Who in the World

When I first moved to Sacramento in 2003, I literally knew no one in the city. Eager to make friends and expand my circle with positive, impactful people, I started volunteering and attending charity events. It paid off with lifelong friends and connections, such as with the guests on the Who in the World podcast today, Sharon Gerber Scherer and Rob Scherer.

To me, they stood ten feet tall – they were well-accomplished in business, revered in the community, and incredibly well connected. What’s more, they were achieving their success by helping others – what a win-win! 

It was a eureka moment for me to witness them in action and even stand in their shadow.

Over the years there, we all became friends, as I enjoyed supporting their fundraisers and charitable projects, they always came to my humble functions, and I even got to dog sit their four-legged baby. Cabo, when they were out of town.

Now, we all have moved on from Sacramento (although the 916 will always hold a special place in our hearts). Sharon and Rob live in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where they are a shining example of how to move abroad, how to reinvent yourself, and how to live a well-balanced life of fun and service.

So, I hope you enjoy this Sunday morning, tequila sunrise podcast chat with the people I’m still honored to know and call friends all of these years later, Sharon and Rob.

Oh, and Cabo, too!

Your buddy,
Norm :-) 

In this episode #32 of the Who in the World Podcast, I have the pleasure of introducing you to ML, one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing. 

I first met ML in Sacramento, Ca when we had both newly moved there in the 2000s, her from NYC where she was an actress and arts promoter for 7 years, and me from CT. Upon being introduced by a mutual friend, we became homies instantly, and shared a common vision for community, networking, empowering the arts scene in Sactown, and generally encouraging a higher vibration for all of those around us. 

 In fact, there’s no one I know who loves, supports, & encourages the arts more than ML and, by her side, I’ve experienced art gallery showings, concerts, video shoots, yoga, meditation, all-bodies yoga, fundraisers, and rollerskating topless waitresses. 

 It’s no wonder why I call her my “soul sister!”

 But ML is also one of the kindest, caring, and accepting people I’ve ever known, and I deeply respect both her and her husband, Pete. I love the journey she’s on – always evolving and growing while empowering others to do the same – and I’ll always be her #1 fan! 

 So, enjoy this chat with ML and I’m glad you’ll get to know here as I have through this podcast!

In this episode #31 of the Who in the World Podcast, I share part two of my conversation with Kay Kay, live from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

I was able to travel back to Cambodia last year – one of my favorite countries on earth and I place I lived for a few years – and had the chance to visit Kay Kay at his home for a few beers and a deep conversation about his life.

For those who didn’t get to listen to part one of our talk yet, you can listen here:

And in this part two, we start off when Kay Kay was being bounced around immigration jails in the U.S. until he was deported back to Cambodia, a country he wasn’t born in (Kay Kay was born in a refugee camp in Thailand like so many others), had never visited, knew very few people, and only spoke a little of the language.

Through his monumental struggles in his new homeland of Cambodia, Kay Kay soon adapted and found his footing by serving others, acting as a mentor and educator for poor street kids who had no other role models or opportunities.

Soon after, Tiny Toones was born, Kay Kay’s non-profit organization that helps poor, disenfranchised, and at-risk kids with education, life skills, and basic care through breakdancing, rapping, graffiti art, and other endeavors.

You can check out more about Tiny Toones and make a donation at www.tinytoones.org

And thanks for listening and sharing some time with my friend, Kay Kay!

In this episode, I travel back to Phnom Penh, Cambodia – one of my favorite places in the world – and sit down with my friend Kay Kay.

Kay Kay is one of the “Deportees,” those Cambodian nationals who grew up in the U.S. but were later deported back to Cambodia, to a country and even language they didn’t know. Raised in California in a poor neighborhood amid crime, drugs, and gangs, Kay Kay was more about the breakdancing and graffiti tagging life.

However, he did fall victim to the streets and ended up spending multiple bids in prison and then immigration jail. After years of incarceration in the U.S. system, he was shackled on an airplane and deported to Cambodia.

It’s there that Kay Kay’s true journey starts, as he soon helping poor street kids who had no one else, and then taking them in. He first taught them his break dancing skills, and then offered life guidance and mentorship.

The movement grew and eventually became Tiny Toones, an international non-profit that’s still in existence today after nearly two decades, offering formal education, life skills, and even job placement.

According to their website, “Our mission is to provide a safe, positive environment for at‐risk youth to channel their energy and creativity into the arts and education, empowering them to build self‐confidence in their daily lives, aim for better employment possibilities, and feel supported pursuing their dreams.”

Kay Kay still runs Tiny Toones all of these years later, making it his life’s mission to save kids from the same gangs, streets, and temptations that almost claimed his life.

