Edition II - Raves and Raving

Bitcoin, altcoins, shitcoins, whatcoins? Cryptocurrency has had a very strong 2021 and is back on everyone's mind. John and Mike have had the distinct fortune of cornering an expert on the matter and picking his brain for two hours. This episode features Simon Lee, founder of Crypto101Notes, a group that has the mission of teaching as many people as possible about the upcoming Bitcoin and crypto economy. Are you looking for a basic primer on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency? Right here. Curious about why there are other cryptos? Listen and find out. Trying to figure out WTF is dogecoin? You have come to the right place.

Check out our guest's project at https://www.crypto101notes.com.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/crypto101notes?lang=en

The Armchair is back!  John and Mike are coming at you today with some thoughts on the COVID-19 pandemic. Is it winding down, or is the worst yet to come? Will our society come out of this crisis stronger than ever, or fatally weakened? The Armchair has absolutely no clue, but face it, neither do you, so why not join our hosts for some good old fashioned thought-provoking discussion?

Good sources of coronavirus stats (to the extent that anyone can still trust anything anymore) : https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/

http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/

Overview of the 3 Cs: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/10900000/000615287.pdf

Extra! Extra! The Armchair hits the ground running in this special Dispatch surveying the ongoing Hong Kong protests! In a first for the history of this podcast, we bring in a special guest to help flesh out the issue: impromptu Hong Kong correspondent Yannick Kwan. If you're looking for the lowdown on this rapidly evolving world event, look no further - John, Mike, and Yannick have got you covered.

John and Mike dug into their archives, and are positively chuffed to bring you an exclusive recording of a conversation they had one day last spring. The topic? That most peculiar of nationalities, the English. Few peoples have had a greater influence upon history than our friends from across the pond. But who are the English? Where did they come from? And how did they become masters of the largest empire the world has ever seen? Tune in to find out. Cheers!

Fear not, dear readers! John and Mike are back with a very special Halloween episode. Fright, terror, horror, anxiety, dread...there's no better day than today to spend some time with our two hosts as they get to the bottom of the deepest, most primordial of human emotions...fear. 

Dispatches from the Armchair is back! In this inaugural episode of Season 2, Mike and John talk about Burning Man, the cultural event/art expo/music festival/counter-cultural community that forms each year deep in the Nevada desert. John gives us a basic primer on life on the ground. As usual, our conversation goes all over the place, and this time we spend the second half digging a bit deeper into Buddhism, something that has captured Mike's interest in recent months.

For more info on Burning Man: burningman.org

For the translation of the Dhammapada that Mike was talking about: https://www.amazon.com/Dhammapada-Easwarans-Classics-Indian-Spirituality/dp/1586380206

For some killer young adult literature, check out the Animorphs series. We really can't do it enough justice.

John and Mike get right to the point in this short, punchy episode about their experiences with meditation. If you have ever been curious about basic meditation and its effects on novice practitioners, look no further. And if you are a more advanced practitioner, we would love to hear from you!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dispatches.from.the.armchair

The two main types of meditation we discussed are described in more detail here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapanasati
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassana

The organization that sponsored John's recent adventure: https://www.dhamma.org/

Some tunes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z49bfaXGX78
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bss4sDltSuo

What is happiness? Is it worth pursuing? Can we truly be happy? John and Mike tackle these questions in their usual manner: by running around them in wide, unpredictable circles and somehow making it back in one piece. Gender roles, Russian novelists, country music, and an unprecedented level of autobiographical candor from our hosts make this episode an instant classic. Believe us when we tell you, this one was worth the wait.

Reading List:
The Republic by Plato
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevski
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Link to the Japanese population pyramid we talked about in the outro: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Japan_sex_by_age_2015.png

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