Best Terry McMullen Podcasts (2024)

1
"Family" - Tony Losacco 1:04:26

10M ago1:04:26

1:04:26

These conversations are hard. I've listened back to this one a number of times and the only thing I can keep thinking is "nuance." These discussions are nuanced, these topics are nuanced, life is nuanced. On the one hand I feel like this is all we can do, have an open conversation with someone, hear their thoughts, ask questions, and try to underst…

1
"The power of philosophy to heal society" - Nikos Patedakis 55:00

10M ago55:00

55:00

"Philosophy is actually the end of abstractions." Wow, what a statement to think about. How different our approach to life might become if we embrace that thought. How much more reflective and humble we might become. This conversation with Nikos was full of interesting and insightful thoughts. We talked philosophy, biology, evolution, psychology, a…

1
"Everything is always my fault" - Chad Wittfeldt 42:27

10M ago42:27

42:27

Chad is a successful business person who now works to help coach others on how to be successful. What's super interesting about Chad is that: 1. He has some spiritual and religious values that underpin a lot of his thinking and his goals in life. 2. On the surface, he can seem like a bit of a "finance bro" who overemphasizes his masculinity and his…

1
"There is more to life than we realize" - Cory Rosenke 46:55

11M ago46:55

46:55

Cory is an author and a pastor, who has a deep faith in God. He believes that it is only through God that we can fulfill our inherent cravings and live a happy, peaceful, meaningful life. He has written a book, The Magnetic Heart of God - Understanding the Five Cravings of Your Soul. We spent this conversation exploring Cory's understanding of thos…

1
"Understanding that your reason is everything" - Kamal X 53:52

11M ago53:52

53:52

Kamal is a photographer who wanted to capture the essence of what really was happening in America in 2020. He wanted to use photography to let all of the division, hate, fear, anger, sorrow, love, compassion, and humanity show its true self--the true story of what was underneath it all. As you'll hear, he is also just a really authentic, thoughtful…

1
"Finding the truth" - Dana Diaz 40:33

11M ago40:33

40:33

Dana has experienced a lot of trauma and abuse in her life by narcissists. From a young age she dealt with it from her mother and step father and even later in life at the hands of her ex-husband. She spent so much time struggling with this form of physical, verbal, and psychological abuse that it made her question the reality she was living in. As…

1
"Reducing the number of mass shootings in America" - Gerald Schoenewolf 54:35

11M ago54:35

54:35

Gerald is a psychoanalyst, who has studied human behavior for a long time. He has used that expertise to formulate hypotheses about social issues, like feminism, civil rights, and most recently mass shootings in America. Some of his views have been called insensitive or offensive. For example, in trying to explore how to stop mass shootings, one of…

1
"Balance between our 'prosocial' and 'solo actor' parts" - Kent Weishaus 47:41

11M ago47:41

47:41

My guest, Kent, believes humanity is in a crisis but he is very optimistic that we have the tools and knowledge to overcome that crisis. Much of the problem is rooted in our attachments (or lack thereof) during childhood. We are all damaged children who grow up to become damaged adults and the work Kent is doing is to help us figure out how to heal…

1
"Free will doesn't exist" - Olga Tymofiyeva 56:09

12M ago56:09

56:09

Olga has a belief that free will doesn't exist. This belief isn't rooted in spirituality or intuition, it is deeply rooted in science and reason. Olga believes if people understood that free doesn't exist, it would actually inspire us to be more humble, more caring, and increase our overall quality of life. These conversations are so rich with good…

1
"Fixing our economic systems" - Christopher Ellingsworth 1:00:55

12M ago1:00:55

1:00:55

Chris has a bold belief that he understands the issues with our current economic systems, the ways they are hurting society and the earth, and what needs to be done to fix them. His work, with his non-profit (The Foundation of New World), is meant to build awareness and drive people to implement these fixes. At the root of the problem, Chris believ…

1
"Humanity" - Hajar Yazdiha 57:12

12M ago57:12

57:12

Hajar cares deeply about humanity. She believes in humanity and that we can figure out ways to stop finding reasons to divide ourselves, causing suffering, and hating one another. She is also knowledgable enough to know that it won't be easy. That's why she's dedicated her life as a professor and author to try to better understand humanity and figu…

1
"Incentivize people to grow their perspective" - Radell Lewis 1:01:11

12M ago1:01:11

1:01:11

Radell's mission is to have authentic conversations, expand people's perspectives, and find a way out of the toxic political discourse that exists in our world today. He hopes to use his podcast (https://www.purplepoliticalbreakdown.com) to show people that you can use logic, reason, and understanding to work through some of the most complex and nu…

