The Armen Show

Farming and ecology is the cornerstone of what we eat and how we live. Welcome to episode 204 with UC Santa Cruz student and educator Simone Albuquerque~. Simone is a thoughtful individual who looks at and feels the interplay between the way that farming is done, from pesticides used to workers involved, and the end result of crops that are used for cooking and eating. This holistic view is a broad sense that is necessary to build toward sustainable long-term results for us as a people. On this episode, we discussed: how Simone looks at the complex interactions among species happening in farms and gardenswhether people in farm labor or related fields make a livable income, and its connection to the food that comes outstrawberries and a pesticide associated with itcrops that are endemic to an area, and the inefficiency associated with growing plants where they are not suited forspecies that are at risk of disappearing around the worldsome native nuts that grow in Californiathe systems in place to collect or manage water absorption in this drought-filled region of the worldhow Simone speaks to/interviews people related to food justice and morebuilding riverbeds to allow for water flow/capture that waste less waterwhere Simone is on the here-and-now versus dopaminergic spectrumthe book Tending The Wild by Kat Andersona message for all the people Glad to have Simone join on this one.

Welcome to episode 203 of the show, where we have radio DJ, host, and personality Romeo from 93.5 KDAY, and previously Power 106 with Dejai of the Goodfellas, joining as a guest~. From his public bio, “Growing up in the music business, Romeo always wanted to be a singer and a writer, but he never thought that his career and blessings would come through the radio. After meeting someone in his apartment complex, the conversation came up about radio and the rest is history. Fifteen years later, Romeo has sung the National Anthem for the Lakers, Sparks, Dodgers, Kings, and LA Galaxy. He has also produced jingles for BET — all the while maintaining a great career in radio. He says waking up doing the Morning Show on 93.5 KDAY has been a longtime dream that has now come true.” On this episode, we discussed: how he started his career at Power 106, and how he got on to there with his friend Dejaisome of the individuals who Romeo has met along the way, like Aaliyah, Jennifer Lopez, or DJ Quik, and some stories related to theminformation about the radio industry and about song selectionmusic and performing that Romeo has done in the past, and will dohow 93.5 KDAY and Power 106 are connected as radio networksRomeo’s leadership ability and where it comes frombeing heard, standing out, and being humblehow Romeo got back into radio after being off of it for some timehow hip hop has adjusted in form over the last decade or twowhere to get fuel for the fire of your motivationand did a paired freestyle to each other’s beats You can check out Romeo on the radio in Los Angeles on 93.5 KDAY, see him at public events related to the radio station, or listen to him on the podcast “Tha Goodfellas and Porscha Coleman ‘UNCUT’.

Welcome to episode number 202, with Dr. Robin Hanson, co-author of The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life. Robin Hanson is associate professor of economics at George Mason University, and research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. He has a doctorate in social science from California Institute of Technology, master’s degrees in physics and philosophy from the University of Chicago, and nine years experience as a research programmer, at Lockheed and NASA. On my episode with Dr. Hanson, we discussed topics and tangents connecting off of his blog articles and book messages, including: having a thing, whether it be a viewpoint or something you stand forhidden motives and the ways they can be look at more rationallythe concept of the Great Filter, which is a viewpoint about the universe and lack of activity beyond our planetviewquakes, and the ability to bring individuals to growth through change of their thinking that is not rigida message to young eccentrics, the value and efficiencies that they have, and how they can look at themselvesthe way that Edward Snowden was a form of hero, and what kinds of traits Dr. Hanson might look for in relevant individualsBlack Mirror translating some of the scientific messages available to a broader audiencehow stories are used by people, and if they are somewhat religious in the way that they functionmore topics on the mindset that you take to a difficulty You can check out Dr. Robin Hanson’s blog at Overcoming Bias, look at his faculty page, or check out his biography. You can also take a look at my past text interview with Dr. Hanson and his The Elephant in the Brain  co-author Kevin Simler.

Dr. Daniel Z. Lieberman, co-author of The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity–And Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, joins on episode 201 of the show~. He divides his time between teaching, writing, and patient care. He is a clinical psychiatrist who received his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine, after undergraduate work at St John’s College. He is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University, and is also Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs. In this episode, we discussed: Dr. Lieberman’s career, and the steps he took to be where he is atsome of the nice features of the Great Books program at St. John’s Collegethe details of his co-written book that focuses on dopamineanticipatory effects and the connection to the unexpectedhow drugs give hits of dopamine, and the pull to return to thempercentages of rewards needed to keep people playing games or using social mediadesire dopamine versus control dopamine, and how dopaminergic individuals can flourishagentic and affiliative relationships, and the people who prefer each typecontrol dopamine’s importance inhibiting aggression driven by passion7R variant of the D4 receptor gene for dopamine and its link to migrationconservative and liberal perspective, and their connection to a dopamine or H&N(here-and-now) based set of neurotransmittersliability of dopaminergic individuals, and their elements of most successhow to take into account one’s state for balance purposesand more You can check out his website here, or take a look at his book The Molecule of More on Amazon. It was voted on Forbes as one of the Must-Read Brain Books of 2018. Glad to have Dr. Lieberman on the show.