Enjoy this part 1 of my conversation with Kay Kay and feel free to check out Tiny Toones and make a humble donation at: www.tinytoones.org

-Norm  :-)

In this podcast, I catch up with my old friend Mounika, who tells me about her trip of a lifetime to Japan.

I was friends with Mounika and her husband Rohit back when I lived in Sacramento and became good friends with them towards the tail end of my stay there before leaving to live abroad in 2011.

Last year, Mounika invited me to speak via video chat to a club with some of her girl friends from India to California. I talked about my adventures, went over a few stories from the books I’ve written about them, and my life as an expat now.

Well, Mounika took my words of words of motivation to heart and planned her own life-changing journey – to Japan!

What makes this odyssey so incredible is that Mounika visited the land of the rising sun solo, and it was her very first time traveling except for her home nations!

Even more incredibly, Mounika’s father just passed away before her whirlwind trip, so she flew back to India to honor and bury her father, with all of the emotions and turmoil that brought, and then right on to Japan from there.

Join me in chatting with Mounika about how she overcame her fears, her impressions of Japan, the serendipitous experiences she had, and the wonderful people she met (not to mention all of the great food!).

Discover what she found on the trip of a lifetime on this very heartfelt and human podcast!

-Norm 🎙️🌏

In this part two of my podcast with Wicced, or Kalvin Hang, we reunite in Phnom Penh, sitting down in a corner of a bar tucked away in an alley to talk about his story, live from the Kingdom of Cambodia.

In episode #26, Wicced and I covered how he was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, made his way across the world to settle in California, and then fell into the street life because of his surroundings. Never a naturalized citizen, he ended up in an immigration prison for years and, post 9/11, was deported back to Cambodia – a country he’d never lived, didn’t know the language, and never even visited.

 In this podcast, we pick up Wicced’s story when he first arrives to Phnom Penh on “Con Air,” handcuffed and still incarcerated. He eventually is released to family members in the countryside but the transition from modern California to the villages and province life in rural Cambodia is as radical as it gets. 

 Wicced finds his way to the big city, Phnom Penh, where he settles and immediately starts giving back, helping others, and making an impact. Fast forward almost two decades and Wicced is a community leader, advocate for deportation and immigration reform, social activist who has spoken and attended conferences all over thew world, business man, and family man all the same. 

 It's a great honor to have WIcced as a friend and little brother, and I thoroughly enjoyed our sit down and chat, including a surprise answer to a question I asked him eight years ago. 

 I might just have to move back to Cambodia – a place I’ve lived and really love – just to hang out with Wicced more!
 
 I hope you feel the same after listening to this podcast.

 -Norm 🎙️🌏

 PS Big-up to the Deportees and my Khmer fam!

One of the amazing things about traveling and living abroad is the people you meet in random, chance, and fleeting encounters. Even if you just chat at the airport for 5 minutes or run into someone at a café, you form these deep, meaningful connections that stay with you for life.  

One of those chance encounters occurred for me in the little mountain spa town of Fortuna in Costa Rica. I walked down into the lobby of my backpacker’s lodge one day and saw this tall European woman struggling to walk because she’d injured her knee badly in a surfing accident. 

Being everyone’s big brother when I travel, my first instinct was to help her out, of course, and that’s how I met Rafaela, who turned out to be one of the smartest, most positive, and dynamic people I’ve been blessed to know.  

From humble yet gracious beginnings in Communist Romania, she worked her way up in finance, moved abroad to work in other European nations, speaks six languages, and now lives in Paris. 

I met Rafaela in the midst of her year traveling around the world, when she focused on reading, exercise, yoga, and fully immersing herself in the moment. But far from your typical stereotypical backpacker, she carried a nice suitcase and told me she loved the high heels that she packed instead of the typical hiking boots - a true sophisticated badass!

After months of invitations (and begging), Rafaela finally acquiesced and agreed to hop on the podcast with me, which turned out to be one of my favorite conversations yet!  

I’m honored to introduce you to my great friend and brother, Kalvin Hang, or Wicced as he’s known. 

Wicced was born in a refugee camp in Thailand as his parents escaped war-torn Cambodia, then emigrated to California, where he grew up in San Diego.  

From dire poverty to gang violence to prison, to say Wicced had it tough is an understatement. He was even thrown in an immigration prison and deported to Cambodia, never allowed to return to the U.S. - even though he’d never actually lived in Cambodia. 

But instead of seeing himself as a victim or shying away from adversity, Wicced thrived on it, becoming a community leader and bridge between two worlds: Cambodia and the U.S., the streets and the bustling business world.

Now, Wicced is thriving in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. But never forgets where he’s from, always judging himself on the scales of karma. He’s equal parts fearless and compassionate, a man of furious action while at the same time deeply introspective. 

