Chiwi Journal

Chiwi Journal

By Camellia YangSociety & CulturePhilosophy
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Chiwi Journal episodes

  • #134: Sustainable Travel, Writing Books, Spiritual Growth, Energy Healing and Meditation with Bianca Caruana

    My guest today is Bianca Caruana. Bianca is a storyteller, podcast host, sustainability & equality advocate and writer at The Altruistic Traveller. Bianca and I had a serendipitous encounter in Aveiro (Thanks to Pieter Levels’ Nomadlist.com), and we immediately clicked because we shared similar backgrounds and spiritual growth journeys.

    In this episode, we discussed...

    1. How to be a sustainable traveller and leverage your skillsets to travel around the world without costing a big fortune?
    2. What’s the wake-up call for us to trust and surrender to the universe instead of trying to control our life?
    3. How to do our own personal reverse engineering to find out who we are NOT in order to know who we really are on a deeper level?
    4. How to overcome the fear of judgment, transform from our old identities and embrace a new life?
    5. How does adapting to be a digital nomad lifestyle help us find a sense of belonging and feel seen?
    6. Why should you write books and poetries to keep a record of your life and express your feelings?
    7. A couple of serendipitous stories on life is only making sense when you look back and connect the dots
    8. What’s the Vipassana meditation? What could you get from it?
    9. How to find the meditation method that suits you?
    10. The benefits of sacred plant medicine and what to pay attention to when experiencing psychedelic trips?
    11. How to cultivate empathy?

      12. Books/links mentioned in this episode:

      • Bianca’s blog The Altruistic Traveller
      • Bianca's Podcast
      • The Altruistic Traveller instagram
      • Workaway
      • Trusted House Sitters (get 25% off)
      • The Invisible Third Culture Adult: A book about meaning and identity
      • Chiwi Journal Vol 1&2
      • The Rookery Nook and Brontë Parsonage
      • Vipassana Meditation
      • National Anthem: Malta - L-Innu Malti
      • Qigong
      • Tao Te Ching
      • I Ching
      • Transcendental Meditation® Technique
      • Understand Myself
        • 1 hr 12 min
      • #133: Bitcoin Use Case in El Salvador, 1729 Network State, Become a Global Citizen, Speak Foreign Languages in 6 months with Antoine Dusséaux

        My guest today is Antoine Dusséaux. Antoine is a legaltech entrepreneur based in London and co-founded Doctrine, the first legal information platform.

        He’s passionate about law, economics, geopolitics, and languages.

        In this episode, we discussed:

        1. How to describe 1729 and Network State to children to help them understand this progressive technical concept?
        2. What are the fundamental values that bonded the 1729 community? What 1729 community members in common?
        3. What's so special about El Salvador? Will the World's First Bitcoin City be the protocol that other countries can learn from?
        4. Share the first-hand experience of exploring bitcoin's daily user case in El Salvador.
        5. How to be a responsible global citizen and make sense of our world?
        6. What's the secret of learning foreign languages as an adult (Antoine is a native French speaker who learned to speak Chinese, Russian and Arabic)?
        7. What others hold a stereotype about China is wrong based on your first-hand experience working in a Chinese factory?
        8. What's the underground church in China?
        9. The relationship between languages and ideologies
        10. Why should you start to write online and build connections?
          11. Books/links mentioned in this episode
          • 1729.com
          • The Network State: How To Start a New Country book by Balaji Srinivasan
          • Real Bitcoin use cases in El Salvador
          • Antoine’s Newsletter on Product, Law, Economics, Geopolitics, and Languages
          • Underground church
          • Bitcoin is now ‘legal tender’ in El Salvador
          • How to be fluent in 6 months?
          • Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
          • Handan, City in China
          • Cultural intelligence: Become a global citizen
          • Linguistic relativity
          • Debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters
          • What do Taiwanese think of simplified Chinese?
          • Transcript: Vladimir Putin’s Televised Address on Ukraine
          • Learning new languages with Pimsleur
          • Build a Personal Monopoly
          • How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area
          • 1729 Writers Collection
            • 1 hr 14 min
          • SPECIAL EPISODE OVER DRINKS | Chinese migrants’ real experience & perspectives in English speaking countries with Vicci Fu

