Convergence

Convergence

By Mark Steadman & Brendan HutchinsSociety & CultureHealth & FitnessMental Health
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Convergence episodes

  • I'll send you my love in details

    Brendan moved his mum into a new care facility, Mark reconnected with his therapist, and the pair reflect on creating intentional routines, reducing digital distractions, and their dreams.

    1 hr 3 min
  • Stumbling into failure

    Brendan and Mark have questions and thoughts around moderation, and Brendan has questions for Mark on his sleep.

    • (00:00) - Stumbling into failure
  • (00:07) - Mark is weirdly on his shit
  • (00:52) - Brendan is on his shit
  • (04:25) - Brendan has thoughts on moderation
  • (14:28) - Mark has a pending relevation
  • (25:12) - Brendan doesn't trust the messages his body gives him
  • (28:09) - Mark tries to grapple with the Three Principles again
  • (32:08) - Brendan successfully avoided Creme Eggs
  • (38:27) - Mark remembers when the dopamine comes
  • (44:04) - Brendan is not going to coach Mark
  • (01:00:45) - Mark remembers something useful from a book

    • Links
    • How Minds Change: The New Science of Belief, Opinion and Persuasion, by David McRaney
    • The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey
    1 hr 5 min
  • The most thing is sugar

    The boys mostly talk about sugar, both in chocolate form a la Easter, and in pill form via placebo.

    • (00:00) - The most thing is sugar
  • (01:17) - Brendan describes needing a hug
  • (03:18) - Mark describes his norming
  • (06:10) - Mark mourns a friend
  • (10:30) - Brendan and Mark spoil an episode of Black Mirror
  • (16:57) - Mark describes a book
  • (18:51) - Mark and Brendan appreciate Paul Giamati
  • (22:00) - Brendan has gone 40 days without YouTube
  • (27:53) - Mark does his easter bit
  • (30:24) - Brendan and Mark describe their different easters
  • (38:13) - Mark describes his confusion about sales tax
  • (40:05) - Mark recounts his encounter with a crackpot
  • (01:04:13) - Brendan claps back

    • Links
    • The Holdovers (2023)
    • Black Mirror – Eulogy
    • Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, by Clay McLeod Chapman
    1 hr 8 min
  • Is this what normal people do?

    Mark and Brendan figure out how to talk to people in real life.

    • (00:00) - Is this what normal people do?
  • (00:19) - Brendan got a visit from his mom
  • (03:00) - Mark dreamt of Brendan
  • (06:03) - Brendan went to a trade show
  • (27:07) - Mark recounts his public speaking journey
  • (45:07) - Mark reckons with his unlikeability as a child
  • (56:46) - Mark makes a metaphor
  • (59:21) - The pair talk about assertiveness
  • (01:00:57) - Brendan overthinks a Reddit conversation
  • (01:03:27) - Brendan and Mark talk therapy modes
  • (01:06:07) - Mark takes an ADHD tangent
  • (01:11:20) - Brendan talks in church
  • (01:17:39) - Mark remembers how to talk to strangers
  • (01:20:38) - Brendan introduces some new listeners
    • 1 hr 22 min
  • Get in the comments!

    Mark encourages Brendan to make short-form video... not at all because he has started making his own.

    • (00:00) - Y'all are welomed to the show
  • (03:42) - Mark wouldn't call a dude "love"
  • (05:19) - Mark says "y'all" ironically
  • (08:28) - Undo is now monetised
  • (17:17) - Brendan's killing it running a meditation group
  • (22:25) - David chimes in
  • (23:16) - Brendan questions his medium
  • (32:55) - Brendan's got moves in the kitchen you haven't even heard of
  • (43:18) - Mark reminisces about You Suck at Cooking
  • (45:56) - Mark reminisces about The War of the Worlds
  • (49:50) - Your One Thing is beckoning
  • (52:02) - Brendan remembers why his teachings are his to give
  • (54:46) - We have to shift the Peeps

    • Links
    • Get in the comments!
    • Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
    56 min
  • Now I have a bag of pegs

    Mark opens a can of worms full of aspartame, and Brendan has both joined a dodgeball league and started a meditation circle. Now who's being a productive dynamo!?

    • (00:00) - Now I have a bag of pegs
  • (00:42) - Dopamine Nation
  • (07:52) - Does Mark trust Brendan?
  • (19:09) - Mark pokes the bear on aspartame
  • (38:47) - Brendan brings up the Potato Famine
  • (40:08) - Mark was write about community
  • (44:09) - Mark ruins Brendan's apology
  • (52:04) - Does food carry a message?
  • (01:00:11) - Brendan takes another run at the apology
  • (01:04:02) - Brendan unveils his meditation group
  • (01:06:06) - Brendan goes back to dodgeball
  • (01:09:36) - Brendan tells his joke

    • Links
    • Ultra-Processed People, by Chris van Tulleken
    1 hr 11 min
  • We're senseless to our selves

    Brendan and Mark kind of have a fight a little bit. In as much as two enneagram 9s can.

    • (00:00) - We're senseless to our selves
  • (00:59) - Mark's chat history
  • (05:22) - Brendan and the holy trinity
  • (13:59) - Mark gets triggered by the word "recover"
  • (27:56) - The tug of war
  • (38:33) - Another parable of the blind man
  • (43:05) - Part 1 of Mark trying to make a short-form video series
  • (49:46) - A men's group structure
  • (56:13) - Mark wants to open his own beer
  • (01:08:33) - Roscoe being a pest

    • Links
    • Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, by Kristin Neff
    • The Magic, by Rhonda Byrne
    1 hr 10 min
  • Playing myself at Magic the Gathering

    Our heroes navigate freelancing and money, and Brendan has an update for Mark on fasting, courtesy of everyone's favourite large language model.

    • (00:00) - Playing myself at Magic the Gathering
  • (00:12) - Brendan consulted ChatGPT on fasting
  • (06:16) - The YouTube diet
  • (12:31) - The forthcoming men's group
  • (14:11) - Make a plan B
  • (19:25) - Just exist
  • (28:21) - Freelance hubris
  • (36:43) - We don't have a template to follow
  • (45:31) - Capitalism corner
  • (50:07) - What is the authentic self?
  • (58:25) - Value-based pricing vs hourly billing
  • (01:09:02) - Last week

    • Links
    • Lost Connections, by Johann Hari
    • The Way of the Superior Man, by David Deida
    1 hr 10 min
  • Somebody learned something at some point

    Brendan's not eating again, and Mark has opinions about education.

    • (00:00) - Cheesecake
  • (04:46) - Brendan is not eating
  • (17:32) - Teaching by experience vs study
  • (19:47) - Profit vs compensation
  • (28:20) - Study vs experience revisited
  • (47:04) - Finding intrinsic confidence in your work
  • (01:09:12) - Only Correct

    • Links
    • Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, by Clay McLeod Chapman
    1 hr 10 min
  • How to pathologise a good time

    Mark's vibrating internally but has got some funky stuff cooking, and Brendan still wants Mark to stop using TikTok.

    • (00:00) - Brendan's tree joke
  • (00:20) - Manic Mark
  • (03:18) - Undo update
  • (08:52) - It's all coming together
  • (22:17) - Big changes and ADHD
  • (25:32) - Pathologising a good time
  • (29:59) - r/blocked
  • (38:48) - Brendan tries to deprogramme Mark from TikTok again
  • (52:18) - Brendan's duck joke

    • Links
    • Cranking, by Merlin Mann
    • Hard as Nails
    54 min

About Convergence

From the publisher's feed

What is the work of a middle-aged man? To improve himself and help those around him contribute to a fairer, more tolerant society.