Lies Between Us, is set in the seaside village of Dunmore East in Co. Waterford, where a disappearance and a murder cause old wounds to be reopened and family secrets to be unveiled. This first novel has shot to the top of bestseller lists in Ireland and has now been sold to publishers in Germany, Poland and the United States. However, Jen also holds down a full-time job as Political Editor of The Sunday Times and was formerly a political journalist with The Irish Times. In this episode of the podcast, she chats about juggling these roles, the joy that writing gives her and how she processed her own brush with violence through her novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Natasha Everitt is a former student of Theatre Studies and English at SETU and since graduating, she has worked as a drama instructor, writer, actress and voiceover artist. Her upcoming show, Time Passes, will take place at Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford on 6th and 7th March. Directed by Deirdre Dwyer, the production focuses on a young woman whose mind starts to unravel to the point where she dreams of becoming a lawnmower. In studio, they discuss the process of developing and producing a one-woman show, the responsibility of representing mental health challenges in the theatre, and the hopes that they have for the future of the production. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our most popular podcast episode of the year is back! On this year’s Christmas recommendations episode, Jenny is joined by Edward Hayden, course leader and lecturer in Culinary Arts (and well-known TV chef!), Dr Sinead O’Halloran, Head of the Department of Science and Dr Katherine Cagney, lecturer in Psychology on the BA Arts programme. They highlight a wonderful selection of books, events and films for you to enjoy over the festive season. We wish our listeners a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year, and thanks for listening in 2025!Featured books/films:All my sons by Arthur MillerThrough her eyes: A new history of Ireland in 21 women by Clodagh FinnMornings in Jenin by Susan AbulhawaThe Raptures and The Fire Starters by Jan CarsonDeaf, directed by Eva Libertad (Spanish, 2025) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of the podcast tackles the issue of how we, as educators, might engage with GenAI in our classrooms and features Dr Michelle Kassorla, an Associate Professor of English at Georgia State University, Perimeter College. Michelle has served as a Chair and Expert Panel member for Educause, a non-profit association dedicated to transforming Higher Education through technology. She has co-written the AI Literacy in Teaching and Learning framework for Educause and has published elsewhere on the value of teaching with GenAI. She also writes the substack “The Academic Platypus,” where she advocates strongly for educators to embrace AI in the classroom. In the episode, she outlines practical approaches to teaching with AI, ways of rethinking Bloom’s taxonomy and assessment, the value of human empathy and creativity, and the huge impact that AI agents are likely to have in the coming months.Further Reading:Understanding Inverted Bloom's Taxonomy - https://michellekassorla.substack.com/p/understanding-inverted-bloomsThe Academic Platypus - https://michellekassorla.substack.comBoodle Box AI - https://boodlebox.ai Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this first episode of the new season of The Nerve, we visit The Poetry Lounge, a regular event organised by Waterford poet Ger Duffy that features well known and new poets from around the country. Events are held in Waterford Gallery of Art and are free and open to members of the public. This episode features the poets Luke Morgan, John Noonan and D'Or Seifer and includes readings of their work recorded at the event by Aidan Grant. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the podcast, we are joined by poet and essayist Gustav Parker Hibbett whose debut poetry collection, High Jump As Icarus Story was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and the 2025 John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize. Nominated for numerous other prizes and published in a wide range of literary magazines, they hold a BA in English from Stanford University and are currently pursuing a PhD in Literary Practice at Trinity College Dublin, where they are an Early Career Research Fellow at the Long Room Hub. Parker gave a talk on their poetry at SETU in March and was interviewed by two final year English students, Chika Dike and Naoise Murphy, who also join the discussion in studio along with Dr Christa de Brún who organised the event. This event was made possible through funding from the National Forum’s Strategic Alignment of Teaching Learning Enhancement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Jenny is joined by Dr Hazel Farrell and Dr Don O’Neill of the Sustainability in the Arts Festival to talk about winning the Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE) Impact Award and to offer an overview of this year’s festival, which will take place from 7th – 11th April. The SATLE Impact prize money of €25,000 will help to expand the work of the previous two festivals which involved multidisciplinary collaborations between undergraduate and postgraduate students from a variety of disciplines across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities such as Music, Visual Art, Graphic Design, Culinary Arts, Languages and Internationalisation. The aim of the festival is for students to explore the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the event will take place across all SETU campuses in Waterford, Carlow and Wexford. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every year, we try to do an episode in which staff from various departments within SETU give us their recommendations for good Christmas reads and activities, and this year is no different! In this episode, Jenny is joined by Neill Wylie, a Learning Technologist from the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning, Dr Caroline McGarry from the School of Education and Dr Felicity Kelliher, a Professor of Management Practice and Academic Lead at the RIKON Centre. Featuring books by Irish authors, and events, activities and products for you to savour during the festive season, this is a must-listen for anyone looking for gift inspiration and some Christmas cheer! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the podcast, Jenny chats to Dr Renée Hulan, a Professor of English Language and Literature at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She was the Craig Dobbin Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at University College Dublin in 2020-2021 and has written several books that bring together her interests in climate fiction, Canadian heritage and indigenous communities. She has also edited collections on these themes and recently gave a fascinating online lecture at South East Technological University, entitled “To bring the breathing world close: Reading Cli-Fi from Canada” which was run in conjunction with the Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies at SETU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of the podcast is dedicated to first year students and how they can get the most out of this next chapter of their lives. For most, it is both an exciting and overwhelming time when students must learn how to navigate a new level of independence and cope with new academic, financial and social responsibilities. In studio are Conor Phelan, of SETU’s Student Life and Learning Office, Erin McNamara-Cullen, the course leader for the BA Arts programme at SETU and Corey Shanahan, the new Education Officer for the Students’ Union at SETU Waterford. Each of them discuss the challenges and opportunities of university life and offer advice about how to get the best out of the college experience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a very important and special episode of the podcast, in which Fadi Zmorrod, the recipient of the SEVN (South East Venue Network) bursary joins Jenny in studio to talk about his work with Doulab Circus and Dance. When Fadi was younger, he left the oppressive environment of occupied Palestine and went to study computing in the United States. Yet his heart was simply not in it: he was drawn back to the arts and to his home, where he met his Irish wife, Juliet, and where Doulab Circus and Dance was born. Across Palestine, Fadi and Juliet used dance and circus movement to offer children a space in which movement and intellectual curiosity could come together, and where trust and confidence could be built. The decision to leave Palestine was extremely difficult; Fadi speaks of what it was like to leave those children behind and what it is to cope with the conflicting emotions of relief and guilt that a new life of safety presents. Doulab Circus and Dance currently works with the residents of Direct Provision centres, members of the Travelling community and children with diverse and special needs.Also in studio are Dr Kate McCarthy, who has galvanised SETU staff as part of a solidarity initiative called Gather for Palestine, and Sinead Bolger, an arts and migration facilitator who talks about meeting Fadi for the first time and offers some suggestions on readings by Palestinian authors that you can find below.Book Recommendation List:I saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti – non-fictionAward-winning account of the human aspects of the Palestinian struggle.Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco - Graphic NovelJoe Sacco’s visual journalism about the massacre of 111 Palestinian refugees by Israeli soldiers in 1956.The hundred years' war on Palestine : a history of settler colonial conquest and resistance by Rashid Khalidi– Non-fictionA landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history.Palestine +100 : stories from a century after the Nakba, edited by Basma Ghalayini. – short storiesWhat might your home city look like in the year 2048 - exactly 100 years after Nakba, the displacement of more than 700,000 people after the Israeli War of Independence? Enter ghost by Isabella Hammad - fictionAn actress returns to her home city of Haifa after many years in London and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Against the loveless world by Susan Abulhawa - fictionNahr, a resilient but exhausted woman, tells the story of her life from an Israeli solitary confinement cell. Mornings in Jenin / Susan Abulhawa – fictionA multi-generational story about a Palestinian family as they live through half a century of violent history. Qissat : short stories by Palestinian women, edited by Jo Glanville - fictionIn a cross-generational compilation, editor Jo Glanville chronicles the varied lived experiences of Palestinian women, from domestic to diaspora. A woman is no man by Etaf Rum The debut novel by Palestinian-American Etaf Rum takes us inside the lives of a conservative Arab family living in America.Salt houses / Hala AlyanSalma is forced to leave Palestine and move to Kuwait City, but when Saddam Hussein invades, she must leave again. They called me a lioness: a Palestinian girl’s fight for freedom by Ahed Tamimi – non-fictionA Palestinian activist jailed at sixteen after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers illuminates the daily struggles of life under occupation in this moving, deeply personal memoir.Out of place : a memoir / Edward Said. An extraordinary story of exile and a celebration of an irrecoverable past. The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist by Emile Habibi. This award-winning novel-in-translation is clever tragicomedy that demonstrates the complex life of a Palestinian living in Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode sees us welcome our very first spoken word poet to the podcast! Caoimhe Weakliam joined us to chat about the power of spoken word poetry after a talk with English students that was funded by the Strategic Alignment for Teaching and Learning Enhancement initiative from the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. In the past year, Caoimhe has performed as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival and Culture Night and has delivered two sets at Electric Picnic. She has also worked as a youth worker and creative practitioner, and her main aim is to create positive change in the world and to empower young people through spoken word methodologies. Also in studio is English lecturer and poet Dr Christa de Brún, and Sasha Terfous, a first year student (and herself a spoken word poet) who attended the event.You can follow Caoimhe on Instagram @caoimheweakliam Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.