Mere Mortals Conversations

Tanya Hall is an ultramarathoner, food blogger and mother/spouse to a loving family. Previously a journalist/editor in the UK, Tanya now lives in Brisbane devotes large amounts of time to following her passion for running and food. In this conversation we chatted about her relatively recent deep dive into the world of running very long distances, the mental process she goes through and touch upon...

What are some of the early childhood signs that might make for a good engineer? In this themed episode Juan and Kyrin discuss the topic of 'Engineering'. Both Mere Mortals initially went to university for engineering (graduating in Civil and Mining) and subsequently worked as engineers for the early part of their careers. This episode covered their experiences at university, in the workp...

Do you set yourself monthly goals and if so, how many do you set? The Mere Mortals crew on the first Thursday of every month go over their progress from the previous month and where they are heading for the next. Emphasis as always is on the shortcomings, what they didn't achieve in the previous month's goals and how they will fix that for the month that comes. We hope you get some value...

Where is the boundary point that separates a cult from a self-development type 'success program'? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and Kyrin discuss: Juan recanting on previously strongly held position that The Social Dilemma was bullcrap, taking small actions of integrity in the micro-level, the cruel voice in your head and how to have compassion for it, a discussion on the N...

Mere Mortals is built on the foundation of striving for excellence through life's lessons and one of the critical ways to do that.. is to be honest with yourself. 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, Meanderings, Interviews & Themed Podcast...

What has been your scariest moment in life? In this episode of 'Meanderings' Juan and Kyrin discuss: how Kyrin went about creating his Halloween costume for Dora The Explorer, what movies scare the Mere Mortals and their scariest moments in life, the experience of driving into a kangaroo at 80 kmph, the experience of being in Mexico for the Day of The Dead, a philosophical question about...

Do you want to delve into the mindset of an entrepreneur running two companies at the same time? Nic Blair was the Australian Young Entrepreneur of 2019, founder of Search Factory and cofounder of Brus Media. In this interview Juan and Nic discuss his starting from humble beginnings/early failures and the mindset (and work ethic) that is required to grow a successful business. Nic also has a passi...

Do you struggle to hold yourself accountable and do what is the right thing? In this themed episode Juan and Kyrin discuss the topic of 'Discipline'. The crew start off as usual with the MMM's/definition before diving into whether the concept is something that they think about often in their day to day life. For Kyrin it has a bit too much of a negative connotation and he prefers to...

For this short bonus conversation, Juan and Kyrin were joined by Marty for a little bit of talking shit and reminiscing. This was a little bit of an experimental conversation so the audio and video quality might be at a true Mere Mortals level. Touched upon in this convo were: the deceptive smallness of the Mere Mortals studio, exercise & breaking the rules, some memories of Brisbane's pa...

Is it worth reading classical books in today's day and age? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and Kyrin discuss: that bitch Tina who is in every workplace, how the shit talk you throw out immediately comes back round and bites you, Kyrin's learning from spending time out and about with friends, mindsets/running/planning, before finishing up with some interesting experiments tha...

The buy in, attributed in some forms to the Crossfit term for something you must complete before the main workout, can be expanded across further realms as a way to form habits. 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, Meanderings, Interviews & Them...

How much corruption actually goes on in the stock market? In this episode of 'Meanderings' Juan and Kyrin discuss: getting older and the way you take care of yourself after a big night out, instances of dodginess and corruption amongst different companies and countries, getting decent REM sleep for less hours of actual sleeping, running barefoot and little kids needing orthopaedics, huma...

Could you live in a van/truck for 4 years of your life? Chrissie Junge is a soon to be author as well as the Brisbane Girl In A Van. Chrissie packed in traditional housing in favour of a bare metal delivery truck, and lived around Brisbane’s greenery in its rough truck bed while slowly teaching herself to build it into a comfortable tiny house. In this conversation Juan and Kyrin asked Chrissie al...

What is calisthenics and why are bodyweight movements useful? In this themed episode Juan and Kyrin discuss the topic of 'Calisthenics'. Calisthenics has become a large part of Kyrin's life since he began practicing 3+ years ago. Essentially it is a system of body weight exercises (dynamic and static) revolving around the fundamental movements of pushing and pulling. For example, th...

Have you tried the new Triller social media app (the competitor to TikTok) and did you find your user experience as shit as Juan did? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and Kyrin discuss: Juan's theory of personal relativity that relates to subjective opinions, the polyglot community and speaking Spanish in a stilted, mechanical manner, the requirement of +95% comprehension when read...

The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. Today however, we spin this around into the Mere Mortal take on relativity. 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, Me...

Is content for content's sake useful or is it promoting mindless sharing? In this episode of 'Meanderings' Juan and Kyrin discuss: Elon Musk and being cheeky, a philosophical discussion of Lamborghini's and Mazda's, a dislike of reading on the computer and preference for books, an intense argument about content and the level of attention that should be given while posting,...

John Plumley is the host of The Plumley Podcast (formerly the JP Bar Podcast) as well as a creator on YouTube. John lives in Calgary, Alberta and has only recently dove into the world of podcasting and online creation. Kyrin connected with John via Instagram and found there were some large overlaps in their interests as well as general styles of discourse. The conversation kicked off with a dive i...

What are the essential teachings Buddhism and how much do the Mere Mortal ascribe to them? In this episode Juan and Kyrin discuss the topic of 'Buddhism'. Neither had particularly dived into religion before so the first third of the conversation was a summary of the background knowledge and general teachings of The Buddha. The crew then brings it to a personal level and talk about: the b...

Brendan Jayo is a personal trainer and balance coach specialising in hand & arm balancing. Kyrin first met Brendan in his local calisthenics park and the connection was immediate. They are both obsessed with a mutual passion for calisthenics but also drawn into obscure philosophical discussions and this conversation was no different. They start off with a chat about internet rabbit holes befor...

There is the Nietzsche quote "when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you", but what is the optimal response to this? In this episode of 'Musings' Juan and Kyrin discuss: techniques for maintaining sanity when under large amounts of pressure/stress, correcting unhelpful attitudes and checking oneself, the use of mantras and TM in everyday life and some wisd...

Pressure is defined as the physical force exerted on an object. Defined for a Mere Mortal, it is the force that life exerts on us everyday and in today's Monday Movement we have a quick word on how we can perceive this as a privilege. 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, Bo...

With work time being increasingly cut from our lives, will there ever be a time where the concept of a weekend is irrelevant? In this episode of Meanderings Juan and Kyrin discuss: The Fourth Age by Byron Reese and his analysis of what makes a human, disliking certain words due to the ambiguity of their meaning, fun thought scenarios of what the crew would change if every day was 2 hour shorter, w...

Welcome to another Mere Mortals interview. Kelly was 10 when her grandparents’ home was sold and her and her family (grandparents, parents, uncle, brother and sister) were forced to rent. Seeing her grandmother, a very stoic woman, upset at the kitchen sink, worrying about losing the house, a young Kelly made a decision to buy her grandmother another house when she got older. Seeing the distress t...

A more serious episode this time on an issue that touches all of us in our daily lives. In this themed episode Juan and Kyrin discuss the topic of 'Anxiety'. As usual the crew starts with their Mere Mortal Moments, before diving into the definition (particularly focusing on the difference between anxiety, stress and fear). They also explore their previous disagreement from Episode #91 ab...