Best Exploring Kodawari Podcasts (2024)

1
Revisiting Kodawari (#39) 39:50

1y ago39:50

39:50

In this episode—especially since it has been so long since our last one—we decided to revisit the concept of kodawari and how it has changed for us over the three years of doing this podcast/blog. Over time we encounter more knowledge and have more life experiences. And as we attempt to integrate those into a coherent life philosophy, our ideas abo…

1
The Hedonic Treadmill: Exploring Happiness , Meaning, and Hedonic Adaptation (#38) 53:44

1+ y ago53:44

53:44

“‘I shall take the heart,’ returned the Tin Woodsman; ‘for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.’” —L. Frank Baum The topic of this episode is happiness and hedonic adaptation, otherwise known as the hedonic treadmill. Hedonic adaptation is a phenomenon of our psychology and physiology that keeps us at a stable…

1
Chad Goodman: The Art of Orchestral Conducting (#37) 1:10:32

2y ago1:10:32

1:10:32

In this episode, we explore the art of orchestral conducting with guest Chad Goodman. Chad is currently the conducting fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, and he has also had fellowships at Festival Napa Valley and the Atlantic Music Festival. Since 2018, he has served as an assistant conductor to the San Francisco Symphony, and he als…

1
Contending With Nihilism Part 2: Meaning in the Face of Absurdity (#36) 43:05

2+ y ago43:05

43:05

"Written fifteen years ago, in 1940, amid the French and European disaster, this book declares that even within the limits of nihilism it is possible to find the means to proceed beyond nihilism. In all the books I have written since, I have attempted to pursue this direction. Although “The Myth of Sisyphus” poses mortal problems, it sums itself up…

1
Contending With Nihilism Part 1: The Meaning Crisis (#35) 45:31

2+ y ago45:31

45:31

“What does nihilism mean? That the highest values devaluate themselves. The aim is lacking; 'why?' finds no answer.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power This episode, Part 1 of our exploration of nihilism, gets into the justifications for nihilism and why it's important to give nihilism its due as a philosophy. We discuss Nietzsche and existent…

1
What Is Metacognition? Mindfulness, Meta-Awareness, and Other Metacognitive Strategies (#34) 59:27

2+ y ago59:27

59:27

What is metacognition? Metacognition is a modern term coined in 1979 by the American developmental psychologist John H. Flavell. He defined it as “cognition about cognitive phenomena,” or “thinking about thinking”. But the concept of metacognition has been around long before that in philosophy. "Meta", meaning beyond or above, signals that metacogn…

1
Understanding Stoicism: Stoic Psychological Techniques for Living a Better Life (#33) 39:30

2+ y ago39:30

39:30

"Many of us have been persuaded that happiness is something that someone else, a therapist or a politician, must confer on us. Stoicism rejects this notion. It teaches us that we are very much responsible for our happiness as well as our unhappiness. It also teaches us that it is only when we assume responsibility for our happiness that we will hav…

1
Understanding Stoicism as a Philosophy of Life (#32) 53:03

2+ y ago53:03

53:03

"Remember: Matter. How tiny your share of it. Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate. How small a role you play in it." —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Stoicism as a philosophy is not the same as being lowercase s stoical. It is not about blocking our difficult feelings and emotions. Instead, Stoicism is an approach to life that teac…

1
#31: Violinist Katherine Bormann of The Cleveland Orchestra 1:06:59

3y ago1:06:59

1:06:59

This episode is our conversation with Katherine Bormann, a violinist with The Cleveland Orchestra since 2011. Katherine has degrees from Rice University and The Juilliard School and studied with Kathleen Winkler, Joel Smirnoff, and Ronald Copes. She has made appearances at Strings Music Festival, Mainly Mozart Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Ta…

1
#30: Chaos and Order, Yin and Yang—The Ultimate Mental Model of Reality 1:13:30

3y ago1:13:30

1:13:30

We recently published a new page on our website organizing all of our mental models (aka mental frameworks) into one place. We explain what a mental model is and how you can use them to better understand the world. Mental Frameworks: Your Toolbox For Thinking More Clearly In short, mental models are ways of thinking that help to simplify the world.…

