Blue Planet Stories

Dan Williams: You Never Forget Your First F-Bomb.

We have a returning guest who is publishing a hilarious and insightful book Misbehaving in Maine: Thirty-half Learned Lessons [https://www.fallscitypress.com/misbehaving]. Dan Williams [https://medium.com/@danielwilliams737] is a humor writer with a huge on-line following. We wanted to bring him back to chat about his stories and the writing process. And to chat about family and how growing up shapes our lives as adults. Join us for a conversation where we learn, we laugh, and we drop a few f-bombs. We interview Dan and read a chapter from his new book: Lesson 11: You Never Forget Your First F-Bomb. You can subscribe for free. If you choose to support us, we donate 15% of our net proceeds to World Literacy Foundation [https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/]. Help children read. Get full access to Blue Planet Stories at www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe [https://www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Lawrence Bransby. A Short-Cut Across the Kazakh Steppe Becomes An Endurance Test For Riders And Bikes

Today we speak with Lawrence Bransby [https://medium.com/@lgbransby/about], an award winning author, motorcycle adventurer, and a retired teacher. He emigrated from South Africa to the UK, and rode a motorcycle there across Africa with his 17-year-old son. Lawrence wrote twenty books, including novels, novels for young adults, and many travelogues chronicling his numerous motorcycle journeys across Africa, Europe, Central Asia, and North America. You can subscribe for free. If you choose to support us, we donate 15% of our net proceeds to World Literacy Foundation [https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/]. Help children read. His favorite of his books is Two Fingers On The Jugular: A Motorcycle Journey Across Russia [https://www.amazon.com/Two-Fingers-Jugular-Motorcycle-Journey/dp/B09BZXH52P/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=F6UuR&content-id=amzn1.sym.0fb2cce1-1ca4-439a-844b-8ad0b1fb77f7&pf_rd_p=0fb2cce1-1ca4-439a-844b-8ad0b1fb77f7&pf_rd_r=144-7007281-9333016&pd_rd_wg=NN3wY&pd_rd_r=5a9b3838-fa2a-4b07-9830-3029001ce936&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk], an intimate account of a 20,000 km track on the Road of Bones. We interview Lawrence and read his story A Short-Cut Across the Kazakh Steppe Becomes An Endurance Test For Riders And Bikes. (the story is abridged to fit the podcast length limitations). From the show: “… Q: You rode to the UK across Africa with your then 17-year-old son. A: Yeah, Trans-Africa with a 17-year-old who didn't have a driving license. Q: Was it your first long trip together? How did it go? A: No, no. Well, it was the first really long trip. But we did another trip when he just finished primary school at the age of 12. We did a motorbike ride around the mountain kingdom of Lesotho together. And that was, you know, he'd been riding motorbikes since he was about eight years. And he was a very good rider…” “… I was thinking to myself, you know what? I, at that stage, what was I? I was probably close to 70 years old. And my son was maybe 38. And I thought to myself, you know what? I'm a father and I'm riding with my son. And we're riding together, not as father and son, but as mates. And it was just the most incredible experience. And I was thinking to myself, I wonder how long this can last. Because we'd been riding each year. We'd been going on a long trip each year for the past four years. And we'd rode together for five years together. And I'm experiencing it now. And it was just so exciting…” Get full access to Blue Planet Stories at www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe [https://www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Yvette Brand. I Built My Dream Life in Mexico, and Now I Am Leaving Everything Behind

