RareErth Podcast

Alexander Cortes (AJAC) spent about 17 years as a personal trainer, coach and online health writer. Ten months before this conversation, he started Athanor, a company working to bring chemical production back to the United States. He expects it to take a decade.We talk about his path from ballet to personal training, what thousands of hours with clients taught him about human behaviour, and why short-term rewards beat long-term goals. We get into GLP-1 drugs and willpower, why ageing takes our speed before our strength, peptides, citizen science, the creator economy, fatherhood, and what a founder owes his team.

The rapid-fire round includes merengue, sushi in an empty Thailand, Dune and a defence of property taxes.Nothing in this episode is medical advice.

Follow Alexander:

Substack: https://www.broscienceclub.com

X: https://x.com/AJA_Cortes

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlexanderCortesJA

Athanor: https://athanor.inc

Full show notes and every link from the episode: rareerth/podcast

Meet Vijay Gupta, a violinist, writer, speaker, and the founder of Street Symphony. He earned a pre-med biology degree at seventeen and was pursuing neuroscience research at Harvard when he chose the violin, becoming the youngest member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

But the center of this conversation is not the prodigy story or the concert-hall résumé. It is the question underneath his memoir, Restrung: what happens when the life that looks like success begins to feel like a fracture?

We begin with truth-telling, and what it costs to write honestly about the people and places that made you. From there we move through his Bengali-American childhood, his parents' sacrifices and ambitions, the Suzuki method, Harvard, the warning he heard from neuroscientist Gottfried Schlaug, and the decision that pulled him back to music.

Vijay explains why encountering Skid Row made him feel like a hypocrite, and how returning there through Street Symphony became a form of seva and a way of understanding his own inheritance.

Core Ideas

• Why the truest sentence opens the door to the next one, and the difference between revelation and a gratuitous tell-all.
• Beginning Restrung with failure rather than triumph, and why virtuosity on its own does not create connection.
• The hidden cost inside immigrant sacrifice, and why writing the book changed Vijay's understanding of his parents.
• Shinichi Suzuki's deeper idea: music education as the making of beautiful human beings, not merely accomplished players.
• The conversation at Harvard that made Vijay fear the violin would not wait for him.
• Skid Row as the moral center of the book, and returning through music as seva rather than rescue.
• How Vijay reads: physical books, dog-eared pages, character maps, index cards, book reviews, and a sprawling commonplace document.
• Morning pages, bibliographies, primary sources, and learning to follow the thread behind a work of art.
• The artist's double task: make the work and ship it, without becoming only a solitary perfectionist or only a marketer.
• Decisions as forms of letting go; why the right yes usually requires many noes.
• Constraints as containers: movement, meditation, time, inputs, and clear agreements with collaborators.
• Why over-preparation can become armour, and how humility keeps a performer available to what is actually happening in the room.

Connect with Vijay:

Website

Instagram

Street Symphony

Restrung (his memoir)

Show notes here

Meet Aaron Stupple, a practicing physician, a father of five, the co-author (with Logan Chipkin) of The Sovereign Child, and a co-founder of the Conjecture Institute.

In his house there are no rules: no fixed bedtimes, no forced meals, no school, screens whenever. But this is not an hour about screens and sugar. Aaron has had that debate everywhere else.

This is the conversation behind the book. We start where nobody else does: with the kind of child Aaron himself was, and a father who told him "it's us against school." From there we get into the forgotten philosophy that rewired his life, Karl Popper and David Deutsch's critical rationalism, and why he thinks the whole parenting question, "where do I draw the line?", is simply the wrong question.

He explains how knowledge grows the way species evolve, by guessing and getting shot down. He makes the case that willpower and self-discipline are a quiet form of bullying yourself, that grit is nonsense, and that a habit is not a ditch carved in your brain but a reason that a better reason can replace in an instant.

He tells me why he answers his cruelest critics one by one: "they're working for you, for free." And in the most honest moment of the hour, he admits what he still cannot figure out.

This is one of those RareErth conversations that leaves you lighter than it found you.

