#50 - Notes on Athletes, Libraries and Musicians
Education Coffee is a weekly 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. I will continue to write about education and learning as well and hope to be more consistent with the publication of this newsletter this year. Please subscribe to this newsletter and share it in your network if you enjoyed reading this edition. We are now 92 subscribers strong!
1. Learning from People
Recently, I got curious about the athletes competing at the Olympics. Micheal Phelps is one such athlete. He is a swimmer that has won 28 medals at the Olympics between 2000 to 2016. This includes 23 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 2 bronze medals over a 20 year career. He is the most decorated Olympian ever. Here is a list of athletes that have won the most medals at the Olympics games.
He has won 14 more gold medals than the second person on this list. He inspires me as an athlete and as a human being. He has spoken openly about his struggles with mental health and has worked hard to spread awareness on mental health struggles through the Michael Phelps foundation. This is an inspiring short documentary about his career in the pool on the official Olympics Youtube Channel.
2. Learning from Ideas
Here is a picture of all the neighbourhood libraries around the city of Toronto. I found this visual at my local library. There were hundreds of libraries in the city and it seemed like there is one on each street corner as you get closer to the downtown core of the city. I grew up in Bahrain and India and did not have such widespread access to good libraries. It was always frustrating and I often had to ask my parents to spend a lot of money to buy me books. As a member of the public library system here in Toronto, Canada I can borrow 50 items (books, ebooks, dvd’s and more) at a time and renew them multiple times. I also have access to a digital library and high quality wifi.
I want to find ways to create the same high quality public/private library system in other countries. I am not sure how. I know this will include research into public policy and financing. But I believe there is a need to get consistent access to a wide variety of books in every country and I hope we can find an entrepreneurial solution to this important goal of feeding each child’s curiosity with the best stories in the world. In this inspiring TEDx Talk, David Johnson talks about the role of public libraries and his efforts to get funding and support for an 80,000 square-foot expansion of Fayetteville Public Library, to be completed in mid-2020. We need more such library professionals and enthusiasts in each community.
3. Learning from Books, Websites and Blogs
Neil Gaiman published the dark fantasy horror children’s book titled, ‘Coraline’ in 2002. I read this book in 3-4 hours of one scary evening this summer. I loved it. It was scary and delightful. Sometimes you need a book to get you excited about reading and this was that book for me. Here is a brief summary of the story in a few words. Coraline moves to a new home with her mother and father. Coraline discovers a secret door while exploring her new home. She enters this door and find an alternate world that closely mirrors her own. However, there is a twist. She meets the other mother in this world who wants to keep her there forever. Coraline realizes she is in trouble when her parents go missing and now she launches a mission to go back to the other world to defeat the other mother and bring her parents back. Coraline is one of my favourite fictional characters. She is brave, curious, and loving. She is also distracted, anxious and judgemental. But she is someone you root for throughout the story. Gaiman writes the story like a 8-10 year old would write this story. I found this amazing Youtube playlist on his channel where he reads 13 chapters of this book. Here is the first video from that playlist.
4. Learning from Films, Videos and Shows
Artist Raghava KK creates artwork that we animate with our own brain waves: What we see depends on our current state. In this visually engaging talk, he shows us some of the social, political and interactive works he has made in action.
5. Learning from Podcasts and Music
I recently got to attend an Imagine Dragons concert at my favourite live music venue in Toronto, Canada called the Budweiser Stage. Imagine Dragons are based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and currently consist of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, and bassist Ben McKee. I am really excited because this is a band that prides itself on its live performances. They have released six studio albums between 2012 to 2024 and this performance is part of their world tour for the sixth album titled, ‘Loom’. I love music concerts because it is an opportunity to experience music with a community. You almost always feel the energy of the performing artist and you become an intimate part of the performance on the day. These artists have to perform the same show hundreds of times on a tour for diverse audiences around the world. I have a lot of respect for the bands and musicians that do this day in and day out over several years. Imagine Dragons has done this for over 12 years now. Dan Reynolds is the lead singer of this band and works really hard on his fitness and stamina before each performance as documented in this Men’s Health video. Here is a description of his routine from the video:
'Imagine Dragons' lead Dan Reynolds faces challenges both in and out of the gym. His fitness routine keeps up his stamina for performing, helps his mental health, and fuels his body while battling two autoimmune diseases. Dan swears by stretching and yoga- and also incorporates an Olympic lift routine to keep him agile and strong while building stamina for when he sings and dances on stage.
This is a video from the band’s performance at their Las Vegas concert in 2023. You can watch the full playlist here.
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 (49 past newsletters). You can subscribe to this newsletter for more such recommendations on people, ideas and culture.
Please do send me your thoughts and resources on any edition of this newsletter through email at abhishekashokshetty@gmail.com, Linkedin or on twitter @AbhishekShetty_. You can find my work online at https://abhishekshetty.carrd.co/. If you would like to read pieces in the future please do consider subscribing to this newsletter by clicking the button below. I love taking these discussions forward on those platforms and look forward to hearing your feedback.
Abhishek Shetty