Ep. 30 - Yoshino [Artist Decoded]

(upbeat music)

Welcome to episode 30. Correctly got it this time. Last week I said it was episode 30, but I was crazy 'cause I was in a baby haze. But this is actually episode 30. My guest today is Yoshino from the Artist Decoded Podcast, which if you haven't checked it out, check it out. Some podcasters out there, they probably are like, "Hey, only listen to this podcast, it's the best podcast." And while I have great confidence in this podcast, there are so many other amazing podcasts out there and I listen to them and I get referred, some of them people tell me about them. Notably, Michael Donovan, who's always feeding me good people to listen to and then potentially bring on the show.

And Yoshino is one of those people. So I'm gonna get to Yoshino in a second, don't worry. It's a really great episode. I know I say that every episode, but I wouldn't put it out if it wasn't great, right? That would be crappy and wouldn't reflect well on me. So I definitely wouldn't do that. But I wanted to start with, as you know, or maybe don't know, had a baby, baby is now nine days old. He just had a bris last night. If you don't know what that is, that's a circumcision in the Jewish tradition. And I just will say this, I watched the entire birth, full frontal view, participated, helped, saw the whole thing.

I couldn't get through the bris, I had to turn away. Insane, insane that that happened to me and happens to many people, holy shit. So yeah, but I had a baby. His name is Eli, he's awesome. He's doing great, super healthy. Alexis is doing great, I'm doing great. We're not sleeping, but we're doing great. But do you guys know humans of New York? Brendan Stanton, he is an awesome, awesome guy who used to go around New York exclusively and just take pictures of people, but ask them a story. And the stories and the pictures combined just created this just awesome magical experience so many times, just hearing people's naked stories, telling, bearing their souls often, or sometimes just something funny.

It's just a genius concept and his follow through on it has been amazing. But recently he's been emerging and doing kind of these very cool fundraising things. The first one I became aware of was the Syrian refugees fundraiser that he was doing a few months ago, which was awesome, raising money for affected families. 'Cause like, if you're listening to a podcast, it's likely that you're not in a position or even close to being a Syrian refugee. And if you are, that's fucking amazing. But the truth is, it's like going through a situation like that, it's almost unthinkable for most of us. So him shedding light on that.

And I think he got up to the upper levels of government where they were basically allowing people and looking at special cases because it was so ridiculous, some of the bureaucracy that had gone on with the refugees. And these are people, just supposed to open your doors. So, yeah, now he's doing, and this one is where it's heading to home, and this is what's going on. He's doing the oncology, children's pediatric oncology division, children's cancer at Sloan Kettering and oh my God, having just had a child and reading these stories, it's like, oh my God, it's heart-rending. There's no other word for it.

It's really, you lean into it and you read it and I'm so incredibly grateful that he's doing this, really deserves a round of applause. But more importantly, I recommend checking it out because it is really just like a master course in dealing with humanity and what goes on around us. No matter how much we want to pretend, maybe it doesn't. People get sick, people die. It's, you know, this shit happens. But he's also raising money. And I think the goal was originally a million dollars and now it's been, last time I checked, it was like 1.3 million. So go check it out. It's really cool, you know, someone on Twitter, when I tweeted out that they should donate to that, wrote back and was like, this is all bullshit.

You know, there's the cure for cancer. You know, big pharma, you know, blah, blah, blah. I was like, listen, I hate big pharma as much as the next person. I don't like them. I think they're terrible, greedy, subservient to, you know, the dollar and not people's health. But I do think when you read these stories, you'll realize there are a lot of dedicated and compassionate people working in that field. All right, sorry for the long cancer rant. I also want to point out, I started a donation. I think in the first two episodes, like I don't need the money, I don't need the donations. And while I don't need the money per se, I would like to begin to cover the costs of running the show, which include podcast hosting, website hosting, you know, marketing stuff, like MailChimp, social media, ads that I'm paying for.

Anything you can give if you want was totally appreciated. You can go there, syncpodcast.com/donate. You'll see a button, whatever you want to do. I totally appreciate it. Now, there's a caveat to this. What I think I'm going to do, and this kind of ties in with the humans of New York thing, I want to start doing some fundraisers. And I think I can do that pretty easily through syncpodcast.com. I got a plug in, I set up a whole system where I think we can start doing some really cool fundraisers. So what I thought would be interesting is we can get like a donation pool going and I'll get it started.

And then we can all collectively, listeners of the podcast and part of the community, select a charitable cause to donate a certain amount of money to. And we'll set like a very reachable goal, like, you know, $1,000, $2,000 initially, but we'll see where it can go because I think that would be a cool way to give back and, you know, collectively direct our intention and energy via money towards causes that are important to us. So that's going to be something I'm going to be doing too. Okay, Yoshino. Now, Yoshino is one of these people who I think I spoke to him cumulatively, two times before we did this podcast.

I listened to a couple, three episodes of his show. And, you know, but immediately in speaking with him the first two times and the third time we speak is this podcast, you could, we were just, we hit it off. Just like a really down-to-earth, cool, helpful guy who just really is interested in helping people, right? The big themes that I think kind of sum up Yoshino are, he really wants to be of service and provide value and is incredibly interested in forming, you know, cohesive and coherent and helpful communities. And he's doing that through his podcast, Artist Decoded, which is very, very cool.

It's where he interviews or sometimes sets up other artists to interview each other about the creative process, what it's like being an artist. And I think it's fascinating for anyone who's a creative, but more importantly as a service to kind of let people know what's going on in some of these processes and things people would go through. But he's also just like a cool, let me, let me read you what his description of Artist Decoded is on his podcast description. And definitely subscribe to it, goes without saying. He goes, I started this series as a means for exploration, an exploration of self and an exploration of the perspectives of other artists.

And let me just say this right here, replace other artists with other people 'cause Yoshino is fundamentally interested in people. I think that is a key part of this too. He goes, this series is an unabridged documentation of conversations between artists. It's a series dedicated to breaking down the barriers we tend to set up in our own mind. I want to inspire future creatives to have the courage to explore and experiment. This is about making dreams a reality and not about letting our dreams fall to the wayside. My intention is to give my audience a sense of real human connection, something that feels rich and organic.

When I was thinking of a title, I thought of the word movement. In relation to the Renaissance period in art, my goal for this program is to signify a rebirth of consciousness towards the way we look at contemporary art. So holy shit, right? That is, I mean, you can replace creatives and artists with yourself and people and it's the same stuff. And that shines through and everything that he's done. Not to mention, he's a hell of a photographer. He's a hell of a visual artist. It's an overused word nowadays, but his aesthetic is fucking awesome. He really produces high quality stuff and there are embeds and links in the podcast episode for this on syncpodcast.com and mindpodnetwork.com.

Go check him out there and you'll be able to see what I'm talking about so you don't just think I'm making it up. But truthfully, he's talking about things about eliminating barriers, being able to do the impossible, which sound kind of maybe lofty and woo-woo goals. But hey man, if you set your eye on something or hey woman, hey man or hey woman, if you set your goal, like your eyes on a goal, like that's how things get done. I mean, that's how the world is changing. And listen, look at what Donald Trump is about to be potentially president. So if you don't think anything can happen, now there's a proof, literally anything can happen.

