This is an episode that I really wanted to record and promote.

Jonathan Leitch and others are campaigning against plans to build a massive Data Centre right next to a tiny village community in Fife in Scotland. He talks about the intimidating scale of it.

It is a story of how greed and a blind faith in the value of artificial intelligence can threaten a community. It is also a story about how a campaign, even on this David vs Goliath scale, can have some success. Jonathan and his colleagues have achieved a pause. It is a success but it is not enough. They want a moratorium on the creation of centres on this scale until the full implications are clear. I think we should all want that. Creating facilities which demand unimaginable amounts of water and power, dominate landscapes and dwarf communities on the basis of limited knowledge, at best, is a remarkable gamble.

This is very much a story of people taking action. It is one about the importance of community and connection and these are key themes for this series, even if we don't spend much time discussing trauma and ACEs in this episode . Ultimately it is another conversation about the sort of country we want to live in and whether or not we will prioritise the needs of people over the interests of large companies and capital.

You can find out more about the plans here https://aprs.scot/auchtertool-dc/

and find the campaign Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/groups/1472242997516977/?ref=share&rdid=36VbLMN7AoVt3lgs&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fg%2F1EUxMHg23g%2F

It is great to have Suzanne Zeedyk back on "Taking Action", albeit in a different role. Suzanne was the instigator and driving force behind the "Getting to grips with Trauma" Book Festival held in the Cumbernauld Theatre on the 6th of September. The event was organised by the Scottish ACEs Action Community. Please check their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/p/Scotlands-ACEs-Action-Community-61578663712550/

It was a remarkable event which I have been trailing one the podcast over the last 5 episodes, so I am delighted at the response to it. Nearly all 300 tickets were sold and the feedback on Linkedin as well as through emails, Vox pops and direct contact has been hugely positive. It felt like a landmark event and I really wanted to reflect on it with Suzanne.

If you attended or were involved in the Festival this offers a great opportunity to reflect on the day and its potential. if you weren't there, it is a great taster for, and description of, the day.

This episode is yet another trailer for a session at the "Getting to Grips with Trauma" Book Festival which will be held at Cumbernauld Theatre on Sunday 6th September from 10.00 - 5.30. You can buy tickets here https://lanternhousearts.org/events/book-festival-getting-to-grips-with-traum/. Remarkably, a £15 day pass allows you to attend 6 sessions from a choice of 24 authors. It is the biggest literary bargain ever!!.

This conversation is with Alex Renton(https://www.alexrenton.com/)and, I think it is really special. We start from his book "Blood Legacy" which was wonderfully reviewed by Margaret Smith in the Scottish ACEs Action Community newsletter.

Here are just a couple of paragraphs from that review

"The book left me wondering all sorts of other things, too. I reflected on the racism that exists today and ways in which it stems from the slave trade. I found myself thinking about how it might be tackled and why our culture often seems to have difficulty in treating particular 'groups' of people with respect. I even found myself reading other books on this topic, researching slavery beyond the African continent.

So yes, I think Blood Legacy is a really well written and informative book that we would all do well to read. That is not only because it is brave and informative but because people like myself will be made aware that slavery was, horrifyingly, not only an English problem. It was very much a Scottish one too. This book will cause us all to look again at our capital city with new eyes. That makes Alex Renton’s efforts very worthwhile indeed."

Our conversation follows Margaret's review and ranges widely over the themes that she identifies. Alex is brave, thoughtful and challenging and I am sure you will love listening to him as much as I did