Today, we speak with Yvette Brand. She is a slow digital nomad a “slomad”. She lived abroad for 12 years of her life, while traveling and working in 45 different countries. Originally from the Netherlands, she lived in Mexico for 5 years but is now on the move again in Europe, searching for a place to settle. She writes about travel, personal growth, and spirituality. Her work has been featured on Vox, YourTango, Columbus Magazine and many Medium Pubs. You can subscribe for free. If you choose to support us, we donate 15% of our net proceeds to World Literacy Foundation [https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/]. Help children read. Yvette is the founder of Sustaying [https://sustaying.com], a travel platform for slow travelers and remote workers. Today, we interview Yvette and read her story: I Built My Dream Life in Mexico, and Now I Am Leaving Everything Behind. From the show: “…when I travel like a normal nomad, I just stay one week in the place. So I don't really integrate with the community. I don't really have time to get to know the locals. I'm around other travelers, the expats or other foreigners. When I slow travel, I really want to feel how it is to live there. So I take an effort to meet people in the grocery store, to go to local sports clubs, to really feel how the locals live there…” “…it's actually what my business is also working on, on how not to have a big footprint as a nomad. Because there's a lot of gentrification as well, by being a nomad and by settling down somewhere. Because we have a lot more money, most of the time, than the locals. I think it's the best to pick places that are not that touristy yet…” Get full access to Blue Planet Stories at www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe [https://www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Michael Isaac Almond. The Mysterious Case of Mumsy's Missing Birthday Cake.

Today we speak with Michael Isaac Almond. He is a visual designer from San Francisco. He recently launched a startup to help families dealing with relatives developing dementia.  You can subscribe for free. If you choose to support us, we donate 15% of our net proceeds to World Literacy Foundation [https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/]. Help children read. But he maintains his creative life by designing and making bags, and writing humorous stories from his own life. Michael went to Brown university to study film but decided against joining the industry. Today, we talk to Michael and read his story "The Mysterious Case of Mumsy's Missing Birthday Cake" From the show: “…Well, I'm not surprised because...I mean, I could win a Nobel Prize, which is very unlikely, and people would still ask about those bags. I mean, that's all people seem to care about, which is great. It's a hobby. I really like craft and working with my hands, especially if you're in front of a computer all day, which is what i've been doing for the last 25 years, and i just love the hands-on. It's almost like meditation …” “…Q: Have you always or do you always see your history in this humorous lens? A: I do. I can't help it. I mean, I'm a pretty serious person. I get very depressed, at times, and [feel] anxious. And I think actually, a way of looking at the world and my own life with humor is almost - its therapy. I don't want to be a depressed person. I don't want to be negative. I don't want to be cynical or pessimistic. And one way you cannot feel that way is by looking at the humor in any situation. It's not to say certain things are funny. …” Get full access to Blue Planet Stories at www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe [https://www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Bigga Bigga P. I Have to Stop Killing My Favorite Band Members

Today we speak with Paul Bigga Bigga P. Paul received his moniker from another music producer in 1996 and it became a proud handle for his life and music career. Retiring young after a stint as a successful entrepreneur, Paul focused on his passion for producing music and writing. He lived in California, Washington DC, Netherlands, then back in the USA, in New Jersey. You can subscribe for free. If you choose to support us, we donate 15% of our net proceeds to World Literacy Foundation [https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/]. Help children read. The stories he writes are almost entirely true. They are an amalgamation of different parts of his life, and from different people and characters in his sphere. Today, we speak with Paul Bigga Bigga P and read his story, "I Have to Stop Killing My Favorite Band Members - The curse that follows me to this day.” You can read more of Paul Stories on Medium: https://medium.com/@biggabiggap And follow him at disciplebrothers.com [https://www.disciplebrothers.com] From the show: “…My grandfather was a mariachi and he was a very musical person. He taught me as a young boy how to read music. And I just seemed to have it. Then I put it aside because I went to engineering school, and I started my business and went through a few relationships. And then I went into one horrible relationship, and a really close friend of mine, he was a bass player and he decided we're going to start a band. We started a band and I just started loving it. I was living in Hollywood. …” “… It's Hollywood in the 80s. I mean, I went to school with Slash…There was music everywhere. My mother worked at Music Connection, which was one of the premier band music magazines and editorials for music. Yes [music] was a big part of the school. It was a big part of my life. I mean, hip-hop had started at that time, rap, you know Rapper's Delight was while I was in high school. The Sugar Hill Gang. A lot of that stuff In New York and and Hollywood. I was rubbing shoulders with all kinds of people in the music business, in the music world. Laurel Canyon. Frank Zappa. I knew his kid, you know, his son. All these people were revolving around my world. …” Get full access to Blue Planet Stories at www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe [https://www.blueplanetstories.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]