Mere Mortals Conversations

What is there to be learnt from putting oneself in situations that are uncomfortable or cause discomfort? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: my learnings from living the vegan lifestyle for a month, why most of the time things just appear in the mind to be harder than they actually physically are, Juan's encounter with a flying spider, my coming to the end of a 5 day f...

Are cryptocurrencies already too boring and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT's) the newest craze? In this episode of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: being a wimp for eating food too much, everybody on Earth has probably tried rapping at some stage, NFT's and why they are useful for selling art or other rare items, where we want to travel to in the future, some things you could do rig...

I think this might be our best introduction yet. The flair. The passion. The costume. The belts. What more does one need? In this episode on 'Wrestling' Juan and I discuss: some of styles of wrestling across the world, the difference between the western 'grind' and eastern 'art', stories from mayhem when we were kids, watching WWE and Lucha Libre in person before endi...

Frankie Lee is an entrepreneur hailing from Peterborough in the UK. He is the owner of a business dedicated to removing harmful content from online as well as the host of 'The Frankie Lee Podcast'. I came across Frankie through his podcast and loved the energy he put out, as well as some of his fascinating character aspects, which we dived into this episode. We started off chatting about...

Do you set yourself monthly goals and if so, how many do you set? Juan and I on the first Thursday 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 month's goals and how we will fix that for the month that comes. We hope you get some value from this series,...

Questions can't be asked forever, so when is optimal to stop inquiring? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: Juan's recent ankle rolling fiasco and being able to appreciate running, John Keats concept of negative capability, learning the ability to live in paradox, are we capable of making music if we had the drive and my gripe with the artistic mindset. As always,...

Are there any emotions that you don't allow to rise to the surface because of an internal fear of what will happen? In this episode of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: stealing quotes on the internet and how to do it in an ethical way, my method of diverting the blame when being accused of something, the difference between not wanting to experience negative emotions and being unwil...

Have you noticed that bald men in movies are either the villain or extremely violent heroes? In this episode on 'Violence' Juan and I discuss: how 1.28 million people died in 2013, where it comes from in the human character and if it is necessary, the possibility of a World War III, what would happen if everybody learnt a martial art, why it is abhorrent but simultaneously entrancing and...

Glen is an experienced language teacher and fascinated with the world around him. He speaks three languages, is working on a fourth and is the Director of Teaching at Australians Teach English. He is a relaxed and fun loving teacher who enables students to relax and enjoy the learning process. Glen also has a background in science as a specialist science teacher, with a Masters of Science and mult...

What are some tell-tale signs that you need to introspect and find out if your thinking is incorrect? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: a bit about Buddhism, Dharma and testing the theories for oneself, using the podcast to figure out when I hold contradictory beliefs, directing introspection to find incorrect patterns of thought, using negative emotions as a guide to real...

Will the rise of cryptocurrencies change how the banking system operates? In this episode of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: some new changes coming to the podcast, why my shoe is tastier than vegan cheese, losing your key and getting locked out, Juan's recent experiment paying with his phone, where Juan thinks online monetary transactions will take us, buying shit online, why tal...

What is the proper mental state and risk management strategy when you are confronting your fears? In this themed episode on 'Unknown' Juan and I discuss: the multiple definitions of the unknown, how Juan had to face his fear of not having a phone, lessons from explorers of the past on how to venture into unknown territory, fears that creep into the mind and how to properly judge risk, be...

Brendan is back again and this time we are talking all things Zen. We start off with a discussion on the general overview of the religion/philosophy and some of its core aspects of Zazen, the Koans & Satori. One of the things that Brendan (and I) enjoy about the Zen way of thinking is that there is relatively little dogma and that one can come into it from a Western perspective without needing...

Why is it so heart-breaking to see bullying parents in real life? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: what is the best amount of physical exercise per week to improve, how day trading promotes short term thinking in general, purposefully stopping to smell the roses, my story of seeing a Dad being an asshole to his kids, a podcast about a Brisbane woman in a terrible situatio...

With the coming wave of AI and self-driving cars, will it ever be illegal for humans to manually take the wheel? In this episode of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: Juan's plans to become a rapper, why driving and traffic suck balls, the ethics surrounding the use of self-driving cars and whether anyone actually enjoys driving, the slow grind of life and repeating the same things o...

What actions does one need to take to get guns as big as Juan? In this episode on 'Testosterone' Juan and I discuss: what testosterone is and how it differs in men/women and with age, how it contributes to the sex drive of males and females, Kyrin's research on natural methods to raise your testosterone levels, the nutrition that is optimal to create the largest amount of free testo...

Michael is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fable Food Co, a company that develops and produces delicious meat alternatives based on mushrooms. He is also a mentor and investor in Startmate. Prior to Fable, Michael co-founded online retail businesses Shoes of Prey and Sneaking Duck and was a founding board member of the National Online Retail Association in Australia. He has also worked for Google and or...

What happened to the guy who went without sleep for 11 days? In this episode on 'Sleeping' Juan and I discuss: the anatomy of the brain and why sleep is crucial for neural plasticity, the actual reasons that animals sleep, the detrimental effects of too much and too little sleep, the amount of sleep that science recommends, the Uberman sleep schedule of only taking 20 minute naps during...

Can meditation actually be great training for increasing your fortitude? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: not becoming discouraged and being able to start over again, vibrational science and how yelling at jars can make mould grow (apparently), using language correctly and judging people based on how they speak, signs that someone's ideas aren't worth listening...

Can the individual win against the big banks in the battle of Gamestop stonks in the new meme economy? In this episode of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: how one should behave when called out for getting something wrong, the hilarious situation of a reddit group fighting against the financial system, why the banks will probably end up winning the fight, understanding a book by only hea...

Ian is a signal fire for the next generations of entrepreneurs and modern business development. After kick-starting his career in assets management, Ian merged his financial prowess and cultivated his creative ambition, founding multiple successful ventures. He launched his first technology company in 2017, which handled corporate compliance and risk management around background screening for ASX...

How do you push through the boredom and pain to be able to just keep on running? In this themed episode Juan and I discuss the topic of 'Running'. Running can be considered to be moving the legs at many paces, but there are some things it is not. It is not powerwalking, racewalking, skipping or hopping. The ridiculous thing is that there are world records for doing marathons for these ot...

Do you set yourself monthly goals and if so, how many do you set? Juan and I on the first Thursday 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 month's goals and how we will fix that for the month that comes. We hope you get some value from this series,...

Are podcasts bad because they produce too much misinformation? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: why Juan enjoyed the latest JRE podcast with Lex Fridman, how I am starting to receive lots of benefits by taking a day off from tech with screens, will David Goggins be healthy in the long run, would Juan be able to resist technology for 24 hours, whether podcasts are unhelpfu...

How often do we find ourselves shying away from the prickly things in life, in being uncomfortable. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable can be a real super power. As always, we hope you enjoy, Mere Mortals out! About Mere Mortals: Striving for excellence through life's lessons. Daily uploads @ 5pm AEST. 4M's, Book Reviews, Musings, Bonus, Themed Podcast, Conversations & Mean...