But one thing is for sure – if Wicced is your friend, he’s always got your back.

Thanks for listening to this part one of my interview with Wicced and look for part two coming very soon. 

And mad love to Cambodia and the Deportees! 

-Norm Schriever

I recently visited Qatar for the first time, the Arabian country set to host the 2022 World Cup. Amazed and impressed by what I experienced, I wanted to learn more. So, I enlisted the knowledge and perspective of my new friend, Jennifer, in this podcast, an American who’s lived in Qatar with her family for more than twelve years.  

I had so many questions. 

For instance, what is life like for an American family in a traditional Islamic country? 

How is it possible that Qatar is so safe that you don’t need to lock your doors at night and can keep your car running with your purse or wallet inside it while you run into a store? 

What makes an economy boom when 86% of its inhabitants are foreign workers? 

Why do most Ivy League schools from the US and England set up satellite campuses and study abroad programs in Qatar?

Or did you know that Qatar Airways is often voted the world’s best airline, and Hamad International Airport also voted number one?

How could Qatar’s society be so modern and progressive yet be governed by the world’s longest-ruling royal family?

Can a desert nation with no natural rivers or lakes have some of the most scenic marinas, beaches, and man-made islands you’ve ever seen?

And why is such a huge deal that Qatar is the first Arab country to host the World Cup – and what’s all the backlash about?

Add it all up and hot damn, Qatar is cool!

I’m sure you’ll gain a lot of insight from Jennifer in this podcast. And just as I discovered when traveling to one of the world’s most dynamic and unique nations, our talk will probably dispel more than a few myths and preconceptions you may have about life in an Arabian country.

Enjoy this episode #25 of the Who in the World podcast and let’s root for Qatar in this World Cup!

Your buddy,

Norm :-)

Imagine if you had to leave your country virtually overnight, your home, your job, your friends, most of your savings, and almost everything you owned? You needed to scramble to find a new, safe country for your entire family to live in and could only bring one suitcase with you – possibly never to return again. 

Oh, and you couldn’t tell anyone about it or even let on that anything was out of the ordinary. One wrong step, one mistake, and you (and your entire family) would most likely be going to prison for ten years.

You just had to disappear completely from the only life you’ve ever known in the dead of night. Poof.

That was the situation when my guests today fled their homeland of Russia right after their government’s invasion of Ukraine. Guided by their conscience and torn by the censorship, militarization, and Soviet-era crackdowns they saw around them, their comfortable, modern life in Moscow evaporated almost overnight, descending into a dystopian nightmare.  

Now, they are refugees, their future uncertain and not sure when or even if they’ll ever be able to return to their mother land.

Today on the Who in the World podcast, you’ll hear their story.

Having relocated to Thailand last month, I was chilling with my best buddy here, Scott, at a bar called the Red Brick. Sitting at a table next to us were two sisters from Russia and a few of their family members, and we all got to talking as they admired my friend’s pit bull. (Shout out to Frankie!)

The conversation turned to how long each of us had been living in Thailand where we were from, etc., and that’s when I first got to know them. Intrigued, I had to learn more, so I invited them back for dinner and drinks while they told me about their lives – this time with the microphone on.

Enjoy this podcast and after listening, I’m sure you’ll feel the same respect, admiration, and genuine care for them as I do. 

-Norm Schriever

P.S. Names, places, dates, and details have been changed or omitted to keep the sisters and their family safe from retribution by the Russian government. Their security was our utmost concern, so everything you hear has been reviewed and approved by them.

Living in Medellin, Colombia for six months, I was invited to go volunteer at a remote center of a social program by a local friend. That’s how I first met Sabine, my new friend and the Program Director at The Children of Medellin, and see firsthand what they do.

 The trip alone was no joke, as the community of Bello Oriente is the highest in all of greater Medellin, up snaking, winding streets then alleys then dirt paths on the mountain rim of central Medellin below. Bello Oriente is also one of the most dangerous and poorest neighborhoods in all of Medellin, shut off and largely left behind. 

For residents, running water, indoor plumbing, and electricity are luxuries for many, as well as a home that isn’t in danger of landslides every time there’s a heavy rain. For the children of this community, there’s little hope and few opportunities, as most fall prey to gangs, drugs, early pregnancy, prostitution, and crime. Within the community, few adults have education or even access to jobs or medical care, so the cycle continues.

That is, except for The Children of Medellin, which is a beacon of hope for the children, families, and community of Bello Oriente. 

Volunteering there for a half-day, I got to experience the program center in a large, refurbished house with classrooms, gardens, computer labs, a media center, music lessons, job skills, one of the best views of the city below, and, of course, a soccer field.

