Peter Alsop‘s SONGS TO CHEW

Latest Episodes:

The Hug Nov 12, 2021

Show notes

Today, we’ll listen to a song that’s a true story about Dan Murrow, a therapist who was fired for hugging his patients. He was convinced that hugging between consenting adults was therapeutically helpful, contrary to the hospital’s policy. It’s called THE HUG, and it was written by Fred Small, a wonderful singer-songwriter, old friend, activist and pastor dedicated to healing the earth, seeking justice, and tending our wounded spirits. As Dan Murrow would say, "If I must choose between working here and being healthy, I choose health." When we draw a line, and stop enabling, accepting and ignoring other people’s unhealthy behaviors in our businesses and service organizations, then they too have to face their own behaviors and patterns. Many people have been sexually or physically abused by someone in a more powerful position. Therapists need to take care of our own hugging needs outside of our practice. I’ve heard that Dan Murrow would always ask others if they would like a hug, before he hugged someone. And I notice lots of young Dads nowadays who spend time holding and hugging their kids. It’s slow, but it sure looks like we’re moving in the right direction!

~ Subscribe to my Songs To Chew podcast = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music & other artistic endeavors

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Don‘t Put Your Hand In My Pants Nov 05, 2021

Show notes

When our ‘Song To Chew’ for this week was written 30 years ago, it would have been thought of as a song that only women would sing. But more recently, with awareness growing about the limitations of our ‘either-or' binary thinking, especially in the arena of gender, sexual orientation and identification, it’s now a song that anyone can sing! DON’T PUT YOUR HAND IN MY PANTS, JUST ‘CAUSE WE’RE IN LOVE models how to set healthy boundaries with someone who is misreading our sexual messages! Just because two adults love each other, does not mean their relationship is ready to be sexual. Many of us humans struggle with how to have a caring, intimate relationship with our partner. It’s a good struggle, and hopefully we learn how to make less and less mistakes, and collect more and more tools for how to love someone else. It just makes good sense to take some extra time before leaping into bed with someone we don't know very well. If you’re looking for more songs about Sex and Sexuality, you can search my past podcasts, they’re all free! Bye for now!

~ Subscribe to my Songs To Chew podcast = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Costume Party Oct 29, 2021

Show notes

It’s October and in honor of Halloween, our ‘Song To Chew’ today will be COSTUME PARTY. I’ve noticed scatterings of children, test-driving their Halloween costumes in super-market aisles, making sure they work! Hidden inside their new identity, they are no longer just a ‘child in a supermarket’! Every one of us wears a costume. Each day, the clothing we put on when we get up, is our costume for the day! And when we wear different costumes, we get to see the world through different glasses, which is great! Because we can learn so much, by exploring other diverse ways to go through our lives. We build new skills and are exposed to new and different ideas from simply rubbing shoulders with others who are not like us.

When we learn how to be a ‘safe place’ for others, we don’t judge people who look differently than we do. When we are comfortable with ourselves, we can let others reveal themselves to us, ... instead of trying to strip away their masks! I'm Peter Alsop. Please subscribe and join us on this podcast every week, for new “Songs To Chew”!

~ Subscribe to my Songs To Chew podcast = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music & other artistic endeavors

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Heal The Bay Oct 22, 2021

Show notes

This weeks’ Song To Chew’ is HEAL THE BAY from my ‘Pluggin’ Away’ album. It’s an anthem, and a plea to all humans to help save this planet of ours. If we want a clean, unpolluted non-toxic environment, we must first be able to imagine one. When we throw something “away”, it doesn't really go “away”, it just goes somewhere else! So it’s up to each of us to take care of our biosphere. Even if we have to clean up after other people! We need more cooperative, less competitive ways to live together, so we can function as ‘stewards’ of the precious life-forms we already have here, rather than thinking of them as ‘infinite resources’, to be used by us for our own human survival. They are not. And we can start our stewardship by cleaning up the bay!

~ Subscribe to my Songs To Chew podcast = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music & other artistic endeavors

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Grow It At Home Oct 15, 2021

Show notes

Today’s ‘Song To Chew’ is the title cut from my GROW IT AT HOME album. It’s about where we get our food. I used to read food labels to see what chemical additives were in food before I bought it, and a friend suggested that I also check out where the food comes from. I was amazed at how far some of my food had traveled to get to me! And at how much extra money we were wasting by importing food from all over the world. And it's not just local food that makes sense and needs our support, but actually, local EVERYTHING! The fabric of our local communities needs the support and strength of every thread that makes up that material of the community, so the entire fabric of our smaller groups will be strong and healthy.

