Fred's Front Porch Podcast

This is my effort to change a single mind.  I have a friend who listens, at least occasionally, to this show.  She actually left me a message once to tell me she was playing a show.

She and I disagree about COVID.

I am not simply dismissing her ideas.  Neither should anyone else.  I don't believe there is any sort of conspiracy going on with this pandemic, but I consider the idea carefully.

I would like for you to consider all of the ideas I present here.  Your beliefs dictate your behavior.  Your behavior is now relevant to all the rest of us.  Let's choose our beliefs, and, therefore, our actions carefully.

If I can change, even just a little, a single mind, I will feel wildly successful. I hope you can use this to change the minds of your friends, too.  Or, maybe I can get you to think differently about the pandemic.

There really is no more important discussion to have at the moment.

Come... sit down on the Front Porch, and let's talk about our beliefs.

This is where I'm going to let you get to know me a little better.  Why would I do that?  It has to do with Connection.  My friend, Corey Cottrell, who is essentially the Godfather of this show, had a great TED Talk on his 100 Days Page today.  I don't know the speaker, but she makes the point that the reason we're all on this planet is Connection.  We need to feel we belong.  We want to be accepted.

Part of the problem with this is our sense of shame.  We all have parts of us that we are afraid to reveal to the world because we fear if you really knew us, you would reject us.  We would no longer have any sense of belonging.  We would be disconnected.

I'm not going to reveal my deepest, darkest secrets.  Have no fear.  But I'm going to give you a little rundown of what I see as being the Major Facts of Fred.  I'm also  going to invite you to give me some of the Major Facts of You.  I hope to have something called a Google number before much longer.  If it works as I believe it does, you can leave voicemails there, and tell us a little about yourself.  I suspect some of us will be relieved to know there are others of us out there who are as strange as we are.  I  will certainly be happy to hear about you.

I'm going to read to you, first, the end of a book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry called "Wind, Sand, and Stars." You may know him as the author of "The Little Prince." This is a memoir he wrote in 1939, and you will hear some less enlightened expressions of attitudes that were held by most French aristocrats in those days. Please see them in their historical context. He tells of a train trip he took in which he observed what happens to those tossed by the tides of the economy. It is a sad -- perhaps tragic -- story of people whose souls seem to have been crushed beyond recognition. This will make you gloomy. I promise to give you hope before it's over. I follow his essay with a Message of Light of my own. What is the theme of this episode? You can make a difference. So can I. We can shine.

This is a unique episode.  It's the first time I've ever done an ACTUAL Front Porch conversation.  This was entirely unintentional.

I met Jenner Zeno, a fellow podcaster, through my friend, Faye Ku, who thought he could help me to do my show better.  And, obviously, he's done that, as I suspect you will be able to determine while listening to this episode.  This is only a little over an hour of the five or six hours of conversation we've had in the past week.  Every moment is fascinating to me because I'm talking to one of the few people I've ever met who do the same thing I do.  It's not just the podcast thing.  I have a few friends who do that.  It's the using music to make things more powerful gig.  You'll hear about that in the Introduction.

I hope you're as excited by this episode as I am.  I am positive you're going to enjoy meeting my new friend, Jenner Zeno.

Fred's Front Porch is honored to welcome Josh Bachynski, a PhD in Neuroscience, a TED Talks speaker on the topic of Google, and a meditation specialist.  He's a scientist and a philosopher, and he stopped by the porch to discuss how we seek The Good.  This is a deeper and more general conversation than you're used to hearing on the Porch.

What is The Good?  This is a difficult concept to grasp, yet it's essential in driving our lives.  We'll delve into that.

Descartes, and the idea “I think, therefore I am,” and that all of this is an illusion, is also worth considering.  We do.

How do we solve moral problems?  How does one decide between conflicting goods?

Josh, an expert in meditation, runs you through a brief example of serious experience of it. He'll show us how to spin the clouds.

My microphone didn't give me the performance on Zencastr that I had hoped.  I apologize for my muddy sound.  It will get better.

So, now, let's meet Josh.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXf6WshSYAaW-5LvlwVYXXA

Twitter

@josh bachynski

BAM

app.meditationassistant.com

This is the exciting story of a hunter who believes the feelings of animals are meaningless.  In Richard Connell's classic story, our hunter is going to discover there is game even more dangerous than a lion, a jaguar, or even a Cape Buffalo.  And he will learn what terror truly is.  

This is quite possibly my best work to date.

Thank you to my first supporter, Zara.

Money is, perhaps, necessary, but I argue in this episode that it is often misused as a tool for slavery. I believe we can change this.  I believe the current crisis is an opportunity to consider what the world should be when we finally, someday, get to rebuild it.  

Horace, the Intrepid Introvert, is forced into a social situation that brings back memories of the demise of his first marriage.  "As Time Goes By," he learns his experiences are not unique.  

This week Fred begins with his reflections on the bizarre state of the world before he brings in guest Idealist, Faye Ku to discuss COVID 19, its effects on the each of us, and the possibility of changing the world, even to the point of doing away with money.

Stay tuned after the show for a sneak peek into next week's episode.

The song, “I'm Talking To You” was performed by the late Kevin Quigley.  Ask me about him sometime.

This is the extraordinary true story of how Mike Clark, who won Andrew Yang's giveaway of a UBI of $1,000 a month for the next year, and saved the life of a homeless friend.  This is an important point when we are all facing homelessness and economic collapse, ourselves.  Mike joins us on the Front Porch to tell you what happened.  You will want to hear this.