1
#29: Author Terry Tucker—How to Embrace Suffering and Find Purpose in Life 1:10:51

3y ago1:10:51

1:10:51

In this episode, we speak with author and motivational speaker Terry Tucker. Terry has lived all over the country and worked in many different fields. After playing NCAA Division I basketball in college, he worked in a marketing department and as a hospital administrator. After that, he worked as a police officer, both as a SWAT Hostage Negotiator …

1
#28: Music and Life Wisdom with Trumpeter Scott Moore 1:11:34

3y ago1:11:34

1:11:34

For this episode, we were joined by trumpet player Scott Moore, who has been principal trumpet of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra since 1988. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. He has also recorded and performed with the Nashville Chamber Orches…

1
#27: Robin Hanson, Hidden Motives, and The Elephant in the Brain 1:15:02

3y ago1:15:02

1:15:02

“At every single stage [of processing information]—from its biased arrival, to its biased encoding, to organizing it around false logic, to misremembering and then misrepresenting it to others—the mind continually acts to distort information flow in favor of the usual goal of appearing better than one really is.” —Robert Trivers In this episode, I …

1
#26: Communication And The Origins Of Language 1:07:17

3y ago1:07:17

1:07:17

"Any model of communication is at the same time a model of trans-lation, of a vertical or horizontal transfer of significance. No two historical epochs, no two social classes, no two localities use words and syntax to signify exactly the same things, to send identical signals of valuation and inference. Neither do two human beings [...] Thus a huma…

1
#25: Behavioral Scientist Dr. Kurt Nelson—Why We Do What We Do 1:06:55

3y ago1:06:55

1:06:55

Why do people do what they do? This fascinating question is the foundation of behavioral science, and in this episode, we speak about exactly that with behavioral scientist Dr. Kurt Nelson. Kurt has a Ph.D. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology and is the founder of The Lantern Group, which uses behavioral science to help optimize companies and…

1
#24: The Psychology of New Year's Resolutions 1:19:12

3y ago1:19:12

1:19:12

We are finally back! Sorry for the delay in getting episodes out—we just moved from New York to Florida and couldn't find the time to podcast. But we are settled in now, and for our first episode of 2021, we decided to tackle the psychology of new year's resolutions. Why do we make new year's resolutions, and why do so few of us actually keep them?…

1
Holiday Bonus: The Psychedelic History of Santa 1:28:45

3+ y ago1:28:45

1:28:45

This bonus/end of the year holiday episode is a looser and more fun episode all about the psychedelic mushroom history of Santa Claus. According to this theory, our modern Santa is based on ancient shamans in the Scandinavian and Siberian regions who would pass out hallucinogenic mushrooms on the winter solstice. While it is just a theory, it does …

1
#23: Brandon Dicks—Social Media, Composition, and Making Music Online 1:04:52

3+ y ago1:04:52

1:04:52

In this episode, we speak with composer, arranger, and trumpet player Brandon Dicks. Brandon is currently pursuing a doctorate in Trumpet Performance at Arizona State University, but he caught my attention with his impressive videography skills on his Youtube channel. Brandon arranges just about any type of music for trumpet ensemble—for example, h…

1
#22: Is the Self an Illusion? 1:05:27

3+ y ago1:05:27

1:05:27

The answer to whether or not the self is an illusion is tricky—it really depends on what you mean by both self and illusion. In this episode, we challenge the sense of self that we all feel from the first-person subjective experience. We all feel like we are riding around inside of our heads looking out at the world. We don't feel like we are ident…

1
#21: The Art of the Short Story with Joe Labriola 1:24:06

3+ y ago1:24:06

1:24:06

“The well-told story seems to answer something very deep in our nature as if, for the duration of its telling, something special has been created, some essence of our experience extrapolated, some temporary sense has been made of our common, turbulent journey towards the grave and oblivion.” —William Boyd Our mission for this episode was to capture…

1
#20: The Meaning of Marriage 1:12:58

3+ y ago1:12:58

1:12:58

The first evidence of marriage ceremonies dates back to 2350 BC in ancient Mesopotamia, and since then cultures around the world have had their various interpretations of this practice. So in this episode, we (Luke and Yankı) have a conversation about the meaning of marriage—both specifically for us but also more generally as a cultural phenomenon.…

