Lâm “Sedechu” Nguyễn is a Vietnamese-born dancer, creative director, and community builder based in Chicago. He grew up in Da Nang, Vietnam, where his passion for dance began in early adolescence and developed into a professional and cultural mission as an adult.

https://www.rhythmhood.com/

Nguyễn is the founder and creative head of Rhythmhood, an organization he started in 2016 dedicated to preserving and celebrating Street Dance Culture through events, workshops, community gatherings, and educational programming. Rhythmhood operates as a hub for street and club-style dance forms and works to empower dancers by providing training, performance platforms, and development opportunities.

He also leads Rhythm Kidz, a freestyle hip-hop crew rooted in community engagement and mentorship, and has been instrumental in organizing and directing major street dance events in Chicago, such as cyphers, throwdowns, and masterclasses with influential figures in the dance world.

Nguyễn’s dance career includes competitive and performance experience; for example, he placed in qualifiers for Red Bull Dance Your Style in Chicago, demonstrating his skill in hip-hop freestyle and popping styles.

On social platforms, he presents himself as a creative artist, movement expert, and storyteller who uses dance, visual art, and live experiences as mediums to connect people and cultivate culture.

When does staying loyal become a failure of dharma?

Karn is one of the most tragic figures in the Mahābhārat—not because he lacked virtue, but because he never revised his loyalty.

Born with divine power and denied legitimacy, Karn grows into a warrior defined by gratitude, honor, and unwavering commitment. When the world finally offers him recognition, it comes at the cost of aligning with an unjust cause—and Karn refuses to change course, even when the truth is undeniable.

In this episode, we explore:

• Karn’s life and role in the Mahābhārat

• How loyalty becomes identity—and then a trap

• The difference between honor and dharma

• Why gratitude without judgment can sustain injustice

• Kṛṣṇa's offer, Karn’s refusal, and the cost of moral rigidity

Karn’s story asks an uncomfortable question for leaders, warriors, and anyone who has ever felt excluded.

Abraham Maslow is best known for the “hierarchy of needs,” but that pyramid is one of the most misunderstood ideas in psychology.

In this episode, we go deeper into what Abraham Maslow was actually trying to do: build a psychology that studied healthy, capable, ethically grounded human beings, not just trauma and dysfunction.

We break down:

• Humanistic psychology and why Maslow rejected reductionism

• The real meaning of the hierarchy of needs (and why it’s not a ladder)

• Self-actualization as responsibility, not self-expression

• Peak experiences vs plateau experiences

• B-values (truth, justice, beauty, meaning) and why Maslow thought values were real

• Metamotivation and why growth changes what motivates you

• The qualities Maslow observed in genuinely self-actualized people

• Why most people never reach this stage—and what blocks them

• How Maslow’s ideas shaped transpersonal and positive psychology

This is not an episode about happiness hacks or affirmations.
It’s about becoming competent, honest, and aligned with your capacity—and why that process is rare, demanding, and often uncomfortable.

2025 wasn’t a highlight reel year.
It was a year of friction, recalibration, and clarity.

In this episode, I reflect on the principles that survived pressure — the rules that held when comfort, certainty, and momentum disappeared. Not theories. Not platitudes. Lived frameworks.

We explore:

• Governing the mind instead of outsourcing it

• Health as the foundation of energy and agency

• Decision-making under uncertainty

• Ambition that exceeds comfort

• The role of community, boundaries, and responsibility

• Adversity as instruction, not interruption

• Mortality as a lens for living deliberately

This is not advice.
It’s an honest reckoning with a year that demanded more than optimism — and offered clarity in return.

Dharma is often translated as “duty” or “righteousness.” That translation is incomplete—and dangerous.

In this episode, we break down dharma as a decision framework, not a belief system. Using figures from the Mahābhārata—Bhīṣma, Kunti, Śantanu, and others—we explore what happens when loyalty replaces judgment, when rules override responsibility, and when good people choose silence over action.

This is a conversation about leadership in moments where there are no clean options:

• When duty conflicts with justice

• When roles are insufficient

• When inaction causes harm

• When responsibility cannot be delegated

Dharma is not obedience.
It is discernment under pressure.

If you’ve ever said “that wasn’t my role” or “I followed the rules,” this episode is for you.

Batman is considered one of the greatest heroes ever created. Why though?0:00 Intro2:43 Rogues gallery6:42 Supporting cast8:40 Channeling suffering & loss10:08 It's okay to lose, it's not okay to quit11:20 His moral code15:38 Divergent thinking17:24 Sacrifice18:39 Making difficult decisions that are not popular19:32 Wrap-up

Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition is one of the clearest real-world demonstrations of crisis leadership ever documented. When his ship Endurance was crushed by pack ice in 1915, every strategic plan collapsed. Shackleton transformed instantly from an explorer with an objective to a crisis leader with one mission: get every man home alive. He succeeded—zero deaths—despite 18 months stranded on drifting ice and a near-suicidal open-boat journey across the world’s most dangerous seas.

Matt Gornick is the Founder & CEO of OrangeQC, a bootstrapped SaaS company that’s digitizing quality control for the janitorial and facilities industry. Matt founded OrangeQC in 2009 while he was a student at the University of Illinois, where he won the Cozad New Venture Challenge.

Under his leadership, OrangeQC has revolutionized how cleaning and facility maintenance teams operate — turning cumbersome paper checklists into streamlined mobile inspections with real-time reporting, GPS data, and photo documentation.

Matt’s vision was born out of frustration: he saw how existing software for facility inspections was so complicated that frontline workers refused to use it. To him, simplicity wasn’t a compromise — it was the core of powerful tools that actually get used. orangeqc.com

Over the years, he’s grown OrangeQC into a trusted partner for high-profile clients — including universities, hospitals, and major service contractors. OrangeQC has enabled more than 10 million inspections via its platform and is used by large institutions like hospitals, universities, airports, and building service contractors.

My interview with a 92 year old on his advice on living a happy life: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Vf7rlzQzGIbgQoqRyktIr?si=5K3BsTLUTDWeS__oP4ksEg

13 different components tied to human health and purpose.