Nostalgia Interviews With Chris Deacy

For my latest Nostalgia Interview it was a huge pleasure to meet up via Zoom with Aled Thomas. Aled currently works at the University of Wolverhampton and did his first degree in Religious Studies at Trinity College Carmarthen from 2007-10. We learn how his goal had been to become an RE teacher but that academia called him back. Aled’s research area is the Church of Scientology and we learn how his interest was kickstarted. He is especially interested in Free Zone Scientology and what is authentic vs. that which is heretical Scientology. Aled discloses why he feels the need in his work to say that he is not a Scientologist and he talks about how academia can enrich public life and how important it is for a researcher to be in control of their own work. Aled grew up as a video game kid and the first band he was interested in was Queen – it’s in his musical DNA. We learn that he is into retro music, including punk, and that one of his biggest obsessions involves Sparks which, for Aled, are everything t