So yeah, oh, the other thing. Again, Yoshino, why he's such an awesome, he was a blessing, listen. So he does, he mentioned, he found out from Michael Donovan that I do this thing on my phone and I highly recommend everyone do this. They does this. Set up a reminder on your phone that says gratitude and have it go off at least once a day. And it's a nice little way to, well, there's two things it does. One, it can actually remind you to be grateful. And two, which I've also noticed, is sometimes it'll go off and I'll be like, ah, who's gonna sign to be grateful? So being able to note that you actually do that or at least I actually do that is also a value.

But I really think the gratitude reminders are great. But then Yoshino recommended this app called Gratitude365 and I downloaded it. It's like two bucks, totally worth it. We're not getting paid to do this. There's no free promotion for Gratitude365. But it's a nice, cool, really easy way to jot down what you're grateful for throughout the day and can take a little picture and attach it to it. It's pretty cool. So big thanks to him for that 'cause it really is a game changer. I'm a fundamental believer that if you can appreciate and be grateful for what you have, regardless of the circumstances, on some level, that sets you up for a whole lot of other awesome stuff.

So yeah, this episode is great. Rate and review, this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, wherever, I appreciate it if you can do that. Again, you're welcome to donate. I'm gonna have details on the fundraising stuff we'll be doing on Synchronicity. I think that's gonna be really cool and fun. Like that's gonna be cool. I know it is. So yeah, without further ado, here is Yoshino. (upbeat music) All right, awesome. Hey, nice to meet you, man. Sorry. (laughs) It's like an awkward beginning technical issue. It's always some silly shit, like, turn it off and turn it on again. Oh, dude, don't worry. Yeah, no worries, man.

It's not. I'm not mad or anything. (laughs) Cool. How you doing? Is it cool if I take some, if I like need to get water or... I mean, you mean... Oh, no, this is a strictly no drinking water zone. Yeah, totally forbidden. Yeah, of course, man. Like there's no... Cool, I'm just not sure, you know, like, that you couldn't, I don't know, whatever. The only time I ever got upset when someone was eating or drinking had nothing to do with a podcast. So I was taking these classes. You had to take private lessons. And this guy, and he was a really great saxophone player, but during the private lesson, he started to eat a tuna fish sandwich and like then played saxophone.

And I was like, this is like, I was disgusted. And I'm like, never, people eat, drink, whatever, on the phone, no big deal in front of me. I don't care, even if it's weird or gross. Just the idea of like tuna in the mouth with like the saxophone, like this instrument. Who was the grossest? It was just something about it. I'll never... Did you share the saxophone with him? No, God, Jesus Christ, I just thank God that was... From my tuna mouth to your mouth. It was just like, you're blowing hot tuna air, like through this horn now, like, it was just so... It was like the grossest thing you possibly could eat.

Just to me, tuna fish and saxophone, don't go together. Exactly, wait, I'm gonna turn my input down a little bit, is that okay? Sure, yeah, totally cool. And then maybe you might need to turn it up on your end. Yeah, you're good, you're good. You're right below. Yeah. I've been rethinking about the way I've been recording in to like, what I used to do at the very beginning is split them into two tracks and have them go into like something like GarageBand and Logic or Ableton. Yeah, that's what I usually do. Yeah, exactly. And then I would split them and then I would EQ them, but then I found a little trick via the Skype recorder where if you export the recorded file from the Skype recorder as a quick time file, it actually does a pretty good job of leveling it.

But recently, I've been really quiet and my I guess has been correct. And I have to go and like edit each section out. That's weird. And then like EQ them. I mean, it's not the worst thing, but yeah, it's kind of a little weird. I'm trying to work for a better system. So you do all your sound engineering and editing and everything? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I, that's what I went to school for, so. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, it's easy enough. I mean, it's one of the skills I know. (laughing) I'm gonna use it for as much as it's worth. Yeah, yeah. What instrument, oh yeah, saxophone, that's right.

Sax, yeah. And then I, do you play anything else? Yeah, I taught myself guitar. I'm like, I'm passable on guitar. I'm good at guitar. I taught myself keyboards that I'm passable on and basic, you know, basic, easy instruments to pick up. And then saxophone. I used to play music too. But nothing, probably. Oh, cool, what did you play? With you. Yeah. I played drums and guitar and bass 'cause guitar and bass kind of like go hand in hand. Exactly, right. There's no one, there's no one who doesn't play basic, basic, basic guitar if they've been doing it long enough. That's cool, man. I always wanted to play the drums.

You probably pick up on it pretty well. I mean, if you're music inclined in general. Yeah, it's just one of those things where like, you know, to play drums, you have to have a drum kit or at least the pads and everything. And like, you know, really do. And that's a commitment that I've never made. But I really, I think I probably will learn at one point because between cramming and learning the other instruments, it's pretty cool. Of course. All right. So yeah, let's get started. It's gonna be easy, don't worry. There's no, we're gonna start. So we're gonna start with what you called me about last night, which is I would love, I just thought it was such a good.

You called me just for our listeners benefit 'cause we're starting. You called me and you were somewhat, correct me if I'm wrong, a little bit intimidated 'cause you listened to the podcast I did with Duncan Trussell. And admittedly, like that's like, you know, conceptually gymnastics. Like we're doing, like he even said in the episode, like he's doing intellectual and spiritual backflips. You know, references, all these concepts. And you were, you called me and you're like, hey man, like I don't know, like, I don't know who you are. I'm like, you know, I don't really know any of these things. And I thought it was awesome because I think, well, I love having those conversations about like these very esoteric and like, you know, interesting quote unquote spiritual topics.

I don't think that in any way whatsoever is necessary. In a lot of ways, I think it can actually be a hindrance for people when you get caught up in kind of these, these very intellectualizing things that we kind of intuitively know. So I wanted to delve into this a little bit, but I also, I got confirmation that you were very interesting. And while you probably wouldn't refer yourself to spiritual, you do have an interest in the things that I have an interest in and that I like to bring up on this podcast. - Of course.

I listened to your, you're on your podcast, Artist Decoded, where you're usually interviewing guests or you sometimes put people together, artists together to interview each other. You had a couple episodes in there where it's just you talking. And one of them was the end of 2015.

Oh yeah, what did you think about that?

Oh my God, I was going to say like this is, that's what I'm talking about. Like my definition, spirituality is one of these words that's like, you know, it's been a nominalization. It means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but technically what it means is of the spirit. And I think that gets lost a lot because people think of like spirituality and there's new age stuff and, you know, all this stuff that goes into it or maybe put us or maybe you're a Hindu or whatever it is, but really it's just whatever we define as the qualities of being of the spirit. And I jotted down a few things that you mentioned just in this like 10 minute thing.

Amazing by the way, really, really, really.

Thanks man, I like to make those little monologues, every once in a while.

Amazing.

I mean, there-

Some kind of philosophies that I've been trying myself with and different things I've been reading and I like a lot of things from different Greek philosophers and-

Seneca you mentioned, particularly that one specifically.

Yeah, I mean, you do it in a way. My day job is working with a lot of spiritual people and teachers and businesses and organizations and not all and not many I work with, but people can kind of proselytize about that stuff, get up kind of on the pulpit and be like, "Bish is how we do it, this is the way it's done." I thought yours was exactly what it should be, which is not coming from a place of authority necessarily, but just weaving it into your personal life and how certain concepts and things have helped you. So I wanna talk about several of the things you mentioned, particularly in that one and then I wanna get to your podcast and just kind of you as a person, some background.