            My guest today is Vicci. She is an experienced video producer and digital marketer and hosts a podcast Big Little Screens commenting about British/American TV shows to Chinese audiences. Vicci and I had a girl's chat and recorded this special episode while drinking a bottle of Italian wine and Japanese Umeshu. Cheers, and enjoy 😊

            1. Why do many Chinese people born in the 1980s/90s have the American dream?
            2. Our first trip to English speaking counties — Australia and New Zealand.
            3. “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life...” what does London mean to us?
            4. What’s so special about London’s blue plaques?
            5. What biggest TV hits from Britain influenced Chinese people a lot?
            6. The comparison of American and British genres on small screens.
            7. Let’s talk about class, race, war, dating, stereotypes and diversity in the British context
            8. What are the challenges of cross-cultural communications? Why is there always a media bias between east and west?
            9. How to learn a second/third language as an adult?
            10. Why it’s so hard to be a female fan in male’s dominant area, e.g. sports and entertainment industry
            11. What do we learn about turning 30?
              12. Shows/movies/links mentioned in this episode:
              1. Vicci’s Podcast
              2. Tour in England: National Trust
              3. The Rookery Nook and Brontë Parsonage - Haworth
              4. Chatsworth House
              5. Blue Plaques | English Heritage
              6. George Orwell’s London Map
              7. Sherlock Holmes Museum
              8. Paddington
              9. Downton Abbey
              10. Years and Years
              11. Sex Education
              12. Fleabag
              13. Bridgerton
              14. Comedian Daniel Sloss
              15. After Life
              16. Inside No. 9
              17. Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging
              18. The Surprising Origins of the Fortune Cookie
              19. Public dating profile template
              20. tick, tick...BOOM!
              21. Dark | Netflix Official Site
              22. Ted Lasso
              23. David Bowie - The Boy From Brixton
              24. Gaga: Five Foot Two
                25. 1 hr 25 min
              25. #131: Conversation with David Senra: Lessons Learned from Reading 200+ Biographies on Founders

                My guest today is David Senra. David is the host of podcast shows Founders. Every week, he reads a biography of an entrepreneur so listeners can learn the lessons from those greatest history and modern figures.

                In this episode, we discussed:

                1. What motivated David to start this niche show to share his learnings of biography and autobiography?
                2. How many founders were influenced by those who came before (e.g. Jobs influenced by Edwin Land, Bezos influenced by Sam Walton etc.)? And what’s so special about Benjamin Franklin?
                3. What’s the most inspiring story among 200+ founders stories David read? And what’s one unbelievable story from listeners that drove David jumped out of bed every morning?
                4. What are the top THREE lessons previous founders can teach and impact current founders?
                5. Where do founders like Micheal Jordan and Larry Ellison’s drive come from?
                6. What are some intriguing individual connections among founders that surprised us?
                7. What creators can learn from Ernest Hemingway, George Lucas and Stephen King?
                8. What essential mindset should founders have to turn problems into opportunities?
                9. Why shouldn’t current founders follow the formula but focus on the lessons provided by the previous founders?
                10. What’s the ONE thing that founders regret on their deathbed?
                11. What would David’s biography be? What legacy does he want to leave to his children based on his learnings?

                  12. Books/links mentioned in this episode:

                  • Dan Carlin Hardcore History
                  • Kevin Rose interviewing Elon Musk
                  • Jocko Podcast
                  • The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by ERIC JORGENSON
                  • Founders Podcast Books List
                  • Insisting On the Impossible : The Life of Edwin Land
                  • Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
                  • Indie Hackers Interviewing Pieter Levels
                  • Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics and the Making of an Automobile Empire
                  • Born of This Land: My Life Story by Chung Ju-Yung
                  • Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
                  • Most Recommended Books by Richard Reis
                  • Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita
                  • Dru Riley 100 Rules — Personal Philosophy
                  • Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life
                  • Driven From Within by Michael Jordan and Mark Vancil

                    • Full shownote

                    1 hr 45 min
                  • #130: Digital Nomads, Remote Working, Founders Mental Health, Niche Fame and Nomads Dating with Pieter Levels

                    My guest today is Pieter Levels. Pieter is a serial founder of multiple products, such as NomadList.com, remoteOK.com and rebase.co.

