Latest / Coconut Justice / CJP #64: Joabe Barbosa

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CJP #64: Joabe Barbosa · Coconut Justice

• Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hey everybody, and like we told you before, this is Joabe Barbosa. Hey Joabe, how you doing? Good, good. I'm so glad that ⁓ the guy sitting on my screen, sitting right next to you. I'm so glad that he brought attention to what you're doing. Everybody, that's my C4 explosives. Cefore X. Plosives: what is going on. I'm so excited for this episode man. You don't even understand. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, it's cool because Mike and I constantly communicate and we're showing each other different people that we want to talk to because they're doing something so cool and a new perspective like what you're doing. So share with people, you know, your elevator pitch like when you're explaining to people what you're doing right now in Chicago. Hey, what's Joabe Barbosa is a college student born in Brazil, raised in England, goes to college in the US, is a triple Guinness World Record holder, and is working his way on being the first person to ever run on every single street in Chicago. C4 Explosives joins me with this conversation with Joabe Barbosa. Before we get into it, Joabe: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to talk about. And of course we can delve in deeper into everything, but essentially I'm on a mission to try to become the first person in history to run every single street in the city of Chicago. So this journey started back in August of 2024. And I essentially saw that there was this app where you can track where you can run in the city. And because I don't really like running, I... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Remember to go to coconutjustice.com to get you some clothes that I think would look good on you. Let's go. It's 2024. Joabe: I actually hate running but I needed to run because yeah, yeah. Yeah, so essentially how it all started was I suffered like a mountain accident where doctors told me I needed to get my body moving because I suffered from frostbite and hypothermia and so Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): All right, so ⁓ you're glutton for punishment. We're okay. Glutton for punishment. Cefore X. Plosives: you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): A mountain, which mountain did you try to? Did you try to? OK. Joabe: Yeah, and so... was hypothermic, frostbitten, and so with that, doctors told me I need to start moving, and I play soccer. But you can only play soccer kind of once, twice a week, max. You can't really do it every day. So I turned to running because you can move your body every day with running. And so with that, I started running. I thought this is very, very boring. So I tried to search up different ways to like kind of gamify it, make it more fun. And there were some things, but I came across this app where you can track how much of the city you've Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Joabe: can complete and I saw that the person in first place was only at 45 % and he's been doing it for years and years and years so I thought... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Is it for Chicago specifically or is it for any city? Okay, okay. Joabe: Chicago but it's basically the whole world so there's definitely yeah there's different cities around the world so San Francisco is complete I think yeah other different US cities are complete as well but Chicago there was no one that completed Chicago there was some 45 % and so I thought okay let me be the first person to do this so yeah this journey's been fun everywhere Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. That's so cool. And you were living near Mount Washington? Where were you living when you decided to make this decision? OK. Joabe: No, I was living in Kentucky because I went to school in Kentucky. ⁓ So yeah, it just traveling. was just kind of like a road trip. And so I decided to go. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. So, you know, not that we hate Kentucky. Like, we have a passion for our hatred of Green Bay, you know? But Kentucky, you know. So is this like you're trying to take the throne from a Chicagoan or like you trying to pick a fight with Kentucky? Cefore X. Plosives: He only has 45%, man. Come on. Joabe: No, no, I mean to me it's it's I mean anyone can do anything wherever they go I mean Like, at the end of the day, if someone was coming here to Chicago like me, who's not from Chicago, and talking bad about the city, and just, you know, trying to, you know, give hate towards the city, that's one thing. But I'm here just trying to spread love, and yeah, people have adopted me as a Chicago, and even though I don't sound like I'm from Chicago. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Where are you from? Joabe: I'm originally from Brazil. I was born in Brazil but I grew up in England. So that's where my accent's from, from Northern England. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Okay. Okay. How much of your childhood were you in Brazil versus England? Joabe: So I was born in Brazil. grew up in England. I moved to England when I was three. So pretty much my whole childhood was in England. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. Yeah, that's why I was trying to I was trying to see if we were experiencing the perfect blend of Brazil accent with an English accent, you know. Joabe: No, it's fully English accent, yeah. So I'm fluent in Portuguese and English, but in English I have a fully British accent. In Portuguese I just have a fully Brazilian accent, so it's not a mix. I learned Portuguese from my parents, I learned English at school, so there was no mix there. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Did you, was it fun for you to learn Portuguese or was it kind of like a... Joabe: It was, Pudgy is my first language so I mean it was easy for me, it was difficult to learn English because kids they went into school already knowing English from their parents and I didn't know English from my parents so I had to learn English at school and so I like... Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. I had it. I had it backwards. I had it backwards. You learned in Portuguese. Yeah, you're similar to me. My first language is technically Spanish. But I live in, ⁓ predominantly English society. And no, America doesn't have a ⁓ national language. It's just more people speak English. Cefore X. Plosives: I recently saw you flex your Spanish though, Joe. On a... Yeah, on Telemundo, man. And you said you didn't speak any Spanish. But you flex, man. Joabe: the world. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ yeah. Joabe: Thank No, it's... It is difficult because with Portuguese and with English it comes so natural but then with Spanish it's like you kind of have to understand it, interpret it then also at the same time think of what to say and that's where it kind of trips me up so if like I have a good easy conversation with someone people think I'm fluent but if it's like more difficult topics then I have to think more and I'm a little bit slower but I rely on my Portuguese which is very similar to Spanish to go by with Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. Joabe: with the Spanish language. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: Yeah, you did your thing, man. So you've been through, what's your completion rate right now? You're 87? What do you have left? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, that was good. Joabe: So I'm not at 87%, yeah, just over 80%. I've completed every single neighbourhood. So there's another Chicago behind me. I've completed, yeah, 77 community areas. There's over like 200 neighbourhoods. I've gone to every single neighbourhood in Chicago. However, there are some neighbourhoods where I haven't completed all the streets, specifically the South side, because it's so, big. yeah, I mean, there's some areas where it's just like miles and miles of just roads and it's just derelict and there's some Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Peace. Joabe: places where it's just factories and just these old industrial areas and they still count as streets so the south side is very very big and so with that yeah I've got 13 % to go but I've done every neighborhood I just need to complete like different streets in different neighborhoods specifically the south side so a little ways to go still Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hmm. Do you have an estimate in your brain how long you think it'll take to finish it? Joabe: Yeah, so my final run of the city is going to be 14th of June and I have to complete 13 % by then. I started in August 2024, so it would have taken me a little under two years to complete the whole city. So yeah, there were times where I ran every single day like... for weeks on end. So back in July of 25, I did like a little challenge to myself of trying to run every single day and at least a half marathon distance every single day. And it was very hot. And this is even before I started posting on social media because I post now on social media and a lot of people say you're just running the streets of Chicago just for social media. I only started posting when I was at 72%. So I've been this way longer than social media. ⁓ And what people see now is Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Ha Joabe: kind of the last 28 % of me completing the city. yeah, so little challenges like that, just where I've just been constantly running, running, trying to force myself to run more and more, like juggling school, juggling work, different responsibilities. So that's why in some of the videos you'll see me at like 2 a.m. where I just don't have any other time, you know, to go out to run. So yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: Squeeze it in, man. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): What do you do for work? Joabe: So I'm in school for psychology and I have different training experiences and now I'm a child psychologist. And it's good work, however, the problem with being in this field, especially working with children, is that you can't really see them in a nine to five hour. Because nine to five, they're in school. So you have to see them after school. And so with them, like I see some at like... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. Joabe: 7 a.m. then I have to commute which is like an hour away. So I have to commute to the start of where I have to run. I have to leave my work bag in like an alleyway and hide it and then run like make a route that like gets me back to my bag and then get the bus or train home sometimes. There's no buses or trains at that time so I have to see what to do. And so yeah it's an adventure but it's something I like doing you know just seeing the percentage will go up which is something I thoroughly enjoy and I think it's like it's like a video game to me where I do like little side quests I meet different characters along the way it's yeah it's not just running for running sake it's like actually it's an adventure everywhere you go Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: Yeah Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And it's a cool city to do that in because you get to see everything. Joabe: Yeah, mean, every neighborhood has distinct features. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Joabe: Yeah, you it's kind of like you're in a different country in some neighborhoods like Little Village in Mexico ⁓ near Rogers Park. Yeah, yeah. And like even Pilsen, yeah, it's like with all the murals and stuff like that. It's beautiful. And then when you're up north in like Rogers Park, it's like you're in South Asia and then, yeah, just different areas in like different countries and different communities. It's it's very interesting. Yeah, you can cross the neighborhood and see entirely different people. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: and have an entirely different culture represented. So it's cool. Yeah, it makes running more fun. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Have you ever? Have you ever ran in a neighborhood and made a mental list of the places you wanted to try for food? Joabe: No, I don't like eating out. No, don't like spending money eating out. I never... Yeah, yeah, I put food before and after my run so I can have a snack. I don't like spending money on food. I mean, I'm a student, so... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): No. Cefore X. Plosives: I saw you stash a banana somewhere. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha Cefore X. Plosives: It'll get expensive for sure. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, that makes sense. Joabe: Yeah, yeah, I was just trying to save as much money as possible, but I think it would be cool I mean I was looking at different things to do after I complete the city and there's so many different things that you can gamify and one thing I was thinking about is Like trying to go to every restaurant in the city. That would be impossible. There's like thousands and thousands That would be a lot of money, but there could be other things like part Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha Yeah and lot of cholesterol medication. Joabe: lot of cholesterol and depending on the restaurant for sure. But yeah, just different things that I could do. yeah, I've thought about it, but like for after I finish running. But yeah, I know there's some places where you run past, not particularly the restaurants because they're more closed off, but more houses where they're like doing barbecues and things like that. So I'm like, I'm hungry right now. I need to finish this run so I can go back home to eat because there's some nice food. Cefore X. Plosives: You better end taking a nap somewhere, man. Joabe: Yeah, yeah, but there's some places where you run past and it's like very polluted and it smells very very bad and that also forces you to run fast so it's like there's different areas that like force you to run fast and other areas where you slow down taking the sides just depends where you are Cefore X. Plosives: And I saw I saw a video. It got me choked up, man. You you were you picked up a little kid, man, like he was running next to you. And I don't know if you put the cape on him. I can't remember. There's a little guy and it must have been like seven, eight, nine years old or something like that. And he just started taking off with you and you like, I don't know, man. It's just those those experiences that I see. I can only imagine, especially with the work that you're trying to do with with children. Like how how is that? I guess that's like on the job training almost, isn't it? Because you're kind of lighting up their world right there, man. And you're trying to you're making impacts on them. Joabe: Yeah, yeah, I mean that that particular experience that run that I did with that little kid so one of the teachers Follows me on Instagram and she invited me to go to their school just to run around the school and it's a underserved school in the south side and Just to try to you know, promote the school and just you know get more fun Yeah, I don't know what the the goal was but just more visibility which I'm like, that's that's great and So went to the school and they all had posters, they all had Brazil flags and they had my name on it and I felt like, wow, this is crazy. And so yeah, I picked up ⁓ this kid to run with me. The principal chose a kid and he just ran with me. I gave him a little flag for him to wear because I wear a flag when I run. That's how I get recognized. That's kind of like my brand. And so I ran with him. He had the flag on and he just sprinted, sprinted past Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: And I was like no I'm gonna get screwed by the school He's gonna get hit by a car so I had to run up to him and then after that he like just slowed down He was dead and I was like yeah, you need to learn how to pace yourself Obviously he don't understand What pacing yourself means when running and then when when I was speaking to him he wasn't really understanding what I'm saying and then The principal told me he doesn't speak English. He speaks Spanish and so because it's a little kid I was able to make do with my Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha Cefore X. Plosives: you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. ⁓ Joabe: He was very cute. ⁓ But yeah, mean just different interactions and different people you meet. mean, now I have a haircut and I got this haircut in the South side two days ago when I was running there. I ran past some guy cutting some other guy's hair in like an alleyway as I thought, can I have a haircut? And I told him, but he said, yeah, bro, come on up. And I got a haircut. They treated me nice. ⁓ And it was free as well. Obviously I tipped him. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's crazy. In an alley. Joabe: I didn't share it online but I tipped him and he was very very happy but he was willing to give me like a free haircut like just some random guy running in the Southside and so yeah just these amazing interactions yeah Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. That's so cool. I was going to ask you if there was anything that stood out from you or for you, like before you moved to Chicago to do this, you I'm assuming that you had a certain understanding or you you were aware of the reputation coming out of Chicago. And then how does that compare to what you've learned from running through the streets? Joabe: Yeah, I mean. coming here you hear like the the same things over and over again like Shairaq and all these like words about Shairaq and how dangerous it is and this and that and for me I mean I grew up in well every every year that I grew up in England I went to Brazil and so very very familiar with with Brazil and now I tell myself that the Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah Joabe: The safest part of Brazil is scarier than the most dangerous part of the US or even Chicago. Just because the amount of poverty that there is in Brazil and just these third world countries doesn't really compare to somewhere like Chicago. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hmm. Joabe: And not to say that there's no violence or things don't happen in Chicago because they do. I think that's very amped up and a lot of people have the understanding that if you step foot in a certain place that you're automatically gonna get shot, something's automatically gonna happen to you. And that couldn't be further from the truth. I mean, you can get caught wrong place, wrong time in Chicago for sure. And literally anywhere. Yeah, and for me, it's like... Cefore X. Plosives: anywhere, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): If you're looking for trouble, it's easy to find. Joabe: Yeah, and if you're looking for trouble it's easy to find like if you're gang affiliated If you're like kind of these I don't know youtubers streamers who go into like we call either hood and try to look for trouble obviously you're gonna find trouble, but if you go to like places and You go there with an open mind you talk to locals. Everyone's gonna treat you nice and said to a lot of people that my favourite neighbourhood in Chicago is Englewood and it's got a reputation for not being the nicest place and not having the nicest people but that can be further from the truth. I met some guy named Jerome in a run I did a couple days ago. I'm still in contact with him. He always invites me to go back to Englewood. I just randomly met him and I was running at night at 10pm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We'll have to connect you with Pugs Adams too, because he's from Inglewood. Yeah, and he's an artist and a rapper, and he's an incredibly talented, creative person. So maybe we'll connect you guys if you're interested. Well, sorry for cutting you off. Joabe: These are my goods, For sure, for sure, yeah. I'm... No, all good. Yeah, I mean, I... I just like... The more I go into somewhere like Englewood, the more I know about the history, the more I understand about the people living there. I understand, like... The famous people who have come from there and all the things that they've had to endure, go through, for example, Derrick Rose, it's just very interesting. Understanding people's lived realities is much different than hearing about it or just seeing it online or hearing it from someone else. For me, my most favorite neighborhoods are always going to be the neighborhoods that people would say, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hmm. Yeah. Joabe: are dangerous because there I found the nicest people and sure in every neighborhood in Chicago you will find very very nice people but if you want to find humble hard-working people who can stop for a chat you go to the so-called dangerous neighborhoods and you'll find that because in the more safe neighborhoods people are too busy just doing their own thing and only money Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: and just focusing on their job, focusing on their family. But in more underserved communities, people really focus on community and having relationships with other people. So I've enjoyed my time everywhere in Chicago, but particularly what people call dangerous neighborhoods. Cefore X. Plosives: We've had lot of conversations, Carlos and I, about how... ⁓ rich the culture is in Chicago and and how like you know if if you can't get like there's places all over the country where you can't go outside your but like you don't you don't really leave your town or your area right but if you live actually live in the city you can catch a little bit of everything from at any corner of the any corner of the city you know what I'm saying just I'm gonna go down to this neighborhood in this this festival and or whatever you whatever you want to do you can catch a little bit of the world in in the city and if if any if everybody can get a little a little taste of Chicago, no pun intended. But if everybody could get that little taste, I think honestly, aha, I think everybody would be better off, just so they can understand that it is a melting pot within a melting pot. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's why. Joabe: for sure. Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of people who live in the West side have never been to the South side, live in the North side, never been to the West side, live in the South side, never been to the North side. So Chicago is very segregated and still to this day, it's very, very segregated. And people just don't go to different places because they're either scared, they have no reason to go, ⁓ which makes sense. mean, where I was running a few days ago was South Deering, which is far, far South side, like in the hundreds and There's nothing there. There's no shopping. There's the lake, but there's the lake everywhere in Chicago. There's just houses So there's nothing to bring people into certain communities. So I think me running Just like for me it helps me understand that I I have to go to places and I have to go everywhere even though there's some places where it's not enticing at all because there's just there's just nothing like what you're gonna do in South Daring unless you have family members walk around and see houses you can walk around see houses anyway in Chicago and so there's some places that like attract people because of shopping or other amenities and there's other places that don't but these places they still have some some cool stuff a lot of cool history I ran past a place where it smelled really really bad really really bad and I thinking why does it smell so bad and then I did a little bit research after I found out that like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): White Castle. Joabe: years and years of pollution because of what sorry maybe maybe i don't know maybe the remains of white cloth i don't know but yeah it's because of pollution and yeah just these these different things um where you you don't really learn about unless you like go and you're curious about so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Cause it's White Castle. I'm kidding White Castle, I love you. Yeah. Yeah. And what I've learned and what I've learned growing up there, ⁓ if you ever get into a situation or you go into a spot where you're not allowed to go, someone will come out and say, this is not where you want to be. And so then you leave, you know. Joabe: I think it's changed over the years. I've been to every neighborhood in Chicago. Everyone's made me feel very, very welcome everywhere I go. yeah, mean, people definitely question what I'm doing sometimes when I'm in certain places. Like, yeah, sometimes I'm just running late at night ⁓ and I'm just going down. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: a end and I don't think it's particularly because of danger but it's just because what's he doing you know like people don't understand the mission it's like it's late at night why are you running down this dead end like is there not another way for you to run or not another path for you to run so those are times I feel unwelcome just because people are looking out for me because they don't know what I'm doing but I felt safe wherever I go there was the guy that was talking about Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ha ha ha. Cefore X. Plosives: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: before Jerome, one of my friends I met in Englewood, he did say exactly what he said, like, if I'm in a sticky situation, if they're like out here and like you're in danger, just call me and I'll be right there. And he was 100 % genuine. And so with that, I know that wherever I go in Chicago, if something happens, there's gonna be people there to back me. Also, it helps that I have the Chicago flag in my back. I'm not gonna be a threat. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hey, that carries a lot of weight, my guy. That carries a lot of weight. Joabe: ⁓ Yeah, yeah ⁓ Cefore X. Plosives: 100%. Joabe: Yeah, and so yeah, anyway, I go people are gonna see me as like someone who is representing the city and No one's gonna no one's gonna mess with me But like I said before even before I was known on social media even before I wore Chicago flag as a cape I've been doing this up until 72 % of the city. So I've run 72 % of this city being some anonymous guy just Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): 100%. Yeah, but Lincoln Park doesn't, Lincoln Park doesn't count. They're going to steal your 401k if anything. Joabe: In Lincoln Park, I don't like robots in Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is those robots. They're always in the middle of the roads. That's Yeah Yeah, that's so annoying and yeah you speaking about that yeah, there's some neighborhood where it's just like For example Logan Square Cefore X. Plosives: you Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ yeah, those little zippy things. Joabe: because of Milwaukee Avenue that cuts across Logan Square, it makes running Logan Square a nightmare, a literal nightmare. Very nice neighborhood, very nice people, but so many dead ends, so many, it's just not a grid system. That's why I like running in the South side a lot, because you can just like zigzag for days and it's easy. don't have to look at your phone too much, because there's a lot of route planning and you have to look at your phone sometimes during the runs. It's a lot of logistics. It's not just, got out there, run, tried to different streets to run, because that would be inefficient. So yeah, somewhere like Logan Square, horrible. Lincoln Park, horrible as well because of, what is it? Lincoln Park, I don't know. But yeah, what, sorry? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): hurtling robots apparently ⁓ I said hurtling robots apparently Joabe: early robots jumping over robots yeah yeah it's tough but yeah like going to people ask me like what my favorite neighborhood is or like what my least favorite neighborhood is and I can't really answer that because some neighborhoods are like other neighborhoods I don't like but for different reasons and one of them is like running Logan Square is one of my least favorite neighborhoods to run in but other people like Logan Square so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Sure. Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: You said June 14th is the day you want to finish. Why such a hard out? I kind of know why, but just kind of explain for those that don't know why June 14th is such a hard day for you. Joabe: Yeah, so June 14 is my final run of Chicago. I want to set a hard deadline just to keep me accountable to complete the city. That's kind of when I expect to finish. so, yeah, June 14 at 10 a.m. I'm going to start Oak Street, Michigan, run down. And then when I reach either B Wells run to Buckingham Fountain, and that's going to be the end of the run, the end of Chicago. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hmm. ⁓ nice. Joabe: So I expect a lot of people to be there, ⁓ thousands. So we're going to shut down the street for it. ⁓ Police are going to be out here, hopefully escorting everyone. So it's going to be too many people to not shut the streets because I've had a lot of support and a lot of people have been getting their run clubs and different, yeah, just different people around the city just to support ⁓ this final run. And I like to tell people it's not Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Do you have a few people that you? Joabe: This run isn't to celebrate me and what I've accomplished, it's to celebrate the city and the fact that one guy who's not even from here has gone to every single street and been safe and just showed love to everyone and just received love from everyone. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, and that's it. I've had I've heard stories from when people find out that I'm from Chicago, which is like every conversation. But. ⁓ They I've heard stories like I went to a baseball game just because I wanted to go to Wrigley, but I didn't have a place to stay and this group of people let me sleep on their couch. Multiple people have ever said that. Joabe: Yeah, yeah, and like, anywhere you go in Chicago, people are gonna treat you well, with respect. I was, yeah, I was on the train one day, and... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: I had a water bottle but like it was very hot so I couldn't open it because my hands were sweaty and so what I did was I asked this group of strangers in the In the train like to open it for me and they said no And I got so angry. I'm like, why are you not opening this water bottle for me? Like I'm not You know like I'm not asking for money. I'm not you know like it just it's a simple act of human kindness and then Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha! Joabe: was just overhearing their conversation and I was noticing that they're not from Chicago and not that people outside of Chicago are like rude and obnoxious people. But the reason why I got so angry is it's just something I expect. I just expect people to be nice and to just comply with just requests, you know, like people are going to go out of their way to help you and to just be nice to you. And so that's like me just observing how I reacted to that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: I was like, it makes sense why I reacted that way because I just expect people to be nice in Chicago because they always are and they always will be. And so these people not being nice, I'm like, that is, that's not common. So. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hmm. Cefore X. Plosives: You're not from here. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Let me ask you this. I went to, and I always tell the story of my experience in Austria and how they don't have gates and fences and all kinds of stuff all over the place. You grew up in England. Do you think the way you guys treat each other is different than the way people in, and we can narrow it all the way down to Chicago? the people in Chicago treat each other. And I'm talking about kind of like, you know, the not just neighbor to neighbor, but like government to people. Does that make sense? Does that question make sense? Joabe: terms of what do we mean government to people. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): How the government treats its people and how neighbors treat their neighbors. Does that make sense? Joabe: Yeah, I mean if we're talking about like the two cultures I grew up in like England and Brazil Yes, for sure. I think in terms of like how people treat people, it's like, I think this is kind of like how it is everywhere in the world. And I definitely see similarities from the US to England to Brazil in terms of like the government does their own thing. But it's the people that are united against whatever policy, whatever's going on politically. And that's truly how I see it here in Chicago. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Joabe: Okay, stuff can be happening in the government whether you like it, whether you don't like it, but at end of the day, people live their lives. People treat each other with respect. People treat each other with community. And I truly feel that way with Chicago and everywhere I've lived that no matter your political beliefs, no matter how different you are from different people, that if you are from that certain place, if someone is from Chicago, you automatically have something in common because you're from the same place, same geography. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Joabe: location. So there's definitely that like those barriers that are just not there because you're from like a certain geographic location and I see people in Chicago have a lot of pride like a lot of people have like four stars in their bio on Instagram a lot of people just have the pin location on their Instagram bio as Chicago and people are very proud to say they're from Chicago and they defend Chicago a lot like if someone says anything about Chicago Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. you Cefore X. Plosives: Even down. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We're very, very quick to go get Joabe and tell them, hey, tell them that our streets are cool. Joabe: Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: Even down to our pizza, we are very... We're very defensive. Joabe: Yeah, for sure just about about everything and so that's that's what I found like the kind of content I like resonate with that I make is just positivity and just showing like the post positive people in this city and that's what people have resonated with and It's not that I like take away the negative and just post the positive But I really really focus on the positive and I haven't had any negative to post and so with that like really focusing on the positive, not so much the running side, because that's kind of like a niche community, but more focusing on like, okay, these are the people of Chicago. I'm not just running just to run, I'm running to showcase the amazing people of this city and all the good people that there are here who support me, treat me well wherever I go. Cefore X. Plosives: That's kind of what drew me to like your story. You know, like there's so much negativity and there's so much chaos going on in the world. Like you, you need to latch onto something that's going to bring hope. Right. And like seeing you use it, you're using running as your vehicle and along the way you're making pit stops, meeting, meeting people change, like people are running, merging, merging in your lane and running with you. You know what I'm saying? And you're, and to see that and to see the joy that you bring to people's faces, you know, it's, it's awesome. And what do you think it's gonna be like when you do complete your journey of 100 % of the city and like what your lasting impact on the community? Joabe: Yeah, I mean, I think my job's not done here. I've ran, yeah, now nearly completing the city, but no one's seen 72 % of the city because I haven't posted about 72 % of the city. So I want to do a series where I run every single neighborhood in the city and showcase the history, showcase the people. So there's so much that could be done still. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm. Totally. Joabe: And yeah, when I leave Chicago, I'm not sure when that's gonna be in the future, but when I leave... ⁓ I'm gonna get a Chicago tattoo first and foremost my first ever tattoo of the Chicago star But I just want to start a movement that You don't have to run like that's that's not my thing. Like I know that's not everyone's things. I know some people They can't run because they don't have the physical capabilities to run ⁓ But you can explore you can leave your house you can walk you can go to different places and if you can't walk you can still drive places and just Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha. Mm-hmm. Joabe: see different communities, different areas. And so I think that's the last thing impact I want to leave in Chicago and everywhere I go that. The world is out there for you to explore and despite what the media say, despite what just different, you know, people say, you can go out there and you can make your own story instead of believing the stories of everyone else. Now can go out in different communities, in different places and just explore and see for yourself instead of seeing it through other people's eyes. So yeah, I don't want people to care too much about my journey. I want people to care about their own journeys and how I've inspired them to. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): 100 % Mm-hmm. Joabe: start their own journey of exploring just different streets of life because a lot of people they don't Reach out to people in their fields. They don't go to different places. They don't take that risk. They don't quote-unquote explore every street They just stay in their lane. And so I think with my story and what I'm doing I want to get people to literally explore every street despite what people say like Okay, you might be comfortable in your job, but there's another street that could be explored Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Joabe: and that street could be fun to explore, you know, so you don't have to stay in your street. You can explore different streets and yeah, that's the impact I want to leave with people. It's not about running, it's about exploring and just going to different places, whether that's physically or metaphorically. Cefore X. Plosives: getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Joabe: Essentially. Yeah, and it's been uncomfortable at times. I I yeah, I've had to run in like sub zero degree temperature ⁓ When it's really really warm Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I was going to ask you, I was going to ask you if you run in the wintertime and that's a yes. Oof. Joabe: I prefer running in the winter because you can run faster because otherwise you'll freeze to death. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I'm glad you're in psychology. I was so happy you're in psychology because you are nuts. ⁓ Cefore X. Plosives: You Joabe: I'm a bit told, I'm a bit told. But no, I mean, the hardest part about running in the winter is you have to get out there. And when you get out there, it's cold. But when you get out there and you start running, it's easy. Very, very easy. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You warm up quick. Joabe: You warm up quick. The problem with running in the summer is that you dehydrate really quickly. Luckily there's parks that have water fountains, but you can dehydrate really quickly so you go slower. So I like running in the winter versus running in the summer. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: Would you rather run in slides or water boots? Joabe: You seen that yeah slides or Yeah, I'm running a marathon in slides ⁓ in a few days time. So Yeah, if if that works out, I'll be good, but I prefer running in slides. I run a half marathon in slides and I got my best time in running in slides and ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You Cefore X. Plosives: Have you healed up since your water boots? Joabe: you I have scars for life. So for those of you who don't know I ran a half marathon in rain boots and it was raining so Yeah, it made a little bit of sense, but I was going for a world record And I understand why people don't go for world records in rain boots because I didn't wear long socks. I didn't wear pants my Carves were absolutely obliterated the chafing like I love so much skin. I got like I don't know what degree of burns I got but it was it was nasty. Yeah Cefore X. Plosives: I felt so bad, man. I was like, ⁓ my good. I saw this video. I'm like, ⁓ my God. I couldn't even imagine. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But that's just it. Like you're testing your character and you're trying to figure out who you are as a person. So you put yourself in these difficult situations and sometimes you're just like, okay, that's the boundary, my bad, right? And you keep moving. Joabe: Yeah, I mean sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. Like the half marathon I did in slides. I didn't prepare like because it was snowing the week before that I was gonna try to run in slides and so I didn't prepare for it and I just wore it was like I don't remember the temperature but it was it was freezing I wore like shorts and a t-shirt because otherwise I get too too warm which it was miserable for a little bit but as soon as I warmed up it was good but I didn't prepare for it and it was great it was the best half marathon time I've ever done and and it was in slides, was like snowy in some parts so I literally had to like slide like a penguin like this. ⁓ Some of the slides don't leave my foot. But was good. And then I did the half marathon in rain boots and that was a completely different story when I thought it was gonna be okay. So it's like, it's things like that in life where if you over prepare, you think about things that could go wrong and surely there's a bunch of things that could go wrong. But if you over prepare, you're gonna think about every minor detail Cefore X. Plosives: you Joabe: and you're just not gonna do it. So if you just go out there and do it, sometimes it's gonna work out, sometimes it won't. But the important thing is you just go out there and do it. Cefore X. Plosives: That's what life does though, right? You think you got it all lined up or you say, I'm gonna wait until I have all these things in order before I do what I want to accomplish, right? And then you end up missing the boat or you miss your time window, your timeframe of when you can get that done. like just going out there and saying, you know what? I'm not gonna wear water boots or rain boots and I'm just gonna wear shoes like I want to. Joabe: Yeah, not Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, that's the thing. Like I always told my parents that they've always told me like I'm a very stubborn person and I've always told my parents I don't learn by people telling me I learned by me going through it and Maybe that takes a longer time for me to learn by the end of the day. I learned and so With that it's helped me because if I listen to everyone Talking to me about the dangers of Chicago the dangers of running every street and the dangers of running at 1 a.m I want to do it and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): doing it, yeah. Yeah. Joabe: So me getting out there and seeing it for myself has helped me understand that, you know, it's people have different perspectives based on their experiences and what they've seen. But I don't want to have people's perspectives. You need it sometimes, but I think a lot of times you need your own perspectives and with that you can, yeah, do things and not listen to people who could be very anxious about certain things. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: What do your parents think about what you're doing? Joabe: don't know. They think it's a little bit crazy, but like they think it's bit weird, the social media world. ⁓ Yeah, they don't understand it. They don't understand it. It's like, you're just running and posting stuff. Why are people watching you? You know? So they don't have an opinion, you know? They like the impacts I'm making, like the people I'm meeting and all that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): They think he's stubborn. ⁓ Yeah. Joabe: they don't see see the point especially my mom like because for me like what i do is I just go out there and do stuff that I don't prepare for, I don't plan for or sometimes I don't think things through like the one in rain boots and then when she sees my leg all bloody she's obviously gonna be like why are you doing this? And so I have to tell her, I don't know. And so yeah, they don't really have an opinion. ⁓ They're happy, I'm doing what I'm doing and they're gonna be there in the final run with me but they don't really understand the social media world. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's awesome. Joabe: But they're happy. They're happy. If I'm happy, they're happy. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): you Joabe: Yeah, so essentially with ⁓ my school, I didn't get matched to an internship. And so with that, like I had to go home after like my my like documentation, like as an international student, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hmm. Joabe: finishes up so I have to have six days after school finishes which it finishes in May to leave. I'm trying to figure out if my school and they're helping me with a lot of stuff. But it's all up in the air if I have to leave the country or if I can stay. I don't know. We just have to wait and see with the different possibilities. But like we've been saying before the people of Chicago like they've tried to help and a lot of people have no idea about the process but they still are willing to help be like oh I can get an internship for you even though that's not how it works it's specific internship but be able to show up and try to help and yeah it was two weeks ago that I counted up I got like close to 500 like marriage proposals and so yeah people are trying to help and trying to support and yeah the people in Chicago always always show up for people who show Chicago love so it's been great but I still need to wait on Cefore X. Plosives: you Joabe: a couple of things to see if I have to leave the country or if there's a possibility of me staying so all I know is the final run 14th of June that people need to show up but apart from that I like I said I don't like to plan for the future like I can plan for all these possibilities just like to live in the moment and future it doesn't belong to us so I worry about it. It's not promised yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And it's not promised. That's, I love what you're doing. I love that you're challenging yourself in this way. When I was younger, I did that too. And until that movie, 127 hours, was it called? Where the runner was like, and he fell in the hole. When that movie came out, my mom was like, hey, you got to cut that stuff out. Don't be doing these by yourself anymore. Joabe: Yeah, yeah, especially like with the mountain accident I had I learned a lot because I was alone I wasn't well prepared and I think when you're younger you can make mistakes like a lot of mistakes and you'll learn from it and then Yeah, when when when you get older the body doesn't heal as much and then you have a family and then you have people who you know expect you to to be good to be safe because Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Sure. Hmm. Joabe: Yeah, exactly and so with me now I'm like I'm young I'm living life. I know the future is not sustainable ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, to take you to soccer. Yeah. Hell yeah. You're about to be number one street running. Joabe: Yeah street running, but I don't want to stop here. I don't want to stop here because with with street running a lot of people who do it are actually men in their 40s and 50s Who who have families they like I've talked to a lot of them, especially here in Chicago. They Get up early in the morning go to different neighborhoods Clear their minds from all the stresses just run a few streets. Obviously it takes years and years and years for them to like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. Joabe: Complete a city for example with Chicago, but it just it just gets them moving And so I think it's definitely gonna be something I'm maintain in the future Because the thing is with running the streets and trying to complete a city is you don't have to be athletic You don't have to be good at running at all You just have to be able to move and you can complete a city by walking obviously that's gonna take a decade for a city like Chicago But you can still move so it's just like in the future. I'm gonna be able to like complete different cities Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Right. Just, yeah. Yeah. Joabe: and just explore and go to different places. But I don't have to be a world-class athlete. I don't have to like run at a certain pace. Just jogging and even slower paces are even better because you can see more stuff and you can do it more often, like pretty much every day. Especially like when my body isn't gonna be able to recover in the future as well as it does now. And so yeah, it's kind of like a lifelong thing. It's not just, okay, I'm young, I'm doing this. Okay, obviously, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: It's going to be different in terms of timing, terms of how far I can run and all of that. But it's going to continue and I think it's something I've found that I can do for the rest of my life. Yeah, I want to do LA and New York. ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Oof. Joabe: New York's someone's done New York already Like I think walked every street in New York maybe run as well. It's been done before just because there's so many people in New York and Yeah, it's just accessible to go everywhere. But LA has not been done before too many hills too big and this run Is huge. Yeah, this run every street movement only started like a covid ⁓ when people just Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It is huge. Joabe: try to get into running which a lot of people now Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I had nothing else better to do. Joabe: No, nothing else better to do exactly. so with LA it's two times bigger than Chicago, but two times more Hillier, well, 10 times more Hillier. So it's going to be like three times more difficult. So Chicago took me about two years. LA is probably going to be, take me like five to six years. But what I want to do in LA content wise for Instagram is I want to like shave my head and then I can only cut my hair until I complete the city. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That'd be cool. Joabe: Yes, it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting and people are gonna be invested and so I don't have to be because in Chicago I have to be like creative with videos like think of different ways to like have interactions with people interactions I can have but like is this interaction fun enough is this interaction this or like Can I show this would people be interested in this and so it's like kind of annoying to think of content Sometimes and I just want to run sometimes And so with LA and the next city I do where I want to do that challenge of shaving my head and only cutting it until I complete the city it's gonna be easy because I can just show Okay, they I know 300 I'm not cutting my hair until I run every single street in LA and that could be it because people are gonna want to see the progress and they're gonna want to the journey and I'm not gonna have to be creative with the content which to me is like I focus on other stuff and not just Instagram videos So yeah, I have a few ideas in mind, but yeah, I don't wanna stop in Chicago. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But that's the smart thing about what you're doing and what you've learned to this point is to be able to do these unique things that have a very unique audience. This is the way you pitch it to them. You say, Hey, pay attention to me. I'm going to shave my head. Joabe: Yeah, yeah, mean, lot of, yeah, I have a lot of people who follow me who are just runners. And like, a lot of people who just wanna collaborate on stuff and just wanna, you know, get big and have a lot of people follow them. And I look at their page and they're just running. And it's like, okay, if you're a world-class runner, you can get away with just running. Because people look up to you because you're very good at what you do. But if you're just a runner and you're just showing yourself in different races, no one cares. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Joabe: You know, there's too many runners out there. There's too many people doing the same things out there on social media. Like, so I think with me, what I tell people is like, you just have to do different things. Like do something no one's done and just make it unique. And there's a lot of people who try to copy other people. You can definitely copy people's ideas and integrate it into your own. Like there was this one time where I watched a video where some guy, had a dice and he Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: it to different people in the run and whatever number they rolled was how many miles they had to run so I like I'm gonna do this as well I'm gonna do the exact same thing but I'm running the streets of Chicago I can incorporate into a run of Chicago and so it's like adapting but to like my unique mission essentially in my unique journey and so yeah just doing different things to you know capture people's attention because it's a lot of people out there a lot of people posting stuff out Cefore X. Plosives: pretty crucial and you're using Chicago as the template right so like when you when you go out into your other cities you you know you're not going to run in rain boots you know you're all this trial and error stuff that you've gone through you know along your journey is preparing you for the next and that's that's that's what everything is all about you know you go through the trials and tribulations and then you apply them for your next mission Joabe: Yeah, for sure. And yeah, just even with like... creating stuff for Instagram, it's like you just have to start posting stuff and then seeing what works, see seeing what doesn't work and then you go on from there and same thing with running. At the start I was so inefficient with running because I was like, let me complete streets. But the problem with completing streets is some streets are very long. Like Western Avenue in Chicago is about 40 kilometers long, which is a full marathon. Like you can't just run different streets because some are shorter, some have dead ends. So instead of running streets, I don't. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Joabe: do that I run like different blocks so like I go to a neighborhood and be like okay I'm gonna target this block and then I'm target this block and then I'm go to this other area target this block and so with that it's like you're completing different areas and maybe there's a runway you don't complete any streets and it's a little bit annoying when you see zero streets completed and you run like a half marathon distance but either way you look at it and you're like okay I've completed a section even though there's no full street completions I've completed a section and that's all that matters and then you see it grow. So yeah, I think that's synonymous with like life. It's like trial and error. You just try new things and you only learn if you learn how to fail. And so that's what I've learned that like you'll get consistent with consistency the more you do it essentially. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I love that you said that because it's true. You need to allow yourself imperfection to find out who it is that you want to be. Right. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Joabe: I wanted to be a soccer player. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: a professional soccer player. Yeah. I lived my life as ⁓ a soccer player in college where you're training every day, nutrition plan, everything. And that was good. So I got to like live my dream out without being a professional soccer player. And I was like, this is hard. This is hard work. Cause there's some, there's where you just go out there. You don't want to play. don't want to train, but you still have to, but that's different from like not playing as Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Joabe: or like in college or just professionally where it's just like, you can do whatever you want. And so I think that's the same thing with, I think running. If like people forced me to run and like get on a specific training plan, eat a certain nutrition, I would treat it as a job and I wouldn't like it. And so the realities of like what you wanna be versus what you're doing is very different. And so yeah, I still don't know what I wanna do in the future. I like psychology, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: But is it something I'm gonna do in the future? Who knows? In psychology you can only kind of talk to one person at a time. But with like social media and different things like public speaking you can like have a big impact on a lot of people which is something I like doing. So I want to use my degree but I don't know with what. So we'll see. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I think you, your degree and people like you are going to be very necessary in the very near future. Mike and I talked to a lot of grassroots candidates for Congress and they're bringing, that's part of their message is that now we know that bullying people and mistreating them doesn't work. So they want to invest more into like social workers and psychologists and things like that. you can you talking with them. I can see where those skills are still going to be helpful for you. Joabe: Yeah, just making a positive impact in the community. Whatever that may be. Just trying to share positivity everywhere that there's good in people. What goes on in the world can be full of negativity. Like if you turn on the news, you're gonna see shootings, you're gonna see wars and a lot of negative stuff. Yeah, just showcasing the positivity that there is out there. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Right. Joabe: small human interactions, human kindness, that's to me like the most important. So yeah, I'll definitely see like my degree as something I can use in the future towards something. I'm still not sure what it would be, but I mean, like you said, Carlos, the future doesn't belong to us and the future, we don't know, it's not. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And the way that you're living your life is you're going to figure it out and you're not going to let anybody tell you who Joe wants to be. Joabe: Yeah, yeah, so I don't know. see. We'll see what ends up happening. But I'm happy with how my life is at the moment and where it's heading, even though don't know where it's heading. yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha Cefore X. Plosives: We had this conversation the other day, actually a couple days ago, ⁓ about sowing seeds and creating this positive energy in your life. And being, you don't necessarily have to be, ⁓ I don't know, broadcasting it out there. It doesn't need to be in a post. You're just interacting with someone like Jerome. And you just lit up his whole world. And in turn, he did the same thing to you. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Cefore X. Plosives: And that's contagious. He'll go out and tell somebody about that story and it cascades. I think that's ultimately whether this world is temporary, this life is temporary, but if we can continue to make those small blessings in people's lives, it catches on and it will drown out all the noise that's going on out there. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Joabe: I agree. Yeah, that was this one time, I think it was like last week or two weeks ago, where I went on talking to the radio WBEZ and essentially, the producer who didn't know I was coming, ⁓ she came to get me from the green room and she's like, ⁓ I remember seeing you ⁓ running in Logan Square of all places. and square and yeah you you complimented like my dog he said ⁓ such a nice dog I don't even remember that I complimented her dog I didn't even it was it was definitely not on film and that like the fact that she remembered Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: was like, ⁓ wow, like these small interactions can make someone's day, you know, and they can remember you like months and months and even years after. And so like those small interactions with people like make the world of a difference to people no matter like how small they are. And even if, you know, people react negatively, which out of 10 people I talk to, one person is either going to be socially anxious, not want to engage, or they're just going to be having a bad day. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: I'm not gonna you know let that one interaction You know blend into all the other interactions. I'm gonna have a few I'm still gonna be myself, but maybe that Interaction the person's like oh, I was having a bad day this guy was still willing to engage with me even though I didn't engage with this person and maybe they Have a better day. I don't know who knows we don't know what battles people are Going through and so with that yeah these small interactions I have with people like just saying hi like have a good day God bless you just these kind of like words of affirmation with people just on the daily not being afraid to speak to people I think just makes a world of a difference and it's something that's that does help me like understand like how important it is to just speak to people instead of just walking past them and not saying hi Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): What do you do in Chicago when you're not at school or running? Joabe: That's why I run at 1am, I don't have any more time. I just run. Yeah, so like for example my typical day if I'm going to school and on a run I... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): He's like homework. Joabe: wake up, have breakfast, I work in a few different things. So I teach at my university. So I teach students. So my typical, let's say Tuesday, is I wake up, get breakfast, and then I teach. And then I go to work, work for a few hours at school. I have my other job, which is Monday and Friday, but I work at school. And then I have dinner, and then I go for my run, come back, videos, go to sleep and that's pretty much it. And then when I go to the weekend, it's pretty much running because it's not about running. Running is quick. It's about computing. So there's a neighborhood, yeah, there's a neighborhood in the far south side of Chicago called Hegwish. And in order to get there from the loop in downtown where I live, I have to take two buses and that can take an hour and half. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, that's true. Joabe: So I get up, I don't know, whatever time, 9 a.m. I have breakfast, whatever. take a bus, get there at like 1030, start my run 1045, 11, run for two hours, three hours, depends, because I can't just run for 10 minutes if I'm commuting all the way there. And then I come back and then it's around about three o'clock, have lunch, edit a video, do a little bit homework and then go to sleep. So commuting takes a long time. Yeah, it's the commuting. It's not the running. Running's quick. Like two hours of your day, an hour of your day Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Jeez. Yeah. Joabe: running easy peasy, commuting to places is the difficult part. And I take public transport, so I don't drive anywhere. yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: So one of my craziest runs was in July of last year where I was doing a half marathon every single day, like a half marathon distance every single day. And so with that, was in the South side and I have routes pre-prepared. I have like five routes like every time. like, I don't have to constantly keep doing routes. Sometimes I change routes on the train if like there's a delay and I can take another train, but more often than not, routes preprepared and so there was a run I did on the south side where I started at like 8, 9 o'clock and so I finished about 10 o'clock and so I thought I could go home and... go to sleep and then take a shower and come back or I could just stay here in the south side and then run the next day I could sleep on a bench here in a park where I finished and so and so I'm just gonna sleep on the bench it's warm you know it's summer I know I'm sweaty but I'm gonna sweat tomorrow anyway so I was like okay let me sleep on the bench here I couldn't sleep there was too many bugs it was horrible and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Man. That's another thing, yeah. Joabe: So was like... And yeah, I was just there. And so I thought, can go home. Or I could wait until midnight and then this half marathon distance is going to count towards tomorrow And so what I did is I was just there. So I was just scrolling from my phone on a bench in Avalon Park in Southside, Chicago. And so when it hit midnight, I started running again. And so I finished a run and I finished about two, three o'clock in the morning and I was so far away from the red line. I didn't want to take an Uber. So I Went to get the bus to go to downtown. There's obviously no buses at that time and so the first bus was coming at like 430 and so the bus stop where I finished off was next to like a park and so there was a Basketball court and there was a basketball there. So I just was playing basketball for like an hour Because I didn't have anything else to do and I didn't want to run to the train I don't want to pay for an uber I was like, okay, I'm just gonna go home. And so I waited for the bus Cefore X. Plosives: You Joabe: And there was a lot of people on the bus like a surprising amount out like 4 a.m. So I came back home and I checked like the time it was 6 a.m. And so I wanted to run like in the south side after I did all of this, like to conserve energy from commuting. But the fact that I got back at 6am the next day I had no energy anyway so it was a complete waste of time what I did. But it was a good story and not something I would probably do again. It was miserable, absolutely miserable. But I was safe, I was good. Cefore X. Plosives: Okay. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Ha ha ha. And that's one of the things you folks should get used to is interesting people have done things just to see it. And then even if it doesn't work out the way that you wanted it to, it's a great story. Never have I ever wanted to sleep on a park bench in Chicago. Never. Hahaha Joabe: But yeah, mean and this story is like Things like that, like if it made social media, you know, probably a lot of people would see it and laugh at it and like it and think of how ridiculous it is. It's like, I don't live my life for social media. I live my life for myself. And so I think that's kind of the beauty of, I think the content I post is like, okay, sometimes I do these ridiculous things to do them. But it's like, I do these ridiculous things because I do ridiculous Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Joabe: Yeah, a lot of stories to tell. Cefore X. Plosives: Now you mentioned that you're going, you're running after this. Where are you running? Joabe: to ⁓ Archer Heights so it's next to Midway Airport. I'm basically complete with the neighborhood I just need this run however it's not the best area to run in because it's very industrial and so like there's trucks everywhere and so it's like there's no sidewalk in a lot of these places in Archer Heights so it's not gonna be the most fun but every street is every street I can't discriminate streets I have to do every one of them. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: What's up, man? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's what I'm talking about. Do you have a favorite kind of tennis shoe favorite brand or it's just what you bought at the time? Joabe: No, I'll go to the outlet and I'll what's like 20, 30 dollars and I'll just buy it. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ my god, he's an angel. He's an angel. Cefore X. Plosives: You gotta be burning through shoes, Joabe: Yeah, my shoes they like, you know... I run like kind of like when I run like my heel to like the right side of my heel I land on it and so like there's this part of my shoe that's like always you know rubbing off the ground and so it's kind of uneven and so when I notice that when it rips is when I change it but I've gone through a lot of pairs of shoes I don't want to buy shoes that are $200 and then have to buy a new one a couple of months later because of how much I've used them I'd rather buy Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): worn out. Yeah. Yeah. Joabe: Cheap ones that are still good quality, but I can still use Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ you know what you do? Just now don't listen to me because you're on a roll. But You can buy a nice, what I do is I buy a nice shoe, none anything ridiculous, but I invest in the replaceable insole. But don't listen to me, because if anything happens, it's going to break my heart. Joabe: Like the bottom of it? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, so you know the padding on the inside of the shoe? You take that. I don't have my my running shoes on, ⁓ but I have. I've had the same running shoe for at least a year. But ⁓ I have these insoles that are about. I don't know between 50 and $100 maybe and you just take the insult out and then you replace it and you're you still have arch support you have. everything, speaking to you as a man in his mid-50s who likes to walk and still be somewhat athletic, your feet, especially now you're doing to your feet that later you're gonna be like, Carlos told me this happened. Joabe: Okay, good to know, good to know, especially if I'm running in slides and rain boots. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah, I can't, I can't tell you that I haven't done dumb things like that too. I have, but take a look at these ⁓ at the go to any of these running shoe stores and get them to look at your insole or how your foot works and you can just switch out the insoles. It's cheaper than a whole new pair of shoes. Joabe: Yeah, yeah, I'll look into that for sure. Yeah, I'm still new into this running thing. I only started running the streets of Chicago. That's when I started running. Like, and obviously now I do like races and I do like different records just to have fun. I'm not really into running in terms of like... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. as a hobby as you're, you. Joabe: getting used to it as a hobby, yeah. But no, definitely it's because of taking care of my feet, because if it's something I want to do later on down the line, definitely to take care of my legs and my feet, because I'm so new to it that it's like, of course I'm fresh now, but in the future, we'll see. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, right. Joabe: Yeah, I still need to get the plaque, but I have the world record for the fastest half marathon in a full soccer kit. And I run in cleats and I run with a bull next to me. It was miserable. But I mean, yeah, I tried to do the full marathon version of it when I ran a marathon in Toronto. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I'm ⁓ my goodness. Joabe: It didn't work out. I cramped up towards like three quarters of it. But yeah, just... Yeah! Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, kids, don't do that. Don't do that. Soccer cleats and running shoes are completely different things. Joabe: Yeah, no, no, no. Yeah, I think I'm now not gonna do more, you know, of these world records where my feet are. Like, I'll do ones where it's like, fast as both. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You The fastest marathon with flippers on, scuba flippers. Joabe: Yeah, that was actually fast. I can't do that. That's like a fast time with flip-flops. No, that's too fast but like there's ones that I can do that like I'm gonna mess with my body like the one I'm looking at is the fastest half marathon in like a crossing guard uniform where you just need to like a stop sign run of like a stop sign ⁓ one where it's like the fastest marathon in like a full inflatable costume and I've seen like a dinosaur that I can wear just these silly ones but that don't mess with my body as much as like these cleats rain boots lip flows Cefore X. Plosives: You better make sure that fan is working in overdrive if you're running in a dinosaur. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: No, for sure, for sure. it can't rip. I need to tape it all up. So yeah, just these different things that just make life fun. I bought, this is the only one I have that I've... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Ha ha ha! Cefore X. Plosives: you Joabe: I Guinness World Record plaque. It was for going to every CTA station. That was fun. And then the Red Line extension is gonna be done in 2031. So we're have to do that one again. So I know, I just like doing things that are just random. Just completely random. But it makes life fun, you think life's more than just going to work and just doing things that everyone else does. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. yes, yes. Joabe: Maybe sometimes it works, like, you know, running in slides where I can get my best time. Sometimes it doesn't wear, my legs are all bloody. So yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And it doesn't take much. It doesn't take much to do. You put on some tennis shoes and went for a jog. And now a couple of years later, here we are. It didn't take a million dollars to get going. Joabe: No? Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people think, ⁓ my gosh. Like, they ask me for running tips. And I just say, go out there and run. That's it. Like, there's no running tips. Or just like, you just have to get out there, that's it. Like, there's nothing special you have to do. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): start. Your body's going to figure out. Your body's going to figure out how you run. Joabe: Yeah, exactly. Like, you put one foot in front of the other and you try to do that... fast. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And if it hurts, do it a different way. Yeah. Joabe: Yeah, take a break or do another exercise. Yeah, easy peasy. It's not complicated. But I think people have these like this mindset that like, I don't know, there's these people that like try to get into running but they think they need all like this equipment and all these things and then they get there and they're like, oh, I'm not as good as running, at running or just whatever because they have all of this stuff but they haven't done like the simplest which is just to get out there and run, you know? And so yeah, just with running in particular, just get out there, run. You don't need anything special. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Joabe: You just need to get out of there. You just need to start. Then the rest, sort of it. Yeah, just start moving. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): to start get your feet moving. Joabe: Yeah, I the scariest thing about running other cars because yeah, a lot of people It's tough so I need to like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mmm. They come flying. Cefore X. Plosives: Yeah. Joabe: put them in like the settings that I can be aware of my surroundings. But I listen to all different types of music. I don't have like anything particular. ⁓ I listen to like Brazilian music, Brazilian funk. Yeah. Different. rap music as well just to keep me going. But a lot of times with my run I just ask people like what they're listening to because like especially in the south side like people blast music and so I just got to them can I shazam this and then I shazam it and then I put on my playlist and so I think more than half of my playlist is just things that people have suggested me on my runs and it keeps me going because it's like I remember where I was when I put this song on my playlist so yeah Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: Everywhere I go in Chicago, I remember the streets and what I was doing that day and kind of what the temperature was and who I met. And so like your brain just makes these connections. So there's like, for example, when I go to O'Hare, I ran around O'Hare, which is miserable, but it was at 2 a.m. less car traffic, but there's no sidewalk. But every time I go to O'Hare, I remember the day it was. I remember what I was wearing. I remember the temperature and I remember kind of what happened. And so that's basically everywhere. Chicago that I go to I can like kind of pinpoint what happened and like the interactions I had. It's amazing how your brain makes these connections. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Here's a... Here's another fact about O'Hare that not a lot of people know. Do you know ⁓ Fresh Prince ⁓ Will Smith? He wrote his song, Summertime, in O'Hare. Joabe: And like when waiting for a... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Well, he was waiting for a flight. Yeah. So the story goes he was in Chicago and that he was working with a couple producers in Chicago. And I'm sorry, you guys, I can't remember right now. But then they said, hey, here's this beat we want you to listen to. And he said, he just took it out of respect. Right. So apparently he gets to O'Hare. He's waiting for the flight. I think maybe it was delayed, so he's, and he just throws this beat on and it just grabbed him and he wrote the rap and then he let that flight go. He got back on. He went back into the studio and recorded it with those two guys. Joabe: I think that was about the time I was running around O'Hare so I must have taken inspiration from the run. This is back in 2024, he wrote it ages ago. But it's interesting and it's like, you don't know, like, you can run past a place and like, not know about the history of the place. Like there was this, in Englewood, there's like the first serial killer in history. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): hahahaha Yeah. Yeah. Joabe: in in chicago in american history was was in englewood. ⁓ it was like the murder castle where he like just used to like trap people in like what he called the hotel it was hh ohms and This is in chicago and it's just something you don't really know. I mean if you run past it, you would never know that and so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Isn't it isn't that book the devil in the white city or something like that? Okay. Yeah, it's something like that. I've read it. I just can't remember exactly what it is. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Joabe: think so, yeah, it's definitely, yeah, yeah, yeah, cause it was, was round about the, world fair, yeah, of people coming in and then, yeah. But it's stuff like that that you just don't know unless you go to the place and they're like, oh, and then you're curious about it and then you research it and then you're like, well, I didn't even know this. So yeah, the world's an interesting place. It's a very interesting place. You just have to go out there and explore it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I'm outdoorsy. ⁓ So I like to go to like national parks and I go to, you know, go camping and all the things. And the big message here is go outside. Like life is cool. Don't let Fox News or whatever news station is telling you is terrible out there. It's not. It's not. It's so wonderful. Joabe: Yeah, I agree. Anyway you go, people are gonna treat you well. It's like I was saying at the beginning like there's some places like Brazil where You should believe the news that like if you walk around holding your phone someone's likely gonna take it but in Somewhere like America somewhere like Chicago You'll be safe anywhere you go Something might happen. That's a one in a million chance, but you'll be safe wherever you go Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, you'll have a better you'll have more good times than you have bad times. It's a guarantee. Joabe: You'll have more good times than bad times, yeah. You'll have better experiences than you have worse experiences. And you'll good people on a ratio of 99 to one in Chicago, for sure. So, yeah, just get out there and just treat people like humans, know? Treat people like neighbors, not like enemies. I think, yeah, with politics and just... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Joabe: Yeah, with social media and everything, a lot of people try to divide us because of either political opinion, either because of race, because of nationality, because of a bunch of different things. But humans are more similar than we think and we're very similar. We just grew up in different places. I think that's one thing that really impacted me with Jerome when I met him in Engwood, one of my friends. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. No. Joabe: He basically just told me, like, we're all the same people, we just come from different places. And that's so true. I'm not even from Chicago, like, I'm from Brazil and England. And at the end of the day, I can relate to so many people in Chicago and share so many similarities with people in Chicago and just anywhere. Because at the end of the day, we're all the same people. We just come from different places and have different experiences, essentially. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's all there is. Yeah. And that's the benefit of social media is we're able to see, you know, we're able to see that Chicago is not that bad of a place. We're able to see that job is a little crazy, but he's cool. Joabe: Yeah but I think you need someone crazy to go out there and just... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): 100 remember to remind us to live. Joabe: go out there essentially and it's not hard. It's generally not hard. I know a lot of people in Chicago, especially at my school, talk about we need to serve underserved communities, a lot of conversations about social justice and all of that, which I think is important to talk about. But a of people wouldn't go to a majority Hispanic neighborhood. A lot of people wouldn't go to a majority black neighborhood. because they're afraid of what might happen. At the end of the day, I don't go on and on about social justice, about serving underserved communities. I just go to different communities. I just go everywhere and I showcase good people and I don't post stuff about like politics or stuff about, you know... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Joabe: Polarizing or just just stuff in general social media. I see a lot of people like just virtue signaling and for me I'm just like I didn't a day my message is of unity is of social justice to some extent But it's not something I'm going out of my way to virtue signal about it's just something I live and just something I I do ⁓ and so a lot of people have seen my messages like very noble and very social justice oriented and very Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. You're cool guy doing cool things. Joabe: good for different communities but at end of the day for me it's like that's not like my my my goal isn't isn't that you know like initially it wasn't that But indirectly, that's what's caused me to shed the light on different communities, on different people that have been underserved, which I'm like, I'm happy about that. And I'm just glad people don't accuse me of virtue signaling, of just posting stuff, just to post stuff that people see the genuine nature of, that's not what I'm here for. I just wanna go out there talk to people. That's what I do. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: It doesn't need to be a talking point if you're doing it on a daily basis. If you're doing good in the world, don't brag about it. Joabe: Yes, actually it's not like something Yeah, exactly. for example, like in even this haircut, like I was in the South side. I got this haircut for free. I didn't post the fact that like, yeah, it's a cool story, but I didn't need to post the fact that like, oh, I went out there and like, he offered me it for free and I paid him. Like that's not something, cause for me in my head, I'm like, I don't know. It's a little bit of bragging and like, I don't want that to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's such a cool story. Yeah. Joabe: be the case for me I just want to go out there and just showcase the good in people and I don't want this to be something like ⁓ I'm going out here Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: Helping people I'm this good good person. I don't care if people see me as a good person or a bad person I just want to be myself and people see me as a good person because I present myself as a good person but just because I am a good person because I just post the interactions I have and they're good interactions with with people so I don't worry too much about my image But based on the content I post my image has been positive. So ⁓ Something good like I'm glad I don't have to put up a front of being this nice positive guy and then I just do that for social media. No, I just on my runs I have interactions with people and They're pleasant and that's basically it Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, we need so many more people like you, ma'am. Or actually, let me say like, because I do believe and with my whole entire heart that there are a lot of people like you out there. You know, not to take your shine away, but there are a lot of people like you, like good hearted people, not the adventurous kind. There's the year one of very few. Joabe: Thank Yeah, we don't want more people entering themselves. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But having good people and bringing attention to good people and their good intentions, it's not always the bad news stuff. And we need to talk more about this to show people that there are very good people out here doing unique things and bringing attention to certain parts that need looking at. Cefore X. Plosives: part to it too is content creation, right? So you don't need to be, ⁓ you don't have to put on the front, you don't have to, you know, say do outlandish things that are doing, that are negative stuff just to get posts and views and likes and comments, right? Like you can actually go out in the world and do something that's good. ⁓ And people will organically want to want to join along on your journey. Joabe: Yeah, for sure. And that's the thing, like, a lot of the content that I could create with the runs could be me going out to different places and instigating fights with people and just be a pest. And that would probably get a lot of views and a lot of engagement. That's not something like that's remotely... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. That's a hard life to live. Joabe: Yeah, because you also have to like if you post something crazy or something like that, then people expect that of you. And so you have to you build a brand off of that. So it's like whatever you go viral for, whatever you're known as, you have to constantly keep up with what you're known as. If you're known as a prankster who does these annoying things to people, people always going to expect you to be that way. And so you have to do those types of things. to keep up with that and to get people to watch you and so the good thing I found with social media is if that you're yourself and that you just post stuff about yourself, you don't have to keep up with anything because people tune in because they want to see you essentially. If you post positive stuff that automatically allows you the you know future to post more positive stuff because that's what people expect of you. So I started by posting positive stuff and continue posting positive stuff and if I do post something negative people are to be like wow no I don't like this I need to see positivity. So it's you kind of make like social media what you want it to be and you're going to be known for what you put out and that's what people are going to expect of you. So if you post something that's positive then you're going to be known as someone who's positive then you can keep up Cefore X. Plosives: guys that we or guys and girls just people we bring on the show that are running for Congress we always talk about like consistency you know in their messages and a lot of the grassroots guys if they're who they are when they're day one two if they get elected or whatever through their whole campaign if they are who they are genuinely then then people will be more likely to vote for them or follow them or like their content or like their music or like their art or whatever the case may be. Whatever it is you're trying to put out in the universe, people will be more likely to enjoy it with you. Joabe: For sure, yeah. And I had a family friend in Brazil that wanted to run as a politician in the local. It was a local city, very small city. And I think, I don't know what position it was, but essentially with them, they asked me, what should I do to become a politician? And then I told him like, you don't become a politician. You have to be a politician. know, like you shouldn't start being a politician because you're running. You should be a before like you should be known in society as someone who is going to benefit people, not because of your position, but because of who you are. And so, yeah, I think, I think that's, that's the thing with a lot of things in life. Like a lot of people, they want to become something instead of being that, you know, and so. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Joabe: Yeah, I've used that in my life a lot that like Okay, if I want to create content, I don't have to become a content creator. I just have to Be someone who creates content, you know, like I don't have to all Have to have all of this have to have all of that. No, you just have to go, you know Same thing with what I was talking about running, you know Like you don't have to have all the best shoes or the best equipment to become a runner No, you just be a runner and then you can Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's just that simple. Joabe: get all the equipment or get everything that you need. So yeah, I think that's so important. People want to become, become instead of just being in the moment. So yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): you Cefore X. Plosives: What do you think bucking half fountains gonna be like when you get there? Joabe: can see it from outside my window. I'm looking at it now. It's going to be June 14. It's going to be hot. A lot of tourists. It's going to be an amazing feeling. think having my family there is going to be the biggest one. Seeing the impact I've made in the city is going to be amazing. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's gonna be hot. Joabe: The good thing is that social media spreads, so a lot of people are going be there. And local, national, international news is also going to be there. But it's like I said at the start, the message isn't me doing this, it's about Chicago. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): 100%. Joabe: this like just open the door for people to view Chicago differently. And if I've changed the mind of one person about Chicago, hopefully that, well to me that's like an impact already. And I'm sure the impact is gonna be a little bit bigger than that, but at the end of the day, yeah, just. It's gonna be an amazing experience. But I might feel empty. I might feel empty because I'm like, no more streets there in Chicago. But in the future, in the future, there's always gonna be streets. The Obama Presidential Center in Hyde Park, that's being built. There's gonna be streets there, and then there's other streets that are gonna be built. So it's like, I'm gonna reach 100%, but I'm gonna always have to come back if I leave Chicago to have that 100 % completion. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Now what? Yeah. Ha Joabe: like solidify. Always construction in Chicago, always gonna be new streets. Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: There's always construction in Chicago. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): What's the biggest pothole you came across? Joabe: I actually, there was this one time when I was running in the rain. It wasn't a pothole, was more like a, literally a river. was, it was not river, but it was like, it was so much water, but I ran, so to the right was a sidewalk, but it was like grassy, and so I had a bunch of water, and then to the left, it was just so much water. So I ran in the middle, like in the curb, and then I tried to do a turn, and then I lost balance, and I fell in the water, and like my headphones, Cefore X. Plosives: It... Joabe: completely like what soaked and they weren't working anymore and so yeah so so when it rains it's not fun it's not fun when it rains a lot because there's some place you just have to go around or like when there's a water pipe burst or something like that it just makes it miserable you just have to go like around But a lot of the times I like to take shortcuts, but the shortcuts aren't good. Like through like train tracks, they're like huge high fences where it takes longer to like climb the fence than it takes to like just go around. But I'm stubborn, so I'm just gonna try to climb the fence and pretend it's shorter. So just different adventures. But yeah, there's some areas that have a lot of potholes, a lot of potholes. But for the most part, the sidewalks in Chicago, they're very good. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: Have you ever? Any dogs? We had outrun any dogs. Joabe: A lot of dogs. Yeah, two of the scariest things, cars and dogs. Horrible. Especially dogs on the loose. Yeah, you just like, well not even on the loose, but like that, bark loudly. You're just running and they bark so loudly. And they just like, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. startle you. Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: It's two in the morning and these dogs are going off. It's two in the morning and got these dogs, their dogs are barking and they're like, ⁓ man. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah Joabe: Sorry. Yeah. No, they're asleep. They're asleep. They're not crazy enough to be up at 2 the morning. They're asleep. No, in the morning I know to be on alert. Like nothing scares me or startles me in the early morning hours. Because I know I have to be aware of... I don't even have to be aware. I just know that like there's no one out there 2 in the morning. Like people say, ⁓ why don't you run dangerous neighborhoods in the summer at 2 in the morning? Okay, that's the perfect time, no one's awake. ⁓ So yeah, I'm a little bit more alert because obviously it's early morning hours and stuff does happen early hours, but I'm aware, know, so like dogs don't... I just keep running away if something happens, but then there's Jerome, so I'm sorted. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. You're already running, so you just keep running away. Cefore X. Plosives: Turn it up a notch. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Have you ever been running in the early morning and been at a park or something and seen any kind of ghosts or any kind of activity? No? Joabe: No, no, never. No, I... Like, paranormal activity? No? No, maybe... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. No? Supposedly there's a lot of parks in Chicago that are haunted. Joabe: I ran Graceland Cemetery which is supposedly haunted during the day. probably nothing during the day. But if I run it at night, But I think it's closed that night. But I know I've definitely been startled by like loud sounds where like I think once where I was like is this, is this, is there a shooting going on? it wasn't a strange thing. But I'm always, that's always in the back of my mind. Cause it's the US like guns are legal here but yeah no. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ how was that during the day? Smart man. Am I bleeding right now? 100%. Joabe: nothing that's like startled me, no paranormal activity as well. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. No, it's not. used to run with ⁓ I used to run around my neighborhood. ⁓ I grew up and lived in Northside Albany Park and all that stuff. And I used to run around Horner Park. and Horner Park is one of those. And I would run with my dog and my dog would stop and her, the hair on the back of her neck would stand up and she would just start growling into the night. And I'm like, nah, bitch, we going home. Cefore X. Plosives: Did you already run Horner Park? Joabe: I've run around there, yeah. I've seen people run in Horner Park, because there's good trails in Horner Park. I've never been in Horner Park, but I've run around there. Cefore X. Plosives: ⁓ so you're good then. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lovely place. Be careful at night. Joabe: Yeah, not a night, not a night. I'm gonna not go to a night now. Cefore X. Plosives: You got any interviews or anything coming up that anything besides running better on the agenda? Publication. Joabe: No, no, I have a lot of people inviting me to speak on the radio. But the thing is... I've been on TV, I've been on the radio. The problem with that, that it attracts a different kind of audience. It attracts an older audience that doesn't really interact with content online. And so a lot of my followers, they're older and I wanna try to target more of the younger generation. I think the LA cutting my hair and then letting it grow out until I finish the city, that is targeted towards more of a younger generation. But I think going to different neighborhoods Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: to different people that is targeted more at older generations who's like proud of the city and yeah because the younger generation would want to see me getting a fire with someone the other generation likes that positivity but yeah so I have yeah I have invites to like some TV interviews and radio interviews A lot of them, I'm just like, I want to focus more on social media and I want to focus on just running and just trying to complete the city by 14th of June. I've done it all. Like I've been on TV, I've been on the radio. It's fun, but it gets kind of like boring after a while. Cause like what's bigger, what's better after this? Like at the start when I was running with a flag as a cape, it was so cool to be recognized. So, so cool. Like people wanted to actually take pictures of me that was like the coolest thing ever and like them asking questions about running but now I'm like the style is cool. And now I still like interacting with people, but it's lost that edge. So it's like, sometimes I don't even like, I just wear the flag as a cape just for the, for a video, but I don't really wear it cause I don't want to be recognized. Cause I just want to focus on running. Cause sometimes I can do like a short run, but it takes hours and hours just cause I'm out there interacting with people and I want to talk to people and I talk to people like half an hour to 45 minutes at a time. And so yeah, I've tried to now just focus on my running and focusing on like completing the city because I kind of I've kind of done it all which is amazing and I'm so happy to like have done a lot of cool things with the media and all that but it gets to a point where it's just like it gets a bit boring you know because what else can I say but what is what is bigger bigger is probably at the international national level but the local level I'm like if someone invites me for like a radio interview I'm like I'm gonna be answering the same questions. I'm gonna be you know having the same interactions and it kind of gets gets boring because I'm like I like having like conversations like this where it's like just about anything about different You know topics of life or just life philosophy and things like that But typically just in interviews people just ask me about running out my account Same bullet points Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: Same bullet points, same go-to. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Not us, we like to talk about food. It broke my heart that you said you don't spend money on food. I'm like, what? I'm like, not even Garrett's popcorn? Whoa. Joabe: I've never had it. Yeah, I've never had it. Yeah, I know. There's people who can talk about food in Chicago. There's a bunch of, and it's like I've been saying before, like runners in Chicago, people who post food about Chicago. There's so many of them. I don't want be those types of people. want to be different. Just a weird. Cefore X. Plosives: you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah. No, you don't even have to post about it. Just enjoy it. I wish I could send you a gift certificate right now so you could just go, as a matter of fact, let's see. I'm gonna leave myself a note. Cefore X. Plosives: go to Weenie Circle and have them talk shit to you. Yeah. Joabe: Yeah, I'm happy I'll give you a review Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay, you don't even don't even you don't don't feel pressure to post it don't put anything out there as you know, I just want to introduce you to Garrett's Popcorn. It has to be the Chicago mixer they I think they're calling it the Garrett mix now. Chicago mix the cheese and the caramel. Cefore X. Plosives: Yeah Joabe: I have, there's one at the end. I'll have one like right next door, so I have to try it Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ all right. I'm going to send gift certificate. Cefore X. Plosives: Yeah Is there anything else you want to promote out? And by the way, man, we, I know you don't like doing radios, but just your time is, I know it's valuable, man, and we really do appreciate your time. Joabe: No, I appreciate it, man. I appreciate it for sure. Yeah, we're out here. I'm glad to be chatting here, for sure. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): For real. For real. Yeah Cefore X. Plosives: Is there anything down there that you want to get out there? That social media handles or anything else that you want to get out? Joabe: Just my social media my Instagram. Hey job Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Is there any way for people to, do you have like a tip jar or ⁓ is there any way for anyone to be able to support you? Joabe: I'm gonna be running the... Bank of America Chicago Marathon in September and I'm partnering up with an organization called my block my hood my city and What they do is exactly what I'm passionate about so they get these youth from these different communities in south and west side of Chicago and They essentially bring them to different areas of Chicago and show them like the city and so I'm partnering with them their founders called Jamal Cole and what he's doing is he is living in every single neighborhood of Chicago one month at a time and so it's very cool what he's doing so he's like for one month for 77 months he's living in a different community essentially and so he just does that through like yeah Airbnb he's going on a run with me and I'm like oh what neighborhood are you in so can get a run in with you and a lot of the neighborhoods he's been in I've completed so I'm waiting for him to go to like a neighborhood that I haven't completed fully but he's doing amazing stuff around the city and I've Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's awesome. Cefore X. Plosives: Yeah, right. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's awesome. Joabe: being able to like meet so many different places like different people who are in such amazing places around the city. So yeah, I'm running the Chicago Marathon in October and I'm raising money for them so this doesn't benefit me, this benefits the organization which yeah I think it's important to promote just getting people to go to different areas of Chicago and getting people out there, neighborhoods especially youth. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Excellent. Cefore X. Plosives: Yeah, we gotta link him up with Pugs, man. He's got the Inglewood Arts Collective and like he does stuff all over. Like, man, you guys would, you would love him, man. He's a great human being. It does a lot for your community. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm Joabe: Yeah, I agree. There's a lot of people doing amazing stuff around the city. Just trying to share the positivity. So, yes, good to see. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And it's way cooler than the next ⁓ episode of The Price is Right. It's just way cooler. Stop watching TV. Go get out there and meet people and do crazy things. Joabe: you Cefore X. Plosives: Yeah, don't be afraid and just sit in front of your phone and watch other people do it. Experience it. Joabe: Yeah, sure. And yeah, I see like people on social media do stuff nowadays. And I watch social media and I'm like, I don't want you to be like, ⁓ this person's living this life and they're doing this, they're doing that. I watch it for inspiration. Like, ⁓ this person's doing this. I want to try to do this, you know? And like... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): or something similar. Joabe: Yeah, well something similar exactly and it's like I I watch social media like I see people on TV I see people on films. I'm like I look up to them obviously, but I'm like That could be me that could be anyone, you know, and it's not it's not hard You just have to like put yourself out there like for example with like TV interviews that I got like at the start I was completely anonymous. No one knew about me. I sent like a bunch of emails and one TV like TV station here in Chicago responded to me. So that's how I got my first interview. And then from then on in, I've never reached out to any TV source. They've always reached out to me. So it's about getting out there and believing that you deserve what you put out. And so with that, you're going to get different opportunities and just know that people who are doing things out there, either social media or just online or just in person, what they're doing is Anyone can do it, you know, they just put themselves out there and they just started, you know, so everyone starts Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. You gotta, you gotta give yourself time to one, get good at whatever it is that you're trying to do. And two, more importantly, give the people that are interested in what you're doing, you have to give them time to find you. Joabe: Yeah, it's not easy. Yeah, it's not easy because it's very saturated markets. Social media is very, very saturated and running is very saturated. There's a lot of things that are just very saturated. Yeah, you just have to like do unique things and be yourself and then you'll be good. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, it's not. Yeah. Cefore X. Plosives: and not get discouraged if you don't get the instant like, man, this was great content, why doesn't anybody like it? Well, they haven't found you yet. Don't let that discourage you. When your motives are about the passion versus the profit, then you know I'm saying, or what it produces, then it'll organically roll. And if it doesn't, it doesn't matter, because you're doing what you love to do. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Right. Joabe: Yeah, exactly. it's like, what I'm posting is exactly what I'm living. So it's like, I can still live and not post. I don't have to like live to post. Yeah, exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. It's like we were we were talking to this ⁓ legendary Chicago producer panic and he said if social media wasn't here, I'd still be producing music. If I didn't have anything else happening, I'd still be producing music. He just he just puts it. He just makes videos about what he's doing anyway. It just. Joabe: Sure, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): so happens that he's amazing. Joabe: Yeah, yeah, sure. Cefore X. Plosives: Right. Joabe: Yeah, my dad's a pastor and he told me something that I'm never gonna forget. He basically told me that it's harder to live what you preach than to preach what you live. If you just live your life and you preach about it, then it doesn't take effort. But if you try to live what you're preaching, then that's hard because then you have to align yourself with what you're preaching. So that's the same thing with So many things in life is like you just have to do stuff and that aligns with what you're doing instead of like trying to like be someone you're not essentially. So it's hard to not be authentic. ⁓ So yeah, that's what I try to do at least in my social media like posts, just try to be myself, have good positive interactions and not tried to be someone, I'm not, because I'm not this person who's like this, you know, instigator or, you know, I'm just a nice person who... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Just a nice chill dude. Cefore X. Plosives: If you were, you probably would not make it close to 100 % and run in the city. Joabe: No, no, no, I'll be stuck at 45 permanently. For sure. Cefore X. Plosives: You Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And just to make sure that people know if you want to follow job on ⁓ Instagram, it's Hey, H E Y, job, J O A B E. Right. I just wanted to make sure because you said just follow me on Instagram. But we didn't get the name in there. And not just that, but I'll go ahead and put it in the description of this video. ⁓ But yeah, it's just cool to see you doing this and bringing attention. Because it's hard to talk to people and they're like, you're from Chi-Raq. And I'm like, my God, I hate that so much. And don't even get me started on the movie. Don't even get me started on the movie. Joabe: You Yeah, yeah, it's... There's people who still would say it and like no amount of people running the whole city would convince them that Chicago's not safe or like Chicago's not what it's set out to be by the media. It's just okay, I'm not gonna convince everyone. And that's not my fault. That's fine, yeah, that's okay. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And it's fine. Yeah, we talk about planting those seeds on this channel all the time you plant the seeds. And if you're you know, if you're constantly hearing that Chicago is a terrible place, it's a terrible place, you're gonna think so. But then all of a sudden, Joabe shows up and he sprinkles a couple seeds. You're like, Hey, wait. Chicago is not that bad. There's some lady that's gonna say Chicago is not that bad There was some dude running with the with the flag cape and he told my dog that it was cute. Chicago's not that bad Joabe: Yeah exactly like there's good people in this city and there's definitely some people who you know are up to no good like everywhere in the world. ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): everywhere. Joabe: That's every single place in the world, you know, I mean I even think about like rural areas in America where like if you trespass Something's gonna happen to you, you know in Chicago if you trespass Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Joabe: Maybe that's not nothing's happened to me at least because if I trespass like and the police say something to me Which has happened before I just showed them the map. I'm like Listen my friends. I'm I'm just trying to complete this tree I'm just trying to complete this tree. So, please let me just hop over this fence and just ⁓ Cefore X. Plosives: I got a deadline here. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha! Ha ha ha ha. Joabe: something differently of me and that would be unsafe so it's like if stuff's gonna happen it's gonna happen anyway it's not exclusive to Chicago Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love it. I'm so glad that that you're doing what you're doing for the reasons that you're doing it and the person that you are. ⁓ Yeah, again, it doesn't take much. For someone from Chicago, all you have to do is say anything positive from Chicago. We love you. Joabe: Yeah, no, literally. Yeah, I've gotten like honorary citizenship from so many people like calling me in Chicago and now I'm like, I don't mind that. don't mind that. So it's good stuff. Cefore X. Plosives: Come on the show. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha All right, everybody, we're gonna go ahead and let you go. You probably got somewhere to run. ⁓ That's right. So we're gonna let you do that. Thanks again. ⁓ Again, everybody, hey, Joabe, H-E-Y-J-O-A-B-E. And I'm gonna reach out, because I am gonna send you the coupon or the gift certificate for that popcorn. Joabe: Yeah, watch your eyes. Please do. Thank you very much. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): All right, brother, take care.