Evolve Move Play Podcast

Humans are complex and so is the world through which we navigate. Often times the things we don't pay attention to have an astounding influence on our ability to accomplish our goals and grow as individuals. Subtleties in how we breathe, how we stand, how we move, how we think, how we perceive ourselves, others, or our environment, all coalesce to either help or hinder our efforts in sport and in life.

Today we are beginning a conversation with Simon Thakur about how we can change the way we practice the powerful subtleties of our selves so that we can more effectively become the people we want to be.

We will be talking about the ecology of practice ranging from meditation and contemplation to specific physical disciplines and how to determine the scope of value that they can offer to us on our personal journeys. We also touch on why the game of Capoeira inherently creates students that learn skills faster and why divorcing the movements from the game tends to negate those results.

This is a brief episode that will lay some groundwork for future conversations with Simon. We are looking forward to having him back because we have a ton of material to cover that we think you'll get a lot out of.

So sit back and enjoy! Don't forget to leave a comment, subscribe, and share with your friends.

SHOW NOTES

00:00 - Intro

03:18 - Teaching how to Learn

11:57 - Ecology of Practice

23:53 - The Why

35:33 - Attraction and Avoidance

44:16 - Transforming the Self

53:37 - Capoeira & The Limits of Systematization

LEARN MORE

www.ancestralmovement.com

SUPPORT US

www.patreon.com/rafekelley

www.evolvemoveplay.com

Thanks everyone, and happy moving!

-The EMP Team

What makes a practice sustainable? What is it that enables someone to devote years of effort and intention to a study? What keeps the fires of motivation stoked and fueled throughout the trials and tribulations of our lives?

Finding the answers to those questions is an important and very personal process that can only be walked by the individual who searches; however there is something to be said about the capacity for evolution that is held within the practice itself and the person who studies it.

Humans are wildly curious, adaptable, and innovative with a boundless capacity for growth. When we can get past our fixations on comfort, aesthetics, or competitive superiority we can set our aim towards a process of continual learning. We abandon many of the fears associated with failure and begin to seek the limits of our capabilities so that we may expand them. This state of being requires a practice that reflects our own complexities and layers of potential depth; one that will grow with us and offer new and profound lessons no matter how far we progress.

Saza Sevo is a firm example of someone who has grown and evolved along with their movement practice. In this week's episode of the Evolve Move Play Podcast we dive into his story and hear how his passion for movement and self cultivation lead him from a humble childhood in a war torn nation to becoming an entrepreneur and highly respected coach in the international parkour community.

While you listen, see if you recognize correlations between his enthusiasm, his devotion, and your own. Ask yourself if you are oriented towards the most meaningful goals and if your practice can offer you a limitless path towards attaining them.

SHOW NOTES

00:00 - Intro

01:45 - Saza's Journey pt 1

10:36 - Changing Times

23:18 - Saza's Journey pt 2

27:40 - Group & Solo Practice

40:37 - Becoming a Teacher

46:29 - Training w/the Masters

54:16 - A Taste for Struggle

01:04:44 - Saza's Practice

01:11:37 - Rise of the Gym Culture

01:17:21 - Training in Nature

01:24:17 - Saza's Classes

01:28:16 - Roles of the Coach

01:41:42 - Tounge Parkour & Where to Learn More

LEARN MORE

https://skochypstiks.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/pkzvrk

www.evolvemoveplay.com

Thanks everyone, and happy moving!

-The EMP Team

This week on the Evolve Move Play Podcast we are very excited to have Caitlin Pontrella with us to discuss the importance of play in facilitating learning, developing physical, social & emotional capabilities, and building strong, inclusive communities.

We feel this is a topic of paramount importance; as our society moves forward into an age of higher productivity and relationships become more and more built upon a platform of technology, we are gradually seeing the practice of creative, unstructured free play being left by the wayside as rates for anxiety and depression continue to rise.

Play is not only where we naturally develop physical capacities like strength, stability, speed, coordination, etc... it's also where we develop our ability to solve problems, communicate with peers, negotiate, and learn empathy. Losing something so incredibly important to us is a real problem which is why it's great to have Caitlin on to talk about her extensive experience on the subject and

to discuss what we can do to reunite with our play drive so that we can live as fully and freely as possible.