~ Subscribe to my Songs To Chew podcast = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music & other artistic endeavors

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Gotta Lotta Livin‘ To Do Oct 08, 2021

Show notes

Our ‘Song To Chew’ today is GOTTA LOTTA LIVIN' TO DO. I wrote it in the late 80's when there were huge fears about contracting HIV from gay men. Kids and families needed to understand that this deadly virus was not transmitted through the air, but mostly through physical contact, and kids could get it too. I took my daughters Megan and Willow to sing with me at a California Men's Gathering, and got lots of hugs from men there, thanking me for coming and bringing my kids. Willow and I recorded this song on my ‘Pluggin’ Away’ album, along with Ry Cooder playing slide guitar! When faced with a pandemic, we have a chance to stretch and grow spiritually by walking through our fears and holding onto a loving attitude, even when we're afraid. All of us have a lot more learnin' and livin' to do here! I'm Peter Alsop. Thanks for stopping by. Please subscribe to my podcast, and I'll be back next week with another ‘Song To Chew!

~ Subscribe = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS album = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music & other artistic endeavors

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Go To Sleep You Little Creep Oct 01, 2021

Show notes

This week’s ‘Song To Chew’ is “GO TO SLEEP YOU LITTLE CREEP!” from my 'Stayin' Over' album. It chronicles one of our most universal human activities; bedtime for children. Every evening, just after dinner, thousands of little kids all over the world turn magically into "little creeps", and most parents experience some perfectly normal parental irritation towards them! We all act like creeps when we’re tired, and our friends and families still love us, even if they don't like how we're acting! For years, parents have used this song to coax their little ones to bed. Hope you’ll take a listen, and stop by next week for another ‘Song To Chew’. Bring a friend!

~ Subscribe = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music & other artistic endeavors

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Garbage Sep 24, 2021

Show notes

This week’s ‘Song To Chew’ is a ‘scream-along’ written by Bill Steele about GARBAGE, from my very first live album 46 years ago! Since then, we continue to produce excess packaging waste from our food and other commerce. And currently, some of our recycling efforts are being abandoned because it’s become too expense to recycle our waste! We scream about the air and the water, and the most powerful verse is the one about 'filling our minds with garbage!’ We need healthy new little brains to address some of the critical issues facing us today; switching our fossil fuel jobs to making solar and wind power more available, so everyone can benefit from renewable energies. We need to support our indigenous water-defenders, our youth climate activists, and figure out ways to slow down the huge increase in our human population that puts such demands on our finite resources. Come on in! Listen, think, stir the pot and chew on some new ideas with us! We need you!

~ Subscribe to my Songs To Chew podcast = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music & other artistic endeavors

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

I Wish Sep 17, 2021

Show notes

Our SONG TO CHEW today is called 'WISH', about taking action when something needs to change. It’s from my 'Grow It At Home' album. Most of us feel concerned about the future of our world, with climate change, pandemics, storms, fires, wars, people arguing with each other, our lives seem to get more and more complicated every day! It's very human of us, when we're upset, to wish things would change! We desperately hope someone else will come along and make everything the way we want, because making that decision to 'give it a try ourselves', is a very big decision. But once we've done it a couple times, (even if it wasn't perfect), we build our confidence. If we can ‘imagine’ a way to make the future better, that’s the first step to figuring out other actions we can take together to begin fixing whatever puzzles we face.

~ Subscribe to my Songs To Chew podcast = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music & other artistic endeavors

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe

Earthsong Sep 10, 2021

Show notes

I don't usually write 'anthems', but today’s song from my ‘Chris Moose Holidays’ album is an anthem. It’s called EARTHSONG. There are billions of life forms and gorgeous features on our planet, and each one has a voice; the rivers and mountains, the animals and plants, all of which have a part in the delicate balance of nature that sustains us. So really, EARTHSONG had to be an anthem! And like any good anthem, the voices need to balance and harmonize with each other in order for our planet's song of life to work. There's great value in understanding our human place in the community of life. If we don't begin to see ourselves as stewards, advocates and protectors of the other lives and eco-systems on our Earth, we will be unable to survive here as a species. “So ev’ry creature, raise your voice, each holy day we all rejoice, and celebrate how we survive, the Earthsong is the song of life!” Sing-along with us!

~ Subscribe to my Songs To Chew podcast = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-alsops-songs-to-chew/id1446179156

~ CAMPING WITH DADS = https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Dads-Peter-Alsop/dp/B08CS871QW/ref=sr_1_1

~ www.FaceBook.com/WeLikePeterAlsop

~ Youtube.com/peteralsop = videos

~ Patreon.com/peteralsop = support my music & other artistic endeavors

~ www.peteralsop.com/music = CDs & downloads

Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe