Feeding Curiosity

Holly is the creator of Kick Butt Life. Her brand emphasizes the importance of incorporating adventure, thrills, strength, play, and community into everyday life. She has a deep love for the outdoors and is a strong believer that everyone should follow through on their craziest dreams. She thru-hiked the 2,200 mile-long Appalachian Trail in 2019 and has done extensive hiking throughout Arizona, the Adirondacks, and the White Mountains. Her upcoming adventure plans include the Oregon Coast Trail, adventuring through the Caribbean, and Mount Kilimanjaro. Her journal on taking control of your life story comes out this June.

Show Notes

(00:04:38) Holly's Background

(00:06:24) Was movement a core part of growing up?

(00:07:48) Call for nature

(00:10:15) What Holly had to do before traveling?

(00:11:18) Travel Role Models

(00:13:37) The Appalachian Trail

(00:17:29) The power of nervousness

(00:18:56) Technology for navigation and Resupplying

(00:21:31) People who don't leave towns during through hikes

(00:22:30) Night Hiking

(00:23:56) Four State Challenge

(00:25:38) Self Defense and Other Safety Factors

(00:28:18) Hostel Information Network

(00:29:28) The Trail Feels Old School

(00:32:19) What is a typical day for a hiker?

(00:37:10) Hiking to improve awareness of the body

(00:39:12) Form Follows Function

(00:42:53) Rest and Recovery

(00:47:46) Self Reflection

(00:49:57) Power of Handwriting

(00:51:47) Putting space between work and life

(00:54:05) Realization on the trail

(00:58:53) Tracking and Anxiety

(01:00:43) Jane Goodall

(01:03:02) Recommended Books

(01:06:09) What advice do you have for anyone who's driven or looking to pivot?

(01:09:36) Connecting with Holly

In today's episode, I'm joined by my friend, Jordan Criss. What makes this podcast a little bit special is that Jordan was actually in person for this episode. 

I'm sure most of you will be able to tell the impact of in-person as I felt in this conversation. I think there's just a certain level of energy that is brought to the table. When two people are in the same room, having an engaging conversation. And I really had a good time talking to Jordan as always. 

 We talk about the difference or the effect of workouts and mindfulness slash meditation. Highlighting what we think about this first year of the pandemic lockdown starting and how different life feels one year later or one year of living through this situation. 

Last but not least, that was the through-line of this entire conversation: fulfillment and Jordan's background around creative interests and how society doesn't help foster creativity in people. We can maybe get more ideas on the table to help create a society in which more people can engage in their creative side. 

With that, everyone, please enjoy this conversation with my friend, Jordan Criss.

Show Notes:

(00:03:26) Jordan being home and One Year Since Lockdown

(00:05:33) Getting back to the gym

(00:07:23) Thinking better and movement

(00:09:29) Short term intensity and focus

(00:11:17) Getting to flow with your life

(00:14:48) Thoughts on Clubhouse

(00:16:51) What changes does Jordan notice since moving away? 

(00:19:44) Feeling Out of Place

(00:24:26) Getting closer to 30

(00:28:12) How do you use your leisure time?

(00:29:59) Sitting alone with yourself

(00:34:38) Aiming yourself for the future

(00:36:14) Finding your place

(00:39:55) How should society foster creativity?

(00:43:18) Fulfillment and creatives

(00:47:26) Differences in values

(00:48:14) Shoot for the stars

(00:51:25) Those who quit last equal success

(00:56:07) Your job is a vehicle for fulfillment

(00:57:55) Training to be aware of your thoughts and optimism

(00:59:41) Pathways to fulfillment

(01:02:45) Jordan and Music

(01:05:56) Kindred Spirits through craft

(01:09:10) Having a public image

(01:11:14) Jordan's new recommendations

I've spoken a lot on the podcast about the importance of crafting a routine that works for you. One thing I haven't gone into detail about is my routine. One silver lining of the pandemic is that it has allowed me to look at my routine more deeply. Then ask myself questions about what is working and what I need to improve upon. This article is holding me accountable in the future.

To read this and kind links to anything I mentioned visit - https://feedingcuriosity.net/blog/recovery-routine-2020

Show Notes:

(00:03:19) Sleep

(00:06:08) Tracking Sleep and Recovery

(00:08:26) Time-Restricted Feeding (Intermittent Fasting)

(00:12:23) Breaking down the day

(00:15:31) Afternoon

(00:17:26) Pre Workout

(00:20:40) Workout 

(00:21:53) Strain Tracking

(00:22:41) Sunlight

(00:23:49) Post Workout

(00:28:06) Power Down

(00:30:43) CBD Oil

(00:33:33) Wake Up Light

(00:34:55) Closing and Areas of Improvement

Aden Yaregal is an LA-based first-gen Ethiopian American working towards cultivating an executive-level career in television development to bring communities together through representation and diverse storytelling. Currently, Aden is co-producing the Greater Film Festival and working with the Enclave Entertainment Group as a development coordinator and script reader. Previously, Aden began her career in telecoms sales and media before shifting full-time into entertainment.

Show Notes:

(00:03:56) Aden's Background

(00:07:14) Resistance from parents

(00:08:44) Having the courage to quit your job

(00:11:53) TV to make sense of the world

(00:14:03) Why are they ready to hear her story?

(00:15:40) The power of global stories

(00:20:03) Nollywood

(00:20:30) Romance example in different cultures

(00:22:09) Overused storytelling tools or limitations to play with

(00:24:39) Undercutting the value of our own interests

(00:28:03) What Aden is less excited about in storytelling

(00:31:48) Seeing yourself reflected in the characters you watch

(00:37:33) Staying focused

(00:39:34) Finding Peer Groups

(00:42:30) Saying Yes to everything

(00:45:37) Connecting with people

(00:48:34) Stop comparing yourself to other people

(00:54:47) Difficulties when you're interested in a topic a at young age

(00:56:01) Exploring careers

(01:00:35) Never stagnating

(01:07:25) Awareness

(01:10:15) Recommended books

(01:12:40) Recommended shows

(01:15:59) Final Thoughts

(01:16:53) If you had a billboard, what would it say?

(01:17:58) Connecting with Aden 

Today, joining me on the podcast is Brandon Wenzel. Brandon is my cousin, as you could probably guess, just by the title of the podcast. Honestly, this was a treat of a podcast for me. So Brandon is a couple of years older than me, but we all had very similar shared interests growing up.

Wenzel's have this proclivity to collect something, whatever it may be. So for Brandon, his big thing is retro gaming consoles, so that can be really old councils from the first generations of Atari and Sega, but really his what does closest to his heart is the PlayStation.

In this conversation, I knew we had had many things to talk about, but this was a treat to understand what it was like for Brandon to grow up, being a little bit older than me and how technology has evolved for him and why he is so attached to video games in the way that he is. Outside of that, we touched on a few other things that he really enjoys, with the love of food and talking about martial arts toward the end of this conversation.

In all, this conversation was something for me that I really enjoy being able to do. It's finding something people are passionate about and try to unpack why they find it fun for whatever reason it is.

We did a really good job talking about why certain things are just intrinsically meaningful to us. At the very least, when you're listening to this conversation, I hope what are the things that you do because you love doing it. And have you ever been able to tell someone about that thing and don't be afraid to share those because it's through those things that you really care about that people see who you truly are

And so with that, everyone, please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with my cousin, Brandon Wenzel.

Show Notes

(00:04:09) Mega Man

(00:09:15) Favorite between Mario or Mega Man

(00:10:59) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

(00:14:02) How Toys have evolved

(00:16:11) Gas Station Story

(00:19:00) Retro Gamer

(00:24:28) Panasonic Console

(00:25:30) Becoming a Collector

(00:28:34) Tangible Collections

(00:30:25) Disc Rot

(00:34:04) Transition to digital

(00:35:13) Keeping consoles running

(00:41:16) The Original Playstation

(00:46:53) N64 Controller

(00:55:04) Platinum Controller Organ Transplant

(00:58:26) Technology and Games

(01:01:38) Streaming Retro Games

(01:03:51) Light Gun Games

(01:05:37) First Computer and setting up technology

(01:09:13) Upscaling retro games and input lag

(01:10:39)Word of caution for buying original hardware

(01:15:27) High Score - Netflix Documentary

(01:19:03) Why are older games more difficult

(01:23:19) NES Hard

(01:26:46) What goes on under the hood

(01:28:01) Martial Art Films

(01:33:18) Blood Fist Movies

(01:34:09) Closing

My guest today is Nick Buegel returning to the podcast. In this episode, Nick and I go deep into what he's been exploring during the pandemic. As we all know, the pandemic has put unique stress on almost all of Nick and us nonetheless. But what Nick decided to do was, in many ways, make the most of the situation.

