The Happy Pear Podcast

This week you get two for the price of one! Well, actually four if you include us ;)We had the pleasure of hosting both Matt Frazier and Robert Cheeke, and delved deep into their new book: The Plant Based Athlete.Matt being an ultra runner and Robert being a bodybuilder - they are the perfect pair to write THE book on a plant-based diet for athletes.We had a super stimulating conversation. Aside from their own fascinating past, the lads have spent a lot of time interviewing some of the best sportspeople in the world, who are (you guessed it) plant-based, these included:Venus WilliamsRich RollTom Bradyand many more.“There were numerous athletes that we interviewed, who were Olympic medalists, some of the best in the world. Who weren’t even consuming protein powders - Do you know why?”A brilliant episode, particularly as we have just been watching the Olympics!Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. If you want to hear more and support this podcast, please subscribe and share :)Lots of Love,Dave and Steve Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To kick off our new series no better man to have than the wise monk himself - Manchán Magan. And guess what, it was in person! Whoop! Genuinely what a treat, and you can really tell!His name, Manchán, literally means ‘little monk’ and if you were to meet him, there really is no better fitting name - Even how he holds himself has an air of soft wise intellect.We began thinking we were going to dive deep into the Irish language and all its nuances but wow did we get so so much more.Manchán, is the type of person who will keep even the most highly strung business person on edge listening!! We navigate through this conversation from his time on the TG4 travel show taking him to all kinds of weird and wonderful tribes, to mingling with “The Screamists” (a cult who literally spend their time whaling and screaming), to mysterious forgotten histories, and his adventure to beat the mortgage ladder and find 10 acres for 10 grand.Manchán is a writer, a poet and a deep thinker. His latest book 32 words for a field, has instilled in us a whole new passion for the Irish language. Give him 5 minutes of your time and I swear you’ll be downloading Duolingo beginner Irish!According to Manchán the Irish language not only holds the secrets to the best places to find fish in the Irish countryside, or how to predict the weather, but also how to really connect. To connect us to this earth, to the people and inevitably to sustainable living.“During the dark ages Europe lost all of its libraries, all of it was destroyed, all of its central regal systems. A new sort of violent force was taking over, all the philosophy and wisdom was gone, but Ireland still had it in their libraries because they were never part of that. Now that Christianity was male focuses, it was hierarchal, but it had a key. It had a beautiful visionary voice in terms of Jesus Christ at the beginning of it, and particularly Irish Christianity, because when St Patrick came in 430 AD, we took on some of that, just like the Taro Oman mountain runners in Mexico, took on some of the Jesuits stuff (their clothes etc..) but they kept their connection to the landscape. We did the same in Ireland, we took some of the rules of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, but look at our Holy Wells… Our Holy Wells and our Holy Rivers, we realised that nature was sacred, so we brought some of this knowledge back to Europe. You can find it still in Monasteries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the teachings of Irish Monastic figures.”A really wonderful episode from a phenomenal character. Let us know your thoughts on social media and if you like what you hear, please support this podcast by subscribing and sharing.Big Love,Dave and Steve xREFERENCESManchán's Book: Thirty-Two Words for a FieldZach Bush MDTaro Oman mountain runners - Book Born To RunRichard Heinberg - Our Previous Podcast EpisodeHelena Norberg-HodgeMoy Hill Farm in County Clare Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“We are victims of our own success”Has economic growth destroyed us all? Usually economic growth is seen as a good thing right? Or at least that is what politicians would have us believe. In this episode prepare yourselves! Put your seat belts on! As Richard Heinberg does not hold back. There is no softness or sugar coating here, he has been spreading the word of our impending climate crisis for many many years…Richard is Senior Fellow-in-Residence of the Post Carbon Institute, and is regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from our current reliance on fossil fuels. He is the author of fourteen books, has written essays and articles, delivered hundreds of lectures and interviews for print (including for Reuters, and Time), television (including Good Morning America, National Geographic, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Al-Jazeera, and C-SPAN), and radio (including NPR, WABC, and Air America). Not to mention, Richard has appeared in many film and television documentaries, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour.Needless to say, when it comes to the climate crisis, he’s the man! In this episode, we jump straight into the core of it all. Richard talks us through everything from the limitations of renewable energy, the growth of capitalism, human ingenuity, to eco-living, community resilience and the power of ascetic beauty.