Latest / The Christian Reeve Podcast / Colum Cronin | The Christian Reeve Podcast | #54 |

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Colum Cronin | The Christian Reeve Podcast | #54 | · The Christian Reeve Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to another episode of the Christian Reef
• 0:04
  podcast. Today's guest is a podcaster, a
• 0:08
  NFL, pundit a senior International officer at the
• 0:13
  Dublin, City University, and the bunch of other things.
• 0:17
  And he goes by the name column Cronin, welcome to the show.
• 0:19
  How you doing? And most Christian delighted to
• 0:22
  have the opportunity to have a chat here?
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  Yeah, a juggler, a few different things, no more than yourself,
• 0:28
  it keeps it as entertaining. Only, I do actually wonder how
• 0:33
  you find all the time to do all these things.
• 0:35
  Like I was breaking down all these notes.
• 0:37
  I was like damn this guy's busy. Yeah I think and that's where I
• 0:43
  actually try not to use. I a few years ago right.
• 0:46
  I made a conscious decision. I said we all talk, when you ask
• 0:50
  people how they are, right? The two things you hear
• 0:52
  constantly, I'm busy and I'm tired.
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  It's like, we're all busy. We're all tired.
• 0:56
  So, I made a conscious decision a few years ago, that try not to
• 0:59
  use that. Like I get it because it's my
• 1:01
  choice a lot of this. So I'm choosing to add to my
• 1:06
  schedule for probably be a little bit different if I had,
• 1:09
  you know, kids running around and I totally get why people
• 1:12
  would be exhausted but this is stuff.
• 1:13
  I want to do that. I choosing to do and I am
• 1:18
  fortunate in terms of that NFL stuff and some of the
• 1:23
  podcasting, I do my co-host on the higher ed podcast is in
• 1:26
  California. So being eight hours behind a
• 1:29
  lot of the in Reviews that we do and the recordings that we do
• 1:33
  tend to be at night. So I'm able to do the work side
• 1:35
  of things and then do the the podcasting side of things, I
• 1:39
  think completely relate to that. I mean, I do feel though that it
• 1:42
  takes a certain type of how you say, like a mindset.
• 1:47
  I would say because for me, you know, I've had jobs over the
• 1:50
  years in various different fields and industries where you
• 1:53
  know I'd had those exact feelings, you know?
• 1:56
  All this is long. I don't like this.
• 1:58
  It's strenuous by Blood but The thing that I put that down to is
• 2:02
  like if you don't enjoy what you do then because it's going to
• 2:05
  feel that way, but if you do enjoy the things that you do,
• 2:08
  then, I don't know. You don't notice that as much,
• 2:11
  like I do feel like, like, for example, last month.
• 2:14
  And now this month for me on the podcast, it's been extremely
• 2:17
  busy. And I knew that like, as soon as
• 2:20
  I was done with all this, I'd need to take like a at least the
• 2:22
  sort of a week's break as far as just podcasting, was concerned.
• 2:27
  And, you know, it was the same old thing, I felt really good
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  afterwards. It's but, you know, all that
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  stuff that goes into the, you know, creation process and
• 2:36
  editing and all these different things.
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  It's just a necessary part of everything, but it's, I wouldn't
• 2:42
  say it's particularly strenuous or anything.
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  I think it really does come down.
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  Like I said to the mindset thing.
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  I mean I've had I've had jobs where even marketing, which, you
• 2:55
  know, is more kind of my more recent field.
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  It gets like that sometimes like, I love to write, but, you
• 3:01
  know, I suppose if if you're not fully passionate about it, then
• 3:05
  it does become a bit of a slug so to speak.
• 3:09
  Yeah, I would agree with you there.
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  I think it's spot on when you enjoy something and it makes it
• 3:16
  so much easier. And especially when you're I
• 3:19
  mean any job there'll be aspects to it.
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  Potentially even if you really love it, that possibly possibly,
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  unless maybe you're working for yourself even then though,
• 3:28
  Really going to enjoy doing taxes, but I think it's about,
• 3:34
  you know, trying to find what what you enjoy and and utilizing
• 3:43
  that aspect of it. So in terms of say the even the
• 3:46
  NFL stuff obviously like I love having the opportunity to talk
• 3:50
  about it and shatter former players and coaches and all that
• 3:53
  stuff. There's a lot of work that goes
• 3:55
  in as you know, in terms of prepping for all of this stuff
• 3:58
  that That can sometimes be like, you know, tedious and you're
• 4:03
  trying to find stuff out and you're digging and you're like
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  on the you know, 17th page of a Google search.
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  Let alone going. You know, I found on the first
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  but it's worth it. It's when you see what comes out
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  the other side and you're really happy with what you've produced.
• 4:20
  There's a joy that comes from that, I think.
• 4:23
  Absolutely, absolutely. I think you mentioned, the the
• 4:26
  NFL, let's talk about that. Your pundit on this Irish NFL
• 4:30
  show always called the Irish NFL show and then there's also one
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  called Broncos Europe. So you do your upon done several
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  of these different shows. How did this come to be?
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  And, you know, how popular is the NFL in Ireland?
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  Because I know that Sports in general, are very popular in
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  Ireland. I know the Premier League for
• 4:49
  example, is popular there, but talk to us a little bit about
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  the NFL in Ireland or am your you're spot on when you say
• 4:56
  sport in general is popular. And I Irish people, love Sport,
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  and back when I was growing up, they started showing NFL
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  highlights on RT television and so on a Monday night, they would
• 5:10
  showed NFL highlights and Syria highlights, right?
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  So you had this Italian football and I just got fascinated by
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  well by both, but by the NFL, and there was a team that played
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  in neon orange at the time and they had a quarterback at number
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  wearing number, Seven who just seem to scramble and he was
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  Here. There and Everywhere and I just
• 5:34
  fell in love with with that team and that was Denver Broncos and
• 5:37
  I call it and I call it an Affliction of sorts because it's
• 5:41
  has been this kind of roller coaster heartbreaking Journey.
• 5:47
  My mother allowed me to stay up to watch the Super Bowl that the
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  Broncos got in and they got beaten 5510 by the San Francisco
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  49ers. Now, even if you're not a fan of
• 5:58
  the sport, Art you will just by hearing that score LOL.
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  You understand what kind of a beating that was and that was
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  the first for to give it. I cried over there have been
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  great moments since but they're definitely been some
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  heartbreaking moments and the fact that doping is seven hours
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  ahead of Denver again it needs a watching games is can be
• 6:20
  interesting. So generally the Broncos play at
• 6:23
  around about 9 p.m. on a Sunday, but if they play on a Sunday
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  night game, that game woooooo. Kick off until about 1:30 in the
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  morning, which means that it won't finish till about probably
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  have four at best closer to 5 a.m. then you've got all that
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  adrenaline. Then you're trying to roll into
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  work the next day and then if they play on a Monday night game
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  that kicks off generally at about 3:30 in the morning and
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  yeah, that to be honest in some ways that's better than late
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  Sunday night because when I'm on the game, you can go to Ed like
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  10, get yourself about five hours sleep and then like, as
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  soon as the game ends, you're going straight into work the
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  Monday night game, if you would have had a tenure, your only,
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  you know, getting kind of three hours at Best and afterwards, I
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  said, you got all the adrenaline.
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  So that's that's tough, and there's Thursday Night Football.
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  So, it definitely is, it requires commitment?
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  And in some ways the internet has been both brilliant but also
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  they meant that like I can. Because of Game Pass.
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  I can watch every game previously like there was a
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  period. I so high they showed highlights
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  right in the late 80s, early 90s and then they stopped doing that
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  and then there was buried where I'm kind of late into secondary
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  school and in college, not like you have loads of money didn't
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  have the sky package to watch it, so I'm trying to follow the
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  games just by reading about them, kind of the day
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  afterwards, then streaming starts.
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  Now, you can watch every game and no matter how bad.
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  Bad. The and the Vargas have some
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  brilliant years but the last few years we have them and good but
• 8:04
  idle Hicks is a great line about like being like the guy with a
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  sword shooting, he can't stop touching it.
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  Ask me with the Broncos, I have to watch it.
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  I just drawn to it the sport itself in terms of its
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  popularity in Ireland. I would say, I mean, it's not
• 8:22
  super popular but it has grown and some of that is down to how
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  much Ireland has Can in such a short space of time, like
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  Ireland went from kind of, we exported people.
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  That's what we did in Ireland. That's we were really good at
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  exporting, people all around the world.
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  And then in the 90s, we had this kind of Celtic tiger economy.
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  And we begin to attract all of these tech companies and Dublin
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  is now known as the Silicon Valley of Europe because all of
• 8:51
  these massive tech companies have their European headquarters
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  there. So you have a lot of people
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  who've come over from the United States.
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  Which is, you know, help to increase the popularity of the
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  league. People now have access to the
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  games and the league themselves. Have put a lot of effort into I
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  suppose trying to grow the popularity of the sport.
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  So it's certainly grown in popularity.
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  I usually go to a pub in Dublin. The bullshit they do, we do a
• 9:20
  lot of meetups and watch parties there.
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  And when I first came to Dublin, and I mean talking to 15 years.
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  When I first came to almost 15 years ago, There weren't that
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  many people going to the wool shed, you know, there's a
• 9:32
  hardcore of us and now the world should have opened up, they have
• 9:35
  a back room, that's dedicated to NFL games.
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  They show all the games there and it's great because you get
• 9:42
  fans of all the different teams. So it's still Niche, but it's
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  definitely grown. And I would say continuing to
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  grow So what's that? Like a silly question.
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  But I only ask because I've seen in the in the UK that there's
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  been like I suppose that the emergence of teams in.
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  I don't know exactly. If they actually compete in the
• 10:07
  NFL or if it's a UK only legal, whatever.
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  Basically there's like you know, they're teaching American
• 10:13
  football in schools and there are some teams or something like
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  that. So I guess I've got sort of two
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  questions. Ins to you with regards to that
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  a being, do you have any kind of like, Irish based football
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  teams, American football teams and also do you often get like
• 10:33
  them coming over to Ireland and playing?
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  You know I don't know like any particular large stadiums that
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  you have like, what's the deal there?
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  So yeah, that there are teams in Ireland.
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  There is an Irish, the Irish American Football Association,
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  who run, League and they're actually quite a few teams.
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  So, there are two divisions. And then you have kids leagues
• 10:56
  and stuff like that. I used to go to a lot of those
• 11:00
  games working in higher, ed like the universities that I worked
• 11:03
  at, Trinity, had an American football team, UCD where I
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  worked at Merck football team, so I go and watch the students
• 11:10
  play. Cuz I working with International
• 11:12
  students, I would have known gotten to know them, so it was,
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  it was good and where my current institution DC, you do.
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  Doesn't have a team at the moment.
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  I got something. I'd love to see come back but
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  the, I suppose that that those tend to be 44 phone.
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  There's no nobody's making any money off that they're not
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  professional leagues. The purely amateur that people
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  are playing. We do host college games in
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  Ireland. So the big colleges from the
• 11:44
  United States would come over generally.
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  There have been one a year, obviously covid change that last
• 11:50
  year was a Game schedule for this year when some of the like
• 11:56
  Notre Dame obviously huge Irish connections despite the name.
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  But the tagline is the Fighting Irish.
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  Well, I think the last time Notre Dame came, they brought in
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  and around 30 to 35,000 people from the the states, with them,
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  for a college game, which was unbelievable.
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  Time was just packed, it was great atmosphere Trinity where I
• 12:17
  was working at the time, whole like hosted.
• 12:19
  A lot of the pregame stuff to have for a lot of the car.
• 12:21
  Those games, but like, Boston College came over Penn State
• 12:24
  came over. Yeah, it's been it and it's
• 12:27
  always really good fun. So the college games, take place
• 12:30
  here, the NFL games, take place in London, there is talk of of
• 12:35
  the NFL potentially. Now, this is further down the
• 12:38
  line but potentially looking to play kind of more International
• 12:42
  games and to look to play games in the likes of Dublin.
• 12:46
  Rio, Tokyo, Etc. Forgive my ignorance here as
• 12:50
  well. But do Have any like major
• 12:52
  stadiums in Ireland, sort of could theoretically like hold
• 12:57
  that kind of capacity because obviously you mentioned your
• 12:59
  life a thousand fans in one instance there.
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  I mean I'd say like you need somewhere between suppose 60 on
• 13:07
  the lower end to about 100,000 capacity give or take, but like
• 13:15
  did you have any major stadiums? The like that, I mean, you've
• 13:18
  got, you've got Robbie, you've got football.
• 13:20
  So there are, there's, I mean, There's huge Irish team so I'm
• 13:23
  wondering like, they must be stadiums.
• 13:24
  Yeah, not that there are. And there is, why are your
• 13:27
  viewers probably aren't familiar with is the Ireland has its own
• 13:32
  native Sports? So yes, Gaelic Gaelic football,
• 13:35
  and hurling and they are they're all under the GAA and the ga has
• 13:40
  Croke Park and Croke Park at one point.
• 13:44
  In blue Wembley may have surpassed it when it was
• 13:47
  redeveloped, but certainly Croke Park in a row.
• 13:52
  Almost 87,000 was the third largest stadium.
• 13:56
  I think the new Wembley might might have surpassed it but that
• 14:00
  would be the largest, the only thing about Croke Park is
• 14:06
  because on Gaelic football and hurling it's 15 aside.
• 14:10
  The pictures tend to be bit bigger.
• 14:13
  So you the the soccer pitch or an American football field is a
• 14:18
  lot smaller so it kind of sounds Out with an American football,
• 14:22
  you have the sidelines where you have a lot of the, all the
• 14:26
  players and coaches. So it's fine there.
• 14:28
  But we plan soccer has been played or for, you know, in
• 14:32
  Croke Park. It can look really small on that
• 14:34
  pitch, but we also have our with a stadium, the old Lansdowne
• 14:41
  Road, which is used for the rugby and the soccer, or
• 14:44
  football team national team shared that that Stadium holds
• 14:48
  about 55,000. So there would be kind of
• 14:51
  Stadiums throughout the country ranging from Croke Park, being
• 14:55
  the largest and the other stadium in Dublin, which is 55
• 14:59
  too, kind of 30, 40 45 thousand Cedar stadiums around the
• 15:04
  country. Now, outside Dublin, all of
• 15:07
  those other large stadiums, at that level would be GA you have
• 15:12
  a big rugby stadium in Limerick, all right, but it wouldn't be at
• 15:16
  the size of some of the GAA grounds, but I would say Croke
• 15:20
  Park, could certainly Lee host an NFL game, it would it would
• 15:25
  have the big enough it back in the day at hosted Muhammad Ali
• 15:29
  fight. So it has been used for
• 15:32
  different events, used for a lot of car like you to, obviously,
• 15:36
  when they do their homecoming concert, it's always there.
• 15:39
  And there was always talk at one point when he back when he was
• 15:43
  popular, that Conor McGregor would have to be a UFC fight in.
• 15:48
  I think I don't know if that was ever likely to happen given the
• 15:51
  time Frances and stuff like that.
• 15:53
  But that was always the talk to be a fight in Croke Park because
• 15:56
  you could, you could have so many people there.
• 15:59
  So it's interesting that one of the Rooney's.
• 16:03
  So the Rooney family owned, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 16:06
  And one of the rooneys was actually the American ambassador
• 16:08
  to Ireland under Obama, and there was talk during that
• 16:14
  period that he might bring them over.
• 16:17
  It never it never happened. The college games came instead.
• 16:22
  Put the league is certainly looking to expand knows.
• 16:25
  It has an international audience and that that is the only way
• 16:29
  you really grow. That is actually to go to those
• 16:31
  places. So who knows?
• 16:34
  Let's say it would certainly be quite the party.
• 16:37
  If an NFL team came because tailgating at an NFL game is
• 16:41
  unlike anything. And I've been to plenty Premier
• 16:44
  League games and stuff for tailgating at an NFL game is
• 16:48
  different to anything else I've experienced.
• 16:51
  Thanks for sharing the one of the things you mentioned in
• 16:55
  there was about Gaelic football. Now, I'm aware of Gaelic
• 16:58
  football as a concept, but I don't actually know that the
• 17:00
  difference is that now, you mentioned that the pictures are
• 17:03
  a larger compared to standard football and you said was it 15
• 17:06
  min aside? Was that right?
• 17:08
  Yeah. Okay.
• 17:09
  Are there any like other major differences between Gaelic
• 17:12
  football and traditional football?
• 17:13
  I just like to learn a little bit more about that.
• 17:15
  Yeah, so I suppose Gaelic football is it's a bit like a
• 17:20
  cross between In traditional football, I have and rugby in in
• 17:26
  certain ways because you can, you can pick the ball up with
• 17:29
  your hands, you can carry it, but you've to carry it for
• 17:34
  three, three steps that you either have to bounce it or what
• 17:38
  solo. It kick it.
• 17:38
  You can't just pick it up and run, okay?
• 17:42
  So it is different in that respect.
• 17:45
  It's a it's much more physical than traditional football.
• 17:50
  Liam Gallagher is A massive fan. He was tweeting out how much he
• 17:52
  loved it because the all-ireland the championship took place
• 17:56
  actually because of covid in the winter this year is
• 17:59
  traditionally in the summertime but it was on in December.
• 18:02
  So he was obviously watching it. So do that would be the big
• 18:06
  difference is a very fast sport, but hurling, so I grew up in in
• 18:10
  County Cork, which is down south in Ireland, and cork is the
• 18:15
  largest county. So we're traditionally good
• 18:19
  enough in in both football. I am particularly strong at her
• 18:22
  like and hurling is an amazing sport.
• 18:24
  If you haven't seen hurling, if it is anyone listening or
• 18:26
  watching and you haven't check it out on YouTube.
• 18:29
  Hurling is it's like a cross between the American sport,
• 18:35
  lacrosse, field, hockey and murder.
• 18:39
  It is, it's amazing. It's the fastest feel sport in
• 18:42
  the world. It is so skillful.
• 18:45
  You hit a like a ball. That's kind of the size of a
• 18:48
  baseball, or a field hockey ball, guys.
• 18:51
  Go up and catch it in their hand.
• 18:53
  It really is. It's unlike anything you will
• 18:56
  have seen so fast. So physical as so skillful
• 19:03
  because the guys I mean, they're having their like the sticks.
• 19:07
  They use are again similar to field hockey sticks.
• 19:10
  In many ways David they were bigger base and if you can
• 19:13
  imagine that but they're able to manipulate the ball and and
• 19:17
  people are just amazed because the that bowl of yogurt Catching
• 19:21
  the ball is coming at you. At like, like it's been hit,
• 19:23
  like a baseball is coming at you with 70 miles an hour.
• 19:26
  You're going to happen to catch it.
• 19:28
  It is it's fascinating and it is my like, outside of my three
• 19:35
  favorite sports would be the NFL traditional football and
• 19:40
  hurling. Those three are the most fun to
• 19:42
  watch. Awesome.
• 19:43
  Well, thank you for sharing the and switching it up.
• 19:47
  Moving it forward your, the coast co-host of Of a
• 19:51
  award-winning podcast called adventures in advising.
• 19:55
  Tell us about how this podcast came to be and what kinds of
• 19:58
  topics you tend to discuss on there.
• 20:01
  Sure. Yeah.
• 20:03
  So I suppose the it's a well it's a higher ed podcast and
• 20:08
  right advice like advising would probably be better known in the
• 20:13
  UK as personal tutoring and in many respects the way in which
• 20:19
  it came about was I I've always been interested in Island.
• 20:23
  My stories around Irish people love stories and I love stories
• 20:27
  of hearing other people's stories, which is why I have
• 20:30
  podcasts and why I used to do a series of video interviews.
• 20:35
  Okay. When I worked in higher ed, I
• 20:37
  just felt found that large institutions.
• 20:41
  People didn't know each other necessarily because they were so
• 20:44
  big. And you can be kind of working
• 20:46
  almost in silos and students didn't know everybody.
• 20:50
  And so, So I felt it was a great way for international students
• 20:53
  to get to know people around the university because we respond to
• 20:57
  people, we respond to faces, we respond to stories.
• 21:00
  So if I did a quick interview and it would be just on my phone
• 21:05
  camera, when, you know, and I talked to the library and I'd
• 21:08
  say just top. Tell me about, like, what using
• 21:10
  the library at this University is like, because for a lot of
• 21:15
  us, depending on where you've gone to Secondary School, using
• 21:17
  the library at the University, it's totally different, you
• 21:20
  know. And for international students
• 21:22
  can be really different so it was talking to him about that.
• 21:26
  So I built this open. I did a series that I kind of
• 21:30
  that I called meet and retweet and so they'd only be like to me
• 21:34
  they could be two minute Max and but people seem to really like
• 21:38
  them. And so I was at a conference a
• 21:41
  few years ago and the executive director of that organization
• 21:45
  that Canada who are kind of the overarching group for Advisors
• 21:51
  around the world. Anyone kind of working in
• 21:54
  student support in many respects and I was at the conference and
• 21:58
  Charlie, not the exact director introduced me to Matt, Matt,
• 22:03
  Markin and said hey, you do videos math does really cool
• 22:07
  videos. You guys should probably have a
• 22:09
  chat and see if there is stuff, you could learn.
• 22:12
  So, we did, and we got on really well discovered like yeah, there
• 22:15
  were, there were locked. We could learn from each other.
• 22:17
  We worked well and Charlie said, why don't you guys Make a video
• 22:21
  before the end of the conference.
• 22:23
  I want to see what you could watch.
• 22:25
  You can do. So we did we end it wasn't even
• 22:27
  just one video ended up making a couple of them and it went went
• 22:31
  really well and there was a follow-up Charlie would like
• 22:35
  what we did. So there was a follow-up
• 22:37
  conference a few months later and asked that we started doing
• 22:41
  some video interviews a little bit longer but still relatively
• 22:47
  short and then we were talking and people Like them, but people
• 22:51
  were saying, it can be tough to get time to sit down to
• 22:55
  actually, you know, listen to them.
• 22:57
  Be great if, you know, they were available.
• 22:59
  And so we said, what about doing a podcast?
• 23:02
  And so, the first kind of the, the first few episodes were made
• 23:07
  up of some of the interviews that we had done at that
• 23:10
  conference. I was in Louisville and
• 23:12
  Kentucky. It took some time to get it
• 23:18
  right as I'm sure you've experienced.
• 23:21
  Initially and we had don't like it's not like we did the
• 23:24
  research and stuff. We're trying to get a platform a
• 23:27
  recording platform that worked well as this a few years ago and
• 23:33
  you know Zoom wasn't what it is now and I suppose even in terms
• 23:39
  of getting it all together so it took us probably it was are
• 23:43
  probably our third time recording where it worked
• 23:47
  properly and we got it up and running so the but I've got that
• 23:49
  podcast been running for. About a year now, we talked, we
• 23:53
  talked to so advisors so people working as advisors a personal
• 23:58
  tutors. We talk to people working as
• 24:00
  support staff, we talked to people working in res life, we
• 24:04
  talked to faculty members, we talked to students themselves,
• 24:09
  so anything kind of with, in higher ed.
• 24:11
  I suppose it's a way of kind of a hearing somebody story and be
• 24:17
  kind of sharing knowledge. So when you go to a conference,
• 24:21
  A lot of times, you can't go to everything and you may, you may
• 24:26
  be get a half an hour slot, where's our interviews can be,
• 24:30
  you know, an hour and it allows us to talk to the person maybe
• 24:36
  in a little bit more informal way, a little bit more relaxed,
• 24:40
  get to know them a little bit, find out like how they came to
• 24:43
  work in higher ed, what some of their passions are and then to
• 24:46
  discuss the topic, you know. So it's kind of like Like a
• 24:51
  conference presentation plus. And so it's gone really well,
• 24:57
  which has been great. We've had been very fortunate to
• 25:00
  have fantastic guests. Come on.
• 25:03
  And the response to it has been really good.
• 25:06
  We just released episode 26. So we've been kind of releasing
• 25:12
  an episode, every couple of weeks and I suppose it's just
• 25:18
  looking because it has higher ed and then tired.
• 25:21
  Have a is just such a big area and there's so much happening.
• 25:26
  It's even thinking about things like PhD supervision, right?
• 25:30
  If you're doing a PhD who trains are, you know, how do you how do
• 25:35
  supervisors, learn how to be a PhD supervisor?
• 25:38
  How does that relationship, work, you know, if you're doing
• 25:42
  a PhD in English, English literature and that's a three or
• 25:46
  four-year undertaking or you're working directly with / visor
• 25:51
  you don't have a research lab, you know, the that that
• 25:54
  relationship is really important.
• 25:56
  So tall looking about cuz you know, again, it's not like there
• 26:00
  are classes that teach you to be a PhD student.
• 26:03
  How do I manage that relationship?
• 26:06
  So, it's trying to look at things like that.
• 26:09
  Trying to look at kind of the way in which technology has
• 26:13
  impacted on higher. Ed.
• 26:14
  Trying to look at, you know, different groups of students
• 26:17
  maybe students with disabilities.
• 26:21
  How did they experience higher ed?
• 26:23
  What's their access? Like so we've covered a lot of
• 26:27
  different topics but it's always with a focus both on sharing,
• 26:32
  you know, the the experience sharing the knowledge, but the
• 26:37
  story aspect to it. The conversational aspect to it
• 26:39
  is really Central to the podcast as well.
• 26:43
  Excellent. Thanks for sure, man.
• 26:44
  Appreciate it. So it sounds like it's a kind of
• 26:47
  an all-round resource thing because when you were first
• 26:49
  talking about it, I thought like okay.
