Mere Mortals Conversations

What exactly is money to you? In Episode #339 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: why rich people can move mountains and alter reality, how BTC, ICO's and DEFI/NFT's where the last 3 crypto trends, why Juan thinks things will only get more centralised in the next 4 years, how a 9/5 job made me stupid and examples of Juan's new silly/crazy workout strategies. As always, we...

It's a slightly uncomfortable topic this week as we're examining our worst habits and how we deal with them. In Episode #338 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: why my backsliding required I bring this up, examples from each of us in where we are failing, how our minds are quite different, why there is no one-stop solution to fix all bad habits, the need to realise when it's...

What could be more selfish than defending our eyes from swooping birds, we must be so greedy :( In Episode #337 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: all our recent altercations with birds in the QLD springtime, why I struggle to connect with animals and likely will never have a pet, a therapy session on whether I am leading my life in the right way, a new learning as we pass 3 years of p...

A solo episode this week because Juan's life principle is to go travelling Tasmania. Also just realised that the thumbnail is slightly clickbaity as I'm not going to fight for any of these. Apologies but I'm too lazy to change it, plus I like the pink and white colours. In Episode #336 of 'Musings' I discuss: why these differ from ethical principles, a get out of jail-free...

You feel that ....... it feels like it's goal time. Do you set yourself monthly goals and if so, how many do you set? Juan and I on the first week of every month go over our progress from the previous month and where we are heading for the next. Emphasis as always is on the shortcomings; what we didn't achieve in the previous monthly goals and how we will fix that for the month that come...

Juan is itching to do something physically crazy whereas I just need to experiment more and get out of my routine. In Episode #335 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: why my laptop is still playing up, the 96 km all-night hike that Juan loved, a bunch of disciplined psychos who take physical activities way too far, the pros/cons of doing challenges in a group setting, why Otter. Ai and...

It's one of my favourite sessions because my yearly goals are kicking off at the start of October. In Episode #334 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: what Juan thinks I'll be focusing upon, why I only have 8 goals every year, the murkiness of lack of definition for this year, why I haven't included any numbers to be striving for, aiming for 80% handstands and 20% calisthenic...

Laptop problems were the reason for our mini break, apologies everyone. In Episode #333 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: how one of my RAM ports is fried, the nonsense of getting back all my settings, our mutual dislike of tech problems, why Juan was clambering out a window with his phone, a sum up of what we discussed the previous week (but never aired), Alexander Watanabe's la...

What are you most deeply held ethical boundaries? In Episode #332 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: why we had a recent enforced break, the Generational Wealth With Cryptocurrency podcast, why we both are wary of money coming from sponsorship or advertising, topics of conversation that wouldn't be talked about, why I won't be fighting in any ways, Juan's requirements to be...

Jeff is the founder and CEO of Monochrome Asset Management - the torchbearer of institutional-grade access to digital assets in Australia. I got to sit down and have a yarn with him, and if nothing else listen to our ESG commentary, because I certainly learned a ton from it.  https://www.monochrome.co/ Monochrome was founded to solve an industry problem of the lack of objective education, regulate...

How good are you at spotting fakes and would it matter if you were consuming mostly AI generated content? In Episode #331 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: how Beats by Dre changed gym culture, the rise of deep fakes into your podcasts and media, how to tell what is true so you don't lose a grip on reality, how YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine, whether a singularity can m...

We've talked about the topic of 'regret' before but wanted to get more personal this time and share some insights from our own lives. In Episode #330 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: my one-off jackass comment as a kid, why smashing out huge deadlifts maybe isn't a great idea, how regret can pile up later in life as your actions become magnified, why I find it easier...

You hear that ....... it sounds like it's goal time. Do you set yourself monthly goals and if so, how many do you set? Juan and I on the first week of every month go over our progress from the previous month and where we are heading for the next. Emphasis as always is on the shortcomings; what we didn't achieve in the previous monthly goals and how we will fix that for the month that com...

From now on we shall be clickbaiting, unboxing Mukbangers; hope you like the new direction! In Episode #329 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: why I've never bothered with transcripts before, the cool new things coming to Fountain, why we had to change the Live date, Juan's experience opening Veefriends card's 'Pokemon' style, why so many podcasts stopped in la...

I can give you a sneak peak, we're roughly about 80% good at completing our tasks. In Episode #328 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: our overall impression on how we went last year, why I didn't want to find a partner and Juan didn't want to run, the importance of setting a manageable number of goals, my conquering of my discomfort dancing and keeping things vague if you&ap...

We set ourselves a lot of one or the other questions this week and yet the right answer is probably ..... both!? In Episode #327 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: concepts from Ryan Holiday's book 'Ego Is The Enemy', a bunch of people who were secret gangstas, how our lives would have to change with a wife & kids, me spending my whole day handstanding/reading/studyi...

I've been disappointed with my reading of philosophy books over the last year, so here are the reasons why. In Episode #326 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: my loose definition of philosophy and philosophers, why I came in with high expectations, whether you should be able to read a book as a stand alone, linking deep ideas back to reality, Interlingua and how a lot of philosophy ca...

What if there was an app that could detect Karma and it influenced you to stop helping people? In Episode #325 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: Juan's random nosebleeds and tips to grow old and die quickly, whether free can truly be free, trolls and their propensity to sell marketing courses, the funny idea of science being used to prove that the universe is planning everything...

What is Juan planning for this coming year and will he achieve his goals? In Episode #324 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: Juan's explanation of 2022 and how he sets out his goals into 3 categories, my predictions of each category and why they are also a subtle analysis of his weaknesses, the 19 goals that Juan is going after for 2023 and why my Chux cleaner beanie is actually a hug...

Pete Smissen is now a Three-Pete (get it) guest on the Mere Mortals and is the awesome host of the Aussie English podcast and the newly created Pete vs Plants YouTube channel. In Conversation #77, Pete and I discuss: some crazy animal stories from his PhD days, shows like Prehistoric Planet and Altered Carbon which appeal to his love of science, random hypotheticals of pre-colonisation days, why b...

Maybe if I learn Python I can automate our entire podcast to fix Juan getting names wrong constantly? In Episode #323 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: a sneak peak into my 2023 goals, why problem solving can be extremely frustrating, reasons for learning a programming language, Juan's (somewhat inaccurate) description of a chimp doco he saw, whether we would go out and live with...

Wasting time can perhaps be a useful tool, so we suggest using the Mere Mortals as your procrastination destination. In Episode #322 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: the definition of the word, why cavemen could have saved calories by being lazy, whether it is possible to procrastinate without self-consciousness, a cool graph by the writer of Atomic Habits, why procrastination might actu...

Have you ever been to a protest before, does your experience match with mine? In Episode #321 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: the reasons why I spontaneously went to Canberra, the 'Converge On Canberra' protest to support Julian Assange, some false information from a fringe protestor, the highlight of supporting ASSange, why I probably won't go to any more protests an...

How would our lives change if we were blind? In Episode #320 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: how many blind and vision impaired people there are in Australia, whether we would be able to live on our own and continue certain activities, why travelling without sight would still be desirable, why handstands/weightlifting/learning languages would remain mostly unchanged,  A big thanks t...

You hear that ....... it sounds like it's goal time. Do you set yourself monthly goals and if so, how many do you set? Juan and I on the first week of every month go over our progress from the previous month and where we are heading for the next. Emphasis as always is on the shortcomings; what we didn't achieve in the previous monthly goals and how we will fix that for the month that com...