OTHER TOPICS/SHOW NOTES

00:00 - Intro

02:35 - Respecting the Process

07:49 - Emotional Literacy and Empathy

17:10 - Play v. Performance

22:46 - The Four Types of Players

26:58 - Crossfit & Parkour, Exercise & Movement

31:21 - Parkour for Risk Management

36:31 - Meaning and Internal/External Validation

39:21 - Avoiding the Confidence Trap and Building Internal Motivation

52:08 - Constraints for Games & Newcomers

01:00:23 - Building Community

01:05:15 - Examining Hierarchy

01:11:48 - Jam Etiquette

01:17:36 - Caitlins Books

01:22:00 - Contact and Events

CAITLINS BOOK LIST:

1) Play - Stuart Brown

2)Deep Play - Diane Ackerman

3)Love Where You Live - Peter Kageyama

LEARN MORE

www.caitlinpontrella.com

www.artofretreat.com

SUPPORT US

www.patreon.com/rafekelley

www.evolvemoveplay.com

Thanks everyone, and happy moving!

-The EMP Team

Parkour is a sport that, in many ways, is still in it's infancy. The practice only began gaining traction in the late 90's & early 00's yet, in the short time since, we have seen an incredible surge of young athletes performing feats that previously had only been seen in elite gymnastics competitions. Many of these athletes have gleaned their knowledge and skills only by watching internet videos and devoting their free time to practicing with friends at their local spots.

The internet has played a surprisingly powerful role in this sudden spike of popularity and skill. YouTube and Instagram feed fuel to the fire of parkour practitioners around the world and of all the pages that are devoted to the practice, Storror has risen above all the rest.

Even if you don't know who Callum Powell and the rest of the Storror team are, chances are you would recognize some of their films which highlight their amazing technical abilities and penchant for jumping rooftop gaps hundreds of feet in the air.

We are really excited to have Callum on the podcast to talk about what it means to be on the leading edge of the sport of parkour and how he tackles the process of exploring what is physically and mentally possible, while maintaining an acceptable level of safety, responsibility, and sustainability along the way.

So check it out, then don't forget to like, subscribe, share, and hit up the comments section to be a part of the conversation.

SHOW NOTES

00:00 - Intro

01:38 - Storror's Beginnings

07:44 - What Sets Storror Apart

14:48 - Big Jumps

21:19 - Risk v. Danger

29:05 - Responsible Roof Culture

37:18 - The Edges of Our Limits

43:33 - Hucking Shit & Social Media

50:10 - Quantum Leaps in Skill

56:18 - Aliveness

59:27 - Successful Failure

01:08:32 - Weight Lifting and Programming

01:19:21 - Contact Info & Outro

LEARN MORE

www.youtube.com/StorrorBlog

Storror.com

IG:

@Storror

@CallumStorror

SUPPORT US

www.evolvemoveplay.com

www.patreon.com/rafekelley

For most people, the prospect of failure is highly intimidating. It's uncomfortable and usually comes with some sort of consequence that can drastically alter our lives or the way we view ourselves. Commonly the approach is to try and avoid failure altogether and stick to things that are comfortable and as non-threatening as possible. The problem with this ends up being that life is uncontrollable, and so long as we are people who are striving for things, the chance of failure is always looming.

What if we looked at this problem differently though? What if instead of avoiding failure, we faced it? What if we practiced falling down, getting rejected, coming up short just enough to learn how to do it gracefully and without catastrophe?

What if we removed our fear of failure and replaced it with understanding and confidence instead? It's interesting to think of how far we might go towards achieving the things we set out to do.

On this week's episode of The Evolve Move Play Podcast, we talk with Amos Rendao. Amos is an owner of Apex Movement and ParkourEDU who has developed a training practice to help athletes learn to fall and abstain from injury called Parkour Ukemi. He also has been researching aliveness and application in parkour with his Parkour Randori practice. He's an amazing coach and thinker, is incredibly fun to talk with, and has one hell of a chase story. So sit back and enjoy our conversation with Amos Rendao, and while you're at it, hit like, subscribe, and leave us a review on iTunes

OTHER TOPICS

00:00 - Intro

01:37 - Interview Start

04:33 - Parkour Ukemi

10:03 - Antifragility, Danger V. Risk

13:43 - Finding Freedom Through Failure

18:23 - Technical Falling: Martial Arts v Parkour

34:40 - Amos' Why

40:34 - Recovery

48:56 - Blending Methods

58:04 - Dance & Parkour

01:02:23 - Finding Human Limits

01:05:46 - Parkour Randori

01:11:38 - The Chase

01:25:12 - Contact Amos/Learn More

AMOS' LINKS

www.parkouredu.org

www.amosrendao.com

www.apexmovement.com

SUPPORT US

patreon.com/rafekelley

www.evolvemoveplay.com

The society we live in today is the safest and most prosperous society that has ever existed on the planet. The likelihood of dying due to illness, murder, or starvation have dramatically plummeted in the last 100 years. More people are being lifted out of abject poverty now than ever before, while the everyday technologies we hold in our hands grant us the full extent of human knowledge and entertainment with just the tap of a finger.