• 26:51
  Maybe it's just sort of like a student resource.
• 26:53
  A useful one. Don't get me wrong but like, you
• 26:55
  know, that's kind of maybe the the target audience, but kind of
• 26:58
  sounds like it's for everyone who's just involved in higher
• 27:01
  ed. It's like kind of a round kind
• 27:04
  of resources and I'd say like probably one of the best types
• 27:08
  because, you know, I obviously when I went to University, I did
• 27:12
  a lot of work as like a student ambassador and all their stuff
• 27:14
  and those days were very useful in kind of giving people a
• 27:18
  flavor of what university is like, Like, but I never felt
• 27:21
  like those days or the video resources we would do whatever
• 27:25
  quite like fully capped encapsulator.
• 27:29
  So I feel like, you know, things like what you're doing is a bit
• 27:32
  more informative and gives a more accurate reflection of, you
• 27:35
  know, all this is how this works and this is what you can come to
• 27:38
  expect in first year. Second year as you said PhD you
• 27:41
  know, it's a useful resource yeah.
• 27:44
  Ray my surname is probably at staff and faculty a primary But
• 27:51
  one of the things I suppose students, we've had students on
• 27:54
  the podcast, because students are essential to elect
• 27:56
  universities don't exist without students if they did.
• 27:58
  If otherwise, you're just a research institute for students
• 28:02
  who have listened to the podcast and come back to me.
• 28:05
  They have said that was amazing because I Now understand the
• 28:08
  motivations behind the decisions.
• 28:11
  I know why? My supervisor said.
• 28:13
  There's I know why my advisor recommended that.
• 28:18
  I do this course or recommended. That Speak to this somebody or
• 28:22
  I, I Now understand why they were saying that this piece of
• 28:26
  technology might be good because a lot of times again, when, when
• 28:30
  you're and one of the bugbears that I have is when I go to
• 28:34
  conferences and I hear people talk about students is this like
• 28:37
  totally weird, distinct group that, that behave or students
• 28:41
  are always on their phone. And you look around the
• 28:43
  conference room and everyone's on their phone or students.
• 28:47
  Don't read emails, they do, right?
• 28:49
  They get so many of them. They're like, any of us, I have
• 28:52
  and I'm, I certainly know, my email inbox, I see what comes
• 28:55
  into it yet. That looks interesting, all I
• 28:57
  need to respond to that students, get bombarded all the
• 29:00
  time. So they're, they're people and I
• 29:03
  think they're just people would maybe sometimes the majority of
• 29:08
  them, obviously, you have mature, students, Etc, but
• 29:10
  they've a little bit less life experience than the people
• 29:14
  working generally in the University.
• 29:16
  So they don't always understand the motivations behind things
• 29:19
  and we don't always The timer have the time to explain the
• 29:23
  motivations behind things to them.
• 29:26
  And so when they actually when I when they have the opportunity
• 29:30
  to hear about it, it makes it clearer for everybody.
• 29:33
  You know, just try and pull the curtain back.
• 29:35
  A little bit, show the man behind the curtain and everybody
• 29:40
  kind of benefits from that universities being this
• 29:43
  mysterious place that students are in without fully
• 29:48
  understanding I Don't think you get the, the real benefit from
• 29:53
  it, like it's not, it shouldn't just be like school.
• 29:56
  Where you go, you sit down, you learn, you know, student should
• 29:59
  be for me, my thinking again, I'm sure I don't know, man.
• 30:04
  Maybe not, everyone would agree, but I think students should be
• 30:07
  involved in every facet of university life, because they
• 30:11
  without them, the institution doesn't exist and certainly in
• 30:15
  my experience, I've worked like a manage students working, you
• 30:18
  know, like, say you worked as an ambassador.
• 30:20
  So, Manage those previously. I've always found students.
• 30:23
  Absolutely unbelievable. Nobody's is invested in an
• 30:26
  institution as a student. So if you train a student
• 30:30
  support is student, they were like come up with some brilliant
• 30:33
  ideas and sometimes people say, how are you?
• 30:36
  Not worried, they'll make mistake.
• 30:37
  My anyone can make mistakes staff, make I make mistakes
• 30:40
  staff, make mistakes all the time, you know it's about like,
• 30:45
  you know, I really think students are unlikely to if you
• 30:49
  were, you know, again. Then it's about working with
• 30:51
  them you know and and and supporting them and trading
• 30:55
  them. I don't think they're in this
• 30:57
  idea that they're going to go off and do something absolutely
• 31:00
  crazy. It is not my experience.
• 31:03
  Do you think a big important part about this as well as is
• 31:07
  the the university itself and it's like approach and I'm not
• 31:14
  worried in this very well but what I mean is that for
• 31:16
  instance, the university I went to was research focused and As I
• 31:21
  began to understand while studying there and then
• 31:24
  obviously hearing about other people's experiences of other
• 31:26
  universities. Obviously, they were very heavy
• 31:30
  on the academic route, you know, they are trying to tell you that
• 31:33
  they want you to go down that route but, you know, they were a
• 31:37
  bit more, they would work more with you June.
• 31:41
  And I mean, like they wanted you to do well, they wanted you to
• 31:44
  kind of succeed and be as invested as possible because
• 31:48
  it's like that is going to benefit them like, so for Ample
• 31:51
  I know this is probably common practice all universities, but
• 31:54
  like all of the seminar two years that we would have would
• 31:59
  predominantly be PhD students. And it was interesting because
• 32:04
  some of them obviously you know, they don't want to go into
• 32:07
  teaching, they just want to do the Academia, we're where's
• 32:10
  others were really passionate about the teaching as well and
• 32:13
  you know, as part of it but you know, it's kind of like two
• 32:17
  worlds coming together, you know, the teaching aspect and
• 32:19
  then the actual research Useless, but I think a lot of
• 32:22
  people do forget about the fact that universities historically
• 32:26
  were obviously, as you said that before I research institutes,
• 32:29
  that them kind of open their doors and, you know, started
• 32:32
  teaching people, but that's the ideal way to kind of teach
• 32:37
  someone in a way, is to tutor them from, you know, level 0
• 32:41
  upwards. And then, you know, the main
• 32:44
  thing that you're looking for is their creativity.
• 32:46
  So if you don't like a, I don't know, like a maths degree or
• 32:48
  something like that. You know, fundamentally that
• 32:51
  person is going to be good at math and be creative in that
• 32:54
  field. So you want to kind of give them
• 32:55
  the tools that they can use and kind of build themselves up.
• 33:00
  So that when they do get out of this sort of the level of all
• 33:03
  their peers, you know, they'll be able to kind of formulate
• 33:07
  their ideas in the kind of the way that that institution does
• 33:13
  their research. So, for example, I've noticed a
• 33:15
  lot of students and people in general academics tend to go to
• 33:20
  and study it. From universities.
• 33:22
  And I always used to find that interest in like oh why don't
• 33:24
  they just stay at the same institution, but I think that
• 33:27
  it's essential that you do that because then you get like
• 33:30
  different kind of approaches and different understandings and
• 33:32
  then you can kind of apply that to your research and the papers
• 33:37
  that you obviously produce after the fact.
• 33:40
  Yeah. And I think that's I mean every
• 33:42
  institution has its own culture and same way every organization
• 33:45
  has its own culture. And so I think that the best
• 33:48
  institutions will look to and that research and that teaching.
• 33:52
  And I know that there's a feeling among some that there is
• 33:58
  almost too much focus on Research in because universities
• 34:04
  have become, I've been forced to become commercial entities, in
• 34:07
  many respects right there had been a cotton in Government
• 34:11
  funding Across the Western World.
• 34:15
  And so universities have to find new ways to you know fund
• 34:18
  themselves. A lot of that is Research output
• 34:22
  and so, it becomes, you know, the I don't know if you've heard
• 34:25
  the term publish or perish and so your focus as a lecturer is.
• 34:30
  What are you publishing? Okay.
• 34:32
  Because your party, but you're bringing in, if you're
• 34:35
  publishing, chances, are you're getting a research Grant.
• 34:38
  You're basically funding yourself, right?
• 34:40
  And their University will get a slice of that research Grant.
• 34:43
  Also, you can buy yourself out of teaching.
• 34:47
  So when one of the yeah, I mean that it is It's dead.
• 34:52
  It's not they don't get it. Don't care about this, not not
• 34:54
  every that everywhere not all the time, but one of the things
• 34:57
  that's important I think is that students even first-year
• 35:01
  students have access to their lecturers and that it's not just
• 35:05
  adjunct faculty that are brought in just to teach a course
• 35:09
  because a lot of times for those for those adjunct faculty, they
• 35:12
  don't have the same employment rights as as a full-time
• 35:16
  lecturer. You know they're paid purely for
• 35:19
  their time and then like you Over the summer, good luck to
• 35:21
  you now. Bye-bye and and it's the
• 35:24
  experience for the students as well.
• 35:27
  So for me it's you want to have people who are engaged in really
• 35:31
  top research, but who are still accessible to students.
• 35:34
  So it's about trying to find that that blend and to marry
• 35:38
  that together. You know, you're not expecting
• 35:41
  your top researchers to teach you know every single like 60
• 35:46
  undergraduate credits but like they should be available to them
• 35:50
  and because I think it's partly aspirationally.
• 35:52
  I mean, if you were go into universities the first year and
• 35:55
  you were like, you know, are being called by somebody who is
• 35:59
  at the top of their field, that that is very inspiring and that
• 36:03
  you can say, I that's what I aspire to that.
• 36:07
  Whereas if all you, you know, if instead that it is just well, I,
• 36:15
  you know, I'm a if it's all graduate students who are
• 36:19
  teaching you right? Because they are filling in in
• 36:22
  place of the lecturer. And they're like, well, I'm I'm
• 36:24
  filling in here. This isn't necessarily my
• 36:26
  course, but I'm here to deliver the material that has an impact.
• 36:30
  So I think it's about finding the balance.
• 36:32
  I think that that's what they do.
• 36:34
  Best institutions, do I think as well?
• 36:38
  It's it's recognizing that there are people like research and
• 36:44
  teaching is a fundamental aspect of it.
• 36:48
  And, you know, it's a foundational aspect of a put But
• 36:50
  they're people-centered institutions as well, right?
• 36:53
  They are, these are, these are students who are in their world
• 36:57
  were all people. So I think that has a huge role
• 37:01
  to play in education and recognizing that relationships
• 37:07
  play a huge role. And so that, that is to me, it
• 37:11
  is really important that there is a person-centered approach
• 37:17
  in, in an institution and they You people both in terms of the
• 37:24
  people who are working there, and the people who are studying
• 37:27
  there. Yeah, I couldn't agree more with
• 37:29
  you, it while you were talking. I was just reminded me of
• 37:33
  University, to be honest and being back in the lecture halls
• 37:36
  and stuff. Because the funny thing was as
• 37:37
  well, we had studied management with marketing.
• 37:42
  And the way that the course was structured, was, you know, the
• 37:44
  first year was Foundation as, with most degrees where, you
• 37:48
  know, it's kind of it's not even Really focused on your
• 37:53
  specialism. It's still like, you can still
• 37:55
  change your degree path at that point.
• 38:00
  So I only had like a little taste of marketing.
• 38:02
  There was more, you know, it's like everything that statistics
• 38:07
  international business, a range of different things and
• 38:11
  obviously throughout the rest of the years, it got more focused
• 38:14
  on marketing. But I did, one of the things I
• 38:16
  do remember was that we had many different lecturers and And many
• 38:21
  of them were as you say people that will come in for one offs
• 38:25
  or like they do like maybe a series of lectures and then they
• 38:28
  would go away which was kind of problematic because sometimes
• 38:32
  you would have contradictions. So like that lecturer would say
• 38:35
  a bunch of stuff that maybe is contradicted by what's being
• 38:39
  said in the seminars. And the course leader.
• 38:41
  See black wall who do I believe? Because they're all at the same
• 38:45
  level, there are professors. So it's like, it's not that it's
• 38:48
  wrong and this is the thing about Academia as well.
• 38:50
  There's all these different prevailing opinions and it's
• 38:53
  like, you can never technically be wrong.
• 38:56
  It's just an opinion and stuff and that's kind of the fun of it
• 39:00
  though. Like one of the things I
• 39:01
  discovered later on was that, you know, when they give you a
• 39:03
  reading list. So, here's a tip University
• 39:05
  students, were, when they give you the reading list, that
• 39:08
  doesn't mean that you're supposed to read the whole
• 39:10
  reading list. What it means is, these are
• 39:13
  suggested readings and if you read through them, they'll have
• 39:16
  different opinions. So, best thing to do is like,
• 39:19
  read the If them and kind of look at like, well what do I
• 39:23
  agree with more and then focus on that and then you can find,
• 39:26
  you know, additional sources that aren't listed elsewhere,
• 39:29
  you know, through what is it Google account for the name of
• 39:35
  the thing where you type into Google and it brings up only
• 39:38
  journalistic. Oh yeah.