“Ascetics have been hijacked by capitalism, in biology it’s called ascetic decadents. That’s where the competition of production and enjoyment of beauty takes off on its own and it actually leads to the evolutionary bottleneck in a species. The classic example is the Irish elk. Which is this type of elk that used to live in Ireland and started to evolve bigger and bigger antlers, until the antlers were so large… and it was doing this for ascetic purposes. The elk just ultimately could not persist and they went extinct. Now we are doing the same thing with our ascetic pleasures, they have been hijacked by capitalism and by consumerism, so that most of the ascetic consumption that we do in the modern world, is all based on just making money and trying to think a certain way. Everything is ascetically designed to make us want to buy more so it’s serving the very process of economic growth that is undermining our future. So we have to take back ascetics from capitalism and consumerism, and once again it needs to serve our long term wellbeing.”Don’t worry it isn’t all doom and gloom! We left the conversation feeling slightly beat up but overall hopeful and empowered.We look forward to hearing your thoughts on social media!If you enjoyed this episode and want to support the podcast please click subscribe or follow!Big love, Dave and Steve xReferenceNaomi KleinHelena Norberg-HodgesSatish Kumar MagazineZach Bush MD Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you talk to strangers?When you think of the word ‘stranger’, does danger come to mind?This week we talk to the insightful Joe Keohane, a veteran journalist who has held high-level editing positions at Medium, Esquire, Entrepreneur, and Hemispheres. His writing—on everything from politics, to travel, to social science, business, and technology—has appeared in New York magazine, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Wired, Boston magazine, The New Republic, and several textbooks. An avid parallel parker and occasional working musician, he also won a prestigious Screenwriters Colony fellowship in 2017 for a comedy television pilot that remains, sadly, unproduced.In this episode we talk to him about his latest book; The Power of Strangers; The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World - An exploration of why we don’t talk to strangers, and the wonderful things that would happen if we did.As some of you might know we are very vocal advocates for ‘loose social interactions’. We love talking to strangers, and any acquaintances we may come across - we simply find people fascinating! So naturally, this conversation was right up our alley.Joe is hilarious, he realised he wasn’t the best at striking up conversations with random people so he thought he would challenge himself by finding out why, and furthermore, is this is a common thing with most people nowadays in our screen-watching world? So he found a course on the topic (that’s right, a course on ‘how to talk to strangers’) and set off to London to find out how!“There is a really good technique I learned when I was doing this which is, don’t ask people what they do, ask them what they would like to do more of or less of, and that will get you a really interesting answer. The person might say “I am a chartered accountant” and you ask; “well what do you want to do more of”, they might say “oh ballet”, and then you exclaim “oh that’s interesting! A ballet dancing accountant, that’s unusual” … and then you are off to the races! That gets you to understanding peoples motivation and individuality. Thats the way you can break the script of boring cocktail party chatter.”From the psychology, to the history, to the practical. Joe takes us through it all in this episode. We talk social studies, individual experiences and for a pair of extrovert-chatty-twins, we even managed to learn a lot!“There wasn't much difference between introverts and extroverts in the actual study. They seem to have the same experience. The extroverts are more comfortable initiating the interaction but the introverts got the same benefits from it once they started doing it. And my theory is (based on my own research), is that the skills you need to be really good at this are introvert skills. It’s listening, it’s noticing, it’s paying attention, it’s not stepping all over somebody, it’s not doing the thing that everyone does in conversations where you are just looking for a way in to talk about yourself. Those skills are invaluable.So I feel that introverts can learn from extroverts in the way that extroverts are good at going up to people. But extroverts need to learn from introverts in the way that you conduct the conversation, in the way that you learn to listen to people, and you don’t make everything about you and you ask them questions about their lives etc…”Give the episode a listen, then go out and strike a conversation with a stranger! Go and explore! Who knows where it may take you ;)REFERENCETheodore Zeldin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we are thrilled to say we have our friend, the eco-warrior, Davie Philip.Davie is a community catalyst and facilitator at Cultivate.ie, the sustainability cooperative based in Cloughjordan Ecovillage, and a network weaver with ECOLISE.eu, the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability. He is the coordinator to the Open Food Hub at Cloughjordan Community Farm and the chair of Open Food Network Ireland.  Davie brings us through his fascinating narrative from his early eco-warrior, revolutionist days of being arrested, and as he describes "we were more interested in being proactive than reactive" to the foundations of which he and a few others began the Cloughjordan eco-village."Getting involved in an eco-village or a community project at this scale is the longest self-development course you’ve ever taken. Because you are constantly learning about yourself. And I think that shift that you just mentioned, Steve - that ego to eco, I think that’s a world view that we need if we are going to survive on a hospitable planet by the end of the century. We need to move from that individualistic just consumerist culture that reduces everything into its parts, to where we actually start to see relationships and connection, and the value and health and wellbeing of the whole is good for me as a part of that whole.”Davie is seriously inspirational and does not sugar coat a thing, we dive deep into the successes and difficulties of creating a sustainable community, from our political setbacks to the health and mental benefits of co-living and amenities sharing community.