We don't know each other that well, we've spoken a couple times, but they've been really fun conversations.

Yeah, no, you're a cool guy, like I like talking to you, man. Yeah, I think with the whole Duncan episode, I mean, you and Duncan are on the certain wavelength and especially like the way that you two met and I thought, and also you two are both like, intelligent individuals, you know? So I think at first I was a little bit intimidated because of the whole ideologies and kind of like the terms that you use that I am not familiar with, not that I'm not interested in it and I found it quite interesting, but I do not know like all of the terminology, you know?

Right, and I think that's awesome though, that you don't need to know the terminology and I think that's why I really liked what you were talking about in this episode that you did for Artisticoded because you were mentioning things like valuing time, you know, you're talking about time being a commodity and this is something I've mentioned on this podcast. I recently created a lot more time for myself professionally and the way I did that was by raising my hourly rate and also just taking on more value-based projects. So I'm not doing things that I don't want to be doing number one, but also valuing my time a little bit more financially.

But the funny thing that happened is, and we're talking, this is related to this time-burst money thing, like a lot of people work really hard for money and they're using their time to get it, that's kind of the value of that.

Exactly.

And that's kind of, in my estimation, a losing game, right? Like money is a, I have a very smart friend who I work with on a lot of stuff and he once said something to me that was, I thought brilliant, he's like, money is a replenishable resource. There's, they're printing literally more of it every day. There's more and more, like don't worry, money is a replenishable resource.

Exactly.

Time isn't.

Time isn't.

Yeah.

So, but I wanted to add another wrinkle to this, which I discovered with the time-burst money thing, is once I created all this more time and space for myself, I had to figure out this third variable, which to me, I'm labeling as focus, like where I then wanted to put my energy once I created it all this time. 'Cause like suddenly, I have three times as much time.

But you had the same time we're doing it because of you, I mean, you're having a kid coming up, right? So you have to value your time more and you have to figure out exactly like how you're gonna be spending your time then, right?

That's right. I mean, that was a huge part of it is I didn't want, one of the things I try to carry throughout my life, including my career is this concept of spaciousness. When people, or me in particular, but a lot of people, when they feel like they're constantly bumping up against either a deadline or something they need to do or there's not enough hours in the day, it creates a very frenzied state of mind. And I don't think it's very productive for most people at all. And this is a big concept. - A lot of stress.

Exactly, this is a huge concept of meditation, why a lot of people do insight meditation, mindfulness meditation is you become aware that there is more spaciousness in any given moment than you might have thought. Because most people, when they think about their thoughts or who they are, they engage with them as though they are facts of life. These are real things that have to happen. And once you kind of solidify around those concepts, whether it's the self or an imposed deadline or things you need to do, I need to make money or I need to do this, it kind of traps you and constricts, I think, creativity in a lot of ways too, which I think is the essence of leading a meaning and fulfilling life regardless of whether you're an artist.

So I'd love for you to, does that, you know, this concept of spaciousness to me is just such an important thing, do you come across that?

Spaciousness?

Yes, yes.

Well, I think, I mean, in terms of what you're talking about with spaciousness, I think it's, and I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think, you know, if you value your time and you're valuing exactly like how you're gonna be spending your time and you figure out exactly how, like what's important, what's not important, you know, what means you should take, what means you shouldn't, what, you know, I mean, and there's a consciousness to play within that. So, I mean, am I getting at something, kind of like something that you're talking about?

What I'm talking about, yeah, the concept of spaciousness I'm referring to is not having like a stressed out mind, not feeling hurried, being able to allow things to come and proliferate, I imagine as an artist, you have to come across this, like you're forcing, it's like the equivalent to writer's block, right? There's a couple of ways people will get through writer's block, or creative block, whatever you wanna call it, and some people will just plow through it, you know? Like, I'm gonna just get through this, I'm gonna do a bunch of stuff and see what comes out, and I think that's very valid, but sometimes,

Well, then you're not as conscious about exactly what the point of everything is, but I think there's a reason why people have like five-year plans and 10-year plans, and I think if you want to get to any certain place, you need to have some sort of conscious state of mind to how exactly you're gonna be getting there, so you have to figure out what will get me to that eventual goal, and I don't think necessarily has to be that methodical. It could be, I mean, it could just be like something that resonates with you, and then, you know, you pick and choose what projects, like for instance, you know, for me now, like, I wanna spend my time having these conversations with people, because, you know, first of all, it's an interesting way to like, essentially mentor myself through all these artists that I really respect.

It's a way for me to be a curator to these artists that I respect, to establish relationships, to also add values to other people's lives that listen to the podcast, but I think it all kind of boils down to like similar ideologies that, wait, does something just happen?

No, it's just a little clipping, it's fine.

Oh, okay, yeah, I think it just boils down to these, you know, similar ideologies that I kind of ensue within my own life.

Yeah. - Things that I value, you know?

Well, this is something else. I was reading the bio you put for artists decoded, which is awesome, and I'm actually gonna put that in this episode, you know, I'm gonna copy the text, because that was really important. I broke it down into different sentences, even though it was one paragraph.

That thing, honestly, it just, like, you know, sometimes you spend so much time writing something, but that, it just kind of like came to me in like five or 10 minutes, just because I truly believed in the reason why I was doing the program in the first place, or the podcast, and I don't know, it just, like, once there's synergy in your life, and once you have this sort of, like, everything just kind of fits into place, but you intentionally make it fit into place, then it just, I don't know, everything just makes sense, you know? A lot of us try to, like, go up this uphill battle all the time, and it's just like, you're constantly, like, crawling up the hill, but, which I don't think is, it's not bad to, like, wanna go somewhere, and then understand where you wanna go, but if you're just crawling up the hill, because you think it's where you need to go, but it's not really where you need to go, and you're going against the grain, then that's bad, too.

You know what it reminds me of? It's like the concept of water, right? Like, if you create, like, an aqueduct, or some, you know, way for water to flow, if you create that, then when you just put the water in, it's gonna flow naturally, and to get it to flow upstream, like, you have to create all these propulsion things, and things that would have to move it up, and that's gonna be a lot more work, rather than just kind of getting into the flow, you know, the zone, or whatever you wanna call it, the creative flow, which is, I really wanna get into the process of creativity with you, because I'm very impressed with everything I've come across from yours from your photography, too.

Did you do that music video on the Vimeo?

Which one?

On your Vimeo?

Jarrell?

Yes.

Jarrell Perry?

Yes, yes.

Yeah, that was actually my first music video that I've ever done.

Oh, my God. It was, first of all, the song is really very excellent.

Yeah, Jarrell's awesome, then.

Oh, yeah, and it was, I'll have a link to that. I'll embed it in this page, too, for this episode, because it's just really fucking awesome. Also, I have not seen any of those visual techniques used in that way before, and it just--

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, really, really awesome stuff.

Well, I think the thing--

Go on.

No, no, no, you go, you go.