• 39:40
  They're they're they're the the ready, the Google's are.
• 39:43
  I mean, they're the reference guides.
• 39:45
  Yeah, I know, I know what your specific search.
• 39:50
  Thing you have to put into Google and it only brings the
• 39:53
  journals up my mind's gone blank.
• 39:56
  Well anyway, all right it's exactly that I suppose it comes
• 40:01
  back to critical thinking and it comes back to recognizing as
• 40:07
  well that you can. You can really admire a writer,
• 40:12
  a researcher a person and think a lot of the work is great, but
• 40:17
  nothing. All of it is great.
• 40:18
  They don't. Nobody is Perfect.
• 40:21
  Nobody's going to have everything, right?
• 40:24
  And and if you find yourself agreeing with everything a
• 40:26
  person is saying, then you should probably wonder.
• 40:29
  Hmm. What's go what's going on here?
• 40:32
  Because I started either, they're like, writers at altars
• 40:35
  that I really admire but I certainly, there are things they
• 40:37
  say that I say, I'm not sure about that.
• 40:39
  So I think University should be about the specially at that
• 40:42
  foundational level of your spot on and it's about learning to
• 40:48
  recognize bias and To recognize that we all bring our own biases
• 40:53
  to everything that we write. And I suppose it can be.
• 40:58
  That's one of the big transitions from secondary
• 41:01
  school, I feel, because you're, you're not or a certainly, I
• 41:04
  wasn't an idea. You know, you're not taught
• 41:06
  question what you're being given because they don't want you to
• 41:09
  do that in school, right? But at University level, that's
• 41:12
  really important. So, I think that that's one area
• 41:16
  that we probably need a little bit more on is to To teach
• 41:22
  younger people about. And, and, in some ways, social
• 41:26
  media has been really good about that about trying to teach
• 41:30
  people about, like, you know, to how to critically, assess things
• 41:34
  because, when we don't do that, then that leads to all sorts of
• 41:39
  problems later on when you, you cannot discern.
• 41:44
  What's real, what's what's not real?
• 41:46
  Who's coming to you with genuine information, who's looking to
• 41:50
  Spin things, etc, etc. Again, couldn't agree more.
• 41:56
  I was like, I was very lucky. I went to a very good school.
• 41:59
  It was a public school but it was they did teach critical
• 42:02
  thinking, so I lucked out on that one.
• 42:04
  But as all schools are in released in the UK and it's a
• 42:09
  sense things Island to at school and a level, like you
• 42:15
  essentially learn Like a wrong way of learning because as soon
• 42:20
  as you come to University, you have to obviously, learn
• 42:24
  self-study, independent study and obviously at school and a
• 42:28
  level. Your Yeah.
• 42:31
  I mean, I suppose it depends on your course tutors but for the
• 42:33
  most part of you are kind of fed information fed opinions Federal
• 42:37
  this and that's just not the case at Uni.
• 42:40
  I mean you get given the tools and obviously depending on the
• 42:42
  University you go it will sort of impact on how much you're
• 42:47
  given and how useful the stuff that you're given actually is
• 42:51
  like I quickly realized that like textbooks I mean, there is
• 42:57
  some use in them, but I felt like the journals were way more.
• 43:00
  More useful. To be honest, my personal
• 43:05
  approach when I was at Uni, was that the lectures I stopped
• 43:09
  going to the lectures towards the end because a, I didn't have
• 43:11
  time and be they, I just wasn't getting anything from them.
• 43:14
  I realized like pretty much everything was being covered in
• 43:16
  the textbooks, not all of the lecturers, some of the
• 43:19
  lecturers, you'd go there. And like, I remember there was
• 43:21
  this one guy. It was a Brazilian guy and he
• 43:25
  was just the most entertaining lecture I've ever had in my life
• 43:29
  and I didn't even Like his subject, but I loved listening
• 43:33
  to him. So I just go for that.
• 43:35
  But no. But I always went to the
• 43:37
  seminars and never miss the seminar they were.
• 43:39
  Because I think the key thing with the seminars was obviously
• 43:43
  you're in a small room with your peers.
• 43:45
  Plus sometimes you'd be lucky to have the course tutor.
• 43:49
  So the professor there or you'd have PhD students or whatever,
• 43:52
  but you could discuss ideas and you could be like, okay, where
• 43:56
  do we sit with this? Where do we sit with that?
• 43:58
  What are the Prevailing Arguments for and against blah,
• 44:00
  blah blah? Ha and I felt like that was
• 44:02
  really really useful particularly if you kind of
• 44:05
  getting stuck on an idea or you just I don't know.
• 44:07
  You've got sort of like writer's block being the context of your
• 44:12
  studies. That's a really good way to go.
• 44:14
  Oh yeah. I'm considered this and all
• 44:16
  there's this and that. And yeah I mean I guess my point
• 44:19
  is like a university. You have to do it your own way,
• 44:24
  but that's kind of the exciting part by is.
• 44:27
  You figure out what's your own way?
• 44:29
  What works for you? Specifically as an individual
• 44:32
  and then you use that and run with that.
• 44:35
  And yeah, isn't why? I think I do think that's.
• 44:39
  That's a very fair point. It is figuring it out and it's
• 44:41
  figuring it out what way you learn as well, right.
• 44:45
  I was, I was, I learned by through listening and so, for
• 44:49
  me, going to lectures was important because it meant that
• 44:52
  I took it in. I did then didn't have to revise
• 44:55
  that part. I could read about other things.
• 44:57
  Other people are different and that is part of the The beauty
• 45:01
  of it. But I think the engagement piece
• 45:03
  is the most important piece more than always going to everything
• 45:09
  and different people. Again will learn in different
• 45:12
  ways, but as long as you're engaging with the material and
• 45:14
  engaging with your course, I think that that is that the the
• 45:19
  important piece there when you're not engaging when you're
• 45:21
  a pathetic that is that is the, you know, the eat because as you
• 45:26
  said, even if you didn't really like the material, he engaged.
• 45:30
  Do you write that lecture engage you?
• 45:32
  And therefore, you were willing to go along to it, it's equally
• 45:37
  like you can have a strong response against certain
• 45:39
  material that you're learning. But if it's, if it's a listening
• 45:42
  a stronger response, at least it's doing something.
• 45:45
  It's where you're a pathetic. And where, you know, I just like
• 45:48
  completely lost interest. That's the concern.
• 45:50
  See, and here's the thing, like the point you make is spot-on on
• 45:54
  a. So I, again, I couldn't agree
• 45:55
  more like, it really does come down to how you learn, what
• 45:58
  works best for you. But Those there were, I remember
• 46:01
  students of my union, you know who you are?
• 46:03
  Were very, very apathetic and I might, I mean, I kind of
• 46:08
  understand when you're at school and you're learning stuff that
• 46:11
  you never use in your day-to-day life and never will use.
• 46:14
  But at the same time, when your University, you're paying to be
• 46:20
  there, you know, I remember, I was 21 when I first started
• 46:23
  going to UNI, I was 24 when I graduated and there were times
• 46:26
  when I get a bit like frustrated or get a bit sick of things, but
• 46:30
  I always saw it through and I always kind of remember thinking
• 46:33
  like you wanted to do this, you wanted to change your life by
• 46:37
  doing this. It's important to you what and
• 46:39
  why would you waste your time you know doing things in this
• 46:42
  manner? Why would you spend all this
• 46:45
  money to be here for three years of your life to then just sit
• 46:50
  and treat it like school. Like I never understood that.
• 46:53
  Maybe it's like a maturity thing.
• 46:55
  I don't know. But I always look tried to look
• 46:58
  at on a logical basis light You're wasting your time and
• 47:03
  your money and it's like like you said, there's always going
• 47:06
  to be a part of it that will work for you.
• 47:08
  You know, if you if the lectures don't work for you of seminars
• 47:11
  that work for you, they will be something within that that
• 47:14
  you'll be able to engage with. Like I saw so many different
• 47:17
  types of study. I saw people making endless
• 47:19
  notes. I saw, you know, I used to do
• 47:21
  audio recording sometimes that was helpful.
• 47:23
  You know, I mentioned the seminars, you know, even people
• 47:26
  that just read their the journals or the books and just
• 47:29
  did that, you know, whatever works for you.
• 47:31
  But like I mean Christ even had study groups that we arranged in
• 47:36
  third year which really helped and I like I even found myself
• 47:40
  which I never thought I'd be doing in the library.
• 47:44
  I was there all the time and you know, with the whiteboards
• 47:48
  writing stuff and trying to do, you know like I don't know what
• 47:53
  it's called where you associate things with like certain words
• 47:57
  like a whole base hole, but yeah.
• 48:01
  Precisely. Yeah, and obviously being at
• 48:06
  Uni, especially if it's like a space uni, you're always around
• 48:10
  people. And you can always kind of
• 48:12
  bounce ideas off or learn about how other people ways that
• 48:16
  people do things and kind of basically just test and try and
• 48:20
  see what works. But, yeah, I'll never understand
• 48:22
  those people. I mean, I remember there was one
• 48:24
  guy. I hope you ventually graduated.
• 48:29
  But I remember when we started in the Same year.
• 48:33
  And then I think, when I was in third year, he was redoing first
• 48:38
  year for like the second or third time.
• 48:42
  And I was like, damn I'm and what from what I understood, he
• 48:46
  just basically party the whole time and just messed around and
• 48:51
  I mean everyone messes around a bit in the first year but you
• 48:53
  still like, I, even when I think back to Thursday it's like yeah,
• 48:57
  we partied a lot, but I also spent a lot of time in the
• 48:59
  library is all. I guess just kind of never stop.
• 49:03
  Cops, you know, I'd never lie in some ways almost admire that do
• 49:09
  then like him partying. At least he was enjoying it.
• 49:12
  It's the people who look at Justin continue to do it, but
• 49:15
  don't get any enjoyment out of because that bleeds into your
• 49:18
  life. It's like I've worked enough
• 49:20
  people who over the years who don't like what they do and yet
• 49:25
  remain in situ and never changed jobs and that's what I mean.
• 49:28
  Like why you if you're on a course three or four year course
• 49:31
  and you don't like it, why not change?
• 49:33
  It's not a life sentence. A judge did not decide this for
• 49:37
  you. You can change you and and
• 49:39
  that's where I say people and students, you know, like it's
• 49:42
  the same, like you see the same traits everywhere.
• 49:46
  But yeah. If you're unhappy with something
• 49:48
  changes, you know, you eat, you get what you got, Warren.
• 49:51
  Go with this life thing, at least that we remember.
• 49:55
  So go and change it. Make the most of it.
• 49:58
  When I was 18, I was in a, and I've mentioned this so many
• 50:01
  times, so my listeners will be fully aware Where of this?
• 50:03
  I won't go into full details but basically, I was working in this
• 50:06
  like Supermarket job. I hated it.
• 50:09
  It was what it was. Now I remember having that exact
• 50:12
  feeling of like, oh I hate this, I'm so miserable blah, blah
• 50:15
  blah. And what I really needed was
• 50:17
  someone to give me part of my language, like a kick up, the
• 50:19
  arse and basically just, but that's the thing that doesn't
• 50:24
  really that doesn't often happen in life, you know?
• 50:28
  Maybe you have some strong parents that will do that for
• 50:30
  you. Maybe have some people in your
• 50:32
  life some You need positive people around you really you
• 50:35
  need to avoid negative people and be around positive people
• 50:39
  but yeah it all comes down to you.
• 50:43
  And for me the change has happened when I was like Genoa.
• 50:47
  I'm so sick and tired of this. I'm going to change this and I
• 50:50
  started studying again. They're like a brief College
• 50:52
  course and then went back into University after that also went
• 50:57
  to University for the first time and from that point onwards, my
• 51:00
  life has just been totally different And now, that's how I
• 51:05
  approach everything that's like, okay, here's an opportunity, his
• 51:09
  something different. Here is an opportunity to learn
• 51:10
  to try something different and excetera.
• 51:13
  I really think it does come down to your attitude towards life.
• 51:17
  Like if you just don't have the right attitude, you will become
• 51:21
  one of those people that just sits and complains but never
• 51:23
  does anything about it. Like I'm not going to say I
• 51:25
  never moan about things but the difference of me is that I'll
• 51:28
  moan about it a bit, but then I'll work my ass off and still
• 51:32
  try. Change things.
• 51:34
  Because that's, that's the only thing that will change things.
• 51:36
  Moaning complaining doesn't change anything.
• 51:40
  No, a unless it is like, unless it motivates, you to make a
• 51:44
  change. But that's what you have to do
• 51:45
  is make. And I'm not saying, like, if you
• 51:47
  don't like your job immediately, quit your job.
