In this episode, Cody has a conversation with his friend Mike Dempsey. Mike is a videographer and visual storyteller. It's a hard-won career that not everybody succeeds at, and Mike's well aware of this, which is why he got a degree in computer science—so that he could work remotely. The computer science degree has allowed him to work from anywhere in the world, while he pursues his real passion of documenting people and places. He's traveled to Kenya, Peru, and Columbia for work, and Costa Rica, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Jamaica for himself. He's interviewed people for his own personal projects along the way.
Mike's choice to document life is a symptom of wanting to understand it better—to understand what makes people act the way they do. He's always been able to find the tragedy and the humor in humanity in equal measure. Laughing about the absurdity of it one second, and then lamenting it the next. Probably humor more than the other one. But, ultimately, he believes that a fulfilling life is not about how much money you make or the materials you're able to furnish your life with, it's about the people you meet and the experiences you have.