Contemplating Life with Chris Young

This week, we continue my reminiscences of my college days at IUPUI, where I studied computer science. We also cover my final semester and my work at the IU Department of Medical Genetics. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ Prof. Emeritus Dr. John Gersting on IUPUI website: https://science.iupui.edu/people-directory/people/gersting-john.html Indiana University Department of Me...

This week, we continue my reminiscences of my college days at IUPUI, where I studied computer science and worked as a programmer at the IU Department of Medical Genetics. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ Prof. Emeritus Dr. John Gersting on IUPUI website: https://science.iupui.edu/people-directory/people/gersting-john.html Indiana University Department of Medical and Molecula...

This week, we continue my reminiscences of my college days at IUPUI, where I studied computer science. I include the story of how my mentor, Dr. John Gersting, helped me get my first legitimate programming job. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ Indianapolis Center for Advanced Research: https://uindy.historyit.com/container.php?id=112877 Ronald McDonald House of Central India...

This week we continue with my reminiscence of my college days at IUPUI studying computer science. We talk about the service fraternity that I joined in 1975. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity website: https://apo.org/ Alpha Phi Omega on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Phi_Omega Boy Scouts of America on Wikipedia: https://en.wi...

This week we continue with my reminiscence of my college days at IUPUI studying computer science. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer – POV-Ray: https://www.povray.org/ Spectroscopy on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectroscopy Diffraction Grating on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_grating Hewlett-Packard HP 21 ca...

In this episode, we conclude my series about my life as a race fan. I’ll read for you the magazine feature I wrote about the first time I went to the Indy 500 in May 1993.  It appeared in the May 1994 issue.  For our next episode, I will return to stories about my college days at IUPUI. Links of Interest Indianapolis Motor Speedway: https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/ Indianapolis 500 on Wi...

In this episode, we continue my series about my life as a race fan. I will follow that up shortly with a special episode where I read to you an article I wrote for Indianapolis Monthly Magazine about the first time I attended the Indy 500 in person. Links of Interest Indianapolis Motor Speedway: https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/ Indianapolis 500 on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...

Note: I just discovered that this episode did not get uploaded to Spotify for some reason. I probably uploaded and forgot to hit save. So I apologize for being out of sequence. I think is one of my better episodes about a very interesting character in my life – the late great Mike Gregory. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ “The World Inside” by Robert Silverberg: https://en.w...

This week we take a break from reminiscing about my college days to talk about my lifelong obsession with motorsports. Links of Interest Indianapolis Motor Speedway: https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/ Indianapolis 500 on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_500 Documentary by Michael Moore “Roger & Me” (1989) which has nothing to do with this podcast except I parodied...

In this episode, I talk about a harrowing experience I just had in the hospital that nearly cost me my life. We will return to my regular topics soon.  Links of Interest Ascension St. Vincent Hospital Indianapolis W. 86th St.: https://healthcare.ascension.org/locations/indiana/ineva/indianapolis-ascension-st-vincent-hospital-indianapolis Bishop Chatrad of Indianapolis on Wikipedia: https://en.wiki...

This week we take a break from reminiscing about my college days to talk about my lifelong obsession with motorsports. Links of Interest Indianapolis Motor Speedway: https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/ Indianapolis 500 on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_500 Map of Eagledale neighborhood: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Eagledale,+Indianapolis,+IN/@39.8072442,-86.2320...

This week we continue with my reminiscence of my college days at IUPUI studying computer science especially stories surrounding my mentor Dr. John Gersting and his wife Dr. Judith Gersting. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ Prof. Emeritus Dr. John Gersting on IUPUI website: https://science.iupui.edu/people-directory/people/gersting-john.html Prof. Emeritus Dr. Judith Gersting...

After taking a brief detour last week for a political rant, this week we return to more stories about my college days as a computer science major at IUPUI. We begin a multi-part series about my mentor and favorite professor Dr. John Gersting. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ Contemplating Life Episode 26 about my friend Dennis: https://contemplating-life.com/?p=164 Prof. Eme...

My deepest apologies. Somehow this episode was uploaded to YouTube and Patreon but never made it onto Spotify or any of the other podcast platforms. It’s one of my most important episodes so I’m sorry you missed it. In this week’s episode, I will read my award-winning biographical feature “The Reunion” which appeared in the September 1987 issue of Indianapolis Monthly Magazine. Links of interest O...

In this special episode, I’m going to depart briefly from my regularly scheduled episodes for a political rant and a confession. This is an open letter to the judicial system of the United States of America at all levels federal through local. Links of Interest Prosecution of Donald TrumpIn New York on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecution_of_Donald_Trump_in_New_York Indictments aga...

This week we continue my nostalgic look back at my college days and discuss the great friendships I had some of which continue to this day. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ Euchre card game on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchre Billy Joel on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Joel Keith Emerson on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Emerso...

This week we continue my nostalgic look back at my college days starting with my fourth semester at IUPUI and the paid programming jobs I ever had. Links of Interest IUPUI website: https://www.iupui.edu/ IBM System 360 on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/360 IBM Assembly Language on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Basic_assembly_language_and_successors FORTRAN IV on...

In this episode, we wrap up my six-part series on Oscar-nominated films for 2024. Our final category contains my favorite film of the year and the film that is most likely to win significant numbers of awards including Best Picture. I call this category “Troubled Geniuses” The 96th Annual Academy Awards will be awarded this Sunday, March 10. After this episode, I’m going to take off the rest of th...

In this episode, we review two more films nominated for Best Picture Oscars. I call this grouping “Genocidal Husbands.” Yes, it is strange that we would have two major nominated films on that topic but indeed we do. Check out the episode as we wind down to the end of our list and approach the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10. Links of Interest Oscar Nominations 2024: https://www.oscars.org/o...

In this episode, we are going to take an extremely brief look at 4 films that were nominated for major awards but were not among the 10 films nominated for Best Picture. Links of Interest Oscar Nominations 2024: https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2024 “Nyad” (2023): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5302918/ “Nyad” Trailer 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3anCgVSQb3Q “Nyad” Trailer 2: https://w...

This week we continue looking at the 10 films nominated for Oscar in the Best Picture Category. This week we look at two vastly different films on the same theme In a category we call “Revenge of the Robot Women.”  It’s going to be tight, but I plan to get out three more episodes before March 10 when the Oscars are awarded. Wish me luck. Links of Interest Oscar Nominations 2024: https://www.oscars...

This week we continue with our look at the 10 films nominated for Oscar in the Best Picture Category.  On the menu, this week is a pair of films I called “Alien Relationships”. Okay… That is clickbait. They are not about little green men. We have a pair of foreign language films which technically makes them alien to us in the US. Links of Interest Past Lives Trailer 1: https://www.youtube.com/watc...

This week we kick off my second annual review of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture Oscars. The films this year seem to connect in pairs. This week we explore a category I call “Grumpy Academics” which consists of the films “The Holdovers” and “American Fiction.” Although you can listen to the podcast, I recommend the YouTube version to see the clips from the trailers that I have included. Li...

This week we conclude a two-part special that traces my entire history as a movie fan. In this episode, we focus on my obsession with 3D, IMAX, and the evolution of special effects. I recommend you watch the YouTube version because I’ve included lots of movie clips. Links of Interest For a complete list of movies mentioned in this episode, see the Contemplating Life website entry for this episode:...

This week we begin a two-part episode recounting my history as a movie buff. In this episode, we cover the drive-in movie era as well as early widescreen film formats such as Cinerama. Note there are lots of movie clips in the YouTube version of this week’s podcast so you might want to watch it on YouTube. There are too many links in this week’s episode to fit the description so check out the link...