• 51:49
  No, not at all and I like an action, I remember years ago,
• 51:58
  it's just not worth it and I have a really good friend guy
• 52:01
  named key and he's Joey Brilliant.
• 52:03
  And he's just so, you know, you really good for advice and I
• 52:07
  talked to him and I said, I just think I just got a quick like
• 52:11
  well how you gonna pay rent? Like he's not like you do you
• 52:14
  have you know Perry Rich parents who can pay your rent?
• 52:17
  Rent like how are you going to do this?
• 52:18
  And he said to me, he's like what if you you know there's not
• 52:23
  you can go to work and you still have time in the evenings to you
• 52:26
  know apply for jobs these so there's nothing stopping.
• 52:29
  It's not like work is impeding you're applying for For jobs,
• 52:34
  and so it's about. I'm not saying that cuz I, yeah,
• 52:37
  I would be the, you know, it's not like quit your job and, and
• 52:43
  life will certainly happen. No.
• 52:44
  You have to make a plan but like don't just sit there thinking,
• 52:47
  it can't get better. It can it absolutely can and you
• 52:54
  can find something that is, is so much better even in.
• 52:58
  I remember back in and it was a simple change.
• 53:01
  I worked back. In college, I started working
• 53:05
  back home. We had video shots, right, and
• 53:10
  put it was right at the time when technology was kind of
• 53:12
  coming in. But for the issue was
• 53:14
  technology, wasn't good enough. I was had, we were having to
• 53:16
  register everything, like, on the computer but also, in the
• 53:21
  book, right? Was like, it was terrible as the
• 53:23
  worst. I've been the codes out
• 53:24
  manually. Oh, and the guy at the computer
• 53:27
  wouldn't wouldn't. So, if you say, you were
• 53:29
  bringing a DVD back Christian, right?
• 53:32
  And I said you Christian. Oh, there's 26 there's a
• 53:35
  26-pound fighting on that, right?
• 53:37
  You paid the fine and let's say, you know, you you're somebody
• 53:41
  belonging to you came down later on really angry saying, hey that
• 53:45
  shouldn't have been a 26.5 to computer.
• 53:47
  As soon as the fine was paid wiped all the records, right?
• 53:50
  So I was like this is the word I so I managed to find a new job
• 53:56
  in a cinema, right? And because I love movies but
• 54:00
  that's why I got the job of the DVD store.
• 54:02
  The sea My job was amazing. I absolutely loved it.
• 54:05
  So if it is change and I immediately improve my
• 54:08
  predicament, what y was working in a cinema?
• 54:12
  So amazing. I mean, besides you II loved it
• 54:15
  because I got it, this, the system's worked firstly.
• 54:20
  But I again, you got to church at to be but like there are
• 54:23
  Cinemas at that time again. Like this is going back a bit
• 54:27
  but when you know, streaming wasn't a thing.
• 54:29
  So people going to the cinema was there were lots of people Go
• 54:33
  like, and we used to do like midnight shows at weekends and
• 54:37
  stuff, I just still be passed, but there were loads of people
• 54:40
  working there. So there are loads of stories,
• 54:42
  close it. You also got tickets to go to
• 54:47
  was it to our to say, yeah. So you got four essentially, 40
• 54:51
  for four tickets a week to go to, to the cinema.
• 54:54
  So, to you could, you could go to two movies and you could
• 54:58
  bring some somebody in with you. I just I loved it because the
• 55:02
  People that that worked there. It was a good vibe.
• 55:06
  Generally people work there were somewhat into movies or you
• 55:10
  could find people who are the projectionists, they're always
• 55:13
  lunatics the current project. If you know a projection is
• 55:16
  there, great craic. I guarantee you that much.
• 55:19
  So it was just it was a good vibe.
• 55:22
  I got to watch movies and it was great.
• 55:25
  It was a great College job, none of it was too strenuous, and I
• 55:28
  wasn't manually having to log things and people weren't
• 55:32
  screaming at me for a system that I had nothing to do with
• 55:35
  not working. You know, I remember when I went
• 55:38
  to that supermarket at the same problem because obviously
• 55:42
  everything was done with these scanner tills, but it was all
• 55:48
  done, you know, you scan the, I omit goes through but like I'm
• 55:51
  sure you've had this where you go in a supermarket and like
• 55:53
  their scanner thing doesn't work, right?
• 55:56
  And it didn't happen that often but it did happen.
• 56:00
  Quite regularly. And it would always happen when
• 56:03
  we were really busy. And, you know, the person is
• 56:05
  waiting like And, you know, I will say some customers do need
• 56:11
  to like relax a little bit but the system was flawed like the
• 56:15
  number would be like this long and you have to like, I fit in
• 56:19
  like it's not, it's not touch screens, not only that.
• 56:20
  It's literally like keys on. ADD like old keyboard and yeah,
• 56:26
  I love the time, like, it wouldn't come up or, you know, I
• 56:29
  don't know sometimes. I think I remember having to do
• 56:31
  stuff manually, like, guess the price, and sometimes I get it
• 56:35
  wrong, and I'll give them like three pounds.
• 56:37
  And discount or something alright.
• 56:41
  Are you enter it manually and it brings it up wrong and then they
• 56:45
  complain and then you've got to get a manager to take it off the
• 56:47
  system. She don't remember, I've never
• 56:50
  told this story but one time I actually made the biggest
• 56:53
  mistake I ever made working there was it was really busy and
• 56:58
  this guy was charging his card and we always had problems with
• 57:01
  cards and I thought it went through, right?
• 57:06
  And I was like, Thank you very much.
• 57:09
  He leaves. It didn't go through the system,
• 57:13
  it didn't charge him. So this guy got a week's worth
• 57:16
  of shopping like 50, 60, cream free.
• 57:20
  And I said this to, he was like an assistant manager.
• 57:24
  I was like, Hey, so this has happened and he just looked at
• 57:28
  me like But he just didn't know what to say he's like yeah I
• 57:35
  guess I guess we're looking into and he's a guy I knew he was
• 57:38
  thinking like yeah we can't ever say anything about it it's like
• 57:42
  yeah some things some things you have to write off.
• 57:45
  I worked in a music store years ago who had a policy this is
• 57:49
  amazing. Whereby you could bring back
• 57:51
  your CDs and exchange them as many as you wanted.
• 57:55
  And we had a guy used to come in every weekend and heat about
• 58:00
  bean seed easy to stack and he would put them out.
• 58:02
  He said I want to change these for these, he was clearly going
• 58:05
  home. It was act like burners, were
• 58:06
  first starting burning the CD and bringing them back in the
• 58:11
  next week and saying, I'll exchange and I work there, I
• 58:16
  wasn't. Even in Ireland, was actually in
• 58:18
  America. I did a J1 somewhere in America
• 58:22
  and I worked there from May to September every single weekend.
• 58:27
  He would come in. There was also somebody who came
• 58:29
  in Who paid with two a two dollar bill all always all into
• 58:34
  dollar bills, which are pretty rare.
• 58:35
  So, no idea where this person had acquired all of these two
• 58:39
  dollar bills. But, again, throughout the
• 58:42
  summer, this person came in, spend a lot of money on CDs
• 58:45
  because everyone bought CDs of that time, but always paid into
• 58:49
  dollar bills and I would love to get to the bottom of that
• 58:52
  mystery as to where they were getting these two dollar bills.
• 58:55
  I remember one time I was working in my dad's a Baba,
• 59:00
  professional barbarians a bob series of barbershops.
• 59:03
  And I worked there as like a Saturday boy, when I was like 11
• 59:07
  or 12 for like a year to be fair, I worked there for a year.
• 59:11
  It was kind of crazy when I look back, I'm like, yeah, it's kind
• 59:13
  of like child labor, you know, like, because it went from like
• 59:17
  just Saturday's to like Saturday Sunday and it was like full-time
• 59:23
  but whatever. But anyway, I remember that
• 59:25
  every morning or every couple of morning's this Asian lady would
• 59:29
  come by Store and shop, and she'd come through sort of to
• 59:35
  the back area. And she had like a know, like,
• 59:40
  back in the day used to have like these bags, but they
• 59:43
  weren't CD bags. You remember those varied like
• 59:46
  slot CDs? And yeah, yeah.
• 59:48
  So she had one of those full to the brim with like maybe like 50
• 59:52
  CDs or whatever she puts on the table and being that I'm an 11
• 59:55
  12 year old kid. I'm very like loud.
• 59:57
  Like you know, like oh wow, what's this?
• 59:59
  What these movies? He's right and she put some down
• 1:00:02
  my dad's like shot and basically.
• 1:00:05
  Yeah they were they were pirate DVD.
• 1:00:07
  This was before you know, you could watch stuff online and
• 1:00:11
  there was a reason that they were so dirt cheap.
• 1:00:13
  And but the funny thing was, there was a funny thing about
• 1:00:16
  them was that you never knew what the quality would be.
• 1:00:20
  So sometimes it'd be a really, really good.
• 1:00:22
  Rip and it'd be like, oh wow, we don't even have to buy the
• 1:00:24
  movie. Really, look how great this is
• 1:00:26
  and other times. It be so bad if you like one of
• 1:00:29
  those ones. Where you know what a movie
• 1:00:31
  first comes out now and the Pirates out, but it's like
• 1:00:34
  people watching in a cinema and people getting up every five
• 1:00:37
  seconds and stuff and be like that and and like you couldn't
• 1:00:41
  moan, he gonna complain too much time, doing it.
• 1:00:44
  Maybe like, oh my God and at least admit it's a funny thing
• 1:00:47
  because like the lady was so nice.
• 1:00:49
  And as far as like, the criminal criminal totem pole, it's pretty
• 1:00:54
  low down there. Didn't know me.
• 1:00:55
  But yeah, I always just found the whole thing.
• 1:00:58
  Very bizarre and funny. And yeah, you never see those
• 1:01:01
  people anymore. No.
• 1:01:03
  Now they, they definitely the internet changed, all of that.
• 1:01:10
  Okay. Move it on.
• 1:01:12
  I'd like to talk a little bit about your work.
• 1:01:14
  Now, obviously we've touched on a lot of the stuff that you do
• 1:01:17
  with your podcast and just in general, but you are, as I
• 1:01:21
  mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, the senior
• 1:01:24
  International officer, Dublin City University in Ireland.
• 1:01:28
  So, tell us about some of your responsibilities and what you do
• 1:01:31
  in general. Yeah.
• 1:01:34
  So I have been working at DCU for about 18 months ago, they're
• 1:01:40
  about And really loved working there.
• 1:01:43
  It's a great institution and I suppose I know that higher ed
• 1:01:48
  sector in Ireland, really? Well, I studied at University
• 1:01:51
  College cork. I worked at the cork Institute
• 1:01:54
  of Technology which actually since the first of January is
• 1:01:58
  the monster Technological University.
• 1:02:01
  Then I worked you know the number of big institutions in
• 1:02:07
  Dublin so I think I think I've been like for I've worked are
• 1:02:12
  being at 48th universities and then like one of the institute's
• 1:02:16
  of technology and Ireland is where we're lucky that we have
• 1:02:22
  such a strong, so many good education institutions, but I'm
• 1:02:29
  happy and proud to work at at DCU and my work is with
• 1:02:36
  International students, obviously given the the tiger
• 1:02:40
  and I see Was it's a number of different things.
• 1:02:42
  It is working on the the piece too.
• 1:02:48
  I suppose go out and get students to come to study at DCU
• 1:02:54
  but then to support students along that Journey.
• 1:02:56
  So everything, you know, so doing kind of the student
• 1:03:00
  recruitment fairs and then kind of doing the the webinars to
• 1:03:06
  guide the students along the process in terms of say
• 1:03:09
  immigration. Ation like making these
• 1:03:11
  applications dealing with that side of things arrival into
• 1:03:15
  Ireland. What to, what to expect a little
• 1:03:19
  bit. Then maybe around the kind of
• 1:03:21
  cultural adjustment piece, a little bit around the
• 1:03:23
  immigration, peace, after they get here.
• 1:03:28
  So a lot, a lot of that about any and even then, I suppose
• 1:03:32
  they'll always be different immigration pieces.
• 1:03:34
  But so, even one of the things that I'm so I did a project in
• 1:03:40
  At one of the former institutions that I was at that,
• 1:03:44
  I was calling Dublin and December at that stage, because
• 1:03:49
  Ireland a little bit, like the UK, but probably even more so
• 1:03:54
  shuts down at Christmastime, right?
• 1:03:56
  So institutions closed for two weeks and on Christmas Day,
• 1:03:59
  everything shuts in Ireland. Everything there's no public
• 1:04:02
  transport there. No restaurants there.
• 1:04:04
  No, there's nothing old. But, and so that's was, it was a
• 1:04:09
  big shock for National students who came over who maybe didn't
• 1:04:12
  celebrate Christmas at home and then suddenly, you know, I'll go
• 1:04:16
  I'll go down to the shop and get the oh no I won't actually and
• 1:04:21
  campus accommodation. You know is pretty empty and the
• 1:04:26
  universe and those traditional Sports on campus that are closed
• 1:04:29
  as well. So I noticed that a few years
• 1:04:31
  ago so I kind of implemented a project where I looked too
• 1:04:36
  because I can't change Ireland, right?