1
#19: Stephen Hill on Addiction, Speak Sobriety, and His Journey to Recovery 1:10:40

3+ y ago1:10:40

1:10:40

This episode is our conversation with the speaker, author, and advocate for sobriety Stephen Hill. Stephen suffered from addiction for over a decade and his life was out of control. But in 2012 he began a journey to recovery, and on September 30th 2020 he celebrated eight years of sobriety. He also started an organization called Speak Sobriety wher…

1
#18: Software Engineer Drew Shapiro—Understanding the Technology of Sound (Part 2) 46:11

3+ y ago46:11

46:11

This episode is Part 2 of our conversation with software engineer Drew Shapiro. If you stumbled into this episode before hearing Part 1, I recommend going one episode back and listening to that one first...it will be kind of hard to connect the dots of where we land in this episode without hearing Part 1 first. In this part, we continue to analyze …

1
#17: Software Engineer Drew Shapiro—Understanding the Technology of Sound (Part 1) 1:03:05

3+ y ago1:03:05

1:03:05

This episode can be summed up with two competing quotes: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!” The first quote is by the famous science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. The second quote is unknown, but points out that the spell books for such magi…

1
#16—Trumpeter Chris Coletti (Part 2) 50:22

3+ y ago50:22

50:22

This episode is Part 2 of our conversation with trumpeter Chris Coletti. If you haven't already, you can listen to Part 1 of the conversation here. In Part 2, we get a bit more geekier about trumpet specific topics. We talk about sound production, flexibility, and the difficulties of teaching trumpet. But if you're not a trumpet player, don't worry…

1
#15—Trumpeter Chris Coletti (Part 1) 55:41

3+ y ago55:41

55:41

For this episode, we were joined by internationally acclaimed trumpet player Chris Coletti. Chris is most well known for his ten years of playing with the famous Canadian Brass which he left in 2019. More recently, he has become an Assistant Professor at Ithaca College School of Music. In the episode, we discussed many topics music and otherwise. W…

1
#14—Game of Thrones Philosophy: Oaths, Honor, Duty, and Love 1:23:11

3+ y ago1:23:11

1:23:11

When is it okay to break an oath? How do we deal with the tension between honor and duty on the one hand versus love and doing the right thing on the other? This episode is essentially a conversation about life philosophy, and we tried to answer difficult questions such as those. Specifically, we did this by examining the concepts of oaths, honor, …

1
#13—Violinist Emre Engin 1:20:30

3+ y ago1:20:30

1:20:30

In this episode, we sat down with Turkish violinist Emre Engin. Emre is the recipient of many awards and he's an active soloist in both the US and Turkey. Although we both come from Turkey, we did not actually meet officially and become friends until meeting at Stony Brook University in New York, where he and I are both completing doctorate degrees…

1
#12—Dr. John Sarno, TMS, and the Psychological Roots of Chronic Pain 1:21:31

3+ y ago1:21:31

1:21:31

The topic of this episode is the work of Dr. John Sarno and his theory of TMS or Tension Myoneural Syndrome. This is a diagnosis for people with chronic pain, especially lower back pain, for whom no physical cause or explanation of their pain could be found. The concept is basically that unconscious emotional issues, primarily anger, manifests itse…

1
#11: Dr. Justin Waller on Musician Identity, COVID-19, and Finding Purpose in Life 1:41:09

3+ y ago1:41:09

1:41:09

Our guest for this episode was Dr. Justin Waller, a fantastic trombone player based in the Southeastern United States. He is currently serving as the Lecturer of Trombone at East Tennessee State University, and has performed and recorded with such groups as the American Brass Quintet, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Huntsville Symphony Orchestr…

1
#10—The Craft of Craft Beer with Johnny Labriola 1:46:32

3+ y ago1:46:32

1:46:32

In this episode, we talked about the science and art of craft beer with our good friend and home brewer extraordinaire Johnny Labriola. Johnny got into craft beer and home brewing around 5 years ago, and since then he has fallen headfirst into the craft beer rabbit hole. We talked about the science of brewing—malt, hops, fermentation—as well as the…

