Mere Mortals Conversations

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...

Today is a mix of physical training and philosophical pondering, as all good podcasts should be! In Episode #319 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: how my brother is eating 5 servings of fruits and veg to glow up, whether there is any merit in forcing people to do things for 'the greater good', Juan's realisation that he is no longer good at pullups, why we differ on the...

So how much do we care about food? Well it turns out not that much! In Episode #318 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: why our taste of food is lower than the average, how our lifestyles impact our food choices, the Spartan Juan life of tuna/beans/chicken/bread, why we both need partners who are better cooks than we are, my theory that food can be used to cover up deficiencies in an unheal...

Odd stuff all around this week. Juan actually worked, I exposed my sock fetish and weird photos from space. In Episode #317 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: why we enjoy manual labour but only in small doses, trying to explain BTC to my dad, how I met and lost a kindred soul, why Dothraki was copyrighted and Luis von Ahn couldn't use it for DuoLingo, Juan's fascination with...

I'm going to become a world class handbalancer, here is my plan on how I want to do this. In Episode #316 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: what it means to be world class at something, why conscious effort on improving and fixing mistakes is critical, a common occurrence of people getting injured whilst trying to show off, the humbleness of Floyd Mayweather (lol) and my list of prin...

Why did Juan cause a car crash? In Episode #315 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: the random as disturbance on a narrow road, our disagreement on being left behind and getting overwhelmed by new tech, the Tim Ferriss episode with Balaji, slang and how words get invented or adopted, Oscar Merry's podcast app and why clipping is awesome and whether it is better to let niggling inju...

Are there any current trends that will impact history as much as 9/11, COVID, social media or the iPhone? In Episode #314 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: how this topic could be easy to confuse, how history is quite subjective, what type of moments matter to an individual, why current hot topics aren't necessarily historical events, the practical benefit of appreciating the moment,...

Alexander Watanabe is an artist, coder, architect and creator of the 'Unsigned Algorithms' on the Cardano blockchain. In Conversation #76, Alexander and I discuss: why he had the time to read lots of books during his useless undergraduate, how he went about creating the code for his NFT's on-chain, his views on art and using new mediums for expression, why the universe isn't &a...

Juan has been teaching his family about Ethereum and I've been changing the way I look at the difference between Bitcoin and everything else. In Episode #313 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: how a Piccolo latte should be made, how The Coffee Club screwed over Juan (again lol), reading Saifedean Ammous's book on BTC and how it is the only real cryptocurrency, why I'm a...

How do we physically and mentally prepare ourselves for periods of productivity? In Episode #312 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: whether it is possible to be jacked and going all the time, why routine can take away effort in hyping oneself up, how we trigger ourselves into focused concentration, why Juan likes the Ultradian rhythm technique, a detour into the exciting new Podcasting 2.0...

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...