Hack Circus

In this episode, Leila catches up with Heather Fenoughty at her home in Sheffield. For composer and sound designer Heather, everything from the bathroom fan to the dishwasher seems carefully placed: "To me, the world is sound designed". Find out how to manipulate people's emotions with music, which came first – the lyricist or the composer, why we like particular chords, and what happened when she met Jean Luc Picard down the corridor from Doctor Who, in this extra-musical episode of the Hack Circus podcast! Heather's excellent blog, with links to her work is here: heather-fenoughty.com Hack Circus is a quarterly magazine, event series and podcast. Check out hackcircus.com and sign up to our newsletter to find up what we're up to next.

It's series two! This series of podcasts explore the magical in everyday life. This time Leila meets Nick Davies, hypnotist and hypnotherapist, Director of the Warwickshire School of Hypnotherapy and creator of the BLAST therapy technique for resolving trauma. Learn how to put yourself into a more receptive state, and find out a little about the history and science of hypnosis in this fascinating extra-long episode of the show to launch our second season. Nick even works his magic on Leila's fear of heights live on the show! More about him here and his training and workshops here.  Hack Circus is also a quarterly magazine and a weird, immersive live show: hackcircus.com and hackcircus.com/underworlds for details of our next show – an immersive, hacky musical in London on March 23rd. This episode of the show is sponsored by train-mad software development company Shedcode who tinker with arduino, tell stories with data, and drink plenty of tea. Get in touch if you'd like to contact them, or sponsor an episode o

LJ Rich is a classically-trained composer, music technologist and journalist who has recently started speaking publicly about her synaesthesia and perfect pitch. Everything in LJ's world is musical, and she shares some of her extraordinary experiences in this exclusive interview – which includes an original composition based on part of this conversation, and a 'glitching session' with Leila that transforms the streets of London into a gloriously strange living soundscape.

Leila meets the writer Warren Ellis, whose prolific output includes Transmetropolitan and Gun Machine. They talk comics, sleep patterns, scepticism, "wearable shirts", whisky, and this great age of technological boredom.

In this episode Leila meets magician Mike Stoner to talk weddings, podcasts, telepathy, making things interesting, choosing volunteers – and how magicians need to master the art of *selling* before they even pick up a pack of cards. Mike brings some tricks along, and needless to say, Leila's mind is blown. More about Mike at: www.magician-4-hire.co.uk and the Hack Circus project at hackcircus.com

In the third episode of the Hack Circus podcast, Leila Johnston meets Joe Banks from Rorschach Audio, a fascinating sound artist who has been researching acoustic illusions, EVP and everything to do with the psychology of sound, for many years. For more about the new issue & next event – see hackcircus.com. 

In the first episode of the new Hack Circus podcast, Leila catches up with her friend Helen Zaltzman from the well-known podcast 'Answer Me This' (and many other things). They chat about making, painting, Jewishness, mirrors, driving and much more – and the Ludic Rooms pop in with some circuit-bending tips for beginners. For more about the new issue & next event see hackcircus.com.

Leila chats to Nick Drage, a former 'pentester' who reguarly donned disguises and false identities in order to test the physical security of organisations. This intriguing chat explores the psychology of infiltration, and Nick offers some advice for others aspiring to do this mysterious and exciting job. More from Nick in the new issue & next event – see hackcircus.com for info.