• 1:04:39
  It can't change the culture not looking You that right?
• 1:04:41
  People need to have their holidays.
• 1:04:42
  They need to spend the time with their families.
• 1:04:43
  What I could do is look to set up communities of support before
• 1:04:48
  the Christmas holiday, is to get the students to know who else
• 1:04:50
  was going to be around. Teach them a little bit about
• 1:04:53
  what Christmas meant in Ireland and learn a bit about their
• 1:04:56
  holiday traditions. So we would do Christmas
• 1:05:00
  decorating Workshop. Right.
• 1:05:02
  And so you and a friend came along and I'd say, okay, can you
• 1:05:05
  consider this table here and your friend considered that
• 1:05:08
  table? So that, you know, and then you
• 1:05:10
  you would get Get to know people at the table.
• 1:05:11
  You'd find out, who else was gonna be staying?
• 1:05:14
  And that worked really well. And we did actually Christmas
• 1:05:16
  day like breakfast event, and it wasn't about the food.
• 1:05:19
  Nobody was coming. They weren't getting this
• 1:05:21
  grandiose meal, but it's about a chance to come together when the
• 1:05:26
  university already probably been closed for a few days at that
• 1:05:28
  point. Everything else is closed and
• 1:05:30
  just opportunity to come together.
• 1:05:31
  So, that worked really well. Did that a few years covid?
• 1:05:34
  Obviously. Meant everything changed this
• 1:05:36
  year and so a lot of the teaching was online and In
• 1:05:39
  fairness to do You, they, let they made that decision, very
• 1:05:42
  early, which was great because it allowed lecturers time to
• 1:05:45
  prepare. It allowed students, time to
• 1:05:48
  make decisions, but one of the things that I was hearing from,
• 1:05:52
  the international students was they hadn't.
• 1:05:55
  They didn't really like they hadn't had the opportunity to
• 1:05:59
  socialize with domestic students, and they hadn't had
• 1:06:04
  the opportunity to kind of shit because one of the things,
• 1:06:06
  right? When you meet new people, as you
• 1:06:07
  share your stories, right? You know, I Talk to you about
• 1:06:11
  Ireland. You tell me.
• 1:06:11
  But you know and especially if they're if it's such a different
• 1:06:14
  place. So I wanted to try to look at
• 1:06:19
  how we could still talk about kind of Christmas traditions in
• 1:06:23
  Ireland, but also to learn about them.
• 1:06:25
  So, we did a video project where I asked members of the DCU
• 1:06:31
  community. So I asked students and staff
• 1:06:34
  and alumni to send in a video. Again, 90 about 90 seconds to
• 1:06:40
  Teach 90 seconds talking about their holiday traditions,
• 1:06:43
  whatever it was, and it could be if it was Christmas that was
• 1:06:46
  great. If they were humanists in this
• 1:06:48
  celebrated World humanist day, that was great.
• 1:06:49
  Whatever happened to be, maybe they celebrate the winter,
• 1:06:53
  solstice, whatever. And then I asked the students to
• 1:06:57
  share about their holiday traditions.
• 1:06:59
  And some of them had were still in their home countries.
• 1:07:01
  And so they would share maybe but to Walley or about like the
• 1:07:05
  Chinese New Year or different ones.
• 1:07:10
  And then we looked to kind of bring those together and kind of
• 1:07:15
  talk just because holiday like holiday celebrations are about
• 1:07:19
  jet. If you listen to the videos
• 1:07:21
  interesting because everyone there's different rationales
• 1:07:25
  behind them and different Traditions but it's all about
• 1:07:28
  people coming together to celebrate something, right?
• 1:07:30
  It's all about friends Gathering and family gathering and there's
• 1:07:34
  food involved in all of them. So the Traditions are very
• 1:07:36
  similar. So it's about getting people to
• 1:07:37
  see that there are yes we're different in some ways but if
• 1:07:40
  Scratch beneath the surface. You look look at what's bringing
• 1:07:43
  us together and we also did a booklet then just kind of what
• 1:07:48
  to expect in Dublin and kind of where you can go, you know, what
• 1:07:53
  are the what are the traditions of water?
• 1:07:56
  Where can you go for support? But it worked really well the
• 1:07:58
  response to it was really fantastic and and it was just I
• 1:08:03
  was delighted that even virtually, right?
• 1:08:06
  Because we couldn't necessarily do what we traditionally done.
• 1:08:10
  Done. We're able to find a way to
• 1:08:13
  bring people together so my my interest has always been in
• 1:08:20
  cultures in celebrating cultures and in looking because culture
• 1:08:25
  it's something we grew up with right and it can be so deeply
• 1:08:28
  ingrained that we don't even think about it right now.
• 1:08:30
  Mine and it's just something we do and we don't stop to think.
• 1:08:34
  Well why do we do? That's just the way it is.
• 1:08:38
  And I Find culture fascinating and I'm interested in it.
• 1:08:43
  But equally I, you know, I wouldn't go to war for it and I
• 1:08:49
  think that we, we can learn. And if we can understand each
• 1:08:52
  other's cultures a bit more that, that helps everyone, you
• 1:08:57
  know? Like even say communication
• 1:09:00
  Styles, right? Like we in the UK and Ireland,
• 1:09:03
  right? In the west, we tend to kind of
• 1:09:06
  play tennis, right? I talk usually knock it back and
• 1:09:09
  forth. In some countries, they almost
• 1:09:12
  have like chess and it depends on the.
• 1:09:16
  So, for example, especially if there's a power differential,
• 1:09:20
  right? So, in so when somebody finished
• 1:09:23
  speaking, you would leave a gap until you came in, right?
• 1:09:27
  So if your boss spoke and the the bigger, the Gap is our
• 1:09:31
  perceived Gap, in power, the longer, the pose that you leave
• 1:09:36
  fully in some places like Brazil Brazilians, tend to juggle Right
• 1:09:40
  Brazilians are amazing and a group because Brazilians are let
• 1:09:43
  me having the conversation here, we have the conversation over
• 1:09:46
  there and then we having a conversation over here and they
• 1:09:49
  can bring their broiling to bring new people in.
• 1:09:52
  But if you're you, especially being used to playing tennis
• 1:09:56
  like we tend to do, you can feel like, hey, we we were having a
• 1:10:00
  conversation and that now you're having a conversation and and
• 1:10:03
  residents alike but we're all conversely.
• 1:10:05
  What are you like? What are you talking about solo?
• 1:10:07
  Having Brazilians in a group? They're brilliant.
• 1:10:10
  About bringing different people in, but it's learning about
• 1:10:13
  those Communications that it's learning about different
• 1:10:15
  cultures, it's recognizing that you won't know everything that
• 1:10:19
  you that you're going to get it wrong sometimes, and that it's
• 1:10:22
  okay to make mistakes. We need to be okay with making
• 1:10:25
  mistakes and we need to be okay with forgiving people for making
• 1:10:28
  mistakes. If they made it with good
• 1:10:30
  intentions because, you know, you can with the best will in
• 1:10:35
  the world, you will never get everything right?
• 1:10:38
  And definitely in relation to culture them.
• 1:10:40
  Will be cultural for paths that you will make that might offend
• 1:10:45
  people. But, and, and you just have to
• 1:10:47
  be willing to hold your hands up and say sorry.
• 1:10:51
  I didn't know about that or equally to if somebody doesn't
• 1:10:54
  take it to say look, don't worry about it, you had no idea.
• 1:10:58
  And so I think it's interesting and for international students
• 1:11:03
  who come to Ireland, Ireland is a, we're phenomenally indirect
• 1:11:07
  people. So in the Irish language, there
• 1:11:09
  is no Oh, direct yes or no. So you're asking you know and
• 1:11:14
  and So that obviously bleeds like language bleeds into a
• 1:11:17
  culture so Irish people tend not to be direct.
• 1:11:20
  So say you were, you know, your eyes, you're working together
• 1:11:24
  and you have a report that I I really need you to get the
• 1:11:27
  report class to be. I'd say something like that.
• 1:11:29
  I'm hey, Christian, I'm firstly, I always say, How are you
• 1:11:32
  getting on? Or, you know, you'd have to make
• 1:11:34
  small talk and day and I'd say, maybe what if you eat?
• 1:11:40
  Listen, if you get a chance sometime this afternoon, if you
• 1:11:44
  get a chance now you might drop that report over to me.
• 1:11:47
  We need that right now. Like you might do that, you
• 1:11:51
  might do that but if you're from a culture say where it's more
• 1:11:59
  direct, write the Netherlands tens.
• 1:12:03
  The Dutch tend to be much more direct people, you're like, oh
• 1:12:06
  they probably doesn't need it, that urgently right?
• 1:12:09
  So but again, In. Like, if you were to go to an
• 1:12:12
  Irish person, you made a direct request every like that's so
• 1:12:14
  offensive. I can't believe they did that.
• 1:12:18
  And it was just, you know, like I heard a great story on Twitter
• 1:12:26
  just for Christmas about an Irish woman who had moved to the
• 1:12:29
  Netherlands. And so she, she was kind of set
• 1:12:34
  a load to her new neighbors and her neighbor then called around
• 1:12:39
  or so her. And the neighbor said, just let
• 1:12:43
  you know, we're having a party on Saturday and the Irish.
• 1:12:48
  Did he said, oh, that's great. What you want me to bring?
• 1:12:52
  And the church, lady said no, no, no, I'm not saying that to
• 1:12:55
  invite you. I'm saying that just to it so
• 1:12:57
  that, you know, that there's party and talk about to endure
• 1:13:01
  because in Ireland, you see would ask somebody directly to
• 1:13:04
  the parity in case they you know you know.
• 1:13:06
  Because again you just don't ask directly so I'd say, hey,
• 1:13:09
  Christian. Yeah, we're A few of us are
• 1:13:11
  getting together there on Saturday, meaning like you're
• 1:13:13
  invited and again like things like even language like, for
• 1:13:16
  example, the the double positive is actually a negative in
• 1:13:21
  Ireland. So if I said, if you said to me.
• 1:13:25
  Oh, hey Hugo's, having a party. Are you coming?
• 1:13:27
  Then I said, I am. Yeah, am I going to the party?
• 1:13:33
  I mean I would have said yeah yeah exactly but that they all
• 1:13:39
  I'm not I have. Yeah that's that's that's that's
• 1:13:41
  in Ireland. That's like not a hope of my
• 1:13:44
  going to that thing. Oh what?
• 1:13:45
  Like like fuck that like you know like yeah.
• 1:13:48
  Yeah I'll say smaller sarcasm. Then it's like a lot of times
• 1:13:55
  it's purely straight face even if you're going to eat, even if
• 1:14:01
  you're going to be like, See, I knew you write or somewhat or
• 1:14:06
  even if I didn't know you say we were just hanging out in college
• 1:14:08
  right in first week and use, you didn't have to two Euros to get
• 1:14:12
  a coffee and you're like, hey can you let me chew your own?
• 1:14:14
  I'd like to think I'm a bag. I'm going to give you the two
• 1:14:20
  Euro but I'm gonna slack you about it first but if you're
• 1:14:23
  from a culture where people don't do that, that's really
• 1:14:26
  hurtful so and and that's the little cultural nuances that I
• 1:14:31
  hope we never lose. It's important, we learn about,
• 1:14:35
  right? Because that's, that's a piece
• 1:14:37
  that you have to learn. So I've death or Tie Irish
• 1:14:40
  people like and time the concept of fish.
• 1:14:44
  So you'd say to somebody. I, yeah, I meet you a meeting in
• 1:14:47
  the pub. Yeah.
• 1:14:48
  I'll probably be there about nine ish.
• 1:14:50
  Like again, people from a really kind of time-sensitive culture
• 1:14:54
  will be there at 9:00. The average person might show up
• 1:14:57
  to have 10 and they're like, you know, either their God are there
• 1:15:00
  like put you said you're going to, yeah, but night-night isil.
• 1:15:03
  Taft head. I mean, things happened like,
• 1:15:06
  you know, or the famous One in Ireland, as well as like.
• 1:15:09
  Yeah. I I'm just just just about to
• 1:15:12
  leave the house. I'll be there.
• 1:15:13
  They're about 10 minutes. Leave the house.
• 1:15:16
  Probably haven't even gotten into the shower.
• 1:15:18
  Yes. So I just find those little
• 1:15:21
  culture and Trixie's really interesting, we all have them.
• 1:15:24
  Every single culture has them in different ways and so to me some
• 1:15:31
  of the most fun interactions over the Last 15 years that I've
• 1:15:35
  been kind of working in the sector.