Yet, there’s a problem.

Anxiety, depression, PTSD, adolescent suicide, and many other mental health ailments have skyrocketed in the last decade. In this age of prosperity, humans are feeling more disconnected from themselves and their communities, more detached from the natural world, and are having incredible difficulty finding a sense of meaning in their lives.

This week on the Evolve Move Play Podcast we are very excited to have with us John Vervaeke, a cognitive psychologist/scientist at the University of Toronto who has made it his mission to understand and remedy the meaning crisis; and it just so happens that the way we look at our movement practice may play a key role in developing our ability to transcend the bullshit and find the meaning we are striving for in life.

So grab a pad and pen, sit back, and get ready to take a trip into the realm of our cognitive psychology to see how the very mechanisms that make us susceptible to bullshit also provide us the ability to transcend ourselves, tap into flow states, and maybe even find enlightenment while we're at it.

TOPICS COVERED:

00:00 - Intro

02:12 - Interview Start

03:19 - The Meaning Crisis

08:44 - The Many Ways We Learn

14:36 - Relevance Realization

25:30 - JV's Core Points

30:18 - Bullshit

36:13 - Connection & Coherence

41:06 - The Death of God and Self Trancendance

45:40 - Updating our Systems

52:33 - The Role of Movement Practice

01:07:43 - "Don't tell me what you believe, tell me what you practice"

01:11:28 - Reclaiming Sacredness

01:18:38 - Flow, Nutrition v. Stimulation

01:25:38 - Modal Confusion

01:32:13 - Hope

01:35:16 - Resources and Book List

JOHN'S BOOK LIST:

“Zombies in Western Culture: A 21st Century Crisis” - Chris Mastropietro, Filip Miscevic, John Vervaeke

"What is Ancient Philosophy?" - Pierre Hadot

"Platonic Mysticism" & "Perennial Philosophy" - Arthur Versluis

"The Kyoto School: An Introduction" - Robert Carter

"Religion and Nothingness" - Keiji Nishitani

"Flow" - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

"Trying Not to Try: The Ancient Art of Effortlessness and the Surprising Power of Spontaneity" - Edward G. Slingerland

LEARN MORE @

youtube.com/johnvervaeke

www.johnvervaeke.com

SUPPORT US @

www.patreon.com/rafekelley

www.evolvemoveplay.com

Also don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave a review for us on iTunes.

Thanks a lot everyone! Happy moving!

-The EMP Team

"The tao that can be told is not the eternal tao.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

The nameless is the mother of all things.

The named gives rise to the 10,000 things."

-Tao Te Ching

In today's episode of the Evolve Move Play Podcast we speak with Marcello Palozzo, a parkour athlete and movement coach who has been dedicated to the process of self mastery and exploration for over a decade.

The core of Marcello's practice does well to embody the opening verse of the Tao Te Ching. Movement is a vast and complex entity that offers endless opportunities for insight, improvement, and self development to those who possess the humility, curiosity, and dedication to the lifelong journey.

With our highly rational minds and our tendencies towards reductionist ideals, it can be easy to fall into the trap of specialization and to become highly invested in practices that are inherently limited in their scope of potential value. Marcello has avoided this pitfall and developed a practice that constantly pushes him to evolve his physical, cognitive, and emotional capabilities. His movement has become a personal laboratory for building character.

In addition to being a high level parkour athlete and coach, he makes time for climbing and free soloing, exploring and moving through a wide variety of environments from the deep forest to rooftops to subterranean waterways. He works closely with the Ido Portal team and holds a Master of Science in Strength and Conditioning at St. Mary's University. Everything he learns in his studies then makes its way into the programming he creates for his hundreds of students around the world.

