Whoa, this one was a fun one to do.  Jay Shetty's book, Think Like a Monk, is so full of insight.  This episode covers his chapter on Fear and its unhealthy companions, stress and anxiety.  

We'll cover the zen of Kelly Clarkson, and her views on hormesis, why Iowa wine sucks and why trees kept on falling over in greenhouses.

Yep, it all has to do with stress.   I also share my own struggles with stress and what I've learned about how to use stress for health, personal growth and my own personal well being.  I offer my own suggestions about how to use stress to your advantage and how to make it your happy friend.

I hope you find this one interesting and useful to you!!

In this episode, we cover ceto darpana marjanam, the impure mirror of the mind.  

Do you really know you are, or are you living out someone else's version of you?  

This a topic that seems so obvious on its face.  Of course, we know who we are, but so many live in a haze of emotional, financial and time clutter.  Here we channel, Marcus Aurelius and Marie Kondo to help us assess what is truly essential in our lives and what does not matter.   

I discuss some of my experiences at the peak of my own emotional clutter, and my own story about seeing myself more clearly.  I also offer some suggestions about auditing your own time and finding the stillness to see yourself more clearly, the true you.  

Shetty's book is just so awesome.  Buy and read it.  More importantly, apply it. 

If you don't have time to read it, I will be covering some essential concepts in the coming days from Shetty's book, "Think Like a Monk". 

Whoa, I LOVE THIS BOOK!!

For the next several podcasts, I am going to do a series of short casts on the book "Think Like a Monk" by Jay Shetty.  This an awesome book by a former Hindu monk, Jay Shetty, who spent three years as a monk at an ashram in India.  Shetty covers the ancient wisdom that he learned as a monk and offers a series of easy to use methods to apply to your own life.  

This cast focuses on your calling, that is your dharma, which combines finding your varna (passion/skill) and seva (meeting world's needs).

Whoa, I love this book.  It is chock full of life changing stuff.  If you don't have time to read it, I'll be covering concepts from this excellent book in the next several RockneCasts.

In this episode, I discuss the work of Dr. Mark Mattson and Rafael De Cobo, who published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in December 26, 2019.  Dr. Mattson works at John Hopkins University and The New England Journal of Medicine is one the most prestigious journals in the world.  They cover the benefits in terms of intermittent fasting including cognitive performance, muscle growth, reversing Type 2 diabetes, reducing blood pressure, and most surprisingly, reversing the aging process.  Amazing benefits that can be achieved simply by changing when you eat and giving your body an opportunity to rest from food.

It sounds too good to be true, but 18 months into fasting, I have directly experienced most, if not all, of the benefits of fasting.

I also then provide my own medical information relating to improvements that I have experienced, including my "metabolic age" before fasting and now.  

This one was a fun one to do.  I haven't been able to do many RockneCasts lately, but will be doing many more soon.  Thanks for tuning in!!

I was recently in Rochester, Minnesota hanging out with my dad, Richard G. Cole.  My mom was getting her eyes checked at the Mayo Clinic, and while we were waiting at the Soldier's Field Hotel (which is mega-awesome by the way), I thought it would be a good opportunity to interview my dad about his experiences as a professor at Luther College from 1964-2005.  This will be of interest to people interested in Luther College and its history.  

We discuss how he arrived at Luther,  former Luther professors, a major controversy in the early 1960's, former Luther presidents, Elwin Farwell, and H. George Anderson, and other topics such as the founding of the Center for Faith and Life.  And, of course, we also had to discuss my hero, Weston Noble, too.

I suppose a few of my family members might find this interesting too.

For those of you who don't know Luther, what the heck do you have to lose?  Just listen.  Its just 40 minutes of your life.  

Wartburg College people may not like this one.  So you might want to skip if this one if you went to Wartburg.  So Wartburg people ... that's my trigger warning for you.

This was a fun one to do.  

Stay tuned for future episodes!!

In this episode, I talk about the habits that made Weston Noble such an awesome choir director and inspiration to so many people.   Weston served as Nordic Choir director for over 50 years at Luther College.  In the mid-90's, I was in Nordic Choir for two years and got to observe first hand the incredible habits that made him create such abundance, beauty, and joy that resonates to this day.  So grateful that I knew Weston.  In this episode, I share some of what I learned from him!  

We recently celebrated the 77th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, paving the way for the defeat of Facism and liberating Germany for subsequent Euro Hipsters.  

I recently watched a documentary called "Normandy: Surviving D-Day".   It is free on YouTube.  Great documentary!  Very polished and substantive, but that's not the reason I liked it so much. 

While not the focus of the documentary, it did discuss the impact of the huge breakfast that the troops had before the invasion consisting of bacon, eggs, toast and other heavy breakfast foods.  Allied planners thought a hearty breakfast would boost morale and help the young men be ready to defeat Nazi's.  

In this episode, I discuss why that was such a bad idea and how that big breakfast nearly cost the Allies dearly on D-Day.  I also cover a majorly cool Jewish guy named Hal Baumgarten, a tough guy who sought revenge against Nazi's and we discuss what he ate before D-Day.  We also discuss another Jewish tough guy, Ori Hofmekler, author of the Warrior Diet, one of the first books advocating one meal a day.  

Let's just say Hal chose a different path.  Whoa this was a fun one to do.  

Check this episode out and send me feedback at [email protected]

As many of you know, I have been fasting for about a year.  I've lost 60 pounds, feel great, off high blood pressure pills, and the Type II diabetes track, but there are some side effects and critiques.  I'll go over ones that I've experienced and ones that I think are completely bs critiques by people that I have never done fasting.  

Yeah, yeah, I get it.  Everyone's different.  I agree with that, but as a general principle, I think humans have more in common that the genetic variability arising from the slow gradual process of human evolution.  And most of what I have experienced is confirmation of what the true experts on fasting have indicated would happen.  Lot of the critics clearly have not tried it.  So I agree that you could experience something different, but I am betting you will experience what I have experienced, especially if you're an overweight dude like I was.  

Tune in and let me know what you think at [email protected].  With gratitude for each and everyone of you who tune in regularly.  We're building something together!!

Coming up on my one year anniversary of making the decision to leave the 300 pound club, a club that took nearly 20 years to get into and one year to get out of.  I'm now down to 245 and feel great! Proud of it and love to celebrate that with you the listeners.

In this episode, I outline obvious mistakes that I made to arrive at 300 pounds and simple steps that I took to get out of the 300 club. And, yes, it does involve fasting, but not only that.  

I hope you'll learn from my mistakes and reflect on the simple steps I took to leave it.  It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.   These reflections are all simple and obvious, but easy to forget in the moment.  They are all very "duh" solutions, but solutions that I didn't apply for nearly 20 years.  

in this episode, I cover the last year of US Grant's life.  To me, his last year was one of the heroic chapters in his inspiring life.   Faced with terminal throat cancer, and financially destitute, Grant spent his his hours writing his memoir so that he could leave a financial legacy to his wife and family.  That last year truly demonstrated his character and qualities that made him such a central figure in our Nation's history.  

His last year is one of many reasons why I have such a man crush on US Grant.  Listen more to see why.

Also, check out the most excellent biography of US Grant: Grant by Jean Edward Smith.   It's by far one of the best biographies on Grant.