• 1:15:36
  Print particular, 12 years with International students have been
• 1:15:40
  specially around, those kind of like learning about culture
• 1:15:45
  learning about cultural intricacies.
• 1:15:47
  And I've been very fortunate to get to travel quite a bit and to
• 1:15:51
  meet people and people have been so wonderfully generous in terms
• 1:15:54
  of Hosting me and showing me around their beautiful countries
• 1:15:58
  of all of those things that you mentioned actually like In
• 1:16:03
  England of experienced Luna that it's interesting.
• 1:16:06
  You said this of Irish specific because it's like which it
• 1:16:10
  literally all of those things like that, the Stars Chasm
• 1:16:13
  thing. Yeah.
• 1:16:14
  I mean, maybe I might not be so blunt with that but like, I've
• 1:16:17
  definitely been like that before.
• 1:16:18
  And definitely the ish thing. That's, I mean, to me, I think
• 1:16:22
  there's a differentiation. If you say like, I will be there
• 1:16:25
  at 9:00 and you're like really blunt then it's like, yeah.
• 1:16:29
  Be there or else if you say nine ish.
• 1:16:33
  Yeah. I mean that that kind of allows
• 1:16:35
  for like half an hour maybe a bit more, like, it's fish.
• 1:16:38
  It's like, yeah, I even to be there at that time, but like,
• 1:16:42
  don't get upset if I'm not exactly, no, I do think there
• 1:16:46
  are a lot of similarities between Ireland and the UK.
• 1:16:49
  I mean, look, people travel, over Irish people would
• 1:16:52
  Heritage, but I will say that in when I go to the UK, but I've,
• 1:16:57
  you know, travel over quite a bit, people in the UK tend to
• 1:17:01
  obey rules More so than Ireland, like even crossing the street,
• 1:17:07
  like I'm just like that I date, you know, there's no green
• 1:17:10
  Banner. I've just crossed into the
• 1:17:11
  random place and I'm looking going.
• 1:17:13
  Why is no one else cross it? And they're looking at me going,
• 1:17:15
  I can't believe he's doing that, you know?
• 1:17:17
  I mean, so there are, there are little intricacies, but
• 1:17:21
  definitely Ireland and the UK do share a lot.
• 1:17:24
  And particularly, I think, in terms of humor and sarcasm
• 1:17:30
  English and Irish people or British people, The Scots are
• 1:17:35
  great in that in that as well, but there are similarities.
• 1:17:38
  But that's not, that's not shared everywhere.
• 1:17:41
  I could, I could tell, you know, I couldn't agree more.
• 1:17:45
  I think, when I started Living in Europe, I noticed that even
• 1:17:48
  more, so and it's kind of taught me to be a lot more blunt now
• 1:17:53
  that I've returned to the UK with regret ordinary not blunt,
• 1:17:56
  but, like, more direct with things I prefer doing things
• 1:17:59
  that way, like being it saves a lot of time.
• 1:18:02
  I feel But even some of those things that you mentioned, like,
• 1:18:06
  I feel like is like a choice thing.
• 1:18:08
  You know, I look for example, you give the crossing the road
• 1:18:11
  example, like I remember going up.
• 1:18:14
  Yeah, everyone would just do that.
• 1:18:15
  But like, as you get older, I think you kind of realize like,
• 1:18:18
  I'm a fool for for doing it. I said, I'd screw this.
• 1:18:21
  I don't care what people think, you know, it does no cars around
• 1:18:24
  like four miles, right? We're not going to stand and
• 1:18:27
  wait for the Jack, even the people in the cars, they look at
• 1:18:30
  you. Like you're an idiot or
• 1:18:31
  something get across, So yeah, I think you think it comes down a
• 1:18:37
  little bit to just common sense but it is what it is.
• 1:18:43
  Yeah, moving it Forward. I just want to talk a little bit
• 1:18:46
  about just just like your perspective on like Ireland and
• 1:18:52
  covid-19 and stuff because I spoke to some guests that live
• 1:18:55
  there, but not an actual Irish person.
• 1:18:59
  So I kind of wanted to get your thoughts on.
• 1:19:02
  Well, Like how covid-19 affected, you personally, your
• 1:19:06
  job, your personal life, this kind of stuff.
• 1:19:08
  And then just in general, how has Ireland and you said your
• 1:19:13
  residing in Dublin, obviously, so Dublin as well.
• 1:19:16
  How Ireland in Dublin, sort of responded to the pandemic.
• 1:19:20
  So, I mean it's there are many phases to it.
• 1:19:27
  I have been very fortunate in in terms of my work because I I've
• 1:19:33
  been able to work from home, and I've been able to continue to
• 1:19:39
  work in and the university has remained open.
• 1:19:43
  We've worked remotely for the most part and I like, I don't
• 1:19:53
  like, I don't think anyone know certainly other than anyone from
• 1:19:59
  our office didn't have to go in. Obviously, they say they were
• 1:20:02
  like, if there were lecturers who were Particular subjects,
• 1:20:05
  they may have had to go in to deliver labs and things like
• 1:20:07
  that. But for me, over the last couple
• 1:20:12
  of years, I didn't a lot of my work would have been online
• 1:20:16
  anyway meetings because you can't always travel.
• 1:20:20
  But the travel aspect, I mean, I was, I was earlier last year
• 1:20:25
  now. So, prior to, when covid
• 1:20:27
  arrived, I had been in Malaysia, I had been in India, I had been
• 1:20:33
  in In Ghana. And I was just about to go to
• 1:20:35
  Nigeria. And then we were advised that we
• 1:20:39
  would be because we had EU passports, we would be held in
• 1:20:42
  quarantine because the virus was really kind of rampant in the EU
• 1:20:47
  at that stage. So I came back and as soon as I
• 1:20:50
  arrived, they did not announce kind of locked out measures in
• 1:20:52
  Ireland. So I'm working at home since
• 1:20:54
  then. Now, I've been very fortunate as
• 1:20:56
  well because I do the podcast because I do the NFL punter tree
• 1:20:59
  stuff. My workspace here around me is
• 1:21:03
  not Only associate with work, right?
• 1:21:05
  And becomes a space that I really, you know, it's not only
• 1:21:10
  so it's a I've been very fortunate that way and I, you
• 1:21:16
  know, I the it's not shared like it's not shared accommodation.
• 1:21:21
  It's my my girlfriend nice. We don't have housemates like
• 1:21:24
  again it would be a much different experience for four
• 1:21:28
  people. I really, I really feel like for
• 1:21:31
  people who are just beginning their Their careers.
• 1:21:35
  It's, it must be very tough. Because obviously, I look, I
• 1:21:38
  haven't been to the pope since March.
• 1:21:42
  That's where I would have met my friends.
• 1:21:43
  I used to go to a kind of a gig every Fortnight, but would have
• 1:21:48
  traveled a lot for work, but I would have also traveled a lot
• 1:21:51
  myself. So I have haven't had those
• 1:21:57
  those those opportunities, but those are sacrifices that you
• 1:22:02
  have to make, I think, The response in terms of the
• 1:22:05
  institutions and very proud of DC.
• 1:22:08
  You in terms of making decisions, early and I think the
• 1:22:12
  initial response in Ireland was really good for international
• 1:22:15
  students. So they, basically, they said
• 1:22:17
  anyone who lost work would be able to claim the pandemic
• 1:22:21
  unemployment, payment, no matter didn't matter like it, whether
• 1:22:24
  you were an international student or where you were from
• 1:22:28
  if you lost your job because of it you could claim that they
• 1:22:31
  also allowed International students.
• 1:22:33
  Who were still working, they recognize that no matter what
• 1:22:37
  are you working? If you were still working in
• 1:22:39
  April, you were an essential worker in many respects you
• 1:22:43
  because they had to keep Supply chains going had to keep shops
• 1:22:46
  open. So they allow those students to
• 1:22:48
  work full-time ordinarily, International students could
• 1:22:50
  work 20 hours a week, they were allowed to work full time 40
• 1:22:53
  hours a week which again was really important in terms of
• 1:22:57
  keeping things going. So I thought that was really
• 1:22:59
  good and I suppose Like Islands response.
• 1:23:06
  We've gotten the, the virus rates down a lot.
• 1:23:12
  I think I would say that their things have changed over the
• 1:23:18
  last few weeks, certainly we've seen an enormous spike in cases
• 1:23:24
  because there was a decision made to open up the hospitality
• 1:23:28
  sector prior to Christmas and that That when that happened.
• 1:23:36
  And if you again, if you tell people something is safe, then
• 1:23:41
  people are going to go out and and enjoy it right II.
• 1:23:45
  Why would you not if you're told, it's okay to do so, but
• 1:23:48
  that coupled, with every people gathering for Christmas meant
• 1:23:53
  that we've seen an enormous. Like we had 6,000 cases couple
• 1:23:57
  of days ago, which in our original Irish context, it's a
• 1:24:00
  small island. That's that's a lot of cases.
• 1:24:03
  And so that has for me, it was my first Christmas that I didn't
• 1:24:09
  go home. My mother is not getting any any
• 1:24:15
  younger, so that was a very tough decision.
• 1:24:17
  Not to be a good home at Christmas, but we just felt it
• 1:24:20
  was the right thing to do, but that was the decision we made.
• 1:24:25
  I could understand why other people just made other decisions
• 1:24:30
  but we are about to, literally. I would say this, Soon.
• 1:24:34
  I don't know what time we're going to similarly to what
• 1:24:38
  happened in the UK were about to go into lockdown.
• 1:24:40
  Okay again though we're not we're not doing the tier 5 of a
• 1:24:45
  three-tier system, we're going to we always had a level five
• 1:24:49
  system so we're going we're going to be level 5.
• 1:24:53
  Yeah, I do understand that. Not that they're cooling it Tiff
• 1:24:56
  but I mean it's locked. It's locked down.
• 1:24:59
  Yeah, a whole thing with the UK government is that the tier
• 1:25:02
  system has been a farce in It's the beginning, but I'm
• 1:25:05
  interested like with island did. So you haven't had like He is a
• 1:25:10
  tool or any kind of know we had. We had we have had tears but we
• 1:25:14
  haven't we haven't like from what I understood that there was
• 1:25:18
  like, yeah, the way the tears of worked in, the UK has been a
• 1:25:20
  little bit strange, I think in Ireland, like some of it goes
• 1:25:26
  back to and my parents, like they made a decision in.
• 1:25:34
  What would you say over the summer to allow certain pubs to
• 1:25:38
  open if people got A substantial meal and 9 Euro me.
• 1:25:42
  Oh yeah. We have those.
• 1:25:43
  Well, and that that write that shit, like, because what
• 1:25:48
  happened was, people bought into the first lockdown and people
• 1:25:52
  understood, you know what had happened.
• 1:25:54
  But once you, once you did that, people begin understandably from
• 1:26:00
  my perspective, people made were like hang on now, so I can go to
• 1:26:04
  this property. I can't go to that Pope and why
• 1:26:06
  because the meal will magically make me immune.
• 1:26:09
  So, And the 9 Euro magical immunity meal.
• 1:26:12
  I think that was a never. I think, you know, either,
• 1:26:17
  either open it or don't open it. Personally, I wouldn't.
• 1:26:20
  But that's me. I, again, I recognize that,
• 1:26:25
  like, it's a really difficult for for business owners.
• 1:26:29
  It's not at all easy, but when the virus is out of control,
• 1:26:32
  anyway, your economy isn't going to be good, so it's like having
• 1:26:39
  it. It feels especially now, you
• 1:26:42
  know, because we were watching things kind of play out in the
• 1:26:45
  UK and kind of going that seems a bit silly to be doing that.
• 1:26:49
  And then we did the exact same, you know, it feels like for the
• 1:26:55
  Ireland in the UK. It's like the worst of all
• 1:26:57
  worlds, right? Because you haven't, you've put
• 1:27:01
  so many people at risk. In both countries, your health
• 1:27:05
  services, massively under strain, you have huge numbers of
• 1:27:09
  people. Being diagnosed with the virus
• 1:27:12
  every day and you you're still locked out right which, which
• 1:27:19
  has a huge impact on everybody, like, on kids.
• 1:27:22
  Like and I'm very fortunate that I'm at a part of my career where
• 1:27:27
  I'm reasonably well enough established that it's not going
• 1:27:30
  to, you know, massively impact me of a secure job.
• 1:27:34
  I, you know, I have been fortunate to travel.
• 1:27:37
  I'm fortunate to have That I can do if I was 24 25, I'm just
• 1:27:44
  starting out. I don't know how secure my job
• 1:27:46
  is. I you know, you're trying to
• 1:27:49
  date how dating in a covid world.
• 1:27:51
  Your you know all those travel plans that you had that maybe it
• 1:27:56
  saves some money that is suddenly gone.
• 1:27:58
  You're sharing a house with four or five other people.
• 1:28:02
  You know how much control you have over?
• 1:28:06
  Who's coming into your house? I am I Nice.
