A teaser of the captivating conversation I had with Bluegrass Country Musician & Entertainer Carol Jean in the spirit of showcasing the Essence Of The Midwest.

I felt compelled to describe why I needed to start The Idea Sandbox Podcast. Thank you for checking me out. Cheers & Love.

I had the honor & privilege of talking to one of the kindest and most tireless humanitarian spirits - Joyce Williams. Joyce has a Doctorate In Ministry (D.Min) from the United Theological Seminary (Dayton, OH), and a Master of Divinity (M.Div) from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Crozer Theological Seminary (Rochester, NY), she has also studied at various universities in Ghana and Egypt and is currently a practicing Hospice Chaplain in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

00:00:00 Start

In this Essence Of The Midwest Series Podcast, the Former Lockheed Martin Controls Engineer, Retired Caterpillar Engineering Manager and really really FIT Doug Koehler gets into everything from his roots, values, sensibilities, intriguingly nuanced cultural differences between the Midwest and India, idealism, fitness, American exceptionalism, clash of cultures and everything in between.

I had a blast hosting Doug, hope you enjoy it as much. 

As always please participate and provide critiques. Love and Peace.

theideasandboxpodcast.com

Chapters:

00:00:00 Start

00:00:07 Getting into the discussion

00:02:45 Essence of the Midwest

00:07:24 Why the Essence of the Midwest?

00:10:15 Tilting Windmills

00:14:56 Doug - the Walking Anecdote Machine 

00:16:56 Doug’s Vocabulory

00:17:30 Doug’s Early Years

00:19:58 Military Corporate Culture

00:22:06 Doug’s Vanity License Plate

00:22:45 Not Taking Life Too Seriously

00:24:17 Idealism

00:28:43 Doug’s First Gig

00:33:03 Years at Cat

00:41:22 Peoria

00:43:21 Midwest and Me

00:46:26 The Midwestern Spirit of Wanting to Help Each Other

00:49:39 American Exceptionalism

00:52:34 Laughing at Ourselves

00:56:23 Cultural Differences

01:00:37 Felicitation Story

01:07:10 Doug’s Fitness and Body Building

01:20:32 Chennai Gym Story

01:24:54 Doug’s Chennai Jogging Experience

01:28:51 Doug’s Privilege Story in India

01:30:00 My 2012 Saree Hunting Story

01:33:27 Doug the Truth Teller

01:42:13 My Moment of Catharsis

01:42:37 Unique Nature of Caterpillar Work Culture

01:47:26 Doug, Ren and Stimpy

01:49:44 Satire and its Function in Society

01:55:20 Working at the Proving Grounds

02:07:09 My Evolution in Understanding Doug

02:10:40 Doug’s Liberal Views

02:13:20 Doug’s Clash of Culture Moment

02:14:45 Doug’s Evolution of Beliefs and Atheism

02:17:07 India’s Liberalism

02:25:18 My Change of Heart

02:34:03 Shooting the $hit - Mountain Climbing

02:37:18 Shooting the $hit - Attention Economy

02:40:59 Shooting the $hit - A Change in My Family Values

02:44:33 Shooting the $hit - Doug’s Trip

02:48:12 Shooting the $hit - Live Music

02:52:45 Shooting the $hit - Random Stuff

02:59:06 Shooting the $hit - Funny Physicals Story

03:04:36 Shooting the $hit - Random Thoughts

03:09:16 Shooting the $hit - Should English be Universal

03:20:37 Shooting the $hit - Don’t Look Up

03:22:28 Shooting the $hit - Random Thoughts

In this Essence of the Midwest Series Podcast, I had the Honor of Hosting a Seasoned, Iconic, Masterful Bluegrass Country Musician and Entertainer - Carol Jean. Carol talks about the Various Bluegrass Country Music Bands She's Performed in, the Wide Array of Instruments She plays, her Musical Roots, Continuous Improvement, Wide-Ranging Collaborations, Autodidactic Learning, Creativity, and Life Philosophy in this 3+ hour Conversation. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed talking with her!

Here's the first part of the candid conversation I had with my dear Pakistani friend in the spirit of understanding each other and our unique cultural sensibilities. I hope our sincerity in bridging the divides imbued with a spirit of brotherhood and banter is self-evident. 

Love and Peace. 

As always, I humbly request your critiques and participation in this journey. 