                    In this episode, we discussed:

                    1. How did Pieter start his digital nomad life and create 12 startups in 12 months?
                    2. The original story of the birth of Nomadlist.com
                    3. What are the common traits of digital nomads based on the 2022 State of Digital Nomads that might surprise people?
                    4. Why do people need to switch their stereotypes about remote working and adapt to the new way of living?
                    5. Why has Portugal becomes the indie hacker/nomad / remote worker/entrepreneur hub? What is so good about moving here?
                    6. The story behind Immigration as a service product: Rebase.co
                    7. How to overcome depression and anxiety as a serial founder?
                    8. Why find a therapist speaking a language different from your native language that can work better in therapy sessions?
                    9. Cliche question: how to balance time and energy as a serial founder?
                    10. What does it feel like to be a niche famous, and why should people be unreachable?
                    11. The story about Pieter’s early music career on YouTube channel.
                    12. What are the future trends of remote working and nomad lifestyles?
                    13. What’s the current dating market for digital nomads?
                      14. Books/links mentioned in this episode:
                      • Nomadlist.com
                      • 2022 State of Digital Nomads
                      • RemoteOk.com
                      • I'm Launching 12 Startups in 12 Months
                      • How is Making Friends Changing?
                      • Moving to Portugal with Rebase
                      • Cognitive behavioural therapy
                      • Why I'm unreachable and maybe you should be too
                      • The next frontier after remote work is async
                      • How to optimise your 24 hours?
                      • Fans and Haters
                      • 11 Reasons Not to Become Famous (or “A Few Lessons Learned Since 2007”)
                        • 1 hr 7 min
                      • #129: Hero's journey, Morphic Resonance, Global Phase Change and Jordan B. Peterson with Tom Morgan

                        My guest today is Tom Morgan. Tom is the Director of Communications & Content at The KCP Group and writes a newsletter called The Attention Span. Tom has spent the last 16 years on Wall Street in research and data sales and focuses on consuming content and tries to extract actionable insights for busy people.

                        In this episode, we discussed:

                        1. What’s a trend of modernist holism? What’s the global phase change?
                        2. What’s Morphic Resonance? Do we have a solid explanation about coincidence and luck?
                        3. How to avoid falling into your echo chamber and be a mindful reader/listener in today’s world?
                        4. What do Joseph Cambell and Carl Jung’s mean about ‘follow your bliss’ or ‘follow your interests? How do we calculate our own hero journey?
                        5. The three stages of life on ego and surrender.
                        6. Jordan B. Peterson’s transition from books to books and the hemispheric breakdown from his book Maps of Meanings.
                        7. Why does ‘Hero Journey’ grips our attention all the time? When you revisit fairy tales as a grow-up, there is always a new meaning behind them.
                        8. What’s the symbolic meaning behind horned god?
                        9. The concept of the dragon as a symbol in western and eastern society
                        10. The hidden meanings behind Pinocchio
                        11. Why is it so important to calculate the emotional granularity for educating the next generation?
                        12. What’s the one thing that didn’t make sense to you before, but when you look back and it all connected?
                          13. Books & links mentioned in this episode
                          • The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist
                          • Infinite Loop Podcast | Curation in the Age of Information Abundance (EP.61) All you Need is Love? (EP.74)
                          • Insights from “The Matter with Things.” | KCP
                          • Morphic Resonance - Rupert Sheldrake
                          • Does Nature Have A Hidden Memory? - Rupert Sheldrake | Modern Wisdom Podcast 379
                          • The World’s Hidden Harmony
                          • This is Water by David Foster Wallace (Full Transcript and Audio)
                          • Joseph Campbell -- Follow Your Bliss
                          • Marie-Louise von Franz 
                          • The Dragon as a symbol finally explained - Jordan Peterson
                          • Beyond Order: Twelve More Rules for Life
                          • Maps Of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief
                          • Biblical Series II: Genesis 1: Chaos & Order
                          • Nu Wa, Chinese Mythology Figure
                          • Emotional granularity
                          • The Midlife Unraveling by Brené Brown
                            • 1 hr 1 min
                          • #128: Learning Chinese, Future of Education, Reading and Writing with Will Mannon

                            My guest today is Will Mannon 马晓伟. Will is the Course Director of Write of Passage and passionate about online education. In his free time, Will enjoys exploring language, literature, history, and philosophy. He lived in China for six months and is a comfortable Mandarin speaker.