He spent many days and hours outside of nature, walking around different parks. Over time that sparked an interest in him to explore what is happening within climate change and the broader environmental as a movement, what's going on at a policy level. what's going on at a technology level how do people think about the environment?

For Nick, it's really coming down to how we think about ourselves as the human species and facilitate the length that our species is around. As far as I know, and most of us know is that Earth is our home. If we're actively hindering the quality of life on this planet through our own actions, that is then at odds with our existence. It's very much the selfish thing for Nick that he wants to protect this planet from having a future for humanity.

Beyond that, this has always been one of the core elements of why I do this podcast: Nick is not an environmental science expert. He's not an expert in environmental policy, but he cares enough to explore and share his beliefs and opinions, and he's willing to share them in a way so that other people can maybe pick up the torch where he left off. I'm going to do my best to share as many of the links in the show notes so that you can explore on your own. I think that's the point of all of this is you don't have to be someone with a fancy degree or an acronym after your name to give a shit about something.

I know for a fact we didn't get everything right. There will be points that people can argue whether or not it's true.  My job is to allow people to share their conclusions and what they believe authentically. I really feel strongly about this because they think we don't have enough of this right now. And so with that, I hope you enjoy this conversation with Nick Buegel.

Show notes:

(00:03:57) Building a moral framework

(00:07:58) Does human consciousness value itself too much? 

(00:11:26) This not meant to guilt-trip our existence

(00:12:40) The impact of the industrialization

(00:14:46) Value in skepticism but don't ignore data

(00:18:30) The Greenhouse Effect

(00:19:52) Amount of solar energy that hits the earth

(00:21:38) Why should we care about this and other impacts 

(00:24:12) How can we start changing

(00:26:48) Carbon Credit System

(00:28:15) Carbon Neutral

(00:33:22) Influence of government on the environment

(00:38:38) Oil spills are great for GDP

(00:41:13) New technology on the horizon

(00:43:57) Wood Plastics

(00:47:21) Carbon Sequestration

(00:50:53) Being aware of the rate of change

(00:51:58) Tapered Approach

(00:54:53) Changing the approach to power with solar

(01:01:43) Sharing the world

(01:06:47) Biochar - What is it?

(01:10:28) Closing 

My guest, today on the podcast, is returning friend Jordan Criss. As always, Jordan jumps on the podcast, and it's off to the races. This particular episode was recorded on new year's Eve, a couple of hours before 2021. We took this time to reflect on the year. This year was a whole bunch of change for all of us personally outside of the podcast. We dove in around the different things we learned about ourselves and what changed in 2020.

Even though we could have talked about the negatives in which we did talk about many of the negatives, we try to look for silver linings in both our lives in our relationships, and then also in our behaviors so that we could go into now 2021 with that much of a foot forward.

I think it's good to ask a question here. What do you take away? From 2020 that sets you up, for now, success or future success, not just 2021, but in the future, did you learn something about yourself that surprised you and that now you feel like you're ready for a challenge that you weren't before and I'll leave you with that.

Cause I think that's a great way to prime you for this conversation with Jordan Criss, and I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for listening.

Show Notes:

(00:03:34) Reflecting on 2020

(00:07:39) Finding Normalcy

(00:09:38) What going to the gym provides

(00:11:03) Living in a studio apartment

(00:13:23) The ease of distraction and creating environments to focus better

(00:15:16) Some positives of the year

(00:17:19) Making decisions 

(00:21:40) Spontaneous connection

(00:23:55) What it feels like when people leave

(00:26:17) The draw of Colorado and unplugging

(00:31:00) Preoccupy the body to prime the mind

(00:32:04) How we use meditation

(00:34:45) Anxiety and To-do lists

(00:38:31) Being aware of bad habits

(00:40:46) What will the after-effects of COVID be?

(00:41:52) Introversion and Extroversion during the pandemic

(00:46:36) Differences between online communication and in-person

(00:50:09) Everyone has a different risk threshold

(00:53:47) Create a vision

(00:58:44) Changing your headspace

(01:01:54) Takeaways from 2020

(01:05:22) The People that Matter

(01:09:13) Leaning into the curveballs 

(01:10:08) Closing 

My guest today is Sal Abbinanti. Sal is an art rep for the comic book superstars Alex Ross and Bill Sienkiewicz. By night Sal is also an artist, and for over the last two decades, Sal has been obsessed with creating a graphic novel inspired by a visit he made to Brazil in his early twenties.

With COVID, he could finally sit down and get back to the workshop and tell the story lingering since that experience. Now that story is launching on Kickstarter under the name of the hostage. You can find it in the link in the show notes.