Oh, no, I was gonna say the thing with creativity, and then kind of coming up with ideas to everyone encounters, you know, there's this thing with originality that people have this argument with that, and I mean, there's even this TED Talks on originality, and it's talking about kind of like how originality is broken down, and, but I mean, for me, it's like all these accumulations of different experiences and different people you meet that might, you know, you might not realize it at the time, but it might steer you in a certain way, and you can either accept it or reject it, but I think, you know, for me, a lot of it is just trying to, how do I describe this?

Trying to just trust my instinct that I will do the right thing for each right project, and before, like, it took me a long time to do, to come to that realization, 'cause I've been shooting for about nine years now, and I started when I was 20, I'm 29 now, and yeah, so--

So, is there an element? 'Cause the creative process, for me, it's such an interesting thing, you know, making music, there's always an element of trying to be some, what I consider kind of a conduit. Here, my theory of creativity is this. I think we, there's this other place that we can't perceive with our physical senses, but where creativity emanates from. In Tibetan Buddhism, this is called, I think the Sambo Gakaya, Sambo Kaya, and essentially, this is another concept from Carl Jung, which is archetypes. So, there's this place, this realm. You can imagine it as imaginary, but it's this realm, and I believe it actually exists, where people who are doing creative works, musicians, artists, photographers, really any creative aspect, they have kind of like a psychic link to, and the more you can kind of be in that flow state that you're talking about, the more you kind of open up to it, and you can pull and interact with these things, and then kind of synthesize it into whatever that extension is, in this reality.

It's like dimensionally pulling back things from this other place, and it's something that I've noticed in creativity, but also what comes along with that, as we filter it through our kind of limited sense of self and our ego, is fear, right? There's a sense of fear with creativity, because it's this stuff that doesn't actually tangibly exist that you have to bring into the world, so.

But there's something exciting about fear, too.

Yes, very, very, right? I mean, it's--

The challenge behind creating something new is has always been really exciting to me. (laughing)

Me, too.

Yeah.

Me, too, and it's a fascinating thing. It's also just, there's few things in life, I feel like, for me, that are as rewarding as creating something that didn't exist before, and then having it, like, well-received, you know, and not, like, a popular, oh, I feel good. I mean, oh, everyone feels good when they create something, people like it, but you're, another thing about what I've heard from you in our conversations is, you're very honed in on two ideas I love, which is creating value for people. Like, you want things, like, and then serving people.

Well, yeah, I want other people to, well, not just the listeners of the podcast and stuff like that, but also, I feel like, I mean, yes, obviously, I want to create value for other people, but it's also, I feel like, with doing the podcast and having these interviews with people that I admire, we're creating value in each other's lives, and then I introduce them to people that I think that they would mesh with, and they introduce me to people that they think that would be good on the podcast, and then there's this sort of, there's this just sense of synergy with it all, and it just makes sense.

It's, like, the way that I look at things is that you can't be a creative person, or you can't just be any person just, like, on your own island. You can't create things without other people. You have to have other people like-minded people to create something beautiful, and you have to accept that, you know, I mean, and plus, I'm not, I don't like to be as selfish of a person to just want things for myself. I want to create these win-win scenarios for other people, and then it's like, dude, fuck yeah, you got that music video, that's fucking awesome, man. Like, you know, I mean, just be happy for other people, man.

We'll see, what you're talking about is known in Buddhism as sympathetic joy. I think in Sanskrit or as a poly, I don't know, it's called mudita, and it's basically the capacity when some, like, this, just so you're clear, I know what type of person you are, but recognize there are other people when a friend gets promoted, or they have something great happen in their life, they go, "Now, fuck it, man, why are they getting that?" Like, that is a common mental state for a lot of people. I have typically not been one of those people, but I know the past I've had those thoughts pop up, you know?

Well, I think they're all human thoughts.

But it's either if you accept it or reject it into your own reality is one thing, right?

Yes, very much so. And I think what you've probably keyed in on, and this is just, it's fundamentally different than kind of how our culture and society and world is structured. Most people think this is a zero sum game, and that they're operating from scarcity model, right? There's not enough to go around, so I have to control as much of it as possible, 'cause if I'm winning, if you're winning, and I'm losing, when in reality, just looking at natural resources around the world, the fact is there's enough food for everyone on the world. There's enough water for everyone on the world. Maybe in 50 years with population increase, maybe there's eventually an opera, right now, there certainly is, it's logistically, and the way we've separated kind of nations and countries and thoughts and systems that prevent it from happening, which to me is a great kind of macrocosm of the idea of how we separate ourselves from other people, right?

Like we put up these fake boundaries and walls that don't necessarily reflect what the real situation is, which is, you can succeed, I can succeed, and if we team up, we can actually succeed to a whole 'nother level, and I think--

Exactly.

I love it, I love that, I mean, you listen, I only heard three episodes of your show.

Which one's, I'm just curious.

I heard Michael Donovan's, - Cool.

I heard, what is the, it was the artist Michael had him on, he does like the weird bodies.

Jealous?

No, no.

Oh, Asger.

Yes, yes.

Asger Carlson.

Yes, he was a tough interview, but he was good, I mean, and I could see kind of how you were creating a space to talk about things that were actually meaningful and important, some related to the creative process and their art in particular, but some just about being human, and kind of peeling back those layers, and I heard you reference another one where you were talking about, forget who brought it up to you, but you were talking about clarity, and how clarity was such a--

That's Ali Kaneski.

Yes, yes, yes, that--

He's a very, very well respected painter.

Very cool, yeah, I mean, and like I said, like when we spoke, I don't know a ton of the people who have been on your podcast, but the conversations that were coming out of it were awesome, like they were really great, and that's me, that is the essence of why I'm loving podcasting as a medium, but also for the same reasons, I think you've noticed that you get to connect with people in a way by virtue of this medium, that kind of transcends boundaries very easily because of the free form, so I fucking love that.

Yeah, it's interesting to, I mean, because like generally I like to have these conversations with people on a daily basis in general, but I feel like a lot of the times, especially when you live in like a bigger city, it's hard to have these conversations with just the random person that you meet. And I think a lot of it has to do with a lack of vulnerability, but also everyone, yeah, we tend to build these boundaries between us and other people and, yeah, I don't know. It's, I guess it's hard to break that if you just meet someone on the street, but then when you do and you talk and you sit there for an hour and there's something beautiful within that and this connection and this sort of like meeting of the spirits, it's-

Yes, yes, it's alchemy is what I like to call it. It's this reaction that happens when two substances or essences are come in contact with each other. That's the alchemy of relationship. But I think it's a fascinating thing. I think ultimately those boundaries, like just to be clear, in my experience, have we done psychedelics? Have we done like mushrooms? - Yeah, of course.

Okay. - Yeah.

I recently did, I recently did a fuck. Well, it wasn't technically LSD, but I was an Amsterdam and they have this sort of like quote unquote LSD thing that you can buy in the store, but it's basically like, it felt like shrooms, but just clean, you know? Like, you know when you do shrooms and then it's like all like in your stomach and it's all gold and- - Yeah, and you kind of have to go to the bathroom maybe, and then like-

There's nothing worse than taking a shit while you're on Monday.

Yeah, you're like, you feel like your intestines are leaving your body.

Is this something, how did I not notice how insane this was at all times?

I remember in college I did shrooms and I was sitting there, yeah, and I was like on the toilet, I looked down and there was like the little like bath rug, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yo, God, was it fuzzy?

It was fuzzy. - Yeah, I know.

And it was green, I think.

