Basecamp for Men E40: Optimizing Your Health

E40: Optimizing Your Health with Mary Purdy

 

E40 Introduction

One of our sub-topics here on Basecamp is health and wellness for men. Many men I know are rethinking health, self-care, and diet. It used to be that men didn’t give these things too much thought. It was actually considered unmanly to speak of taking better care of yourself, of getting proper rest, of having a body that is flexible and feeling, of eating better food. Athletes would consider these because they are more tuned into how they feel. However, everyday men would often skip over these important topics.

With the release of the pro-plant based diet documentary The Game Changers, men are starting to have serious conversations about diet. Especially the pros and cons of a plant-based diet. And I am committed to continue to co-create the narrative with you on men and self-care here on Basecamp for Men.

My hope is that by listening to the show, you gain new perspectives and come away with a few new resources every show. If you are finding new tools that uplift and improve your life and your energy, then I’m serving my mission. Thank you men.

 Mary Purdy Bio-

My guest today is a friend and a nutrition and health expert.

Mary Purdy holds a Master’s Degree from Bastyr University where she is currently a member of the adjunct faculty. She has given over 100 nutrition workshops, speaks regularly at health and nutrition conferences and was the keynote speaker at Bastyr University’s Commencement Ceremony 2019. Additionally, she hosts the podcast THE Nutrition Show (formerly “Mary’s Nutrition Show”) and is author of the book “Serving the Broccoli Gods.”

Here is my interview with Mary Purdy.

 

 

Basecamp for Men E39: The Law of One with Ziad Masri

E39: The Law of One with Ziad Masri

 

E39 Introduction

Some of the episodes I do will feel like I’m taking you out of your philosophical comfort zone and I‘m ok with that. It would not serve you if I held back and I would feel like I‘m betraying myself and my mission. My hope is that I can present challenging content that I know is valuable in a way that is accessible and inviting to you.

My aim is to strike a balance between men’s work and the  practical resources that we know helps men, and the more philosophical and mythical themes that I am drawn to explore and find expression for. It‘s a balancing act between creating a more uplifting narrative, using myth and stories, and giving you practical tools that you can use for the challenges you face as a man.

None of my more mystical leanings exclude any particular philosophy. Not really anyways. You can be a Christian or a Buddhist or an atheist or just about anything and draw from the spiritual wellspring. That is what it is there for.

The Hero’s Journey inevitably takes you on a faint trail. So when you find fellow travellers that have found a useful map or an approach to a particular challenge you will face, my instinct is to share the map, share the gold and let you see how it aligns with the inner work that you are undertaking.

If you are just beginning to enter into a phase that feels more scary and, perhaps, more heroic, I welcome you. Inside these conversations will be metaphorical flashlights for the dark night that every Hero and Heroine inevitably face.

“I always knew that I would take this road but yesterday, I did not know it would be today.”

                                                                                               Narithra, poet 

Ziad Masri Bio- 

My guest today has been a fellow seeker and student of consciousness.

Ziad is the author of the #1 best selling book, Reality Unveiled, which is I consider to be one of the more transformative books in recent times. He is also a highly successful online entrepreneur in multiple arenas. Following nearly two decades of spiritual seeking, he experienced a series of very powerful spiritual awakenings which have led him to dedicate his life to helping people transcend their limited sense of self and awaken to their true, limitless nature.

Basecamp for Men E38: Mentoring Our Boys

E38: Mentoring Our Boys with author Earl Hipp

 

E38 Introduction

The topic of guiding adolescent boys into manhood seems to me an extremely relevant one right now. As a society, we have not created the initiatory structures that enable our young people to come into manhood as a celebration. We almost dread it when a boy is creeping towards manhood, as if that is a terrible thing. What sort of message does that send our boys? Is being a man really that awful? Do men not have anything to offer? Or is it the cultural conditioning that is in dire need of being upgraded? How come boys aren’t properly celebrated as they enter the tribe of men?

There has been a movement to create rites-of-passage trainings for boys but we need more. We need more imperfect men stepping up to mentor adolescent boys.

My guest today exemplifies being committed to helping our boys arrive at manhood as a celebration and with the support of caring, appropriate elders.

Earl Hipp Bio-

Earl Hipp is an author, speaker, adviser to mentoring groups, and community consultant. Since 1982, Earl has been involved with organizations that focus on men’s issues and development. He speaks at national conferences and delivers workshops across the country, teaching organizations how to call men to mentoring.

Since 2005, Earl has published the Man-Making Blog, discussing manhood, male culture, mentoring, and men’s rites of passage. His mission is to help men discover and use their innate man-making gifts, so fewer boys (and men) are left to wander alone in the dangerous never-never land between boyhood and manhood.