1
"Love and God" - Troy Hadeed 1:01:28

12M ago1:01:28

1:01:28

There are some conversations, where you feel like you are truly examining the human experience; not for any specific reason, but just because both people are so fascinated with understanding. This discussion with Troy (https://troyhadeed.com/) was a beautiful, deep look into what this existence is really all about. Neither of us would be so naive t…

1
"Freedom" Frank Salvato 53:43

12M ago53:43

53:43

I am not there yet, I know that. I want to be able to have conversations with people, like my guest Frank, and actually get to the root of it. I want to be able to understand what makes people see the world so differently. I want to understand what makes one person think racism and the aftermath of slavery still loom large in our country, whereas a…

1
"Being open to change" - Sean Robinson 51:03

1y ago51:03

51:03

Sean, at one time in his life, was angry, overweight, drinking too much, and not the person he wanted to be in life. There were various reasons for these issues, but if you had to sum them up, it was that he never really believed he was capable of anything different. Sean was raised a certain way and started to form certain beliefs/habits that seem…

1
What's the value of being cynical? 23:31

1y ago23:31

23:31

A solo session where I reflect on some of the things I am learning, examine the value of cynicism, and explore how we (humans) might be better.

1
"Sentientism" - Jamie Woodhouse 1:01:03

1y ago1:01:03

1:01:03

Jamie is developing a philosophy called sentientism (as hard to write as it is to say), which is based on the idea of using evidence and reason to determine what living beings are sentient and then showing compassion for them. This is one of those concepts that seems so obvious and hard to argue, until you get into the weeds of it. As with any phil…

1
"The Importance of Western Philosophy" - Daniel Sanderson 1:00:18

1y ago1:00:18

1:00:18

Daniel is a philosopher with a strongly held belief that western philosophy is one of the most important contributions in the history of humanity. This is obviously directly in my wheel house so I was excited for this discussion, although I know for some people deep philosophical conversations can feel abstract or tough to follow. For that reason I…

1
"Remembering our history to improve our future" - Dale Hutchinson 39:46

1y ago39:46

39:46

Dale is someone who is concerned that America is forgetting its history and as a result is dooming its future. He has a strong belief in his faith and because of that he feels compelled to speak out and take action to try to help. I do this show to have conversations with people that have strong opinions or viewpoints, because I want to take the ti…

1
"Libertarianism" - Brian McWilliams 58:02

1y ago58:02

58:02

Brian is a strong believer in libertarianism and the idea that both parties have their obvious flaws therefore the only thing that makes sense is minimizing government and allowing people to be free to be who they want to be. The idea of libertarianism is always intriguing to me theory, so it was really interesting to pressure test and examine what…

1
"Virtue (through conservatism)" - Josh Lewis 1:03:24

1y ago1:03:24

1:03:24

Josh is a podcaster and blogger (https://www.savingelephantsblog.com/) who has a strong belief in the tradition of conservatism in America. He believes being virtuous is the most important thing we can do and his conservative philosophy suggests, more often than not, the most virtuous thing we can do is not try to drive radical change. There are ti…

1
"Questioning our hidden racial biases" - Daniel Balmer 53:37

1y ago53:37

53:37

My guest, Daniel, refers to himself as a recovering racist. As he puts it, "I acknowledge that I have held racist beliefs in the past, but I am committed to unlearning them and becoming an anti-racist. I strive to constantly examine my thoughts and actions for any signs of prejudice and take steps to address them." There are a ton of interesting as…

1
"The role of government in protecting children" - Lance Hillsinger 48:53

1y ago48:53

48:53

There are not a lot of topics more important than protecting abused or suffering children. Lance spent most of his career as a child welfare worker and has also wrote two books on the topic. He started the episode by discussing the importance, but also the challenges, of government being responsible for making decisions about the well being of chil…

1
"Fixing schools to allow kids to be creative and entrepreneurial" - Lauren Goldstein 49:10

1y ago49:10

49:10

My guest, Lauren, feels very strongly that kids need to be able to explore, be curious, be creative, and think more like entrepreneurs. She also feels very strongly that our current school system is not allowing kids these opportunities and that is a big problem. This isn't a new sentiment, but it was really interesting to explore this issue and wh…

1
"Getting a college degree" - Johnathan Drayton 58:49

1y ago58:49

58:49

Johnathan has been on the show once before, in season 1, but wanted to come back for season 2 to talk about his strongly held belief on the importance of getting a college degree. His view is that although there are plenty of reasons (many of them good reasons) to not go to college anymore, there are always pro and cons to everything; and the pros …