And I looked into it and I imagined myself in there like as a little person surrounded by this sort of vast green like forest. - Yeah.

And I felt like it was like moving and I just, you know, you just like imagine yourself in a place and then I don't know, it's hard to describe, but you know what I mean, 'cause-

I know exactly what you mean. So the reason I brought up psychedelics is because one of the lessons I got from doing them pretty early on is that this sense of self that we carry around with each, you know, every day, like I'm Noah, I'm Yoshina, I'm this, I'm this person. I am this, I do this in life, I'm married, I have this, I have a kid now, I have, I go to school, I do this. Those things are really not as fixed as we would like them to believe. There are these constant moving, shifting emotions, patterns, thoughts that we kind of coalesce around this sense of self that we think exists, but then when you start doing psychedelics, that kind of shatters and then you're kind of like, oh, like I'm still there, I'm still aware.

There's still something here, but these roles and things I've put onto myself maybe aren't as real as I thought, which is why I'm always thrilled to have these types of conversations where we talk about these things, 'cause I think my general, like we talked about, you know, some of the value and kind of service, really, that's what you're doing. By getting artists together, speaking about things, common shared experiences, the creative process, just inspiring in its own right, mine is to, for this podcast, at least, to touch on concepts of reality that otherwise wouldn't be spoken about, you know, that maybe we all kind of get glimpses here and there.

And the reason is, is think if we get this type of stuff out there, people who maybe have had expand, I've had this, I've had people write in where they're like, hey, like this crazy thing happened to me and I heard you talk about something similar and I was like, I didn't know anyone else actually had that happen. And those things-- Yeah, it makes you feel like there's other people out there, there's nothing worse than feeling like you're the only one or if you feel like you're alone in the world. Yeah, it's true. It really-- As much as people may be guarded about that and, you know, talk themselves into believing that, oh no, it's okay if, you know, I'm the only one that does this or that.

But I think, you know, once you actually find people that are similar and you can relate to, there's nothing more beautiful than that. I couldn't agree more. I think there's also, I'd like to make the distinction between solitude and being alone. 'Cause I think there are, and I'm sure most artists would agree with this. When you're by yourself, you can really get some incredible things to just, you know, come forth. You know, being alone, making time for a space to think. But then that imbalance with having a community of like-minded people, like that's where the real kind of, power, I don't know if I want to use that word, but that's where like the real magic starts to happen.

Like being able to be alone and be okay with that, but then also be able to congregate and have shared experiences with people. 'Cause there's a dark side to being alone, like you can get depressed, you can feel isolated. And those aren't-- There's a balance there. That's not what I'm talking about, but like everything in life, they're right. Exactly, there's a balance. So going back to the, I just want to go back to the- Wait, wait, wait, I'm just curious, what, do you know what your personality type is? What, like the- The Myers-Briggs. The Myers-Briggs-Mire. I don't, I know, and the personality types, those were actually based off the Jungian, he has a personality type thing.

And I think- Oh, interesting. And I'm an intuitive feeler, I think, on his chart that they develop that off of. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? See, this is a great, this is a great thing. I think, and this is my own classification, I think I'm an extroverted introvert, right? I think my natural state is being very introspective, like I'm a homebody, like I'm always accused by my wife and my friends, like, you know, you always want people to come to you, to your house, I like my home base, I have to care. What's comfortable? It's comfortable, right? And it also, I just, it's a sense of security, I'm sure it has something to do with my zodiac sign, who knows?

But I also, I love talking to people, and I really love meeting people, and I'm okay talking to people, I don't get like shy, you know? So, I think that's what I am, what are you?

I'm an extrovert, I'm an extrovert, but, you know, I think I was a lot more extroverted in my early 20s, and then as I started getting more introspective, you know, in my late 20s, now I'm a lot more introverted, so I'm a little bit of both now, but I'm definitely more extroverted, I mean, in social situations, I don't know, I adapt really easily, and I talk to everyone, and I'm able to, you know, and just, and I feel excited to like be in the party, you know?

Totally.

Not that I'm a party animal or anything, but, you know, I just, I thrive off it sometimes, you know?

I absolutely get it, man. I think, so, not to shift gears to abruptly, but I did want to talk about your bio for artist Dakota, 'cause like I said, I pulled these out in parts, and I just want to go through each one, and maybe you could give me a little, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, whatever, man.

'Cause it was super cool. So like, you say it's a series dedicated to breaking down the barriers we tend to set up in our own mind, and I love this because, yes, it's a show where artists are talking to each other, and you could be talking about the artistic barriers and God knows what, but that actually applies to anyone and everyone, like that is really a very altruistic kind of approach, so what inspired you, and you're very clear with your intent in this biography or this, you know, about, like it's very clear. That's why I think it probably flowed so easily for you is because the clarity and focus was there, and when you get it, you get it, and you know, yep, this is what it is, this is what it is.

So what interests you about breaking down the barriers that we set up in our own minds?

Well, I think there's a lot of times we have these barriers, and we have these boundaries of like what is possible and what's impossible, right? But I think if you say in that box, then you're only gonna go so far, but if you step out into the unknown, into the, a quote unquote, impossible, and try to explore that, and you can, you'll probably come to a different conclusion that you probably wouldn't think is possible in the beginning, because I think, you know, I mean, anything, I feel like anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I mean, I remember, I mean, just to give an example, but when I was in high school, I joined football senior year, and I was like a lot scrounier than I am now, not that I'm like, not scrawny, but like, I'm like 160 pounds now, I was probably like 140 then, and dude, I got, I was just like basically abused by these guys.

What position, what position were you playing?

I was a corner, corner back, but yeah, no, I got hazed by these guys, and then, you know, like, and it really kind of like, psychologically kind of fucked me up for a bit.

Yeah, sure.

And then so, when I hit my 20s, I got into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and I've been doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ever since, and then now I like to do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and boxing and kickboxing, and I've competed in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but I think where I'm going with that is that, you know, I could have let that affect me and then kind of, you know, brought that into my subconscious or my conscious state, but instead, I was like, fuck that, I'm not gonna let this fear overcome me, I'm gonna actually fight it head-on, and like literally fight it, and then I learned from it, and now I have like, not that I didn't have confidence before, but I definitely didn't have confidence with, you know, how my ability to fight, you know.

This is fascinating to me, because I've spoken to a couple other people on this podcast, or was it just, on the podcast, it was just my friend Ben, and he started a gym in Oakland called Guardian Gym, which is primarily Jiu-Jitsu.

Oh, cool.

And it's--

I'll go and check him out.

Oh, dude, it's super cool. It's basically, he is bringing martial arts to inner city kids for free, because he, the lessons he learned, which sounds very similar to what you learn, is this kind of confidence, but also this equanimity, this balance-ness, that comes from learning a martial art. Myself, my only experience with martial arts is I took a Jiu-Jitsu class at like a local place when I was, I don't know, I must have been like, middle school or high school. I went to one class. I couldn't get the gee on, you know. I was like a pain in the butt. I got flipped by like a little girl. I was like, good with this.

Gotta watch his little girls, those experienced little girls, man. We'll chuck you out.

Chotes you out, flippin', flippin' me over there. He backs like no problem.

Yeah, don't feel bad though, man.

No, I don't, I don't.

No, there's many, there's trust me, there's many stories of like big, burly dudes coming into the gym and then, you know, they go against this like purple belt, you know, 120 pound girl and just get destroyed, you know?

Of course, of course, I, it's interesting 'cause I've never been a huge martial arts person. Like I've never had a desire to necessarily learn but what I'm seeing people get out of it to me is counterintuitive because when I look at, it's a little different than boxing, of course, but when I look at sports or even like MMA, like I look at it, I look at MMA and I'm like, this is brutal. Like these people are bashing their head, people's heads in, like I get it.

It's very primal.

It's primal and also I have to reconcile this. You mentioned football, I'm a huge football fan. Like it is my preferred sport of choice. I've been a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan, which has been its own special sort of torture. But, you know, I love it, but I also recognize like, these guys are bashing their fucking brains in for my entertainment. And this is like gladiators of the old day. So it's not like I'm trying to get on a high horse, but I've never really totally got the martial arts thing. But what I've seen come out of people I've spoken to are really into it and heard people who are really into it and spoken about it, there is this, it's not really about the fighting.

It's not really being about being able to kick someone's ass. But it's about as instilling these inner qualities and having your physical ability be a reflection of that, less than like I'm gonna learn Jiu Jitsu so I can go kick anyone's ass. It's fascinating.

No, exactly, yeah. It's more so about the confidence building and also, I mean, I feel like, and I'm kind of making a generalization, but I feel like a lot of people get into gangs and get into, well, first of all with gangs, I think it's a lot about, I mean, there's like a troll pass with that and everything, but I think it's because people don't have the sort of confidence within themselves to be able to conquer things. You know, it's based a lot on fear. So I mean, I think it could go both ways. It could be like you could look at it in martial arts like as a violent sort of thing, or you can look at it as just this kind of thing to help you build self-confidence and to also, I don't know how to describe it.

There's this just feeling that I get with it that, I mean, like for me, I'm not really into sports per se, but I love fighting sports. Like combat sports, man, I love combat sports, so.

So interesting, and I don't think it's, I think I was far too black and white about martial arts for a large period of my life, and then I started meeting more people who did them and it kind of changed my views on it. But I think what I like how you're weaving it in is not kind of boxing yourself in or structuring limiting beliefs. And I think a lot of people, everyone, myself included, everyone has some element of limiting themselves and whatever. And I think part of our goal in life is to recognize what those things are. So you have to develop awareness of your blind spots, and then try to work through them and realize where maybe you need help from other people to compensate for them.

I mean, this is something that can transcend not just personal development, but professional development. Like I got much more effective in my career when I started realizing here are my limitations. Here's where I can bring people in to compensate for those and now collectively be something much more effective. But I think in the same way you can do that for people, right? Like you want to be aware of where you need help along the way. And I think, again, I wanna tie this back to your podcast. So what, the genesis of what you started with artist decoded, and I know it's all here, like you talked about making dreams a reality and not letting them fall by the wayside.

And then also giving people a sense of real human connection. So like talk about what was the spark that made you be like, all right, I wanna do this. This is something that I think is gonna be a benefit. Where did that come? What was the genesis of that?

Well, it's interesting that you say that and you ask that. Yeah, I mean, I think, well, let's see, I started about nine months ago, and during that time period, I felt like I was in this sort of creative rut, and I felt like I was kind of becoming a caricature of myself, and I wasn't the intent of what I was doing, like how I was doing photography in the beginning got lost because I started thinking of things more in terms of like making money, and although I didn't, maybe I didn't say that to myself or I didn't say it out loud, but I was thinking about that. I was worrying a lot about how am I gonna make money doing this or like I need to make money, so I need to do it this way.

And I felt like that went against the reason why I started doing it, like you start doing some sort of creative thing because, and even as a career, because you want to have fun doing it. I mean, simply put. And so the reason why I started it is because I've always believed in mentorship, and I've had like one or two part-time mentors in my life, but I really wanted to go out and kind of understand why people came to the conclusions that they've come to, you know, through with their artistic crafts, and yeah, and I wanted to ask because there's a lot of people like pretty much everyone, well yeah, everyone that I bring onto the show, I admire in some way, whether it be their ideologies or whether it be their visual aesthetic or their narrative aesthetic or what have you, but yeah, I just wanted to explore that.

I want to explore it through conversation. And I like having conversations with people, it's very natural for me to just have a conversation and I mean, everyone kind of wants to be liked in a way. I mean, maybe not everyone, but you know, I feel good to be liked by other people.

I think everyone. I don't know. Unless there's some weird psychological thing, I think most people, I mean, that's a very basic, to even extend a past like, everyone wants to be loved and they want to love. I think that is just a natural human quality. There's always exceptions, there's sociopaths, but I really think for the vast majority of us, everyone listening, you and me, that's just kind of a natural thing that people want. And I think, but what's funny to me is this is, like I said, I come across a lot of spiritual people who do hardcore spiritual practices and they've been doing this, they're doing maybe mantras or maybe they're doing meditation or maybe they're doing this and that and the other thing.

And then I come across someone like you or I come across someone like Michael and I come across a lot of different people. And I can see that you are intuitively and naturally grasping these concepts of like gratitude, clarity, focus, diligence, all of these things, like these are lofty things that I've seen people who have been studying these things, intellectualizing these things for decades, still completely unable to grasp. So that's why-

Do you think it's because-

I was still-

All right, go on.

No, that's why I was laughing when you called last night and you're like, I don't know if I'm like, dude, like I even just the brief conversations we have. Like I know, like you're on the right path, you're doing things, you have a whole podcast that's dedicated to helping people, that's really what it is. Like you're self included, don't forget yourself, but like it really is dedicated to helping you and others.

Yeah, it makes me feel really happy when people, and I try to email everyone back that emails me. If I can't get to it at that time, then I set aside and I put a section off in a folder and then go back to it when I can. But so, you know, like I like to email with people and really go in depth on the emails. Man, sometimes it's like a couple pages long.

Yeah, yeah, totally, totally.

But, you know, that and on the Instagram feed and the Instagram like direct messages and stuff, I definitely like to reply to everyone just 'cause it makes you feel good that I'm like adding some sort of value to someone's life. And you know, I didn't really get that. I felt like with my photography, because it's, it's with photography, to me it was like so one-sided. But I feel like the reason why too is because the way I approach photography was not so much from a truly connected point of view. It was more of like in the beginning, you know, you're learning and you're kind of mimicking what other people do.

But now I feel like I have such a strong sort of point of view of my own life that now as I'm shooting more, you know, especially recently that there's a lot of these sort of ideologies that I've ensued within my own life that I am kind of talking about. And I feel like I'm talking about more things through my photography than I ever have been. And I feel like, you know, it's an ongoing process and it'll keep on evolving itself. And maybe some will be more aesthetic pieces where it's just about what it looks like or maybe it's got this deeper meaning and like a docu-series or what have you. But I just feel like now I'm just so much more comfortable in my own skin.

And that's what the magic really does start to happen. I mean, it's interesting. You change your personal point of view and that actually changes your photography point of view, like when upon intended. It's really an interesting thing. This to me is the crux of, I think what I, you know, I think everyone wants to be happier. Everyone wants to be more fulfilled. Everyone wants to feel a sense of, you know, I'm doing the right thing and I'm really helping myself and other people. And I think one of the funny things that actually really helps to get people to those realizations is working on yourself.

It seems counterintuitive because a lot of people, when they look out into the world and they see tons of fucked up shit, also great stuff, but tons of fucked up shit, they can be like, oh man, like I gotta go out there and help immediately. Like that's the first thing that I need to do. Look at all this suffering and I gotta help right away. But sometimes that's counterproductive because if you're bringing all of your shit with you into a situation, like just a quick example, like think if you're helping with like a domestic violent situation, you go and want to help and talk to women who have been abused.

But let's say you have some thing in you that you're fucked up about. And so your advice or you're surrounding them isn't actually helping. It's just kind of adding to this sense of confusion. It's far more effective to work on yourself to get as much.

Exactly.

Yeah, I think true happiness just comes from within.

It is 'cause that's, there's no difference. The funny stuff with all of this is in my farm opinion at this point, I don't think there's any difference between what's going on internally and what's going on externally. I think everything we experience outside is a direct reflection of our individual and collective internal experiences. That's where I think culture emanates from. I think it's where art emanates from. It's where I think everything that we see and experience emanates from. And I think the really interesting thing is, is you look at that from an esoteric or philosophical point of view.

But even if you look at it from a scientific and empirical point of view, like look at quantum physics, like you don't have to be an expert in quantum physics, but know that when we get down to these teeny little levels, one 1,000th of an inch or smaller, shit does not work the way it does up here in big world. If you put something here, it affects a particle thousands of miles away. You're looking for a particle, an actual thing. You see it, if you're looking for a wave of light, you'll see that. And the observer principle even comes in there. So I find that, you know, if we're trying to help in any way, the messages is work on yourself, find things that inspire you, that make you curious, that help you.

And I think you're now, you're experiencing the kind of the fruits of that, right? You went through, you were at this kind of point where you were like questioning. And I've had these conversations with Michael, Michael Donovan, about these very things because, you know, using the fashion world, he's still in the fashion world, he had his whole fuck the fashion world thing for a long time.

Yeah, I think a lot of people get to that.

Well, because you're one dimensional.

You're doing, as someone who is intuitive and aware and open, you're kind of you and him both, you're kind of going into the belly of the beast. You know what I mean? And this is such a weird thing in the creative outlets and industries, like same thing with the music industry, like musicians are some of like the most sensitive and, you know, regardless, they're intuitive. They feel things very deeply and that's how music is created. But then if you get into the actual music industry, it's a fucking nightmare. I mean, it is a cutthroat, terrible place for the most part. Now it's changing a little bit because of digital and people kind of get it directly to their fans.

But, I mean, this is a middle man's industry if there's never been one and it's hard, but so noble to be able to work in those industries and bring that perspective, which is, again, why I think your podcast and what you're doing is incredibly valuable, not just with quality. Yeah, truthfully though, I mean, that's why I was thrilled that Michael Donovan gets another hat tip for introducing us. It's not as many times to cool people, but yeah, do you know, so he's really great. So yeah.

Yeah, but I think, you know, understanding, you know, I've had this battle with like the industry and fashion industry and the music industry and it's more of like an internal battle, but you can either let it overcome you or you can figure out a way to where you can get what you want from it, if that makes sense, you know? Because the way that I look at it, it's like, I want to surround myself with musicians that I love, like I love their music, I believe in what they do and I just believe in it. And like fashion, like, I don't want it to overcome me. You know, I do like fashion as much as I hate the politics of fashion and sort of, yeah, I guess, you know, I despise the politics of the fashion world, but yet I think there's something really interesting that can be created within fashion and using fashion and using fashion as an accessory to convey a story, but you have to be able to exist in all these worlds and create your own world, you know?

Yes, yes, I do, now exactly what you mean.

Yeah, that's why I love artists that are multi-dimensional, like Larry Sultan, for instance, are you familiar with Larry Sultan at all?

No, no.

He's a photographer and he had a retrospective at LACMA, but the reason why I bring him up is that, you know, he is a photographer who can shoot big ad campaigns, like he did something for Bo Tege Veneta, which is a big fashion designer, and yet he can still exist and do his own artwork, you know? And I feel like he's more respected for it because he's not single-minded, like, I am a fashion photographer, because that's the approach that I had in the beginning in my mid-20s, I thought, like, I am only a fashion photographer. I remember I had a meeting with Jed Root, who is like a, I guess, you know, relatively big photo rep, and I told him, like, I only want to be a fashion photographer.

Yeah.

Like, and I think, I mean, you know, and I think that's just the wrong approach, at least for me, for some people, that really works.

Yes, it might be their wheelhouse and that might be what is perfect for them, but I don't know, I think for real creatives, not that you're not if you're only into one thing in any means, but drawing on a lot of different experiences in life makes your art and what you're doing far more rich. You have more to draw from, you have, like, I'm, this podcast is called Synchronicity, and I also am-

I love that name.

Oh, well, so it's one of my favorite. It's a term that was actually coined by Carl Jung, one of my favorite thinkers, psychologists, philosophers, just a totally fucking brilliant guy. He calls it an a-causal-orderedness, which is basically like, there's no, you know, if I tap this desk, it makes a sound. There's causation there. I know that this is vibrating, it's making a sound, but a synchronicity could be anything that seems connected in a way, but we can't find the causal relationship. So like, you're thinking of someone in your head and in the index. - Well, it's complex. Life is complex. - It's very complex.

And I personally love the belief that everything, at all times, is one giant synchronicity. I think that is the fact of the reality that we live in. I think what-

Well, I think it should be.

It should be. I think what presents us. - Because I think-

Uh-huh. - Yeah. No, no, no, go ahead, go ahead.

Oh no, well, I just think a lot of people compartmentalize their life too much.

That's right. - Where things can't be can't be synchronized.

Yes, I think that's absolutely right. And I think we also limit ourselves based on those perspectives we're coming from. I'm also a huge believer that the more perspectives you can cultivate on a situation, more of a 360 picture you can get. This is, can that be very useful during disagreements or arguments? The more angles you can look at it from, which means your angle, maybe the person you're fighting with angle, maybe an objective observer, maybe the bird over there who's looking at this. (laughing) Truthfully, the more things you can look at, the more complete of a picture, you get of it. And then you realize like, you're maybe not making decisions just from your limited perspective.

Yeah, I think you can just have more empathy towards people.

Empathy, it's another thing. Like, see, these are all, these are things I would put in the spiritual category, but I don't love, again, I don't love that word because I think it kind of, it has a stigma associated with it, but it is of the spirit. Empathy is an incredibly important compassion. It's an incredibly important concept. Like these are things that they make our lives better. If you can live from those places, if you can be grateful, you talked about in one of the episodes, I do this, I've had this on my phone, I don't know why I have it, but I have a reminder that goes off twice a day that just says gratitude.

It just says, gratitude. - That's amazing. I love that. - Be grateful. Like, you know what I mean? That's like a second and admittedly, sometimes it pops up and I'm doing something. I'm like, "Ah, I don't have time." (laughing)

I don't have time for that shit.

Yeah, who has time for this gratitude shit? I'm doing something important here. Like, but, you know, it is, these are concepts that regardless of where you are and how you engage with any of this stuff, they're incredibly useful and more importantly, practical. Like, this is shit that anyone can do. You don't have to know what me and Duncan we're talking about to understand that these are things that can actually transform your lives, kind of shatter these limiting beliefs and help other people.