Lastly, here is a quote from Meladona Some, an African spiritual teacher, “When a civilization lacks rites of passage, its soul is sick. The evidence for this sickness is threefold: first, there are no elders; second, the young are violent; and third, the adults are bewildered.”

Basecamp for Men E37: Season One Finale

E37: Season One Finale-Best of 2019

 

E37 Introduction

Well my dear listeners, we’ve come to the end of season one. I hope you enjoyed the show and picked up some new resources and perspectives for the next chapters of your life‘s journey.

Season two will pick up in March or April. We will be continuing with some great guests and seeking to balance the tried and true resources for men that we know and love with all the new tools that we try out and find valuable. My commitment is to continue to find our edge together and to share as authentically as possible, where you and I get stuck and how to proceed powerfully and to live as courageously as possible.

Until then, please go to basecampformen.com and sign up for our quarterly newsletter.

I only send this out 4 times a year and it will have valuable and sometimes free stuff in it. I will be posting updates on the show from this email list so be sure I have your email address.

I would like to thank my team! Sound editors extraordinaire Chris Rodd and Tahu Parkinson. Thank you, men, for making the show sound so professional. And I would like to thank my producer Tabitha Smiles for all of her hard work and for putting up with my periodic freak-outs as we worked to make the show all it could be. Thanks, Tabitha.

Now for the best of Season One. I’ll first give you the most listened to episodes and then share the listener’s favorites. The three most listened to episodes were:

  • At number three was Ep #14 The Porn Trap with Wendy Maltz.
  • Coming in at number two was EP #13 The Hero Within with Carol Pearson
  • and the #1 most listened to the episode, drum roll please, was E10 Inside the Men’s Circle which was the first one we did with the Warrior Dogs.  All right Warrior Dogs!

Now for the listener’s choice of Best of Season One. We got votes for E7 How to Raise a Boy with Michael Reichert and E11 Building Boys with Nicky Wilks, both excellent episodes if you haven’t heard them. The two episodes I did with Ben Seaman, #4 The Secret Lives of Men and E23 Men and Depression also received plenty of love. Go listen to those if you haven’t. But the two top shows according to you were E29 Into the Mystic with Paul Dunion and E14 The Porn Trap with Wendy Maltz. You have excellent taste as those are two really great episodes, in my opinion. But I can only run one and I choose E14 The Porn Trap. Only because we just aired E29 a few short weeks ago and E14 feels like a looooong time ago!

So, here is your favorite episode of Season One. Enjoy and we’ll see you back here in the spring for season two of Basecamp for Men! Thank you, listeners, and have a great start to 2020!

Best,

Tony

Basecamp for Men E36: The Genius of Children

E36: The Genius of Children with  Special Guest

Rick Ackerly

 

 

E36 Introduction

One of the sub-topics on Basecamp is the raising of boys, who will one day be our men. Our public school system is problematic in the development of our boys. This is not a knock on all the good people who teach and administer in the public schools. It’s just that having boys sit at a desk and do assigned, menial work without much collaboration or creative problem solving is essentially preparing them to sit and obey an authority figure. It’s social engineering. It‘s good preparation for the military or a life of following orders but is it maximizing their potential?

I have often thought that if you run the schools like a business with our young people like the customer, you would have VERY different schools.  I remember asking my young son Lucas, who was probably 8 or 9 at the time: “So if you are the customer, what does a school need to change to work well for you?” You know what he said? “Better food! The food is awful. Why don‘t they feed us healthier, better-tasting food.” What else, I asked him? More free time, more time to collaborate on projects with your friends. And more time outside and on field trips to learn. It sounds like a pretty great school to me. What kid would not want to go to THAT school? Sure, you still need some math and learn how to read but the boys would be so much more engaged in school, wouldn’t they?

I’m not saying that I have all the answers to how to best educate our kids. It’s just so obvious to the customers, the young people, that their time is precious too and why do they have to have such a boring, regimented curriculum? Even the teachers look burned-out and frayed by the system.

My guest today states that the education system today is primarily used as a social sorting device instead of vibrantly educating our children. That is an interesting notion.

And lastly, I think we consistently underestimate our young people. It‘s an old habit that we adults have that says that kids don’t really understand the world and so they need to sit on the sideline while we VIP adults handle the important projects of the world. I think this is a mistake.

Kids come with innate creativity and a sense of possibility that is often missing in adults. It’s been educated out of us.  Sure, some of their ideas are wild and far-fetched but in their free-flowing creativity, they will sometimes hit on ideas that adults just can’t conceive. What if we had kids of all ages working on the important problems of the world? I’m being serious. What solutions would they come up with? I for one, am curious.