welcome Professor Scott. E Page, Ph. D., of the University of Michigan, to episode 200 of the showhe currently teaches complex systems, computer science, and economicsalso has taught an online course to initially 60000 people, and then a million people in its second iterationon this episode, we discussed his career, many of the models presented in the book, and some applications of them in this worldmany-models approach to modeling, that helps prevent modeling gapsMarkov models and their ability to represent an equilibrium state, with percentages representing transfer from one state to anotherthe impact of diversity on complex systems, which has been a large part of Professor Page’s focus, also in his earlier books The Diversity [Bonus] and Diversity and Complexityhow socioeconomic status is more likely to continue at the lower and upper bounds than for middle class folks, though they are 50% likelydiscussion about entropy as representation of uncertainty, and how it differs from variance equitability of optionsthe Matthew effect of some support for something causing more support for it, causing a snowballopioid models, and some of the issues with their treatmentwe covered other topics not listed here, and it was great to speak with Professor Page about his material, which I am also interested inyou can check out The Model Thinker on Amazon, look at Professor Page’s Michigan webpage, or look at a listing of all his books.

welcome Yossef to episode 199 of the show(last of the 100s)this episode was recorded in Culver City and and set in place by MelanieYossef is a professional trainer coach from a spiritual frameworkwe discussed many elements of internal beinga story related to his kindergarten teacher and our impact on others by being our selves as we arehelping people build self-love instead of seeking what’s wrong with themgetting back to being a student when away from your craft for too longhow figures are often deified when there could be more focus on letting each of us be our own great lightgoing with your inner feeling as you progress through an endeavor or connectionYossef’s participation in a repressive group and how he started to see it as off, and then exiting and seeing that kind of formpreventing oneself from hitting a plateau of growth that is comfortableYossef’s great message of what he would say to alla cool description of myself and my way of actiongreat to have Yossef on the show~the podcast he mentioned that he was on is RichardListens

welcome to episode 198 of the show with only Armenon this one I give some updates and bring up a couple of key pointstalked about adapting to change with example of how publishers used to send me books to review or readyou have to work with conditions as they are and adjustdiscussed reading the book on representative modelsmentioned Scott H. Young article about quantity and qualityquality is a representation of quantity at depthyou can only get to the quality with the effort of quantitycharacterized my episodes up until now, and ongoingthis is one of those updates episodes that explains the trackglad to have you listen

welcome Titan back on the show for episode 197~went over end of year material including holiday time and events remembered on New Year’stalked about 2018 reflection and fitness changesfitness goals for the next yearsports played including volleyball and basketballgames being played and content being consumed, including Fortnite and comedians on the televisiondynamics for developing of games with updates coming regularlyweight and height material over periods of Titan’s lifetimeglad to have Titan on

Welcome actor and entertainer Chris A. Grounds to the show~recorded in Koreatown on two micswe discussed how we met, where we metplaying basketball and what it is like to be an actletegrowing up in the Northwest and its impact on lifecontent creation and plans in songwriting and screenwriting for the upcoming yearparticipation in something like city council that I went to a meeting of prior to our timehis relationship and relationships in generalthe value of collaboration and looking to do more of itglad to have Chris on the show Chris on episode 196

Welcome psychologist Dr. Gail Brenner to episode 195 of the show~. She is a licensed Ph.D. psychologist with over 20 years of experience providing psychotherapy. She received her B.A. from Carnegie-Mellon University, Ph.D. from Temple University, post-doc from the University of Florida, and took part in a clinical internship at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto, California. One specialty of hers is working with older adults during the transitions of the end of life period of aging. Gail has worked with a variety of clients/patients, and speaking with her is a pleasure. We discussed a variety of topics, including: her latest Ebook (of 3 she has releaseed) titled Suffering Is Optional, and its contents description about some of the chapters on thoughts and feelings, and their message blogging of the past that she did on a site called “A Flourishing Life” (~ 2009-2011) audio meditations she has posted online, and their origin (they are very relaxing/mindful) self-awareness, frantic nature, and empathy towards individuals how to connect with someone to help them out a main issue seen in society, and a healthy way to respond to it some description of her path for the end of 2018 onward through 2019 I was glad to have her on this great episode. I find her to be a healing and healthy individual. You can find her ebooks, audios, blog, and much more at gailbrenner.com.