RockneCAST

The United States is one step or miscalculation from a hot war in Europe.

There a lot of reasons US Policy makers have used to provide military support to Ukraine, but by far, the most prominent is the Munich Peace Settlement of 1938.

Largely viewed now as a disaster, in the Munich Peace Conference, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made a peace deal with the devil himself, Adolf Hitler.  In exchange for an agreement not to invade other countries, France and Britain coerced Czechoslovakia to concede its Sudetenland territory to Germany.

We all know what happened after that.  It's now criticized as naive, idealistic, and bolstering aggression.  

It is now used as the primary precedent to arm Ukraine.  If they are not armed, and our defeated,  Russia will invade Europe and be on our doorsteps next.

Is the situation now similarly similar to 1938?  Is it even relevant?  Or it a giant red herring?  

In this episode, I explore that issue.

Geopolitical Expert and Hipster Peter Zeihan is seemingly everywhere relating to U.S. Foreign Policy on the Russia-Ukraine War.

He has an interesting take on nukes: yes, the risk of nukes is there, but only if Russian wins and defeats Ukraine.

Then, since Russia, knowing its conventional forces are inferior, will then attack Poland and Romania and use nukes.

Is Zeihan right on that?

This episode explores that question.

In this episode, I review WP Kinsella's novel, Shoeless Joe, which inspired the Field of Dreams movie that made fans flock to Iowa from around the world.  

This book should definitely be on your literary bucket list!! 

This episode is more a meditation on dreams and middle age, though I think it will be helpful for dreamers of all ages. 

To slightly modify my favorite Bible verse, Proverbs 13:12 -  "A dream deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

Live out your dream...

 In this episode, I respond to a recent PBS "Frontline" episode on the Ukraine-Russian conflict, "Putin and Five Presidents".  

This show, while purporting to be "journalism" showed itself to be nothing more than war propaganda.  

I cover why we should question three people prominently featured in the documentary, two of whom are currently driving American foreign policy.

1.  John Bolton - the foreign policy retread who never seems to retreat from public view in spite of his marked track record of failure and demonstrated track record of incompetence.  

2.  Anthony Blinken, the well credentialed, but gullible and weak U.S. Secretary of State

3. And, of course, Joe Biden, who in the documentary is portrayed as the wise and heroic Cold Warrior who sees through Putin's lies.

We'll cover why should question the narrative given by our largely weak and ineffectual foreign policy leaders and discuss the types of qualities that we have in our leaders and why so many weak and incompetent leaders somehow  continuously rise to the top.

This one might make you question why PBS should be such a cheerleader for war.  They have become the equivalent to RT for the Russian state, a propaganda arm of the state department.  You should think about that the next time you make your donation to PBS.

Finally, while I am by no means going to start a Vladimir Putin fan club, I continue to find it  bizarre for the PBS war cheerleaders to continue to state that he is only some type of zombie drive soulless monster that has duped the Russian people and Russia does not have any legitimate security concerns.  I do believe they do have some concerns and that it is not hard to imagine another Russian leader taking the same position.  

If you don't want your blood pressure raised, you might want to skip this one.  I doubt I'll persuade any of you, but I just had to get this one out since we continue to be led by such mind blowingly incompetent leaders.  If you like peace and are anti-war, you should wake up and start questioning the grand narrative offered by the Establishment.  

In my next episodes, I'll be returning to less controversial topics, depending upon how this episode is received...

This is a book that I came across repeatedly by various influencers such as Tony Robbins and Tim Ferris.  I kept on holding off on reading it, but it kept on popping up on top 10 lists.  So I finally gave in and read it.  I am glad that I did.  

In this episode, I cover introduce Frankl, how I learned about the book, and my two key take aways from this book.

This book should be on everyone's list at any stage of life.

Whoa... I just finished Last Kingdom, one of the best television series I have ever seen.  Based upon the Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, Last Kingdom covers the Viking invasion and occupation of England from roughly mid 8th to 9th century AD.  I won't give any details of plot.  Instead, I focus on why you should watch it and what makes it so good.  

If you haven't seen it yet, watch it.  It is really, really good.  

Wow it's good.

Hope you all had a great New Year!!

I am looking forward to another year on the RockneCast!!

The United States is currently providing military to aid to Ukraine in its war with Russian, a nuclear armed state with the most of the nuclear arms in the world. 

There is seemingly almost no debate in the United States on this important topic.

In this episode, I attempt to pose a question and answer a question. 

I ask why is it in the US interest to provide military assistance to Ukraine?

I then explain why it's important to me.  Hint, it's the nukes.

I don't know whether I'll do many more foreign policy podcasts, but given the almost total lack of debate on this topic, I decide to add my voice to this important topic.  It may be a drop in the ocean, but it's my drop.  

This past spring, I shared the results of my 30 day experiment with Tongkat Ali, using one metric only, pushups.  You can hear the full episode at Episode 91 of he RockneCast.

That episode has proven to be my most popular episode so far!  

Of course, that episode was just my ad hoc n of 1 experiment.  It worked for me, but will it work for you?

Tongkat Ali has long been used as a health supplement for men, but the research on its actual benefits  as well as risks has been slim.  

Until now...

In this episode, I share the stunning results from a meta-analysis of 9 peer reviewed journal articles relating to Tongkat Ali.  

It was recently published in the journal Medicina, a Lithuanian medical journal and it reviews all of the published journal articles on Tongkat Ali as the sole intervention to increase naturally occurring testosterone levels naturally.  The publication date was on August 4, 2022.

The results proved to be very positive and in this episode, I cover the importance of having healthy testosterone levels, the risks of low levels, and the side effects reported by these articles of Tongkat Ali.

This episode will help you if you're considering ways to naturally increase your testosterone levels.

Here's the one that I used last Spring, and the Tongkat Ali from the studies.  

Send me your feedback at [email protected] or [email protected].

For this episode on Atomic Habits, we're going to cover our most abundant and life changing resource, Time.  

Mastery over it is one greatest drivers of our well being.

Failing to manage it leads to anxiety, misery and dysfunction.

The good news is that time, one of most valuable assets, is something over which we have the greatest control.

In this episode, I discuss how you can do it to create well being and avoid anxiety.

We'll be covering my review of Tim Ferris's book, The 4 Hour Work Week, the Stoics, and I'll offer my own perspective.

I loved doing this one.  Loved it!  

Master your time.

Master your own well being.

Whoa... For this episode, I am going to be focusing on Jesus, and his life changing self improvement advice contained in Matthew 7:3-5.  This is the speck in your brother's eye your verse that you're probably familiar with, but versus 4 and 5 were the follow ups to that verse that I had completely forgotten about versus 4 and 5.   It can be summarized as follows.  

You criticize your brother's speck in his eye.  Meanwhile, you have a much larger plank in your own eye, which carries much greater consequence.

This episode is about mostly about the power of Matthew 7:5, that is ... what happens after you remove the plank out of your own eye.

Whoa, is Jesus is awesome.  He does in three sentences what it has taken nearly half of my life to figure out...  Better late than never people.   

Apply these three verses and your well on your way to removing toxicity in your life, improving your own circumstance, and strengthening the bonds of the people that matter most in your life.  

Would love to hear your feedback on this episode at [email protected].   

(As an aside, I discovered this verse while searching for a verse on fasting.   It's just another demonstration of the awesomeness of fasting.)