                            We discussed:

                            1. The motivation behind learning Chinese and how to learn a foreign language in adult year
                            2. The difference between the Chinese and American education system
                            3. What's the uncommon fire that motivates you to keep going?
                            4. A brief introduction of Write of Passage and how writing online can accelerate personal and career development?
                            5. What's the future of online learning? Three advantages of building up the cohort-based online course
                            6. Four common traits and challenges from online writing
                            7. How to find your online writing process?
                            8. How to navigate in the age of information abundance?
                            9. How to form a reading habit and some book recommendations?
                            10. How does reading biography permit us to pursue our bliss?
                            11. Chat about Fernando Pessoa and Ralph Waldo Emerson
                            12. What is the wisdom you learned from your favourite writers?

                              13. Books and links mentioned in this episode:

                              • Will Learns Chinese
                              • The National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao, 高考)
                              • itakie: 1-on-1 lessons in more than 150 languages
                              • An Uncommon Fire
                              • Mimetic theory by René Girard
                              • Write of Passage – An online course by David Perell
                              • Building a Second Brain
                              • Paul Graham
                              • The Man with 73 Masks
                              • The Social Dilemma
                              • Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
                              • Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
                              • I. Asimov: A Memoir by Isaac Asimov
                              • Founders Podcast
                              • Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
                              • The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
                              • 读书会分享 | 葡萄牙作家费尔南多·佩索阿
                              • Existentialism is a Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre
                              • The The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
                              • The Stranger by Albert Camus
                              • Flowism: My Philosophy of Living

                                • Follow Will Mannon on Twitter and check out his website

                                56 min
                              • #127: Human/Computer Language, Rationality vs. Intuition, Women in Tech and Job Interview Tips with Xuan

                                Kia Ora, Nihao and hello! Welcome to the Chiwi Journal Podcast.

                                My guest today is Xuan. Xuan's footprints covered from a small village in China to the capital city Beijing then moved to DC and NYC and now settled in LDN. She studied English lit, Linguistics and Philosophy at university, trained herself in programming, and currently works as a software engineer.

                                We discussed:

                                1. How does exchanging poetry every day help us find beauty and truth during a lockdown?
                                2. The encounter of divided brain theory and how we have become enslaved to an account of things dominated by the brain’s left hemisphere?
                                3. The journey from studying human language and philosophy to computer language and machine learning
                                4. Will get rid of emotion help us to deliver information in a more accurate way like computer code?
                                5. The relationship between time and language
                                6. Have you ever used your rational mind to structure your intuitional decision?
                                7. Are humans doomed to be misunderstood due to the nature of language and communications?
                                8. How does writing online generate the serendipity for people to meet IRL?
                                9. How have women in tech evolved in those years? How can an individual do to help get more girls into technology?
                                10. How to prepare for a job interview? A story of finding a tech job without any working experience during lockdown

                                  11. Books and links mentioned in this episode:

                                  • A Paradise of Poems
                                  • Infinite Loop Podcast with Tom Morgan — All you Need is Love? (EP.74)
                                  • The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist
                                  • Responsive Web Design
                                  • Neuralink
                                  • San Pedro Retreat
                                  • Self Authoring
                                  • Flowism
                                  • Yi Jing (易经）
                                  • Dao De Jing (道德经）
                                    • 1 hr 12 min
                                  • #126 SPECIAL EPISODE | Life is VIC NIC with Hugo Branco and Jorge Loura

                                    Welcome to the special episode of the Chiwi Journal Podcast.

                                    I'm sitting with two artists in Aveiro, Portugal to record this episode.

                                    • Hugo Branco, musician and artistic director of VIC // Aveiro Arts House
                                    • Jorge Loura, musician and guitarist from Troll's Toy

                                      • We share the behind-scene stories of the 1st Unclassifiable Music Festival of Aveiro and introduce the difficult labelled artists who will perform on 26th and 27th November at VAGA Festival!