I highly recommend you check out Sal's work because I think his style is unique, and that's one of the things that grabbed me about the hostage itself, but across all the work that he shares on his social media, I think there was a lot there. It's part of the reason why I wanted to reach out to him.

This conversation gets very interesting for me because not only does Sal truly appreciate comic book Art, but art more broadly, and he's truly a master of craft or a student of craft in the sense of an artist. He talks about being open to new ideas and having a framework that allows you to constantly be receptive to new ideas, whether they may pop up randomly or planned or however they may happen. He's always constantly trying to push himself.

Many artists, especially if you're into comic books, will take a lot from this conversation. With that, everyone, please enjoy this conversation with Sal Abbinanti.

Show Notes

(00:04:08) Becoming a Comic Artist

(00:06:59) When did art and comic books enter the story?

(00:09:17) Becoming a professional artist

(00:11:28) New York was the center of comic book publishing

(00:14:09) Immersing yourself in the craft and being independent

(00:16:04) Dealing with rejection

(00:19:04) Working with Alex Ross and Bill Sienkiewicz

(00:20:46) How did college impact Sal's style?

(00:21:55) Staying receptive to new ideas

(00:23:59) Comic Books are received differently in other parts of the world

(00:25:26) Comic books and film adaptation

(00:28:53) Sal's Experience in Brazil

(00:35:03) Getting back out to conventions

(00:40:54) Working with Kickstarter

(00:43:37) Leveraging Unique Skills

(00:45:38) Favorite Artists

(00:56:08) Always be a student

(00:58:20) Favorite Art Books

(01:02:34) Failing and Experimenting

(01:08:37) Advice to young artists

For more content head to our website - https://feedingcuriosity.net/

Each year, I reflect on what it means and why I continue to spend an inordinate about of time on Feeding Curiosity.

This year I was drawn to the first episode of the podcast. I finally listened to it again in its entirety. As someone who criticizes themselves heavily. Had I not put out in the wild less than 24 hours after recording the episode on February 8th, 2018. I don't know if I would have kept going.

After listening, I hear the crazy idealism that I hold to this day. The itch that we all something that makes us curious about life and stories we share. I had no idea recording this conversation with Mike Taccona would evolve into.

Thank you to the listeners for joining me here. Thanks to the guests who share their time with me.

Here's to all of the connections I've made with people online and in-person - every conversation is meaningful to me.

I've become a better speaker, listener, and human by attempting to feed my curiosity. I hope that I continue to refine my thoughts and share them with others authentically going forward. It's not about me but those I have the honor to connect with.

For more content head to our website - https://feedingcuriosity.net/

My guest today is long-time friend Joe Jackowski. It was mostly us catching up as with the pandemic. We have not had a lot of time interacting with each other cause he still is living near the University of Michigan.

For Joe, he's been doing a lot of reading with Erich Neumann and Camille Paglia. Much of this conversation is around—both of their bodies of work and what he's been reading on their different writings or ponderings.

We get into different ideas about how humanity has built systems for itself and how. The systems elaborate over time, starting very simple and archaic to us now, modern people.

Show Notes: 

(00:02:55) Februa - Where February Got Its Name 

(00:04:31) The Pagan Ritual Embedded in Christmas 

(00:05:54) Traditions Evolve 

(00:07:42) Past Rituals Where Attempt to Explain the World 

(00:12:32) If meanings of words persist, it's a good way of thinking about behavior 

(00:14:41) A polyamorous example

(00:15:51) Every model has to start simple 

(00:18:58) The Richard Dawkins Meme 

(00:22:02) Pushing the Meme to Archetypes 

(00:23:05) Erich Neumann and Camille Paglia 

(00:28:42) The People of the Steppe 

(00:35:25) Comparison to early computer operating systems 

(00:38:30) The Food that Built America 

(00:41:42) Differentiation of the Chipotle Model 

(00:53:04) Matthew Johnson on Lex Fridman podcast 

(00:54:00) Alcohol and Inhibition 

(00:59:42) Lowering the drinking age 

(01:04:30) Maladaptive Memes 

(01:07:57) What happens when people aren't allowed to be autonomous 

(01:11:39) Sexually Repressive Culture

(01:15:37) Impacts of repressing sexuality 

(01:16:57) Mind-Body Dichotomy 

(01:19:18) What makes human behavior special? 

(01:22:42) Philosophy of Mind 

For more content head to our website - https://feedingcuriosity.net/