1
"Importance of being a career shapeshifter" - Mustafa Ammar 52:03

1y ago52:03

52:03

Mustafa has worked as an investment banker, a diplomat, and pharmacist, and now as an author and coach (https://thepassionmba.com/). He has intentionally chosen to change careers, or be a career shapeshifter, because he believes that is what life is about. As he said it, "we are not on this earth to pay bills and die." It only makes sense to push y…

1
"The importance of listening to mental health professionals" - Elaine Belson 1:24:32

1y ago1:24:32

1:24:32

This was probably the most contentious conversation I've had since I've been doing this show. That is somewhat expected given the format change for season 2, but I would honestly love for you the listeners to decide where this conversation broke bad (if at all). I know people that speak in absolutes, use extreme language, and carry an air of certai…

1
"Love God and Love Others" - Paul Granger 1:12:09

1y ago1:12:09

1:12:09

I was connected with Paul by a mutual friend and we actually had a conversation on another podcast prior to this one. This works out well sometimes, because it allows us to get deeper into the discussion since we already have a baseline understanding of each other. Paul brought "love God and love others" as his strongly held belief to discuss for t…

1
"Removing the negative stigma around diabetes" - Chet Galaska 40:13

1y ago40:13

40:13

Chet suffers from diabetes and has seen first hand the stigmas that come with this disease. He thinks it is due to a lack of awareness and knowledge, that so many people chastise people struggling with it (especially type 2 diabetes). His belief is that diabetes is unique in this way, where people are comfortable criticizing and judging people for …

1
"Taking ownership over your outcomes in life" - William Hollis 53:05

1y ago53:05

53:05

My guest, William, creates content and shares his views on self-improvement, social issues, pop culture, and many other topics (https://www.youtube.com/@talknscroll/videos). He came to the show with a strongly held belief around taking ownership/accountability of your outcomes in life. He discusses this often in his content, so we explored this bel…

1
Season 2 Introduction and Preview 29:56

1y ago29:56

29:56

I talk about some changes I am making to the show for season 2 and what to expect from the conversations going forward.

1
"Congruence" - Jake Ryan 1:10:25

1+ y ago1:10:25

1:10:25

I spend a lot of time thinking about suffering. As I work through all of the conversations on this show, it is what I keep coming back to. We live in a world where it is almost all a mystery. If you dig deep enough, nothing really makes sense, at least in the traditional logical sense. The only thing that seems real is pleasure and suffering. We kn…

1
"Acceptance" - Sean Gill 53:06

1+ y ago53:06

53:06

Sean has been playing and creating music for over 30 years. He has spent most of his working life as a self-employed freelancer, playing in a jazz trio at wine bars, editing audiobooks, creating websites, and playing electric guitar with an orchestra. As you'll hear Sean explain, towards the end of the show, he is one of those people where music ju…

1
"Accountability" - Sandhya Jha 50:54

1+ y ago50:54

50:54

Sandhya is an author and anti-oppression consultant with 20 years of community organizing experience. She particularly loves helping organizations get Diversity/Equity/Inclusion teams off the ground. These types of topics are really interesting to me, not only for the obvious reason of how important they are to reduce unnecessary suffering, but als…

1
"No regrets" - Byron Morrison 52:50

1+ y ago52:50

52:50

My guest today, Byron, is a great illustration of what makes life so amazing, but also so tricky. He realized at some point, after spending years being overweight, bullied, and lacking self-confidence, that the key to life is to put yourself out there, try more things, and constantly seek growth. He totally transformed himself and his life. In many…

1
"Integrity (and excitement)" - Tim Bui 53:48

1+ y ago53:48

53:48

My guest today, Tim, has a really diverse and interesting background. He's trained martial arts for most of his life, he's been a successful serial entrepreneur, he's studied under Buddhist monks, and he's now a high performance life coach. He wants to use all of these experiences and learnings to help shift the world into the most inspirational an…

1
"Self-honesty" - Matthew Garnier 1:04:12

1+ y ago1:04:12

1:04:12

My guest, Matt, recently published a comedic memoir about religious upbringing, "Swept Up: Lessons From the End Times" (https://amzn.to/3I2rqB2). The book includes "tales (and lessons) from church, home-schooling, and a few strange years at a major evangelical university." This background helps explain his value of "self-honesty, because as Matt pu…

1
"Agathos" - Josh Bachynski 1:07:23

1+ y ago1:07:23

1:07:23

Josh (author, PhD, SEO/AI expert-- http://youtube.com/jbachyns) started the show by talking about the concept of agathos and how he is a radical optimist. Agathos is a greek word, with a lot of meanings, but Plato most famously used it to mean "the good." By "the good" he meant the ideal or most optimal good that exists. So when Josh says he values…