“Community living and land trust show that there are different approaches to living. It’s mad because in Ireland our only two ways to secure a home is a mortgage (a massive dept) 'mort-gage' literally translates to “the grip of death”, or rental with no secure tenure. That’s our options, whereas in Europe there are multiple options, the diversity of ways to secure your home and your home being more than just an asset you speculate on.”A great conversation and a brilliant addition to our community series. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did and listen out for the 4 simple steps we as individuals can start right now to build on our own communities for a healthier and happier future.Love,Dave & Steve xReferencethevillage.ieopenfoodnetwork.ie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we are delighted to give you the brilliant John Stewart.John is a sought-after speaker, author and educator, with over 25 years of international experience. He was the Head of Green School Bali (Voted The World’s Greenest School) and literally wrote the book on ‘Thriving at School'! Having won numerous awards within the educational world, John recently took on the biggest undertaking of all by becoming the conductor of Living School Lismor, where he literally repurposed his own house, ripping and exposing walls in order to create a school that redefines all norms. Here, the main goal is creating a love for learning, where the community school focuses on personal and academic exploration for both student and teacher alike.John strips back the many layers of our global schooling system, where attention is no longer on the enthusiasm for learning and draws parallels to the western prison system with its high walls, regimented structures, and disciplinary systems.“A lot of schools build themselves around campuses, so then they have stranger danger issues so the put fences, and then they want to make sure there’s a quality educational offering, so they have these teachers who are credited, they have to be professionally developed - all sitting inside these schools. So when you mirror a school and a jail, people actually can’t see the difference.”We could have spent hours, days, months, years talking to John! Community being such an integral part of our ethos, John really spoke to our hearts when breaking down how essential a school is for a thriving community - it really is at the epicenter.“This takes us back to the definition of a school, it isn’t about getting a career, getting the best mark you can to get into university or a pathway so that you can make heaps of money. That’s a bit selfish and it’s a bit naive. Schools are meant to improve community… Communities have kind of dispersed, we get communities in cafes, at sporting events, we used to have them in churches (and some people still do)… but where do you have all these different views streaming in to be connected - at school.”From John’s vibrant past and international experience to ripping apart his own home in order to create his dream school, we nearly covered it all.We hope you enjoy it as much as we do and get in touch if you like us, get inspired to build your own community school! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prepare yourself, we are the ULTIMATE fans of our latest guest… Steve even claims that in his teenage years he dreamt of being married to one of his songs. If you are over the age of 30 you probably “made out” to at least one of his many hits. The song “Everything I do”, still holding the longest consecutive reign for the Number 1 hit single in chart history!We are thrilled to announce that this week's podcast is with fellow vegan and animal lover, the wonderful, amazing, and magical - Bryan Adams! Yes THAT Bryan!Bryan has been a long-term health enthusiastic and vegan for over 30 years. Back when the word vegan was such a rarity that even Bryan didn’t know the term!We chat in length about food, health and life on the road, and what community really means to Bryan having lived most of his life in the limelight.“The loyalty I have had with my band members and my manager; I have been with the same manager since I was 18, same road crew since I was 21, so I guess that’s my community, it’s my little circus” Aside from his vibrant musical and photography career, Bryan has an amazing outlook on health; “I have this philosophy, that what you do today, and how you run your life, whether it be with exercise or diet, you are building the building block for what you are going to be in 10 years. So whatever you do now, if you are caning it now, you are going to feel it in 10 years. So just think about that when you are planning your life. Everything that I have done in the past 30 years has lead me to the health I have today.”We had such a wonderful chat, we really feel like we made a new friend and look forward to hosting Bryan here in Greystones someday soon. So sit back, grab a piece of fruit or celery stick, relax and enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I am a storyteller; that’s what I do…” Welcome to this week’s episode with the delightful, insightful and charming, Professor Jonathan Dawson.Jonathan might describe himself as a storyteller, however, in this episode it is not Jonathan telling the story: we deconstruct “The Story” or many narratives that we have all been told, which play a huge part in the cause of our climate crisis.