Travel Wisdom Podcast -travel and learn languages for success and money

Mike Bown’s Essay “Skins of Ill-Shaped Fishes” Details How Human Society and Its Core Values Have Evolved

Jake Steiner used to have severe myopia (shortsightedness) and wore glasses with a very extreme refractive power. However, he has overcome his myopia on his own, and he now teaches others how to do so as well. In this episode, he talks about how lenses can actually worsen myopia over time, and how to restore your eyes’ functionality by changing habits and lifestyle choices. Top three takeaways: The eye will adjust its axial length based on what it sees in the environment. Placing a lens in front of the eye will cause the eye to adjust and change its axial length, which will alter its focal length. In this sense, minus lenses can potentially induce myopia by causing the eye to elongate more and more. Myopia is not a medical condition, but a refractive state. The eyeball elongates because there is a lens in front of it. People who have myopia have healthy eyes whose axial length has the ability to shorten back to its normal length. The word shortsighted is used both literally and metaphorically, and when used metaphorically, it can refer to the things that can make us literally shortsighted. Due to the culture of instant gratification and quick fixes, it is easier to go out and buy a corrective lens than it is to reduce screen time and change bad habits that strain your eyes. 

Jake Steiner Discusses Myopia and How Habit Changes Rather than Lenses Are the Best Way to Overcome It

Derek Loudermilk is the host of the Art of Adventure Podcast, a podcast that teaches about leading an adventurous life. In this episode, Derek and Ladan catch up and interview each other about what they’ve been up to recently and what they’ve learned from their adventures. Top three takeaways: When traveling abroad, you not only gain a new set of skills related to independence, but you also understand how the world truly works beyond your hometown. As an example, one may start off as having social or liberal points of view, but may have a different informed opinion upon seeing how those ideologies work in practice. There are a lot of interesting theories about dreams and how you can control them. One of these involves lucid dreaming and how you can control your dreams to help you solve real problems. By tasking your subconscious mind with focusing on a certain issue before falling asleep, you can potentially train your mind to help you interpret the issue better and make a clear decision. As people, we are our own worst critics. However, one thing that Ladan and Derek have learned is that if you are confident, competent, and follow up on your word, you’ll go very far in life and things will work out in the end. And above all, the universe never gives you anything you can’t handle. 

Derek Loudermilk and Ladan Catch Up and Discuss What They’ve Learned in Recent Times From Their Life Adventures

Luca Fantuzzi is an Italian citizen who has recently returned to Italy from the US in light of the coronavirus outbreak. Italy is one of the countries most strongly affected by the outbreak, and Fantuzzi has gone back to be with family. In this episode, he discusses his recent experiences traveling and observing how this outbreak has affected Italy. Top three takeaways: Fantuzzi had some family friends who recently contracted the virus, and it was at this point that he realized the gravity of this situation. You understand best the effects of the outbreak once it affects you or someone in your family. This is an interesting situation in that some people are effectively displaced from work, whereas others are working twice as hard, in particular people in the healthcare industry. This ultimately depends on your profession and whether it is considered “essential business”. The best thing to do in this situation is stay home and not interact with too many people. Staying home is the best way to be “generous” and help in this situation. Even though this means not going and hanging out with friends, it is much more beneficial to just stay home and spend time with family. 

Luca Fantuzzi Discusses His Experience Witnessing the Effects of the COVID-19 Outbreak

Inés Ruiz Navarro is a teacher of Spanish language and translation. In this episode, she explains how she uses meditation to help students learn and retain language more effectively and in a more positive way. Top three takeaways: When learning language through meditation, visualize someone you know, keep the image in your head, keep breathing, and describe the physical characteristics of the person in the new language. The whole thing has a positive effect since you learn while remaining calm and not worrying about mispronouncing or saying the wrong words. Meditation comes in many distinct forms, but in this context, it refers to a space where students can relax and enter a more positive mode of thinking, while simultaneously being active and responsive. This method of learning language can potentially be applied to other subjects, such as math and chemistry, as the method of meditation combats the anxiety that comes with learning a new subject. 

Inés Ruiz Navarro Discusses Using Meditation to Aid in Learning a Language

Tamara Marie is a certified language coach who uses songs to teach language. She has developed a course called Spanish Con Salsa, which teaches Spanish through interactive lessons and uses Spanish songs to aid in retention of the learned material. In this episode, she discusses how she came to find music as an effective tool for learning languages, as well as how to best use music to learn more in-depth about a language. Top three takeaways: Using music to aid in learning a language can also expose the learner to the culture, dialect, and various accents a language is spoken in, and can teach a language beyond merely the grammar that is taught in a school setting. One should take a targeted approach when learning language from songs. This involves sitting down with song for a while, taking it section by section, identifying unknown words, and slowing down the song to better understand them. The sleep process consolidates memory, so take breaks and don’t try to cram all in one session. When listening to the song later, you will notice and recognize a lot more of vocabulary and speech patterns of native speakers. When learning a language, it is important to be aware of the region you live in and how native speakers within that region tend to speak and enunciate words based on where they come from. For example, when learning Spanish, people who live in the southwest US would be better off learning the Mexican accent. 

Tamara Marie Discusses Learning Languages Through Music

Lawrence Leyton is a therapist who has helped people overcome fears. In this episode, Ladan interviews Lawrence Leyton and one of his clients, Mark Wein, whom Leyton has helped to overcome his fear of flying. Lawrence Leyton and Mark Wein have since created a course to help people overcome the fear of flying. In this episode, they discuss the fear of flying in detail, what it is, and how it affects people’s lives. Top three takeaways: People don’t realize how small the risk of being involved in an aircraft accident is. There is a higher chance of dying from falling down stairs or being kicked by a donkey than there is of dying in a plane crash. However, the fear of flying often stems from the perception of a plane crash, rather than the actual statistics. A phobic creates fear by concentrating on the worst-case scenario of a situation. Whereas most people would view a vacation as a positive experience, a phobic person focuses on what can go wrong, like for instance the plane crashing on the way to their destinations. Sometimes after gaining new major responsibilities, such as having children, people become more conscious about the risks they take. In the case of flying, people worry more about being involved in a plane crash and not being able to be there for their children. 

Lawrence Leyton and Mark Wein Discuss the Fear of Flying

In this episode, Ladan discusses his trip to China. He discusses the sights he saw, the experiences he’s had, as well as how China is modernizing. Top three takeaways: A lot of China’s advancements, such as the proliferation of electric vehicles, bullet trains, and more modern ways of paying for goods and services (such as facial recognition) are mostly a matter of the last 3 or so years. China is not a democratic country, as is clearly illustrated by the “Great Firewall”, which censors the internet for its citizens. VPNs are required to access common sites such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. However, the lack of democracy may be how China is able to advance so quickly without much hindrance. The best way to know what a country is truly like is to go and see it for yourself. Propaganda and hearsay do not paint the true picture of what a country is like. By visiting China, one can see how modern and advanced they truly are. GoogleFi: 7CKFM4 (Save $20)

A visit to China shows its sights and history as well as its advancements and modernizations

David Wood is a coach who teaches people to have tough conversations. These conversations are the most important things you can do otherwise you will repeat the thing you didn't want to happen over and over.

Tough Conversations coach David Wood on consequences for actions and getting kicked out of Bali

After a long hiatus here is my first episode talking about my trip to Thailand this summer

My summer trip part 1, Thailand and where I went for the summer

Shawn Paris has spent the last 4 years of his life essentially homeless. He has stayed with around 200 couchsurfing hosts in the US, France and Japan while going around and performing. I hosted him for a few days and we ended up talking about the benefits of living like this. I had done something similar in 2017 and although I got sick of it after a year, it definitely had its benefits.  It is definitely possible to save rent money or money on a mortgage and spend that on travel instead.

4 years of constant Couchsurfing with Shawn Paris

I talk to my friend here in Gainesville, Joe Uong. We met because of his great language ability in German which he had only been learning a few months. His secret was using a service called Lingoda. Here they offer group language lessons in German, French, Spanish, or Business English. You have a teacher and go through specific language lessons with up to 4 other students via a video Zoom meeting. Joe ended up doing their quarterly language half Marathon where you if you complete 15 hour-long classes per month for 3 months then you get half of the 109 euro (~$122) monthly course fee refunded!! For the language full Marathon you would get all of the 219 euro (~$245) monthly charge refunded if you completed 30 hour-long courses!!! You can get free language lessons! Joe and I talk about the service and some of the benefits over using a free service like Duolingo. Each has its purpose. I ended up using Lingoda for the half Marathon also and I really ended up enjoying how much my language learning improved.   Get a $75 discount off the first month using the code G-7CEA3R This also gives me a few free lessons, everyone wins!

Lingoda gives live language lessons which can be for free, with Joe Uong

I met Tom at a conference last year and we really hit it off because of both of our travels. Turns out he travelled all around the world many decades ago when the world was a different place. He was able to go to Iraq, Afghanistan, and saw India as a different place than it is now. This conversation was very interesting to see how things have changed over the last few decades. It was also interesting to see the change in him, going from travelling hippy to successful in his profession.

Traveling the world in the 70s like a hippy with Tom Hughes

Mikkel Thorup is the host of the Expat Money Show where he talks about the advantages of setting up many of life's things abroad.  "PROTECT THE MONEY YOU WORKED SO HARD TO EARN FROM AMBULANCE CHASING LAWYERS, NEFARIOUS CREDITORS AND GREEDY UNJUST GOVERNMENTS"

The advantages of setting up life and business abroad with Mikkel Thorup

It was a pleasure to talk to Casey Fenton, the founder of Couchsurfing again. We had met a year ago in Bali but with a tight schedule and us celebrating his 40th birthday we never ended up recording an episode at that time.  Luckily, he is now writing a book about his experiences building my favorite community for travel. Couchsurfing allows you to stay with strangers for free while travelling and its all backed on a review system that makes sure you stay safe. I've used it over 100 times and I have to say that some of my best friendships have come from the site!

The Founder of Couchsurfing on what all went into building such a great community

Can travel be more than just a fun thing to do? Could it also provide some benefit and learning experiences later in life? I have always thought this and this is why I have relentlessly travelled the world and now have been to over 80 countries. I have always thought that I was planting the seeds of wisdom while in faraway lands. Through experiences with foreign people, cultures, concepts, and ways of doing things I learned much more than anything I could've done while at home. I interview amazing guests, bestselling authors, scientists, successful business people, dating experts, travel junkies, polyglots (people who speak more than 3 languages), and anybody who I think is interesting for the growth of our listeners and I as people. I think by doing this we can plant the seeds of wisdom which will ultimately lead to our success in career, business, money, relationships, self-worth, and generally being a more well-rounded person. But it requires you to be active making this happen. What do you think?

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Travel Wisdom Podcast -travel and learn languages for succes...

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