Please get in touch via theideasandboxpodcast.com 

Chapters:

00:00:00 Start

00:00:17 Getting Into The Conversation

00:02:39 My Setup 

00:04:34 My Opening Salvo

00:07:28 Kargil & Indian History 

00:10:47 Partition

00:11:58 Wikipedia and Opinions

00:13:10 India Pakistan Cricket

00:13:55 Background and Backdrop

00:14:50 My History With Pakistanis

00:16:10 Fried Food and Pakistanis

00:23:47 Silent Majority

00:25:01 Wajjie's Upbringing & Worldview

00:29:14 My Upbringing & Worldview 

00:30:59 Wajjie's Birthday Party

00:32:17 The Color Green

00:33:18 The Power of Charitable Conversations

00:34:42 Colors & Symbolisms

00:36:58 Proselytizers in Pakistan

00:39:08 Religious Edifices

00:39:47 Airport Design

00:41:41 Prayer Calls

00:44:20 Class Divisions

00:49:49 Inequalities

00:53:37 Blurred Identities

00:58:40 Social Ostracization

01:01:47 Child Labor

In this preview of a fun-filled conversation spanning more than 3 hours I had with my Pakistani friend, we explored all sorts of typically frowned-upon takes on Indian and Pakistani culture in the spirit of intellectual curiosity, love and respect. I hope you can enjoy and critique it. My intent for this conversation is to normalize, demystify and increase love for each other.   Love and Peace.  theideasandboxpodcast.com

I had the absolute privilege and pleasure of chatting and picking Chris Bruntlett's (Dutch Cycling Embassy) brain about building a healthier, happier and equitable society via thoughtful design of our living spaces based on real world evidence and experimentation.  

Hope you enjoy and take away something useful.  

Cheers and Love, Rajeev https://theideasandboxpodcast.com/ 

Learn more about Chris: http://www.modacitylife.com/ 

Books: http://www.modacitylife.com/books 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbruntlett/ 

Dutch Cycling Embassy: https://dutchcycling.nl/

Cody Allen Ph.D talks about his academic arc and his transformation to becoming a prolific Data Scientist among his other professional pursuits in this conversation. He brings many new and interesting ideas in the space of perseverance as it applies to hard challenges, education and how to think, challenging oneself to greater heights and so on. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Please provide feedback and share. Love and Peace.

Chapters 00:00:00 Start 00:00:32 Introduction to Dr. Cody Allen 00:03:36 Was Cody always a bright kid growing up? 00:04:44 Cody doing the old "abcdabcd" method on a multiple choice test colloquially knows as the "abacadaba" 00:07:59 Cody talks about building his first "parent coming into your room" detector in high school 00:11:19 Working at Charles Schwab, when the "magic" started happening and the intellectual awakening 00:18:20 Cody talks about doing "extra work" for the first time academically  00:20:10 Getting "value" out of studying Vs going through the motions, disconnection of Time & Value, intellectual investment into yourself 00:23:38 An interesting divergence in Cody's academic life 00:29:40 Cody explains Applied Math 00:33:10 Is it insecurity or something else a driving factor for Cody? 00:37:40 Realization that you always have room for improvement 00:38:12 Cody's thoughts on the "Quiet Quitting" phenomenon 00:45:35 Conquering inner demons, imposter syndrome and solving hard problems 00:51:40 Is there a way to grow and measure self-confidence? 00:58:30 Cody's transition into an Engineering Education and Career via an internship at Solar 1:07:30 Cody's thoughts on pursuing innovative ideas in large corporations Vs startups 1:11:00 Becoming an effective salesman in selling your ideas as an engineer 1:15:40 Cody lays out why hard work is the root ingredient, struggle, perseverance and 3 major steps in understanding of mathematics 1:19:10 Can anybody be successful given enough time and interest? 1:23:30 Understanding something fundamentally vs rote memorization1:25:00 Skin in the game as it applies to education, understanding concepts 1:29:00 Could education be structured to "begin with the end application in mind"? 1:30:56 "How to Solve It", by George Pólya (Book on how things should be taught and how to think?)

Please enjoy the fun conversation I had with the Great, Powerful and Talented Hair Stylist Giriraj. We talk about his Life Story, Approach Towards His craft and his Spectacular Career in this Podcast. As always - Love and Peace! Please enjoy and provide feedback as usual.   Here's where you can find Giri and his work:  

https://www.instagram.com/giribarbering/ 

https://www.facebook.com/adithy.raj.3 

You can find more information about the podcast on here:

https://theideasandboxpodcast.com/