Core Ideas

• Why "where do I draw the line?" is the wrong question, and how stepping off the permissive-versus-authoritarian spectrum takes the weight out of parenting.
• Critical rationalism explained simply: knowledge grows by conjecture and criticism, the way life evolves by variation and selection, with Popper as the Darwin of ideas.
• There are no authorities and no final theory, yet a good theory is precious. The reframe that removes the anxiety: "I'll use this tool until a better one comes along."
• The Lindy trap: how long an idea has survived is a cheap heuristic, not truth; what matters is how good the explanation is (Aristotle → Newton → Einstein).
• Willpower as self-bullying: why the people who master hard things do it with zero self-discipline, and why Grit is, in his words, the wrongest book anyone ever wrote.
• Habits are not carved ditches; they are reasons. A good enough reason can replace one in an instant (the smoker who quits the day of his heart attack).
• "Your critics are working for you for free": criticism as the engine of better ideas, and how arguing with strangers on Air Chat is how the book got written.
• The practical tools: put an asterisk on every rule, and give yourself sixty seconds before enforcing one, then watch the win-win solutions appear.
• Being on your child's side, even inside a system you can't leave: the quiet power of "it's us against school."
• The honest reckoning: five kids at home is genuinely hard; there is no recipe, only a method for finding the recipe in the moment.

Check out the detailed show notes here.

Some people don't choose their calling, they get rerouted into it. My guest in this episode is Melanie Ambler, a professional cellist and a Stanford-trained physician whose work lives at the rare intersection of music and medicine.

She studied neurobiology at Brown, researched music and dementia on a Fulbright in France, and then, when the pandemic pulled her out of that research life, found a new calling at the bedside: improvising live, personalized cello for people facing serious illness and the end of life.

This episode is a little different from the deep-dive interviews you may have already heard her give. We don't retrace every chapter of her story. Instead, we sit with the texture of the work itself, what she reads in a room before she plays a single note, what the dying have taught her about living, and why grief and love are closer than we think. Along the way, Melanie improvises a piece live on the show, the first musical performance ever on RareErth.

Core Ideas:

• The pandemic as a turning point: from researching music and dementia in France to improvising cello at the hospital bedside.
• The "musical fingerprint": reading a person's comfort, history, and emotional state before choosing a single note.
• Why grief and love sit on the same spectrum, and what people near the end of life reveal about living fully.
• "Sonder": the realization that every random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.
• Protecting your art when it becomes your work: boundaries, "night float," and making the practice sustainable.
• Musical Rounds: turning consented bedside recordings into a weekly podcast of patient stories and improvised soundtracks.

Connect with Melanie:

Website

Musical Rounds

Show notes for this episode can be found here.

Meet Anjali, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at 78Health, a leukemia survivor, a polymath, and someone whose story found me through one of the more unlikely routes: a voice on Air Chat, a mixtape I made from it without asking, and Naval Ravikant somewhere in the middle of it.

In this episode, Anjali traces her path from a first-generation immigrant childhood in the Bay Area, through more than two decades in tech, to a 2019 leukemia diagnosis that put her in the hospital for 80% of that year, reshaping  how she thinks about  a few things that came after.

We get into her roots, her parents, the books that keep her grounded, the near-death experiences she describes as a soft light lullaby, and the company she's now building with her cofounders to fix the gaps in care she lived through.

Expect honest reflections on faith, fear, the things people get wrong when someone they love is sick, and what it actually means to feel unafraid.

Core Ideas

• Roots are not where you were born, they're what you carry. Anjali says it’s like being a moving tree.
• Why "why not me?" is a more useful question than "why me?" when life turns upside down
• The single most important thing you can do for someone who is sick and the one thing you should stop saying to them.
• How a single thread of purpose can pull you through 10 months of chemo when nothing else can.
• Reading as a mood, not a task and why no book has to be finished.
• Building a healthtech company in a market where Amazon, Google, and OpenAI have just arrived and what differentiates 78Health
• The redefinition of health after illness: stop punishing your body for how someone makes you feel.
• Why the most essential skill nobody calls a skill is simply liking other people for no reason other than that they made it here too. Anjali says: “making an effort to see the best in others is a superpower “

Anjali

• X (Twitter)
• Company website: 78Health
• Email: [email protected]
• Company LinkedIn: 78Health
• Primary on Apple Store
• Primary on Google Play

Listen to Dastan here

Meet Harsha Venkatesh, an investor, engineer, and serial entrepreneur who has lived across three continents and built a life at the intersection of technology and finance.

In this opening episode of Season 4, Harsha traces his journey from childhood visits to the Bangalore Stock Exchange with his father, through a decade-long semiconductor career spanning Germany and the US, to becoming one of India's top-performing portfolio managers.