                                      Come and join us if you can!

                                      We talked about:

                                      • Portuguese treasure artist Vasco Branco and his residence Vic Art House in a glance
                                      • VIC NIC, a sanctuary for wild artists, thinkers and technicians, aiming to stimulate togetherness, experimentation and co-creation via sound, visual and literary works.
                                      • The story of music band Troll's Toy
                                      • The new trend of undefined music
                                      • VAGA Music Festival 2021
                                      • The artist way of living
                                      • There is much beauty and inspiration everywhere in life.
                                      • The vision of VIC NIC and the digital transformation facing musicians
                                      • What's #ATERELINCHAS
                                      • Introduction of the featured artists 【BGM】

                                        • Troll's Toy (Rock | Jazz | Improvisation | Exploratory) 【Troll's Toy - Inibicao Da Ira】

                                        Azia (Psychedelic Rap | Hip Pop) 【Azia - Foque-o! (ft. DEL)】

                                        LÄGRIMA (Folk | Exploratory | Visual Art) 【Lägrima - live at VIC Aveiro Arts House】

                                        Santi Lesca (Exploratory | Electronica | Rock | World) 【Santi Lesca - Simultaneidad】

                                        Skier and Yeti (Original | Humor | Electronica) 【Skier_and_Yeti】

                                        DJ: OMLET JD & FREIMATIC DJS


                                        JOIN US FOR THE FIRST-EVER UNCLASSIFIED MUSIC FESTIVAL IN AVEIRO！

                                        https://lifeisavicnic.com/vaga2021/

                                        46 min
                                      • #125: Asian in Western World, Buddhism and Neuroscience, Stay True to Yourself with Christin Chong

                                        My guest today is Christin Chong. She is a neuroscientist at heart and enjoys investigating consciousness through the Buddhist lens. Christin's work history continues to evolve—from research in the lab to biotech marketing, to creating a delicious self-care tea for physical + mental health, to establish a community for accelerator compassion.

                                        In today's episode, we discussed:

                                        1. Our experience with Write of Passage Cohort 7 online writing course led by David Perell.
                                        2. What's it feel like to be the Third Culture Kids/Adults?
                                        3. How to deal with a multi-culture identity crisis?
                                        4. The journey of moving to the US and a serendipitous chance to study neuroscience under a strict apprenticeship model
                                        5. How does intuition help us make decisions? What's your hero's journey?
                                        6. What's the difference between western and eastern Buddhism? What's the connection between Buddhism and neuroscience?
                                        7. What's Alliance for Bhikkhunis? And what's Theravadan Buddhist tradition (e.g. four noble truths and noble eightfold path)?
                                        8. The San Pedro psychedelic experience. How does psychedelic help us to have different perspectives about the world and clarify life purpose?
                                        9. Why is meditation not the cure for every your problems?
                                        10. What's the future of online courses to build the community?
                                        11. Introduction to Compassion Accelerator and Honeyritual Tea

                                          12. Books/Links mentioned in this episode:

                                          • Write of Passage
                                          • Third culture kid
                                          • Third Culture Adult Book
                                          • American Born Chinese (ABC)
                                          • Trainspotting
                                          • Why Buddhism Is True by Robert Wright
                                          • Buddha's Brain by Rick Hanson
                                          • Jiro Dreams of Sushi
                                          • Antonio Damasio
                                          • The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work
                                          • Infinite Loops Podcast: Tom Morgan — All you Need is Love? (EP.74)
                                          • Theravada 南传佛教
                                          • Four Noble Truths
                                          • Noble Eightfold Path
                                          • The San Pedro psychedelic retreat experience
                                          • Flowism: My Philosophy of Living

                                            • Connect with Christin:

                                            • Christin's website
                                            • Christin's Twitter
                                            • Compassion Accelerator
                                            • Honeyritual Tea - CHIWI20 for 20% off (US customers only)
                                              • 1 hr 1 min

                                            About Chiwi Journal

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                                            Conversations between global citizens on culture observation, identity and self-actualisation.