My guest for the 13th episode is Richard Sarco-thomas, a life long martial artist and a social worker, working with youth and people with learning disabilities. Richard is a black belt in Aiki jiu jitsu and Aikido and in the last 15 years, beside marital arts, he has been practicing, teaching and organising contact improvisation events and festival.

Richard was born in a small working class town in the UK and grew up in quite rough and violent circumstances. His life story of building himself back up and becoming an example for his own students is quite astonishing.

I met Richard 8 years ago and during the following years, he always impressed me with his ability to stay honest to himself even when his positions are lacking popularity and group conformity. His willingness to speak his mind even while facing adversity was a great inspiration for me personally, and is a much needed quality nowadays, as civil discourse is becoming more and more difficult to manage.

I invited him to the podcast express his thoughts on the current debates that are taking place within the CI community and to explore together the question what is the appropriate place for politics within movement related spaces.

Connect to Richard:

https://www.facebook.com/richard.sarcothomas