“The key narrative that we live within, that really needs to be challenged, is that which governs how we experience the other than human world. Because the messaging is, ‘you look at a tree and its timber’, rather than being an intelligent being. This is the critical bit, because as long as we have stories that these are inanimate objects that are out there for our use, as long as we do that we can continue to sh*t on the world, and if we are going to stop, a big part of the story needs to be that we see the world in different eyes and we see ourselves as living within an animate universe as one brand of intelligence among many other forms of intelligence.”Jonathan is a sustainability educator and a former President of the Global Ecovillage Network. He has 20 years of experience as a researcher, author, consultant, and project manager in the field of small enterprise development in Africa and South Asia and before joining the College he was a long-term resident at the Findhorn Ecovillage.We spoke in length about the many issues which have lead to our need to redefine how we live, in particular Findhorn, which is an amazing example of how a community can live sustainably.“People associate having a low foot print with suffering. In Findhorn, nobody needed television as what was happening outside their front door was so interesting. This is what we need to bring, we are not talking about sacrifices, we are talking about retuning into who we are as a species, and what floats our boats and it is not buying whatever gismo it may be, it is reconnecting with people and finding your own place within your community.”A very insightful episode - we hope you got as much from it as we did.Big love,Dave & SteveReferenceRichard Heindberg‘Small is Beautiful’ by E.F. SchumacherSatish Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For episode 4 of our Community series, we present to you the very man who changed our own perspective on community living years and years ago. The co-founder of the Transition Network and Transition Town Totnes, Mr Rob Hopkins!To give you a bit of background on Rob, he is the author of numerous books including, The Transition Handbook, 21 Stories of Transition and most recently, From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. He presents the podcast series ‘From What If to What Next‘. In 2012, he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and was on Nesta and the Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. Hopkins has also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Four Thought and A Good Read, in the French film phenomenon Demain and its sequel Apres Demain, and has spoken at TEDGlobal and three TEDx events.This was by far one of our favourite episodes. The expression ‘you should never meet your heroes’ does not apply here. Rob was our hero 15 years when we first came across him, and now all these years later when we finally get to meet him, he is still our hero!"At the moment we measure the success of an economy by how much bigger it is than last year. Imagine with your kids; there is a while in the evolution of your children where the fact that they are bigger than they were last year is a good thing. They are growing in the right direction. If that was the only measure, and they just kept on growing and growing and growing, till they were about 50 metres tall… after a little while you would think something is going really really wrong here. Actually what you want is for your kids to grow, ideally to slightly shorter than you are! And then to start growing in different ways; become kinder, wiser, more skilled, more connected, and more resourceful. We don’t have that assumption for our economy, we just say - ‘is it bigger than last year? Grand!’ The fact that cancer rates are rising, anxiety is rising, and people are less and less able to walk home alone after dark, all the things that we don’t want to happen in a society, we don’t measure, we don’t factor them in.”This quote says it all, he is a creative thinker who lets no walls or structures limit his imagination and willingness to strive for a better future. The ultimate doer and who leads by example. We delve into everything from how Totnes became a self-sufficient transition town to how you as an individual can start thinking outside the box and become the change you want to see happen to your own community.Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bruce Parry, Bruce Parry, Bruce Parry! What a gent!How often do you get to speak with someone who has fully immersed themselves in 15 different indigenous tribes all across the world?He ate what they ate including maggots and insects, he slept where they slept at times on hard dirt floors tangled between legs and arms and mosquitos crawling at his skin, he took part in ceremonial practices and plant medicines awakening his soul to all kinds of other realms, but most importantly he opened his mind to old wisdom, other ways of being and thinking which has shaped his existence and shown him new perspectives on life."Just hanging out with people who have a completely different perception of reality, different spirtual beliefs, different relationships with each other, different nature beliefs. All these things that I had to go through massive internal shifts to understand. Because you can just carry on looking at the world through your own scientific material prism but when you start taking on board that actually these people have got something else going on and maybe it’s worth listening too because they are not the ones messing the planet up. I started out kind of thinking I knew it all and ended up realising I didn’t know anything and thats a humbling journey."Bruce is an explorer, indigenous rights advocate, author, former Royal Marines officer, but he is possibly most well known for the three BBC documentary series; Tribe, Amazon, and Arctic. All of which documenting Bruce's exploration of extreme environments, living with remote indigenous peoples, and highlighting many of the important issues being faced on the environmental frontline.We covered it all with Bruce and to be honest could have spoken for days, maybe even months more, we feel a friendship was been made and look forward to keeping an eye on his progress with his next adventure; an egalitarian community in Wales.Further information on Bruce and his latest work:https://www.bruceparry.com/References:Viktor Frankl Sir Ken Robinson George Lamb and We Are Grow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.