Safety Last

On the 10th of June, 2023, Theodore John Kaczynski took his own life in his prison cell where, in 1998, he had been sentenced to serve out several life terms in prison without the possibility of parole. When this news became public, there was a large outcry and a revitalised conversation on the internet about how he should be remembered. So, let’s get to the facts, what did Theodore, or as we’ll c...

No franchise has left such a large impact on my life as has Pokemon. From the time I was 10 years old, throughout high school and even in university, Pokemon continued to have a dominating presence. Even now I still get nostalgic about the older video games that accompanied my youth; for example, Littleroot Town and Ecruteak’s theme song still make me drift back to my childhood. Whether it’s argui...

No franchise has left such a large impact on my life as has Pokemon. From the time I was 10 years old, throughout high school and even in university, Pokemon continued to have a dominating presence. Even now I still get nostalgic about the older video games that accompanied my youth; for example, Littleroot Town and Ecruteak’s theme song still make me drift back to my childhood. Whether it’s argui...

(5:20) - Jordan Peterson & Frogs (9:30) - Compassion in Schools (14:15) - Plato's Cave and Teaching Dreams (18:30) - Yoga & Appearance (22:40) - Learning Languages & Korean (31:05) - Learning Thai & Muay Thai (38:25) - Music & Hip Hop (56:45) - Passions and Writing my Book (1:00:00) - Giving Feedback about my Book Cover (1:09:15) - AJ's Passions

What we consider normal seems so obvious that sometimes the possibility of change seems impossible and unlikely. Every society that has ever existed has clearly preferred thinner bodies, right? That’s just an unchanging law of nature, right? Wrong. Sometimes, when we’re trying to understand society, it’s important to step away from what learnt cultural assumptions that seem so obvious. Instead, vi...

North Korea (NK) is a nation that everyone has an opinion on, but no one has any experience. Throughout my entire life, this rogue state has been painted with the worst portrays possible, linked with human rights violation, poverty, a closed-off political system that no foreigner can seem to understand, and perhaps most damning a loose trigger finger with nuclear weapons. So, just imagine my surpr...

I think men are terrified and obsessed with women because we inherently understand that a beautiful woman can basically level us with a single glance. That’s probably why men have tried and still try to regulate women sexuality (Sharia Law or abortion). Subconsciously, it might be a defence mechanism. On the other hand, I also think that the opposite is true, and that women are both terrified and...

This is the second episode of a two-part series about China in the modern world. In the previous podcast, I was joined by Mr Mitchell History, a fantastic YouTube channel about history, to answer the million-dollar question. What political system does China actually have? For this episode, we are thinking more global with our focus turned away from the domestic to the international. As the America...

I recently had a discussion that made me realise how opaque the Chinese government is. I was reclining on my friend’s sofa when he turned his head and asked, “China is a communist country, right?” Right? I mean the central political body CPC does have ‘communist’ in its name; yet, North Korea also refers to itself as the Democratic Republic of Korea, and it is neither democratic or a republic. How...

Alain de Botton said “The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life.” I think this is a perfect summary of high school. The fact you see the same people everyday means you build really strong connections, but simultaneously, the fact that you are always surrounded by the same faces means that you’re tra...

On 14/9/2022, Japan announced that it would fully reopen to tourists after more than two years of closed borders. To celebrate this event, along with humanity slowly learning to live with this new pandemic, I decided to record, edit and release a 90-minute podcast with two of my best friends and travelling companions to tell you “What you should and shouldn’t do in the land of the rising sun.” Thi...

If I had to make a list of the most common questions that I get asked about, anime and manga would comfortably sit within the top 10. So, today, we’re giving the people what they want along with the second part from my discussion with Srijay Chatterjee from the Only Up podcast. Berserk? Vagabond? (4:50) Vinland Saga? (9:23) The most overrated anime? (11:50) Why I dislike A Silent Voice (16:10) alo...