• 1:28:10
  How fortunate I am in that respect.
• 1:28:13
  And so it has it has not been easy or fun but it I have it
• 1:28:21
  much better than other people and I just hope that we can
• 1:28:25
  really roll out the the vaccine as quickly as possible because
• 1:28:31
  we certainly want to be in a position and we're going into
• 1:28:36
  kind of next september/october. Going back into the the win.
• 1:28:39
  Enter where you have a critical mass of people vaccinated
• 1:28:44
  because you want, you want people like for students, you
• 1:28:49
  know, II know how great my college experience was and part
• 1:28:54
  of it was what I learned, sure. But the other part of it was
• 1:28:57
  getting to be on campus getting to do all the students events
• 1:29:00
  and activities and social stuff myself, my Ida friend, it and
• 1:29:06
  maybe used to write comedy sketches and we did a comedy
• 1:29:09
  sketch show. We had people come along to it
• 1:29:11
  like it's different doing it online.
• 1:29:13
  Like again I'm fortunate that like the podcast stuff and this
• 1:29:17
  is this is great. But like how much more fun would
• 1:29:20
  it be to be able to do this over pints in a pub.
• 1:29:25
  That's the type of stuff that you do miss out on.
• 1:29:27
  And so that college experience is different.
• 1:29:30
  So I really hope we can get to a point where the Academic Year 21
• 1:29:39
  T2 looks looks a lot different but it's equally.
• 1:29:45
  One of the things in Ireland that is I suppose very different
• 1:29:48
  is a few funerals are usually a social event in Ireland.
• 1:29:55
  It's an event. It's really important, right?
• 1:29:58
  You would go, you would if needs be take time off, work to attend
• 1:30:03
  the funeral of our friends relative and it is the entire
• 1:30:08
  Community comes together. And obviously, that can happen
• 1:30:12
  at your limited to like 10 people at a funeral.
• 1:30:16
  And so the grieving process is massively changed at the time
• 1:30:19
  where people are losing people. And I think that I think the
• 1:30:24
  after effects on from this will linger for a lot of time as
• 1:30:30
  people kind of wrestle with grief and wrestle with what they
• 1:30:35
  have lost and and so it's not at all.
• 1:30:39
  Oh, easy. And I just hope that we put, we
• 1:30:45
  take lessons from this, but were we talk a lot about learning
• 1:30:48
  lessons, but I hope that they are because we know pandemics
• 1:30:53
  happened. We, you know, for years, I don't
• 1:30:57
  know how long I've heard about. Like the the influenza after the
• 1:31:01
  first world war and looked at that happen, and it would happen
• 1:31:04
  again and we were over Jewish. So I hope that lessons are
• 1:31:09
  learned. And we move forward, put we are
• 1:31:11
  in a really difficult position in Ireland.
• 1:31:14
  I think don't know, just like the UK, where levels now are
• 1:31:19
  above where they were in March. And so the reality is, is that
• 1:31:24
  certainly for the next three weeks, at least we are looking
• 1:31:28
  at a very, very strict lockdown until the end of January.
• 1:31:33
  And then, I think they will reassess at the beginning of
• 1:31:35
  February and try and make a decision from there.
• 1:31:38
  What's been the impact? It's that you seen on the to
• 1:31:43
  Irish economy because I know in the UK it's been.
• 1:31:48
  I mean, they haven't said, it's like recession, but they've
• 1:31:51
  definitely said that it's massively hit like, you know,
• 1:31:54
  GDP and stuff. And you know, there's been
• 1:31:56
  massive rises in unemployment, Etc.
• 1:31:59
  And of course, that's the same case in every country, but
• 1:32:01
  obviously being that Ireland is quite a small nation.
• 1:32:06
  And also, I remember as well, I don't know if it still the case
• 1:32:08
  now, but I remember, for example, Dublin.
• 1:32:10
  It's a very expensive place to live and, you know, just and I
• 1:32:15
  remember that being the case like seven years ago, for
• 1:32:17
  example, When I visit so yeah, like what, what's been the
• 1:32:22
  impact for you guys? Economy was?
• 1:32:26
  Yeah, Big E. Can I make hair down?
• 1:32:29
  And it's again really tough? Because Dublin is very
• 1:32:33
  expensive. We have an issue with property
• 1:32:37
  and it hasn't been addressed by Sir.
• 1:32:39
  Successive governments. Now, there is not enough houses
• 1:32:44
  for four people and so properties, really expensive and
• 1:32:48
  rents are really expensive. What you've had is, you've had a
• 1:32:51
  lot of vulture funds that have come in and, like, you know,
• 1:32:53
  bought up massive apartment blocks and then, and kind of,
• 1:32:56
  they're behaving, like, you know, landlords and they can
• 1:32:59
  afford to leave places vacant until they guessed the money
• 1:33:03
  that they want. I think like everywhere the big
• 1:33:08
  boys have Have been. Okay, they've been almost
• 1:33:12
  inoculated like some industries in Ireland, like the tech
• 1:33:16
  industry, you know, I mean look, we're all using more Tech
• 1:33:19
  Pharmaceuticals. You know, Ireland has some
• 1:33:22
  industries that have remained strong and will continue to do
• 1:33:25
  so but it's the small businesses, it's the small pubs.
• 1:33:31
  Those are things that I some of them have already said they're
• 1:33:35
  closed. They're don't they won't open up
• 1:33:37
  like one of my favorite coffee shops in the city.
• 1:33:39
  See, they're just they're gone. And and another has, fortunately
• 1:33:43
  kept going, and I go out every day to get a coffee chai.
• 1:33:46
  I keep their goal but it's like I know what?
• 1:33:49
  Like, just up the road from me. Probably about a five-minute
• 1:33:52
  walk. There is a problem.
• 1:33:54
  It was a known as kind of a music, Paul bright these trees.
• 1:33:57
  They used to do one of those sessions in Ireland, right
• 1:34:00
  musicians, accommodate all play together.
• 1:34:02
  It wasn't necessarily organized. You could just go down there.
• 1:34:04
  If you played the guitar or the fiddle or, you know, they illin
• 1:34:07
  pipes was supposed to Schooled, it was Baker's, it was up, but
• 1:34:14
  there's a few different ones to Cobblestone is probably the most
• 1:34:16
  famous for that, but it's closed, and it just down the
• 1:34:21
  road from it. It is a pub that's been opened
• 1:34:24
  up by a group. A multinational corporation who
• 1:34:28
  own all of these pubs and restaurants, and they have a
• 1:34:32
  property construction company and they've opened a sort of a
• 1:34:36
  replica but like, it's that, that My fear is that when we do
• 1:34:42
  open back up, right Scooby corporations.
• 1:34:46
  And yeah, yeah, it's, it's corporate.
• 1:34:49
  I mean, I said people don't want that, dude.
• 1:34:52
  You know what I mean? I hope it's difficult.
• 1:34:56
  When when people don't have money, they will, they will
• 1:35:00
  generally go with the cheapest option.
• 1:35:02
  And and so like we didn't have a wetherspoons in Ireland up until
• 1:35:07
  I don't know five years ago and all of a sudden We've allotted
• 1:35:10
  them popping up there. Yeah, I know it's awful and that
• 1:35:18
  is the concern that I have that. We're just going to see what
• 1:35:23
  we've seen in in American in many respects.
• 1:35:26
  And I've been going to America a long time and just the the death
• 1:35:31
  of the smaller businesses and the rise of the mega
• 1:35:34
  corporations and I got was one of the, one of the two have been
• 1:35:39
  in Dublin. 14, 15 years and to see a change, go through that
• 1:35:42
  initial bubble and then the it burst.
• 1:35:48
  But like, we have so many Starbucks in Dublin and
• 1:35:51
  Starbucks is fight, they serve, they can serve a purpose but
• 1:35:56
  when all you have left is Starbucks.
• 1:35:59
  Then we we as a society we as a people need to ask serious
• 1:36:07
  questions around what We want to be, and if we don't want that,
• 1:36:12
  how do we try to ensure the survival of small businesses?
• 1:36:17
  Because otherwise, it will just be working for the Jeff
• 1:36:21
  businesses. And that will be, that will be
• 1:36:26
  sad. Scary thoughts like a horror
• 1:36:30
  movie, isn't it? Yes.
• 1:36:33
  Yes. Indeed as we draw everything to
• 1:36:36
  a close for today I just wanted to ask you do you have any
• 1:36:39
  upcoming projects or maybe some final thoughts that you'd like
• 1:36:42
  to be with us? So I suppose that in terms of
• 1:36:48
  upcoming projects the NFL is actually coming into its
• 1:36:53
  playoffs and the Championships pair of vertices and so we're
• 1:36:57
  hoping NG we until they happen. You're never sure about the
• 1:37:01
  interviews with like coaches and players and stuff.
• 1:37:04
  But we're hoping that there will we have some some things like
• 1:37:08
  dope which should be really good and just looking forward to
• 1:37:10
  that. We've actually only been able to
• 1:37:13
  record once in person because of because of covid.
• 1:37:18
  That was great. That's something we obviously
• 1:37:21
  wanted to try to do again. Adventures, in devising has
• 1:37:28
  Plenty more episodes to come and in terms of things to live by
• 1:37:37
  just I mean as much as a horror movie as things are the hi iamn.
• 1:37:46
  I'm a I am an inherent Optimist and believer in people and
• 1:37:51
  people are great and I really believe that the majority of
• 1:37:54
  people are good people and they would go out of their way to
• 1:37:57
  Help you. And I think that the world can
• 1:38:03
  can be a scary place. And I think if you watch the
• 1:38:05
  news all the time, all you would see is that all of the terrible
• 1:38:09
  things but I I hope that when vaccinations happen and when we
• 1:38:16
  can get all get back together, there will be a sense of joy and
• 1:38:20
  vibrancy and I suppose it's trying to it's trying to for me
• 1:38:27
  Ivo The way I see Life Is Life, boils down to three things, love
• 1:38:32
  laughter laughs. And right now we there's a lot
• 1:38:36
  of laughs and there's a lot of last we can control.
• 1:38:40
  So try try and control the other to try and put laughter into
• 1:38:44
  your life or in whatever way you can find us.
• 1:38:47
  Right? Whether that's comedy, whether
• 1:38:50
  that's TV shows that you enjoy, whether that's books, you enjoy
• 1:38:53
  and the same with love whatever like form that takes.
• 1:38:57
  Take, as I said, if you're, if you're somebody trying to date
• 1:39:01
  and 2021 that's real tough but like try and find other things
• 1:39:06
  that you love whether it's books, whether it's movies,
• 1:39:09
  whether it's just trying to connect.
• 1:39:11
  Because I think this is taking a toll on friendships as well
• 1:39:14
  because it's difficult to try to to schedule in the same way
• 1:39:20
  especially when people have children like you know, but try
• 1:39:24
  try and find that the passion that That you have whatever it
• 1:39:30
  is and pour that in because there are going to be losses
• 1:39:33
  that you can control at the moment.
• 1:39:35
  So love and laughter are going to be more important than ever.
• 1:39:40
  So much. That's a really nice sentiment.
• 1:39:43
  I'm sure our listeners already appreciate that.
• 1:39:45
  So thank you. Yeah.
• 1:39:47
  I just want to say a massive, thank you for agreeing to be on
• 1:39:51
  the show. It's been an absolute pleasure.
• 1:39:53
  And yeah, I really encourage my viewers to go check out columns
• 1:39:57
  various different podcast and everything that he's doing.
• 1:40:01
  Very busy, man. But obviously, you've got a lot
• 1:40:04
  to say and, you know, I think it's worth listening to.
• 1:40:07
  So make sure you go and check him out.
• 1:40:09
  Cheers. Thanks that.
• 1:40:10
  Thanks Christian. Yeah, I definitely knocked,
• 1:40:14
  haven't wanted for the gift of the gab as we would say in
• 1:40:18
  Ireland. So thank you.
• 1:40:19
  It's been a lot of fun to chat to you today.
• 1:40:21
  Awesome. And I will say thank you very
• 1:40:23
  much to all the listeners of the Christian we've podcast.
• 1:40:26
  As always, let me know who you would like to see on the show.
• 1:40:30
  Next what you would like to hear on the show, let me know.
• 1:40:34
  Just your thoughts in general as we, you know, we're in 2021 now.
• 1:40:39
  Now we're over 50 episodes of the thing.
• 1:40:41
  It's like 53 now or something like that.
• 1:40:44
  So onwards on the road towards 100 episodes.
• 1:40:48
  Yeah, let me know your thoughts. Your thoughts are important to
• 1:40:51
  me as always and yeah, keep listening, keep subscribing,
• 1:40:56
  sharing. Whatever it is, you do with
• 1:40:58
  podcast. I really appreciate all the
• 1:41:00
  support and yeah. Until next time, peace out one
• 1:41:03
  laughs I'll see you in the next one.
• 1:41:05
  Ciao.