Pumacocha Unlimited Podcast

Welcome John and Jackie and family from South Philadelphia to the show! I met them tonight as I was walking up and down the narrow streets of South Philly this evening. John works for the natural gas company in Philly and served 2 tours overseas with the US Army. Jackie works as a parole officer. They love their home in South Philly and this episode has a family/neighborhood vibe. We bounced around over a handful of topics.

Welcome Matt from his beach chair in Wildwood, New Jersey!! Some parts of this conversation had me wondering who was interviewing who. Matt enjoys music (particularly the Beatles), books, and people and he hates guns. He left us with two tokens of wisdom at the end.

If you think something is cool, it is cool.

Life is colorful; live in full color.

This week I talk about my trip through New England- though I don't think I ever covered Rhode Island or Connecticut in the episode. I was distracted in this episode having to pause twice- once to move my van and another to speak with some police officers. I cover a few of the same topics related to my marathon. Strategy, why I am running them, and the training plan I am not following. Aslo dabble a little bit into my thought process when looking for potential guests on the road.

Welcome Dee from Connecticut. I met Dee tonight as I was walking around New Haven; as I passed by her she said “you’re cute” and the rest is history. Dee has an interesting story. She has been homeless for 3-4 years..since the time her Dad passed away. He battled Alzheimer’s disease at the end of his life and Dee took care of him until the end. Losing her Dad broke her heart; she lost touch with her family, gave away her money and has been living on the streets since that time. I really enjoyed our conversation and this one in particular had me walking away wishing I would’ve said this or followed up that. I think Dee had a real emotional story to tell me and at times I just failed to ask the right questions to follow up with her. The man she is speaking of at the beginning of the conversation was her partner who she lost 2 months ago to a Fentanyl overdose. Thank you for sharing, Dee.

Welcome Sean from Rhode Island to the show. I met Sean late Sunday night at a bar in Newport, Rhode Island during my scramble to find a guest after the first interview backed out. Sean saved the day- he owns an aluminum manufacturing company in Mass, but was born in Rhode ISland and his family keeps a boat down here. He talks of his childhood in Rhode Island, all things aluminum (pop cans are not aluminum!), why he would love to get a contract with Elon Musk and the reason he would not want to sign that contract in the current state of the economy. Sean schools me in chemical compounds without ever taking Organic chem and we also talk about traveling to space. ENJOY

Welcome Jiayi to the show! I met Jiayi on Harvard’s campus this afternoon- she generously shared 30 minutes or so of her precious MCAT study session to chat with me. In high school Jiaya ran a series of her own Human's of Boston account and has a great understanding of what we are doing with the 50 states road trip podcast. Jiayi is a senior at UMass Amherst. She plans to attend medical school and become a Primary Care physician. As it turns out she worked on a thesis project last year in school that focused on an individual’s daily media feed; we discuss social media and the ways it feeds into the division and automatic dehumanization of “thems”. Thems are those who do not fit into our in groups, specifically as it pertains to political ideals but really can be applied to any situation where we find ourselves in disagreement. We also talk MCAT study experiences and resources. It was nice chatting with you today, @j.a.ruan. Crush that test next month and enjoy a few days unplugged!!

Welcome to the show Benny the Jet from Portland, Maine. Born in Paraguay, adopted, and raised in Maine. Guitarist, sober, rocker, and kind. Benny showed me a great time in the city or Portland and we shared a lot of great conversation. During the last year he has gone through a massive transformation and steered his life into a very positive direction. Lost a shit ton of weight, moved on from the rockstar lifestyle, got sober- he shares some of his story with us in the interview. Thank you Benny for everything. Enjoy!

Sean is a 21 year old savage ski racer, ski jumper, and ski instructor. Sean did a wonderful job taking us into his world of ski jumping which he competed in at the national level and trained internationally. He attended the powerhouse ski jumping high school in the nation. Most of his competition was done from 65 m towers where jumpers reached speeds of 75 mph in a matter of seconds, but he has also jumped 90 and 120 m towers.

Sean’s message- wear a helmet on the mountain!!

Thanks for joining the show Sean and thank you for the cool lesson in ski jumping! Enjoy

Welcome Ian to the show! Vermont represent. I met Ian tonight as I was about to set off for my run at Underhill State Park. He was Park Ranger on duty. I switched up the interview format today by moving to a series of general questions which I had typed up before hand. I gave him the option to pass or answer each question. Ian loves spending time outdoors, loves time with his friends, loves the Red Sox and PAtriots, and surprisingly (to me) likes winters in Vermont better than summers. Ian loves autumn most of all. Thank you for sharing your time with me on the pod today, Ian. Enjoy!

Donna from Seneca Falls, NY joins us today to share her knowledge and love of dog shows and upstate NY. This was a nice conversation. Donna says visit NY and she is excited to see the resilience of the country in recent months. Thank you Donna for joining the show. Enjoy!