1
"Morality and Integrity" - Anmol Singh 52:06

1+ y ago52:06

52:06

What I enjoyed about this conversation with Anmol, was the juxtaposition of the personas he seems to have. On the one hand he appears to be the prototypical "finance guy." He is a high end trader, with nice clothes, and helps people make millions of dollars using his specialized investing approach (Learn more about it and his book here- https://pre…

1
"Resiliency" - Joshua Penner 46:51

1+ y ago46:51

46:51

My guest, Josh, and I had a really good conversation about resiliency (his most important value). His life is an example of the rewards you get from being resilient. He's an author, founder and CEO of an AI company (https://inquisio.ai/), Mayor and City Council member, and a veteran of the US Marine Corps (among other things). Josh will be the firs…

1
"Reason" - Rocco Jarman 1:07:16

1+ y ago1:07:16

1:07:16

"Stable mutual actualization" -- that is what my guest, Rocco, is after. He believes with the use of true reason (mature, sophisticated, objective reason) we as humans, have the ability to achieve a stable state, where mutually all of us, can self actualize into what we want to be. Contrast that with the world he sees today, where most people actua…

1
"Leveling the playing field" - Aadil Mamujee (Business Edition) 53:34

1+ y ago53:34

53:34

Aadil is a friend from Harvard Business School who I've always admired, but at the same time always wondered what made him tick. He's lived an interesting life, being born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya, and then spending most of his adult life studying and working in Europe, America, and Africa. He's been successful as an entrepreneur, a product dev…

1
"Passion" - Jeremy Lasman 1:02:18

1+ y ago1:02:18

1:02:18

Passion is one of my favorite topics to discuss. Logic is my religion because I understand the power of it, but passion is something that fascinates me on a much more visceral/primal level. I can't fully explain passion but I know how attracted to it I am. I know the feeling I get when I am engaged in something I am passionate about. Maybe my guest…

1
"Changing the way humanity relates to animals" - Genie Joseph 50:46

1+ y ago50:46

50:46

I've said this before, but there was a time before I started doing this show where I thought I understood the world. I thought I understood it at such a level that it was reasonable for me to judge or dismiss certain viewpoints as obviously wrong. Whether it be spiritual beliefs, different values, or an aspect of how the world worked that did not d…

1
"Seeing inherent value in others" - Diane Hare (Business Edition - BizLove) 47:53

1+ y ago47:53

47:53

This is our first go at What's the value? - Business Edition and I thought no better guest to kick it off with than Diane. Diane is the founder and CEO of BizLove (https://bizlove.com/) a strategic consultancy that helps organizations transform from within and express their story to the world. They bridge the disciplines of storytelling and strateg…

1
"Joy" - Andrea Wilson Woods 1:01:46

1+ y ago1:01:46

1:01:46

My guest, Andrea, and I spent an hour trying to make sense of a seemingly simple word-- "joy." If joy is your guiding light what happens when the thing you think you need to do does not result in joy? Does that mean you are doing the wrong thing or are you just a bad person? Is all joy the same? Is the joy of partying in college, being free, and ha…

1
"Honesty and Integrity" - Kiran Kumar 58:28

1+ y ago58:28

58:28

Honesty and integrity are amazing values. When we can tap into who we truly are and are confident enough to share it with the world, it relieves a massive burden. We no longer worry about trying to be who we think we should be, but rather just are who we are. It brings on a feelings of freedom and liberation. But it begs a critical question...how d…

1
"Finding a way to help others, while still helping myself" - Terry Bartley 1:06:48

1+ y ago1:06:48

1:06:48

Terry is a writer (https://www.terrybartleywriter.com/) who also teaches and hosts a podcast. His writing focuses on marginalized characters and communities to try and give them more of a voice and a sense of belonging. Given Terry's background, growing up in a poor, single parent home, with ADHD and as a queer person living in West Virginia; he ha…

1
"Trust" - Anne Donovan 53:37

1+ y ago53:37

53:37

Anne is a Human Resources leader known for developing new programs/training and improving employee retention and leadership performance (https://donovanhrsolutions.com/). She wants to help employers realize the importance of building trust, respect, and recognition in the work place. She believes it will make for a better employee experience, bette…

1
"Honesty, trust, and personal responsibility" - Branch Isole 1:12:18

1+ y ago1:12:18

1:12:18

What a beautiful, thought provoking discussion about truth, faith, and morality. Branch is an author, poet, and storyteller who speaks about choice and consequence, accepting or avoiding personal responsibility, and the power of truth (you can view his work here- https://www.manaopublishing.com/). What made this discussion so good, was firstly the …

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