Jesse is not only my neighbor in bangkok, whenever he actually decides to live here, but he was one of the most influential people in my life last year.

The way I met him is quite unique: I got sent a youtube link to a CNBC interview he did on being an expat in Bangkok. Basically I had a weird amount of information about him, from him, but not really from him personally. It made me feel a bit like stalker.

Jesse originally hails from near Chicago, and like me, he ended up in Bangkok after a life nomadic punctuated by many other pitstops. It’s rare that I meet someone even higher on the non-normie scale than me, so this turns into a bit of a Q&A.

In this episode, we talk about: what this normie and non-normie scale is exactly, the benefits of shrug emoji parents, how to inject novelty into your everyday life, his ratio of internet friends, his Panama chapter, and the nomad versus expat life (and we clown my former guest and our mutual friend Mark Zhang a bit). Thanks Jesse!

My pal Mark returns, this time with a baby in tow!

It’s pretty great to be able to have a snapshot in time of someone’s life, before and after having a baby. You're welcome, Mark.

I’m realizing that is part of the appeal for recording these conversations for myself as well. They are moments and places in time that represent different phases in life, and the same exact type of intersections and relationships will never occur again. Damn, time is tough.

Let's consider this the fatherhood episode for the time being. As a reminder, Mark is the CEO of Manta Sleep, which produces the world’s greatest eye mask.

Among other things, we talk about: witnessing a childbirth, the life changing magic of the scheduled c-section, how to encourage out of the box thinking in kids, the fear-based nature of Asian families, his strange obsession with primal man and living like a caveman, being well rested because of his wife’s sacrifice, and the most religious moment of his life.

Thanks, Mark!

Once upon a time, I went to a co-working space in Taipei called the Hive, and that's where I met Jeff. It became immediately apparent that we had a lot in common, and we quickly built a ritual of talking about our shared perspectives over cheap sushi.

We talked about identity things, expat things, Taiwan things, exercise things… but in the end, we talked the most about two things: money, and life fulfillment. And this episode contains a lot of that.

Jeff is a BBC and has been living in Taipei for about a decade. Aside from people who have paid me money as an employee, he might be the person who has made me the most money in my life.

In this episode, we talk about the pursuit of ego in various phases of life, wanting to decapitate himself and replace his head with a white kid’s head, his adventures in therapy and self-identity, and why he thinks rock climbing is the perfect and most challenging sport.

Thanks, Jeff!

Jonathan is an unassuming guy, but hs is also impossible to not notice.

A 6’3 handsome MFer in Bangkok tends to turn heads. But also, I noticed his shirts and hats. I figured out that they were about his own brand - and I can usually tell because I also make my own shirts! 

But the thing you notice next besides Jonathan is the way he interacts, collects, and analyzes in conversation. It’s the type of stuff where you can just tell that someone is completely intent on engaging with the world. As Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living.

I met Jonathan at Soho House in Bangkok and he’s a former Team USA Track and field athlete, competing in the high jump, a business coach, and new nomad. As it turns out, being recruited to be on a Netflix reality dating show (take a guess which one), which was the kickstart for him to step out of the world of sport, and explore the actual world using Soho House locations as a compass. This guy is going places - both literally and figuratively. 

We talk about sacrifice, the benefits of 'coachability' in life and relationships, the concept of luck and the absence of control, the US culture of respect (or lack thereof), and Gen Z dating dynamics. Thanks, Jonathan!

Juan is one of my pals from Taiwan, and I knew of him before I met him because I had been using his website for months beforehand! He's the founder of taiwannutrition.com, and in more recent years, the founder of trueterral.com with his wife Sylvia. He’s been in Taiwan since his university days and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese.

Like most of my pals, his work is certainly the least interesting part of him. How about his two year forbidden and secret relationship with his wife when they first met? Or the poster he saw when he was 8 that influenced his entire relationship schema for life? Or how he plans to give his daughter a cultural attachment to Panama and Spanish?

This is my favorite type of conversation because it is inspiring… in the sense that i am inspired to action in a few ways. Journaling, better gut health, new longevity thoughts… it’s like a mini Andrew Huberman episode here. And I guess that’s because above all things, Juan is a tinkerer, and never really settles. He is the growth mindset in hombre form.

In this episode, we talk about how to instill curiosity and increase input in a person, the defensive nature of Panamanian society, the upcoming role of pickleball in his marriage, and he puts me in my place about gut health and sleep habits. 

Mel is what I would call a boomerang. The way I define it is growing up somewhere, going somewhere else, and then ultimately returning to that first place for… reasons. Perhaps belonging, or a lack of belonging. 

Mel is also a twinkie, which also requires a definition. A twinkie is someone who is Asian on the outside, but white on the inside. But Mel is also originally from Singapore, so hes got another yellow layer inside there.

Like many of my friends, I first met Mel on the dance floor. We danced, felt each other’s bodies, connected physically, and left with only a nod and lingering eye contact. A true one dance stand. And then about half a year later, I ended up at his rooftop for other dance related reasons and we had our first conversation.

Mel is one of my friends that feels the most like home, because we have west coast origins and have gone through similar paths and struggles to get to where we are now.

In this episode, we have a very wide range discussion on our life paths, the inflection points that made us who we are, the role of self-loathing and spite in shaping our goals, and both of our criminal histories. Thanks, Mel!

The picture doesn't match the name, does it?

Reina is a pal that, when we first met, we didn’t talk at all. That's because she is a dance friend from Tokyo, and we met on the dance floor at a of the Latin dance festival in Tokyo.

Reina immediately stood out because of her a... rms. It sounds strange, but if I see someone that’s obviously into fitness, I can guess with a high degree of accuracy the things that we probably have in common. One of my theories about people is that they tend to come in packages, or sets of values that come together more often than not. And so, Reina is a dancer, learns languages, works for herself, is a future digital nomad in Europe - some similarities here for sure. 

In this episode, we talk about all of those things, in addition to: the adulterous nature of Japanese marriages, how she certainly doesn’t fit the checklist for a typical Japanese man, how to contextually know if a Japanese person is rejecting you, and we pick up a few interesting Japanese phrases along the way. Thanks, Reina!

In this episode, I interview my pal Lisa. I also occasionally just call her hair; just take a look at the picture.

I met Lisa at a dance festival in Chiang Mai, but it wasn’t until I moved to Bangkok that we became good friends, and even dance co-teachers. Her first words to me were “I’m not a bitch, I swear!” so it was obvious that this friendship was going to blossom. When I first moved to Thailand, I had a list of goals, for example find a social circle, find a Thai tutor, etc. One of the other goals was to organize bachata events and possibly teach in Bangkok, and we completely bonded over that similar ambition because we moved here around the same time.

Lisa teaches dance and is a personal trainer, which means she spends her entire life in yoga pants. Mark my words, she will probably be one of the most well known dancers in Asia in a couple of years.

Lisa is a golden retriever. That means she is relentlessly positive, cheerful, and sweet to everyone she meets, and we discuss why that’s a double-edged sword sometimes in her life. We also talk about red flags in dating, the fancy new words she learned from her past relationship, beauty standards in asia, and the unique dance scene in Thailand. Thanks, Lisa!