1
#9: John-Thomas Burson—Being a Musician During COVID-19 1:13:16

3+ y ago1:13:16

1:13:16

Our guest for this episode was Los Angeles based trumpet performer, composer/arranger, and teaching artist John-Thomas (“JT”) Burson. JT has collaborated/performed with Chicago’s Fulcrum Point New Music Project, the Flauto d'Amore Project, Festival Napa Valley, Aspen Music Festival, Sunset Blvd Brass, and the Georgia Symphony Orchestra. In the epis…

1
#8: Bassist Keenan Zach—A Conversation About Jazz, Meditation, and Enlightenment 1:17:45

3+ y ago1:17:45

1:17:45

Our guest for this episode is the double bass player Keenan Zach. We've known Keenan for years, and we've seen him perform countless times—he's a fantastic musician and an overall inspiring person. Keenan plays both jazz and classical music, and he's currently pursuing his doctorate at Stony Brook University. So we begin the conversation by asking …

1
#7: Stephen McLean—Music, Meaning, and Mindfulness 1:33:07

3+ y ago1:33:07

1:33:07

In this episode, we talk to friend and trumpet colleague Stephen McLean. Stephen is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts at Stony Brook University, and he's also beginning his teacher certification for Alexander Technique this year. And like us, Stephen is also an avid meditator and is geeky about philosophy and psychology. So our conversa…

1
#6—The Wim Hof Method 49:31

4y ago49:31

49:31

Wim Hof, also known as "The Iceman", is a Dutch man who's set many world records in the area of cold exposure. These include swimming under the ice of a frozen lake 57.5 meters, running a half marathon on ice and snow without any shoes, and climbing Mount Everest in nothing but shorts. And through his method, he has taught thousands of other people…

1
#5—Beach Cleaning with Joe Labriola 1:13:38

4y ago1:13:38

1:13:38

Our guest for this episode is our good friend Joe Labriola. His main job is teaching writing and rhetoric at Stony Brook University, but he also spends countless hours walking up and down the local beaches to pick up trash. This type of beach cleaning is helpful to the local environment and to ocean health in general, but it also fits in perfectly …

1
#4—The Perfect Cocktail 1:30:53

4y ago1:30:53

1:30:53

In this episode, we were joined by our good friend Kevin. Kevin is one of those people that gets good at pretty much whatever he puts his mind too. He's an amazing jazz saxophone player, he roasts and sells coffee from his garage, and he cooks insanely delicious food. But his main endeavor for the past number of years has been craft cocktails, and …

1
#3—Baroque Trumpet Specialist Kris Kwapis 1:12:54

4y ago1:12:54

1:12:54

Our guest for this episode is someone who definitely exudes the kodawari energy. Her name is Kris Kwapis, and she is an expert in early music and the baroque trumpet. She appears regularly as a soloist and principal trumpet in period-instrument ensembles across North America, and she teaches baroque trumpet at Indiana University's Jacobs School of …

1
#2⁠—Composer Nathan Hudson 1:19:20

4y ago1:19:20

1:19:20

In this episode, we were joined by our good friend and accomplished composer Nathan Hudson. He holds a BM in Trumpet Performance from the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, an MA in Composition from Stony Brook University, and a PhD also from Stony Brook University (read his full bio here). We talked about what it means to major i…

1
#1—What is Kodawari? 1:10:39

4y ago1:10:39

1:10:39

Welcome to the very first episode of Exploring Kodawari! In this particular episode, we work through the definition of kodawari and our motivation for starting a podcast. The short version is that coronavirus rendered us stuck at home , and as classical musicians, all of our concerts and performances were canceled. It's now three months later and i…

1
Welcome to Exploring Kodawari 1:43

4y ago1:43

1:43

Welcome to our new podcast Exploring Kodawari! We are two classical musicians, and we feel that the open conversation style of a podcast is the perfect way to think out loud, make new connections, and continue on the path of self development. We will be deep-diving into various topics as well as interviewing others who approach their life with the …

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Exploring Kodawari Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide