The inspired insights podcast is for informational
and entertainment purposes only and should not
be considered health advice. This podcast is
not intended to replace professional medical
advice. Please note that this podcast may contain
discussions on sensitive topics such as mental
illness, suicide and substance use. If you are
experiencing a behavior health crisis or need
support, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis
Lifeline by calling 988 or visiting www .988lifeline
.org. Soren! Chris, welcome back. Indeed, indeed.
I would be remiss if we did not draw attention
first to our new space. Yes, new studio, new
season. What do you think of it? I really like
it. Our viewers at home can't see all of the
decorations that we have up, but... Let them
be assured, it is vibey in here. I will take,
I know what I'll do. I'll take some pictures
and give, or maybe do a little tour. Maybe I'll
do a video tour that we'll plant with this episode.
And maybe more to come. Maybe there'll be a craft
project. Indeed, indeed. On the horizon. The
best is still yet to come, right? Yeah, I love
this space. I love... I love the openness of
it. I love it's just a good vibe. Indeed. Hopefully
better sound quality as well. We're going to
find out one way or another. Fingers crossed.
Welcome back. It's nice to see you. Nice to see
you too. I'm excited to kick this new season
off. We'll talk a little bit in a little bit
about what's to come. But yeah, being our first
episode of season three, which by the way. just
sit with that for a second. Like, we've done
20 episodes of this podcast. A momentous journey
it's been. I mean, really, did you, could you,
a year, I think, we started recording season
one, oh, just about a year ago. Can you believe
that? It has been quite the journey, but I'm
very pleased with its trajectory. Yeah, and still,
the best is yet to come. Indeed. So, I think
you and I are on the same page where we want
to start, continue season three with what we
did in season two and offer listeners inspired
insight of the week. Yes. With that in mind,
would you please honor us with the first inspired
insight of season three? Wow. What a moment of
gravitas I've been faced with. And pressure.
Yes, very high pressure this is. My inspired
insight is a commentary on how easy it is to
form new relationships. I think, like, I have
the tendency to, and a lot of other... People,
both young and old, have the tendency to expect
that forming relationships is a difficult process.
And I think that's because of the initial barrier
we build up in our heads. We are uncomfortable
around unfamiliar people. But once we become
comfortable around an individual, even if that
just means willing to have a short conversation
with them, it is so easy to form a relationship
with that person. And I saw that a lot when I
was on seminar in Brazil. And we'll talk more
about that. We'll talk about, yeah, because you
were, yeah, we'll map the timelines out. I love
that. And I want to ask you some questions about
that insight as well. So thanks for sharing that.
No surprise to you or our listeners, I lean in
heavily to Ms. Taylor, Alison Swift. And I think
you gave me the fun fact earlier today that I
referenced Taylor in four of my inspired insights
of season two. Preach. And so why stop now, right?
So I, you know, our listeners know, I just get
so much inspiration from who she is as a person
as well as her art. And one of the songs that
I have been listening to a lot in between the
seasons is a song off the Midnight's album called
Dear Reader. And in Dear Reader, she gives a
lot of inspired insights about just lessons of
life and those kind of things. And so my inspired
insight for the week comes from the song Dear
Reader. And in it, she says, bend when you have
to. Bend when you can, snap when you have to.
And I love that quote because it serves as a
reminder to be flexible and to find common ground
and compromise, but also be very clear with what
you're not willing to bend and when it's time
to snap and take action and push back. Wow. Truly
an ever -flowing fountain of wisdom. Is she not?
She is hairier if you're watching. Praise be.
So I want to get right into this. When season
two ended, it was just after New Year's. We were
both starting some new, preparing ourselves for
some new adventures in 2025. Your biggest news
was that you were planning on a trip. Yes. Want
to share a little bit about what you did and
where you went? So when the last episode of season
two came out, I was in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I went
to a month long camp there with an organization
called CISV with the goal being to like. build
global friendships in order to ensure global
security. The organization was founded after
World War II. So it's essentially a peace organization
that thrives through the education and connection
of young people from across the world. And for
the point of view from our listeners, you've
been involved in CISV for years. And what makes
what I think I understand of what made this trip
to Brazil really special is that this trip was
sort of the graduation of all those years of
involvement. Yeah, it was the last possible opportunity
for me to engage with CISV. And which I found
that quite sad, but it was also very rewarding
and it was a lovely final send off. Yeah. And
it was three weeks. Yeah. So we were there for,
it was like 20 days. And then on top of that,
I had like a three day after camp where me and
a few of the kids from the camp hung out in a
coastal town. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So is by chance
your inspired insight for this week about building
relationships connected to. Yes. Yeah. It was
directly inspired by that trip because. One thing
that I felt going in was that I am socially inept.
I have a lot of insecurity around my social incompetence
and making other people uncomfortable or my inability
to form new relationships. And what that camp
taught me was... That once you break the barrier,
once you crack the meniscus, it is so easy to
build deep bonds with people in a relatively
short period of time. What was the barrier you
had to crack? I think I... Or who was the barrier
you had to crack? I think the barrier was eternal.
100%. 100%. I was just... like afraid and I think
I am very concerned about how I'm received because
I don't feel as though I'm a typical child and
as a result of that I feel that it takes a specific
person to enjoy my presence and I am always concerned
that that person will not be in a given setting
interesting this is a level of insecurity that
you don't often put out to the world verbally?
I don't think I'm a very insecure person overall,
but I think it's very important to recognize
our insecurities and I'm plagued by them, as
is everybody. 100%. Yeah. 100%. Our listeners
are probably sitting in a little bit of surprise
to hear you say what you're saying because you
present as uber confident and is it not cool
to say uber anymore? Ubermitten and I can't say
that off the podcast. But you present as confident
and really authentic. And when you allow that
vulnerability to creep in, I think it makes you
perfect. Thanks. Yeah. So I think I was very...
I would say life changing trip for me. Yeah.
And I got to make a bunch of great friends. Do
you stay in touch typically on your CISB trips?
Do you stay in touch like digitally with? Yeah,
to some extent. Like I'm still in contact with
a bunch of the kids from seminar, even though
it's been like a month. That's cool. But after
an extended period of time, obviously the relationship
does to some extent degrade. Yeah. But yeah.
What an important, I'm going to tie one more
bow on this. What a really important lesson for
you to have, though, at this time of your life
as you anticipate the next giant change coming
your way this summer. Yes. It did give me a lot
more confidence to face moving to a different
country and going to a new school and everything.
Yeah. Good for you. Yeah. Thank you. Good for
you. Chris, what did you get up to? So I think
I shared with you for the first time and our
listeners that as season two was wrapping, I
had been accepted into a doctoral program for
social work and started that program just over
a month ago. So I am an official doctoral student
now. And I love that. And I think we joked. We're
both in this new academic era, right? And so,
yeah, I love it. It's been literally, well, in
a formal sense, I've not been a formal student
for almost 25 years. I've been out of graduate
school for that long. And like you, I'm a believer
that we're lifelong learners. But from a formal
homework, paper writing, things due, it's been
25 years. Entering that at the velocity that
I entered it in produced all kinds of inspired
insights about how comfortable I had been not
being a student and getting into that mindset
again of like due dates and homework. And obviously,
even as adults, there are expectations on us,
right? Like I need to do things for my job that
have to be done at certain... Points of the week
or month, what have you, but doing it for like
a grade and similar to you, I think, interacting.
It's a completely online and technically asynchronous
program. And there are 10 of us in this cohort
and interacting with people on discussion boards
and electronically. Trying to figure out how
does my personality translate into a discussion
post or a reflection that I'm sharing with people,
it gets you thinking, are people getting a sense
of who I am in my writing? How do I write in
a doctoral way that's still authentic to who
I am and how I speak? I think that's so interesting
that you desire in your... academic pursuits
to still represent your personality. A thousand
percent. And I think that's very admirable. I
feel like when I attempt to engage with academic
matters, In the pursuit of formality, I rob the
thing that I'm creating of my personality. Oh,
yeah. But I think in that choice to make what
I'm creating devoid of personality, I am to some
extent showing my personality through that desire
to present something highly logical. Yeah, because
that's a part of your brand, right? You and I
talk about brand all the time. I do my best work
when I am... fully leaned into who i am like
i i don't play a part i don't role play well
i i need to be me at all times um and embrace
that and it's worked for me for 50 years now
so um leaning into that in this academic part
of my life is even is that much more important
to me so yeah i started that um it's been a wild
like trying to just balance it and fit it in
I mean it's stuff that you and your your friends
do all the time having to navigate due dates
and assignments and in theory not not very well
yeah in theory um and so and I'm not somebody
like in my personal life I don't live by a whole
lot of rules like budgets net um beds consistent
bedtimes nah like none of that um but in the
scholarly world it is all production and um expectations
of time so it's taken me a solid month to get
my feel like my feet is under me and and carve
out time in the schedule to read and write and
reflect. And I think that's what I'm also loving
about the program so far. Unlike other academic
programs I've done, they emphasize time to think
and that time to just sit with your thoughts
is part of this journey. So yeah, I love that.
I love that. Yeah, that's really nice. Yeah,
it's cool. It's cool. So looking forward. What
are we excited about for this upcoming season?
Soren, there's so much we have planned. So we
are going to, again, follow the path that we
went on with season two with having some guest
episodes and then some time with you and I. Like
right now, we heard some good feedback from listeners
that they love other voices coming into the podcast
and they want to make sure they still get you
and I. chatting and bantering like we did through
season one. So we're going to do that. We've
got some guests planned. I don't want to spoil
too much, but some of the topics we've planned
around some guests are some, we're going to continue
the thread of advocacy, especially in the world
we now have found ourselves in. We'll get back
to that. We've got guests talking about transition
to college life. It's going to be the What's
Next with Sorin episode. So I have some friends
and colleagues here at the University of Maine
that are going to come and chat about what does
wellness and health look like in the college
world and residential life and living in dorms.
We've got guests planned on, how would I say
this, learning how to tell your story, learning
how to polish what you show to the world. So
we've got that. We're going to talk to some folks
locally about Bangor Pride for Pride this year
and the importance and the power of Pride. And
then the other topic with the guests that's quickly
coming to mind is welcoming folks with some lived
experience with navigating their own mental health
and what that journey has been like for them.
Listeners have heard a lot. from you and from
I about experiences of our journeys. And so welcoming
some other voices in the room to talk about that.
Yes. I'm very excited. Yeah. And then you and
I will have some time to chit chat about. The
state of the world that we're in. Various other
things, of course. Yeah. I think this next season
is going to be very exciting, dynamic. Season
two, I feel we hit our stride. But season three,
we're going to be running even faster. Yeah.
And I have mixed feelings about it, to be honest
with you. Knowing that season three will end
as you graduate high school and get ready to
leave. Yes. I know I'm excited. Yeah, and those
are part of my mixed feelings. Yeah, yeah. By
that time, we would have done 30 episodes of
this dang thing together. And it's like graduation
in different ways of looking at it and transitions,
right? Change. Yes. Yeah, I have mixed feelings
about it. It's bittersweet. The only thing that's
constant is change. I know. Inspired Insight,
Zoran Peterson. Yeah, you're right. You're right.
And it's awesome. Like, I'm thrilled for what's
happening. And who knows, maybe we'll do a season
3 .5 on the road. The travel, the travel season.
And I think taking it back to our modern world
rather than the future. What we're attempting
to do here is becoming increasingly important
as the sphere of politics and the social sphere
around us becomes increasingly adversarial towards
individuals who are attempting to advocate for
human rights. Yeah, a lot's changed since we
closed season two. Yes. When we had closed season
two, we knew the results of the federal election.
But we had yet to see our delightful... The transition
of power. The transition of power. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And you and I have been talking about it
since we've been in each other's company the
last several days, right? Like, it's hard not
to... talk about it and thinking about the episode
later this season around advocacy and voice and
how you balance all that with the craziness of
the world around us. I don't quite have the words
to describe how it's felt living. here in this
country over the last... You know, I'm curious,
like, when you were in Brazil, I'm always curious
about what other countries say. Like, you're...
Were you the only American kid? Yes. So you're
the American kid. Uh -huh. What is... You introduce
yourself. What's the very first thing that other
youth from other countries say when they learn
you're the American kid? Um... Or do that. Well,
people outside of America know America for being
consumerist, our production of various foods
that are bad for you, our current political instability,
and the cultural expectation of nationalism.
Oh, yeah. And I am not representative of the
nationalism or our current state of politics.
So it gave me an awesome opportunity to sort
of critique the U .S. as an outsider with other
outsiders, examining the system externally. Yeah.
And what people's opinions are on what's happening
in the country and what people know about American
history. And honestly, it is astonishing to me
that... Like the French girl knew more about
American history than the vast majority of Americans
do. The British girl also knew more about American
history than the vast majority of Americans do.
And so did one of the Argentinian girls. Wow.
So it's kind of obscene to me to see that people
outside of our country are forced to be like
more educated on America than its own people
because of how impactful America is globally.
Yeah. Yeah. So that was a big eye opener as well.
You know, it's funny and you'll be my reality
check here. There was a time where when Americans
were traveling in certain countries, you could
pack like extra. You were encouraged to pack
like. extra levi jeans or whatever because you
could trade them and people in other country
went would go gaga over these americanized pop
culture like icon products is that still the
use do you think for a lot of the people from
south american countries i noticed that it is
the fetishization of American commodities is
still highly prevalent. But a lot of the kids
that were from the EU actually sort of had a
resistance to American consumer products, whereas
previously they didn't. But I think it's interesting
that you mentioned Levi Jeans because actually
the Swedish guy, although he was very not...
okay with the fetishization of American commodities,
still wore all American -made clothing and embraced
American punk culture and really liked some of
the American fashion movements that we see in
our cities. Even though America's cultural impact
has become increasingly disdained by individuals
in certain countries, America's culture is still
fetishized globally. We are still To some extent
put up on a pedestal, or at least our consumer
products are put up on a pedestal. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. And you know, and our listeners know, that
you know a million times more than I know about
some of these, like, the global cultural kind
of differences. But I'm curious, like, what do...
youth from other countries think about what's
happening politically here, knowing, and you
and I were talking earlier, that some of their
countries have seen similar movements of a pendulum
swing to nationalist ideals. Yes. Pretty much
every country across the planet, populism is
becoming increasingly prevalent. We see this
in Germany with the AFD. We see this in Argentina
with the election of Millet. We see this in the
UK with increasing racist rallies against immigration.
This is something that many, many countries struggle
with. As far as America goes, our political sphere
is more of a spectacle than all of these other
countries, at least on a global stage, because
of how important it is. So a lot of the kids
there were either disgusted with what was happening
or, as a result of their political biases, very...
Had empathy for. Had empathy, but also there
was a boy from the UK that was very much on the
far right in the UK. As a result of that was
in support of individuals like Donald Trump.
Really? In America. What were the other young
people's reaction to that individual? They were
not pleased with him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wouldn't
imagine that that... Because there's a piece
of that that's, at least as the outsider, that
feels like it's the antithesis of what CISV as
an organization stands, like global villain.
Yeah, actually, there were multiple people, for
example, the Swedish guy and the French girl
that I had conversations with where they were
like, why the fuck is this guy here? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, it is. Because he doesn't... Yeah.
Believe or espouse the core values of the organization.
Right. Like, feels like that kind of program,
there's got to be a dotted line you're signing
off on, whether physically or metaphorically.
Like, I'm down for this. This is the kind of
experience that I'm looking for. So, yeah, I
would ask the same thing. Apparently ethno -nationalism
appeals to all. All. Yeah, right? Wow. I'm glad,
though. It really feels like this particular
trip. has left a really cool impact. Yeah. Yeah.
It was so awesome. And it made me so excited
to travel internationally. Yeah. Because all
of these kids are just like kids where I am.
Yeah. But arguably much more well -educated and
interested in the world around them. And I think
that's as a result of the selection bias of CISV.
Yeah. But it was such a fantastic experience
and it made me so excited for my future of getting
to meet hopefully hundreds of people like them.
Right. From all over. Yeah. Yeah. You're going
into that with such a, I would suggest a higher
baseline of that kind of dynamic than most of
the young people you're going to be first year
student with. Right. Because you've traveled,
oh my God, how many countries have you been to
now? demarcation of my privilege but yeah thanks
um i surely over 20 yeah yeah and a lot of those
have been with this program as you've done yeah
yeah i've gone to three different countries yeah
yeah so that's cool that's cool yeah it's it's
kind of a it's um it's a nice like between the
bookends of your senior year in high school to
have this experience be right in the middle.
And then you came back and now you're like eyes
on the prize to June. It was a really great way
to end off my formalized high school experience,
I think, because it gave me an opportunity to
literally remove myself from the world that I
typically am living in and reflect on the future.
the current state of reality and myself, how
I interact with others. Yeah. And developing
some confidence in me. Yeah. That's cool. That's
so cool. Any other thoughts you want to share
about the state of our political world here in
the United States? I know we've been talking
a lot about it. Anything you feel like you can
or want to share with our listeners? I think
as this first episode goes out, I don't know
how dire things are going to get. Yeah. But just
don't allow the things happening around you to
wear down your resistance. Surround yourselves
with different ideas, both from like -minded
individuals and from individuals who are not
necessarily like -minded. And analyze and examine
your own worldview so that you can change the
world that you are viewing with it. Yeah. Well,
I love that. I love it. Yeah, and I could not
agree more. It feels like, I mean, we've been
talking about it a lot of late, so it's definitely
top of mind. And for me, it's that finding a
balance of staying informed and aware and just
protecting myself. And the people I care about
who I know all too well. the harm that comes
from immersing yourself in the 24 -7 stuff that's
flying our way and making sure that we are, to
your point, creating space for where your voice,
how you show up with that voice and making sure
you preserve your voice so you don't go hoarse
or lose it. Yeah. Yeah. There's too much at stake
right now. Indeed. Well. On that note, I would
like to conclude our first episode of season
three. Yeah, we're rolling. Yep. Thanks for tuning
in. We look forward to seeing you guys listening
to the rest of season three. Stick around, y
'all. We got some good stuff for you. I've been
Jordan Peterson. Chris McLaughlin. Thank you.
Have a great week. The Inspired Insights Podcast
has been brought to you by Inspired Consulting
Group, LLC. Edited and produced by Amanda Seidel
and Derek Carter. Marketing support for the Inspired
Insights Podcast by Elizabeth Keenan. Music by
Derek Carter. Please visit www .inspiredcg .com
to learn more. Copyright 2025. All rights reserved.