I listened to my first podcast in my final year of high school, and honestly, my first reaction was this was a more niche radio broadcast. But during university, I started listening to basketball podcasts on the train ride to keep me occupied. Slowly but surely, my tastes expanded to include more than just dribbling an orange ball. Slowly but surely, other topics like politics, religion and philos...

There’s a quote that haunts the dusty halls of the internet and it goes “New friends are great but old friends are gold.” Well, how about a friend that you’ve known since year 4? Well, that friend is Rennard; a friend who has existed in my life before the Global Financial Crisis (2008), the creation of Instagram (2010) and the debut of the iPhone (2007). Am I officially reaching the retirement age...

I had no idea what to title this podcast – “Friend Simulator” made me sound like a science geek and “Wining & Dining with Nicholas” sounded like we were dating. Eventually, I settled with for the milquetoast title of Last Night Conversations. However, as you can tell from the short snippet at the beginning, this podcast is anything but milquetoast, but rather a wild roller coaster of laughs, i...

I know a handful of people who have said they want to become an author, people who have sworn that they have the winning recipe for the next best-selling novel, people have had revealed that they've always wanted to publish their thoughts onto a page. Yet, the stark reality is that I don't know a single person who has actually completed the task. Which is where I come in, I understand how daunting...

Philosophy is a field of study often relegated to the margins of society; nowadays, telling someone you enjoy philosophy is akin to telling them you enjoy Latin or hunting with a bow. It’s just bizarre. However, this ultimately seems to be a disservice to philosophy, as a lot of people imagine these ideas to be impractical or irrelevant to their life, something which I completely disagree with. In...

A big thank you for everyone who tunes into this podcast, your support is much appreciated. For this week's special podcast, we will celebrate 25 releases with a question and answer session! Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. For a sneak peak at some questions, have a glance below! 1) How has religion influenced sex? 2) What is a dystopian trope you wouldn't mind living in? 3) Are you...

Sandy Hook, Columbine (34:55), Virginia-Tech. These are all names that have been etched into our collective memories, and as of 24th of May, we’ve a new addition Uvalde. For the rest of the world, we can’t help but a sense of despair and confusion that these mass school shootings continue to happen so frequently in America. Why doesn’t this happen in another other developed nation? Why do young me...

Flaws, those pesky things that we all try to hide from everyone. So of course, why not record a podcast with fan favourite Giorgio where we deep dive into one of my flaws. Am I too condescending? Interesting title, right? I hope it caught your attention. While originally trying to come up with a name for this episode, I toyed with other less abrasive titles such as “am I too motivated?” or “can po...

Hojung Lee is an Asian-American author and the writer behind Tigerrabit, a new book written in response to the rising hate crimes against Asians since the start of the pandemic. We’ve been planning this podcast for a while and settled on linking our discussion of her book with Letterboxd’s new highest rating film Everything Everywhere All At Once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, affectionately...

What makes a good film? Does a film that represents a neglected community immediately make it ‘good’? Or do we only end up looking at its social impact and thus ignoring its other strengths? Shang-Chi featuring Simu Liu was hailed as another film that featured Asians in a media landscape that has traditionally emphasised white faces. Heralded as the first Asian-American superhero film in the West,...

All power is political, and all politics is power. This idea may not resonate to a lot of Westerners who see different political parties win and lose without really changing the course of the nation. And while that might be the ‘best’ version of politics, the reality is that for 99% of human history has not been like this. So today, I want you to really think about this question. How much power sh...

Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle... Studio Ghibli's influence upon Japanese and international animation remains immense. After 19 feature films, several short films, and countless commercials, Ghibli's simple aesthetic has become synonymous with animation. But how did a regular animation in Tokyo, and named after an Italian airplane, rise to such heights? What are some common...

One single question defines the entire field of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and that is whether or not it is real or fake. Does sticking needles in certain areas of your body, drinking certain herbs or even channeling one's "qi" (氣) actually help improve one's health? This is a certain that has always interested me, one of hand, I have been culturally exposed to Chinese medicinal practices, on...