#86 - Notes on Basketball, Podcasting and Economies
Education Coffee is a Newsletter on People, Ideas and Culture.
In each edition of this newsletter, I will share some inspiring web resources that I have curated after hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox. In upcoming editions, I will focus on sharing insights, notes and realizations that I gather from people, ideas, books, films and podcasts. This month I have taken up a #30DaySubstackChallenge. I want to challenge myself to write a newsletter everyday for the next thirty days. I have really enjoyed writing this newsletter and this is a way for me to build my skill set as a newsletter writer. I will go back to writing a 2xWeekly Newsletter in January 2025.
1. Learning from People
Hybrid athletes use a blend of training styles to improve both strength and endurance simultaneously. For example, combining swimming and weight training can help develop upper body strength and cardiovascular endurance without putting too much strain on joints. After serving in the US Army, Nick Bare founded a nutrition company, Bare Performance Nutrition. He is also a hybrid athlete with an ability to balance strength and endurance through weight training and long distance running. It is a form of athletic training that I am curious about from a health perspective. He documents his journey on his website and podcast. I learned a lot about hybrid training from this video about his journey.
2. Learning from Ideas and Questions
I was really curious about the Indian economy from a historical perspective and came across this 9 hour podcast between Amit Varma and Rajeswari Sengupta. It took me a couple of weeks to get through this but the hosts go back and forth and discuss important events in the history of this country’s economy. I would love to listen to more such episodes from other countries. Here is a brief summary of this mammoth episode from the Seen and Unseen podcast.
Our greatest moral imperative is to solve the problem of poverty -- and after over 75 years, we still have some distance to travel. Rajeswari Sengupta joins Amit Varma in episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen for a deep dive into how we got here, where we went wrong, what we got right, and how we should look at the Indian economy going forward.
3. Learning from Books, Websites and Blogs
Ruskin Bond spoke about his experiences as a writer in this discussion from the Jaipur Literature Festival’s archives.
4. Learning from Films, Videos and Shows
Starting 5 is a documentary sports series follows Jimmy Butler, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, Domantas Sabonis and Jayson Tatum throughout the 2023-24 NBA season. I loved this show because it showed me the mental and physical journey to become the top basketball players in the world. There is a lot of sacrifice and discipline involved on a day to day basis. Each player profiled was a different stage in their career and had different expectations. However they were all driven by the same goal to help their specific teams win the NBA championship.
5. Learning from Podcasts and Music
Mae Thomas is the host of Maed in India, a podcast about independent music in India. Here is a description of the show from the website.
Whether it’s a shoegaze band from Chandigarh, thrash metal act from Visakhapatnam, rapper from Kashmir, vocal folk quartet from Kohima, Tamil indie pop act from Madurai, or a singer-songwriter from Mussoorie, Maed in India is where you’ll discover it. Started in 2015, music nerd and ex-radio presenter Mae Mariyam Thomas showcases the best talent coming out of South Asia and its diaspora. The show is India’s first indie music podcast and prides itself on being the premier destination for new music, little known stories that give you a peek into the lives of independent musicians, as well as being an ongoing archive of unreleased music never heard before.
I discovered the podcast through an episode of the Stumble podcast where she spoke about her journey as a podcaster in India with Roshan Abbas.
Here is a recent episode she completed with the artist Dot. I love how patient Mae is as a podcaster. She heard all of Dot’s songs and asked so many interesting questions about her influences as a musician. Mae really got me excited about Dot’s music. I think this podcast is a great way to discover new music in India. The artists also play some of their music in the podcast. You can listen to past episodes of the podcast at this link.
Thank you for reading this edition of #EducationCoffee. I look forward to writing weekly editions of this newsletter this year. I hope to continue to share resources that will add value to your life. You can also review the archive of Education Coffee for free at this link ( past newsletters).
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Abhishek Shetty