We dig into his investment philosophy shaped by Buffett, Munger, and Pabrai, the low point of navigating SEBI regulations as a first-time fund manager, and his deeply practical approach to teaching his children about money. Expect sharp thinking on India's economic future, the changing face of warfare through drones, and why the best investment you can make is in the people around you.

Core Ideas:

• The power of curiosity as a compounding asset and why being an all-rounder is an edge in investing.

• How cloning the best investors' frameworks (not their stock picks) builds a durable investment practice.

• Why the people around you-spouse, friends, business partners are the single most important factor in long-term success.

• India's non-threatening positioning on the global stage as a structural economic advantage.

• The intersection of AI and wealth management and what it means for the next generation of investors.

• Teaching children money management from age five through pocket money, incentives, and real stock portfolios.

In this inspiring and joy-filled episode, I sit down with my good friend Siphiwe, a software developer from Cape Town, South Africa, whose ability to spread laughter and joy is unlike anyone I've ever met.

Siphiwe shares with me his incredible journey of resilience, faith, and connection. We explore his experiences growing up in Soweto during the apartheid era, overcoming significant challenges, and how his unwavering faith guided him through life's darkest valleys. From his initial struggles with education to his transformation into a passionate learner and developer, we discuss the importance of meaningful relationships, the concept of Ubuntu, and his commitment to uplifting others.

Throughout our conversation, glimpses of his unique humor and joy shine through, making this episode both enlightening and heartwarming. Join me as we delve into topics of spirituality, personal growth, and the power of embracing one's humanity with a friend who truly knows how to light up a room.

In this episode, we explore:

Experience the warmth, wisdom, and humor of a truly remarkable individual as we discuss resilience, personal growth, and the power of embracing one's humanity. This conversation promises to leave you feeling inspired and seeing the world through a brighter lens.

Show Notes: RareErth

Welcome to a fascinating episode , where we explore the intersection of science, philosophy, and personal growth with a guest who embodies the spirit of interdisciplinary thinking and constant evolution.

My guest is Priyata, a systems biologist whose journey spans from the bustling cities of India to the cutting-edge research labs of Germany. Priyata brings a unique blend of Eastern philosophy and Western scientific rigor to her approach to life and work. With a background in bioinformatics and a PhD in systems biology, she's at the forefront of modeling drug actions in the body and developing innovative healthcare technologies.

But Priyata's expertise extends far beyond the lab. In this wide-ranging conversation, we delve into topics as diverse as blockchain technology in healthcare, the underground metal music scene, and the teachings of philosophers like Krishnamurti. Priyata's insights on self-awareness, personal growth, and navigating life's complexities offer a glimpse into a holistic approach to living that combines analytical thinking with deep introspection.

We discuss Priyata's groundbreaking work in systems biology, her experiences in startups, and her thoughts on the future of personalized medicine. But we also explore her personal journey of constant learning and self-improvement, including her practices for physical and mental resilience.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in:

Whether you're a scientist, a philosopher, an entrepreneur, or simply someone interested in living a more examined and purposeful life, this conversation with Priyata offers valuable insights and practical wisdom. Tune in for an episode that might just change the way you think about your own potential for growth and innovation.

Show Notes: RareErth

In this episode, I sit down with Petri Kajander, a fascinating Finnish entrepreneur, author, and self-proclaimed "business artist." Our conversation takes unexpected turns as we explore the intersection of ancient wisdom and cutting-edge technology. Petri shares insights that left me pondering long after our chat ended.

Highlights include:

From practical tech advice to mind-bending philosophical musings, this episode is a rollercoaster of ideas that will leave you seeing the world a little differently. Join us for a conversation that bridges past and future, offering a unique lens on how to navigate our rapidly changing world.

Show notes: RareErth

In this episode I have conversation with Keith Harmon, a man whose life journey defies convention. From his early days as an engineer to his thrilling experiences as a competitive skydiver, and his long tenure in the hospitality industry, Keith's story is one of resilience, passion, and a relentless pursuit of meaningful connections.

Keith shares the transformative moments that shaped his outlook on life, including a near-fatal skydiving accident that tested his limits and his deep-seated commitment to teaching mathematics. Now, with an ambitious goal to teach a million children math, Keith aims to revolutionize how we perceive and approach education.

Join me as Keith delves into:

This episode is not just about Keith's adventures and achievements but also a masterclass in living a purposeful life filled with kindness and dedication. Tune in for an inspiring dialogue that will leave you reflecting on your own journey and the impact you can make in the world.

Show Notes: www.rareerth.com