Exactly.

Okay, we're at the end, man, this flew by. This is awesome. We're gonna have to do it again too.

Yeah, yeah, no, definitely.

We're definitely gonna have to do it.

Yeah, I love that, man.

But so I end every show asking each guest for some practical tips or a tip that have helped them in their lives. And it's purposely vague. So whatever that means to you, anything that you think someone might benefit of that has helped you, that's kind of the idea behind it.

Yeah, I mean, something that I've been trying to work on myself is to really listen to your inner child, but also listen to your instincts and to really be honed in on the intention of like why you're doing something. What does it mean? And I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to be that how do you describe it?

Micro managed, but I think it is good to kind of take a step back understanding why you're doing something and then going forward instead of being on autopilot all the time and just kind of accepting life for what it is. Not that you shouldn't live within the moment because I think we have to live within the moment. We can't be too far caught up with the past and then having doubt because of things that you've done in the past and you can't be looking too far into the future because then you're not focusing on the present which will affect your relationships with the people and with the conversation that you're having.

And so being well-rounded, trusting your instincts and being grateful for what you have because at any given moment that could just be gone, you know, like your best friend or whoever could just immediately like be out of your life and you just have to be grateful for what you have.

Yeah, and it's with the gratitude too. I mean, you just, you never know what's gonna happen in life. You don't know what the change is and you don't wanna be caught in a time where you didn't appreciate while you were doing those things and with the people and the stuff you like to be doing until it's gone away 'cause then it's a rougher transition, you know what I mean? It's not a smooth entryway for a lot of people.

Exactly.

Awesome, man. Dude, this has been super duper fun.

Yeah, thanks, man.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to doing it again. Also, it's just really been great. I know we've known each other like less in a week now, but it's like really fun.

I know, right?

It's all right. Super great.

Oh yeah, it's only been a week, huh?

It's pretty nuts.

It's interesting how, you know, people meet like that and then it's just this beautiful meaning of the minds. I love that.

I love it too. I mean, I think it plays into something else or I don't know if you spoke about this specifically, but time, I don't think time is as fixed of a concept as we like to believe it is. I think that's why people who haven't met before and haven't necessarily known each other can connect so quickly. There's something else there, I think. I don't think it's necessarily limited and constrained by time. So, awesome, man. Let's do this again and thank you for coming on.

Thank you very much for having me on.

Thanks.

Everybody.

All right, cool. I'm gonna clip it there.

Cool.

It went great. Say nothing to fear, super fun.

Yeah, yeah, no, definitely, man. If you can, I'd like to just do a little research. I mean, I know you mentioned Carl Jung and Ram Das and just maybe a couple things that come off, you know, from your mind and if you can email me that just so I can do my own research because I'm curious.

Absolutely. I'll try to get you started. Admittedly, Carl Jung, I mean, there's a reason why everyone knows about Freud and not Jung. It's because Freud was very caught up with sex and kind of a more mature-less view of reality and Jung. Basically, they, Jung studied under Freud and they split famously. And what basically happened is Freud basically had the point that everything that we can't filter in our conscious mind gets pushed to this place called the subconscious and the unconscious. And we experience in our dreams. That's why we have these things about them. There's these complexes and blah, blah, blah.

And it's really just us trying to express ourselves through the stuff we can't filter through. And Carl Jung was like, yeah, I hear you on that, but I think that might just be your personal subjective interpretation of what's going. And he basically has, I mean, unlimited concepts really, but he conceptualized this thing, which I think is the reality of the situation aligns up with almost everything. You'll read thousands of years old, but this thing called the collective unconscious. And in the same way that you and I have our own individual subconscious, collectively we share, this is where I think, again, this creative stuff comes from.

This is where art comes from. It's this shared collective unconscious that we can tap into at any given time. It's just like, he noticed this, he was a clinical psychologist and he noticed that people were having these pre-cognitive dreams of these horrible wars, these horrible, horrible things that were taking place, and it was actually at the beginning of World War II, World War I. And so it was insane and like they were tapping in and like, you know, someone has a dream that someone died and they wake up and that person died. So I'll try to get you started on some Carl Jung stuff. I'll send you a list of stuff.

I think you might potentially like--

Send me a short list because I ask people send me lists sometimes and they send me like, I mean, like a really long, dry out list and then I get overwhelmed. So if you just give me like two things to look at--

I'll give you two. I'll give you two things, two things.

Yeah, two things and then I start from there. I'm a very much like, you know, like I need it like dose, like small doses and then I get really into something.

Do you listen or read to any Alan Watts?

I did and I mean, not anything specific, just kind of like YouTube videos because I got introduced through Alan Watts through watching a lot of Bruce Lee, you know, like--

Right.

Little interviews of Bruce Lee and I love his concept on water and--

Yes.

I don't know, but also, you know, Bruce Lee, he's a great martial artist but also just a great philosophical might as well.

Oh, one of the best. I mean, that's if there's someone who's an avatar for the fusion of martial arts and philosophy.

And cultural boundaries too, because during that time, I mean, he's this Chinese man that's like, not really accepted, you know, within that culture from China, you know, and--

It's true.

And it's-- - It's really true.

It's cool, man. I mean, to be able to have that voice and have that confidence against all odds.

Yeah, man, and we're able to reflect it, both physically, spiritually, and mentally, so fucking cool. Yeah, man, I got you. I'll send you a couple of things that I think--

Cool.

That are geared for your persuasion. Yeah, fuck yeah. Cool, man. - Awesome, man.

Thanks again for doing it. I'll send you the file, probably clean this up tomorrow and send it to you tomorrow.

Oh, cool. What are you gonna post, do you think?

So I have one, two, probably not next week, probably the week after, so--

I just wanna make sure that I can post at the same time that you post.

Yeah, I mean, if there's a better time for you, I have like three recorded at this point that I'm planning on getting out. Next week, I have one in the backlog, so--

Whatever works for you, basically.

Yeah, I'll send it to you and we'll coordinate. There's no big deal either way, so.

Cool, man.

All right, thanks a lot for doing this.

All right, later, man.

All right, bye-bye.

All right, bye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Twinging in the backyard ♪ ♪ Up in your fast car ♪ ♪ With one hand ♪ ♪ Open up a beer ♪ ♪ And you stay good over here ♪ ♪ And play a video game ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Twinging in the backyard ♪ ♪ Up in your fast car ♪ ♪ With one hand ♪ ♪ Open up a beer ♪ ♪ And you stay good over here ♪ ♪ And play a video game ♪ ♪ Take a body downtown ♪ ♪ Take a body downtown ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Take a body downtown ♪ ♪ Take a body downtown ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

This is a little Lana Del Rey thing I put together, I don't know, like four years, whenever that album came out, right around that, maybe a little after, I like that, it's cool. I like video games too, so, you know, it's cool. Good episode with Yoshino, as promised. I have some other news that we'll be talking about, you know, relating to Yoshino coming forward. So if you enjoyed the episode, stay tuned for that. Yeah, that's it, rate and review podcast. If you want, donate, if you want, if you're so inclined, no big deal, if not, and yeah, I'll see you next week. The grill is shot. The chairs are held together by optimism, and what happened to the rug?

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