Reflections - The Podcast

Meet Om, my Indian brother (yaar in Marati) who has dedicated his life to mountains. Whether it's in the jungle of Maharashtra or trekking in the Himalayas, Om spends his time showing off India's beauty and getting out of the city chaos as he leads Durgaraj Adventures. Join us as we sat under the stars at one of his campsites, drinking Indian wine and reminiscing the cool life he lives. I feel luc...

Shalom! Salaam alaikum! In this episode, we're reflecting on my journey hitchhiking & couchsurfing across one of the most diverse, ancient, holy but also conflicted regions of the world. From Mars-like deserts, to the lowest point on Earth, to the birthplace of Jesus, this was some experience! For more info on the history of the region: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRYZjOuUnlU The Gorgeously Re...

After 5 weeks roaming Bulgaria and Türkiye with Callum, I took the opportunity to hop on a €15 flight over to get some Croatian sun. The Balkan Peninsula is a beautiful, raw and underestimated part of Europe full of very recent history that you can still feel exists today. Listen in on the hitchhiking adventure from Zadar to Koper and back, reuniting with my buddy Darragh in the meantime who is li...

Здрасти! Meet Христина (Hristina). A graphic design student in the oldest city in Europe, Plovdiv. At 10 years old, Hristina left Banya along with her brother for her to go to art school. She’s been in Plovdiv since and is constantly inspired by the ancient artistry that surrounds her.  Listen in and find out what it was like for a 10-year-old to live in a house of university students, the misconc...

Callum and I set off for Sofia with our Ryanair tickets in hand along with our desire for pure adventure and our plan of not having a plan. Ripe and ready for absolutely anything after graduating in Dublin together, what unfolded in September/October of 2022 was nothing short of magical, but extremely enriching.  We had a lot of fun, but we were in search of the difficult moments. The moments that...

Merhaba! This episode is a little summary of what Callum & I got up to while traveling in Turkey in September/October. Callum was an awesome travel buddy to have for many reasons, but what made our partnership so great was that we were constantly holding each other accountable for our own personal growth. We used a personal coaching technique to create a desired persona we'd like to have, and set...

A life of getting paid to travel around the world? Meet Berkay, a cultural chameleon who thrives to understand the world’s different kinds of people and relate with them. Every week he flies around the world to a destination unknown to him until he gets his weekly schedule working in the airline industry. Callum and I met Berkay in his house in Istanbul whilst Couchsurfing and couldn’t have had a...

Chris lives the traveler musician life. He plays 6 gigs per week in 6 different Bulgarian cities. Where did this artistic hustle begin? Nottingham, England. He moved on his own at 17 years old to go and earn some £'s. Frustrated with the work he was doing, he quit and decided to start busking on the streets instead. Which turned out to be a successful risk. His life turned and he returned to Bulga...

Saoirse Kelders is highly motivated, a go-getter & an opportunity taker. She graduated in UCD studying International Commerce with Mandarin in 2022. She’s currently working for a startup called Protex AI, as a Founders Associate. She also founded her own startup, Passionfruit (known as Strive during the time this episode was recorded) which is a ‘Tinder for jobs’. A machine learning matching start...

Dave is a High Performance and Executive Coach, a Master Practitioner in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and an International Trainer of NLP coaches. That doesn't tell the full story however. Dave was also a Senior Solicitor for 12 years prior to moving full-time into his business, a rugby player and continues to be a musician to this day. Born in Dublin, a number of years ago Dave set up his o...

Matheus recently moved to Ireland from Nigeria. In this episode we dive into learning about his background, tribalism in Nigeria, 'falocom' and having an entrepreneurial mind, subtle discrimination, African community vs Western individualism and starting life in Ireland as an African. Matheus was enjoying his Sunday in the park, reflecting with a smoke in hand, and if you listen carefully you can...

James is a recently graduated BCOMM International student with Mandarin at UCD. He's from a town Monaghan, a county in the north of Ireland. James's passion after tiring college days is playing, teaching and writing traditional Irish music. Frustrated by the inactivity during the pandemic and noticing the lack of material for scholar banjo musicians starting from scratch, he wrote a book for begin...

I met Janko on the banks of the River Dodder in Dublin, as we were both having a meditative moment with a heron and stroke up conversation. Janko has been a mentor of mine since then. Having recently retired, Janko shares the wisdom he has gained in his lifetime through growing up in socialism under Tito, hitchhiking from Slovenia to India at age 16, living in 8 countries and experiencing a Yugosl...

Hello and welcome to the Reflections Podcast! This first episode is an invitation for you to learn along with me, Johnny, from all of the perspectives of the amazing people I have met on my travels. I give you a brief introduction into who I am, what Reflections is all about and what's in it for you to join the journey as a listener. Reflections: The Student View and all the 121 perspectives of li...