The Elephant Room - Episode #5 Jacob Briggs: Early music influences, what music means to us, and the future state of music.

The Elephant Room - Episode #8: Mac Miller's Swimming Album Review

In this episode of the elephant room podcast, I do a review of Mac Miller's album Swimming. In continuation with my review of his album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, I discuss the reappearance of Mac Miller's mental health issues. I delve into the similarities and differences between these two albums, as well as some of the continuing themes that reappear in Swimming. If you're a follower, then you certainly know my stance on Mac Miller's music; however, I'm more impressed with his ability to convey similar messages but in completely different avenues. This album does exactly that. This album has a unique way of explaining very serious issues but with jovial and mellow style, which is a complete 180 to Watching Movies with the Sound Off. You can anticipate my interpretation of the lyrics, beats, and meanings behind the songs in this album. A few of the deeper meanings that I've found in this album lead me down a few rabbit holes along the way. As always I hope you all enjoy this review and can take something valuable away!

The Elephant Room - Episode #7: Where I've been recently, insecurities with content creation, long-term goals, and current events.

After too long of a hiatus, I am back with another episode of the elephant room. Most may be wondering why I haven't uploaded new content for this podcast in quite some time. To be truthful, I have worried too much about the content that I want to put out, which has made me hesitate at the thought of putting out new material. I discuss this in further detail in this episode. I also talk about my experience during a recent trip to Denver, Colorado for my 26th birthday, long-term goals of mine, and some current events that I felt like I needed to openly discuss.  This episode will provide listeners with some further background on myself. I recently have tried to self-analyze why I love podcasting. You'll hear me tell a story from when I was a kid that may explain why I think this has developed. I'm also going to briefly discuss everyone's favorite topic: politics. This is by no means a deep dive into all of my views, but recent events have compelled me to at least break ground on a few controversial topics. As always, I hope you all enjoy and can take something valuable away from this episode!

The Elephant Room - Episode #6 Luke Huls - Video game nostalgia, personal growth as a gamer, and the future of video gaming.

On this episode of the Elephant Room Podcast, I sit down with another one of my best friends, Luke Huls. In the previous episode, Briggs and I alluded to an upcoming episode with Luke, as we both knew it was a long time coming. Since becoming friends, Luke and I have bonded over many topics, but today we discuss video games and technology. We both grew up playing mass amounts of video games and we still revisit some of those games today. We go down memory lane and talk about some of our favorites and how they impacted our upbringing.  Video games and video "gamers" have always received a great deal of negative stigma. Labels from "lazy" to "illiterate" and even "life-wasting" have been placed on people who follow these lifestyle choices. While I do believe that, when used in the wrong settings and situations, video games may lead to poor life decisions and etcetera; however, I don't agree that they are inherently bad for people. I discuss this by giving some insight on my childhood experiences. Video games allowed me to hone my communication skills and feel more comfortable around others. Additionally, we talked about what we think the future of video games looks like. With the relatively recent development of altered reality consoles, such as the Oculus Rift, who knows where we go from here?  As always, I hope you all enjoy this episode and can take something valuable away!

The Elephant Room - Episode #5 Jacob Briggs: Early music influences, what music means to us, and the future state of music.

Today I sit down with one of best friends, Jacob Briggs. "Briggs", as everyone in our friend group refers to him, and I met through mutual friends. Shortly after getting to know each other, I discovered that we both shared similar interests in music, among many other things. We immediately started bonding and sharing our favorite artists, albums, and genres with each other. In this episode, we talk about the music we were exposed to as kids and how that may have led to what we enjoy listening to today, what music means to us and many similar topics. This episode may provide context behind the album review episode I did on Mac Miller's Watching Movies with the Sound Off.  As a kid, I viewed music as an escape from reality. I couldn't wait to put on my favorite albums and let my troubles leave me for that blissful period of time. Today, I continuously search for music that gives me these same feelings. I try to captivate the unusual, yet satisfying feeling that I've always experienced when I'm able to share these types of experiences with someone else in this episode of the Elephant Room. Briggs is the first person I've ever met that reciprocates these same sentiments that I have. We dive into this topic and attempt to explain why we feel this way.  As always, I hope you all enjoy this episode and can take away something useful!

The Elephant Room - Episode #4 Keith Kraker, RD: Nutrition Coaching, Eating Disorders, and the Era of Misinformation

After a bit of a hiatus, I am back! For this episode, I sit down with registered dietitian and Biolayne nutrition coach, Keith Kraker. Biolayne is a company started by Layne Norton, PhD, that provides nutrition coaches to the general public and much more. I personally hired Keith as a nutrition coach for the past 12 weeks. Over the course of that time, Keith coached me through a weight loss period, where I was able to improve my body composition and lose a few pounds along the way.  I have always struggled with my body image and implementing self-nutrition, despite graduating with a college education in nutrition science. Today, Keith and I discuss my poor relationship with food that existed prior to our time together and how I was able to correct it with his help. We also discussed our thoughts on eating disorders, what info that was left out during our collegiate educations, and the "era of misinformation". I have always believed that fitness and instagram influencers have been one cause to the general public's skewed views on body image and ultimately, poor mental health. As you will learn in this episode of the Elephant Room, we both agree that this may be one of many contributors to the obesity epidemic in America. Remember, if you suffer from one of these issues discussed in today's episode, you're not alone!  I hope you all enjoy and get something out of today's episode!