Only The Strongest

We'd like to offer some congrats to a great friend and mentor, the newly-minted Mestre, Mago.

Varal presents an interesting/dumb thought experiment to the other two hosts, who, with minimal ridicule, manage to entertain the idea. Plus an important annoucement about the near future of the podcast.

We're delighted to welcome Kung Fu to the OTS mic today. He joins us from England at an ungodly hour to talk about how he got into capoeira, why he started his podcast, and how he'll continue with capoeira no matter what, even though osteoarthritis might limit his time in the roda. His podcast: The Life Capoeira  https://rss.com/podcasts/ thelifecapoeira/    

Hint: there's no clear answer. There's not even a clear answer on what the criteria should be. Instas of some of the people we mentioned: @simbastyle @harel_cenoura @noa.r.harari @estrelinha_tom @sapir_alegria @mestrejamaika @senzaladunga @mestragatabrava @mestre_amen_batuque @david_atl_bocao @m_cabecao_miami @danamamanmv @mtigresasdc

M. Amen's The Freedom Project: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ fuxpx-the-freedom-project Azul fills us in on her recent, reinvigorating trip to a batizado in Texas. She talks about the importance of good music, the painful condescension of playing down to beginners, and why are there so many fewer female professors than male?

We discuss a joooooosee post from the subreddit about how capoeira should update itself. Bonzinho thinks the post misses the point entirely, Varal waffles in his usual manner, and Azul thinks we should punch more people in the face. Plus, the debut of a new segment: hot takes! The post: https://www.reddit.com/r/capoeira/comments/1b8telh/time_to_update_this_amazing_art/

We're delighted to be back!

Your wild capoeira stores here. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/183HyQ8JfxEA9Y8Zuypjm7igFBvW3cCgimfb3JSK0L5Q/edit

A look back on 2023 and a look ahead to 2024. Did we make good on our past resolutions? What's in store for the coming year?

We got weird shirts, unicorn mugs, awkward sayings, and the perfect gift for alienating a teen girl from her dad. Plus our unanimous best and worst capoeira-themed gifts of this year.

Prompted by a listener's email, we discuss emergency protocols when someone takes a meia lua to the noggin.  Azul's interview on The Life Capoeira podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/3zw2dYywGNetOcXSaC8t8c

Join us as we muddle our way through whether we, as capoeiristas, have an obligation to be political activists. That's right, we're talking about Israel and Palestine, and we're just as lost, confused, and upset as you.

A (not so) spooky Halloween episode where we talk about what it takes to make a good Haunted Roda. 

Take our quick survey! https://forms.gle/EeJKWoJNtp6X8MER6 How can we best prepare ourselves for the violence in capoeira? How do we control our emotions instead of losing our cool?

Etiquette in capoeira is like gravity - you can't see it but it rules everything. Use three berimbaus. Don't cross the instruments when you volta ao mundo. When you volta, make a completed circle. Wait to play by crouching down. Wait to play by standing up. Don't buy the game during a chorus. Only the buy the game during a chorus, never a verse. 

Video here https://youtube.com/watch?v= GPqN4xTgJL4&feature=share9 We battle about whether two capoeiristas who are way better than any of us are actually any good. Bonzinho says yes, Azul says maybe, and Varal says no because he can only speak from a place of deep envy.

Our recap of a very special batizado.

Good friend of the podcast Fome joins us to talk about returning to capoeira after a decade away. He tells us that it's hard, it's ridiculous, it smells bad, and it's wonderful to be back.

A mailbag episode. We talk about some great emails we got recently, especially one from a listener who's decided not to host batizados anymore. Bonus - a meal that would save you after 3 months in the Sahara.

Today we don our mining helmets, switch on our headlamps, and dig through the book Capoeira and Candombl é: Conformity and Resistance through Afro-Brazilian Experience by Floyd Merrell. There's some great stuff in here about the similarities between the two Afro-Brazilian philosophies and their history, but it does take some backbreaking labor to get it out. You can read the book here , but we'd a...

The big one fifty! Some nice informal capoeira talk to fill out what we think are the best practices for capoeira. What side should your cord go on? What's the best dish at a churrasca? When training, should you go man bun or long hair don't care? Tuck your shirt or let it fly loose?

Azul has some important revelations about hand strikes in capoeira, which brings us to a nice discussion contrasting old school and new school types of capoeira. We got stuff for you on motivation, energy, rule-following, loyalty, special snowflakes, and boogers.

Video of Alex and Cobra Mansa Here How to Watch a Roda. A famous mestre who happens to be very old plays a less-famous Insta star who happens to be pretty young, and it is a delight to watch. There's a lot to dig into -- the stages of evolution of the game, the give and take, the theater, and Cobra Mansa's total command of capoeira.  

Bonzinho fed a couple capoeira-related prompts into ChatGPT and got some interesting things back. We go through some "common complaints about capoeira" as defined by the AI to see if they're legit.  

Azul and Bonzinho hosted Mestre Silvinho for a workshop and they fill us in on how it went. And Bonzinho has been doing a lot of flipping and thinking, which thoughts he wants to share. Azul and Varal respond with a nice chorus of "I told you so."