This philosophy of continual study and exploration, balancing practice based evidence and evidence based practice, balancing intuition and rationality - all to develop the truest and most heroic version of ones being, is central to Evolve Move Play and it is a pleasure to speak at length with Marcello who is independently forging his own path along the same principals.

Other topics we cover this week are:

01:00 - Introductions

03:41 - Marcello's Practice

08:30 - Shortcutting the Experience

12:10 - Intuition & Rationality

23:16 - Balancing the Practice

31:24 - Marcello's Philosophy

46:51 - Aliveness

55:50 - Epistemic Humility

1:03:26 - Marcello's Model

1:12:26 - Fear

1:27:06 - The Role of Physical Development

1:44:50 - Flow

Thanks for listening, everyone! To learn more about Marcello, go check out his website at www.marcellopalozzo.com and follow him on FB/IG @palozzo.marcello.

Also don't forget to subscribe, like and share. Then head on over to www.patreon.com/rafekelley to support the podcast and ensure that our future productions are the highest quality possible.

Happy moving, everyone!

-The EMP Team

On this week's episode of the Evolve Move Play podcast we talk with Aaron Cantor, an embodiment and movement teacher who has spent the last 15 years creating and sharing his Primal Practice. Over the course of an hour and a half we speak at length about using the incredible power of story telling to enrich our abilities to teach, learn, and live. 

The art of telling stories is ancient. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest recorded piece of literature, dating back to 2700 BC, and in it are common archetypes that have been found in myth and legends all over the world, which suggests that variants on The Heroes Journey predate writing by thousands of years. The fact that humans are deeply connected to and dependent on stories is further exemplified by the costs of the average feature film budget. Most films run between $70 and $90 million, but the blockbusters can soar into the hundreds of millions, hitting as high as $425 million in the case of James Cameron's Avatar. 

 As instructors, one of the best ways we can convey complex layers of information and meaning to our students is through effective story telling. Utilizing common archetypal themes and characters to represent struggles and journeys that are central to the human experience will almost always hit closer to home than reciting plain raw data or statistics. 

Aaron has been using stories to deepen his students connection to their peers, their movement, and their personal processes of discovery and progress. Come with us as we discuss those stories, as well as the search for meaning, embodiment, intention, awareness, and more.

One of the most common questions I get from people who are interested in taking on the practice of parkour is “Am I too old for this?”

Always the answer is no. Parkour is for everyone. It’s the practice of moving our bodies more gracefully and efficiently through complex environments, which is exactly what our bodies are evolved to do. I understand that it can be easy to watch parkour videos on YouTube of young athletes jumping between skyscrapers, or performing olympic-level acrobatics over concrete, and come away feeling like it’s a dangerous fringe sport reserved for adrenaline junkies. The fact is that this extreme element of parkour is but one branch of a much larger tree, and to denounce the practice in its entirety based on that branch would be similar to refusing to drive your own car because you saw a dangerous looking NASCAR race.

This is one reason why we are excited to release our fourteenth episode of the Evolve Move Play Podcast featuring our good friend Julie Angel.

If you don’t know Julie, she is a documentary filmmaker, author, instructor, and all around amazing leader/advocate for parkour and the movement community. Her films have over 16 million views online. Her book “Breaking The Jump” is a must-read for anyone interested in the history and origins of parkour, and her company See&Do is committed to teaching sustainable, parkour-based movement practices to people from all walks of life.

As someone who started parkour later in life, dealing with fear, anxiety, and self doubt while finding her place in the international community, she is a bright example of how movement can change and empower each and every one of us. Julie is a delightful person to talk with and I think you’ll really enjoy hearing the stories of her experiences and her unique thoughts on what movement and parkour offer for improving health and quality of life for people of all ages and abilities.

So go check it out, and while you’re at it, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe to our page. We also have a Patreon that helps us to create more high quality content for our ever growing community of heroic movers. To become a patron, visit www.patreon.com/rafekelley

You can find more from Julie at JulieAngel.com and See-Do.com

In this episode of the Evolve Move Play Podcast, well known genetics, evolution and history blogger Razib Khan is my guest, I have been following Razib's work since 2005 and he has been a major influence in understanding Evolution and Genetics in depth. In this interview I specifically wanted to review the ideas around how evolution can produce broken solutions, or break useful adaptions when selective pressures are high. This is topic of huge relevance in our current world of exponential technology change I think you guys will get a lot out of it. If you want to suppor these podcasts, please support us on patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/rafekelley