In fact, futbol (soccer) was how the charity started back in the 1990s, when one man from The Netherlands decided to create a social program to help poor and disadvantaged within the city he discovered while traveling, using the game he loved to bring in the kids and build something special.

Now, The Children of Medellin is thriving, helping hundreds and hundreds of kids and families every year. Bello Oriente is still poor, dangerous, and plagued with social problems, but now there’s a clear path out to a better life.

 In this podcast, I sit down with Sabine, a long-time program worker and advocate from The Netherlands, as we talk about the history of The Children of Medellin, the community they fight so hard to help, and her gritty and beautiful human experiences along the way.

Enjoy this podcast with Sabine and I encourage you to find out more about The Children of Medellin and make a donation to support their important work!

Your friend,

Norm  :-)

The Children of Medellin👇🏻
https://childrenofmedellin.com/

In this podcast, we take a guided tour of Comuna 13, the most amazing neighborhood I’ve witnessed anywhere in the world, with my friend and long-time resident, Laura Loaiza.

 A comuna is a zone of the city, and Medellin, Colombia is divided into 16 of them. But Comuna 13 was always plagued by violence since its inception on the steep side of a mountain overlooking central Medellin. 

As a logical access route for drug traffickers coming into and out of the city, it became a war zone in the 1980s and 90s, with rival drug cartels, military operations, paramilitary groups, rebel groups FARC and ELN, and street gangs all shooting it out on a nightly basis. 

Further isolating the people of Comuna, their neighborhood was built on a steep mountainside with few good roads to get in our out. So, they had to access alleys, paths, and mountain trails to come or go, including 350 stairs! 

Needless to say, it was nearly impossible for the residents to leave for central Medellin on a daily basis, so jobs, schools, medical care, and city life were largely inaccessible to them.

But all of that changed in 2011 when construction was finished on a series of outdoor public escalators in Comuna 13, the first of their kind in the world.

As part of an international project as well as investment by a newly elected mayor, the modern new escalators climbed the steepest part of a 384-meter incline through the Comuna, saving residents a difficult 25-minute walk straight up.

This sparked a new era of pride and hope in Comuna 13, and residents could now come and go for jobs, education, healthcare, and to enjoy the best Medellin had to offer.

Today, Comuna 13 is like a living museum of street and graffiti art, with vibrant colors, grand murals, historical depictions, and symbols of hope and perseverance covering almost every available surface throughout the entire barrio – walls, sides of buildings, front doors of houses, stairways, park benches, and more. 

I was lucky enough to stumble upon Comuna 13 when I lived in Medellin for six months, and a local guide and resident, Laura Loaiza, was recommended. Laura is the founder of Zippy Tours and was nice enough to get mic’d up as we walked through her home neighborhood, talking about the history, art and people.

In this, part 1 of the podcast on Comuna 13, we talk about her memories of the neighborhood as a war zone when she was a child, the early history of the Comuna, as well as the architectural marvel of the escalators, and later the explosion of color and vibrance with street art.

 In part 2 coming soon, we’ll delve into the artwork of Comuna 13, discussing pieces, painters, significance, and style as we walk through the barrio. (I’ll make sure to offer plenty of photos and videos for that one.

Enjoy this guided tour of Comuna 13 with Laura and thanks for listening!

-Norm  :-)

Check out Zippy Tours here.  

In this podcast, you have the pleasure of meeting Kyle McGee or “Goo,” as everyone used to affectionately call him, my best friend since high school.

Goo (also known as “Goo Man,” “Goo Rasta,” or “Goo Monster”) is the son of ministers, a social worker, racial advocate, musician who specializes in West African drums, and traveler.

 He also happens to be one of the kindest and most caring human beings you’ll ever know. So, in this trip down memory lane, we talk about meeting in high school and becoming friends, how we found joy and expression in the burgeoning rap music scene, and the racial conflict in our high school that boiled over into a race riot that made national news. 

We go deep into his time at Syracuse and leadership in the bi-racial community, his exploration of racial identity, our time as roommates in San Francisco and the work he did there in the schools, his travels to Africa where he lived and studied drumming, and his recent visit to Costa Rica for my 50th birthday. 

While that’s a whole lot to chew on and makes a fascinating conversation, there’s still a lot of hilarious stories and memories we didn’t cover – like the time we traveled around Europe together at only 17 years old. 

After listening to this podcast, I’m sure you’ll want to get to know Goo even better and hear more, so I promise to get him on the podcast again in the near future. 

But until then, enjoy this conversation with Kyle McGee!

My humble little Who in the World podcast has now hit 20 episodes, with such an eclectic and interesting cast of characters that I’ve been fortunate enough to know in my life.

 And you can expect a lot more remarkable people from my journey, starting today with my new-but-great friend, Molly Ruland.

For many years, Molly was an activist and community organizer in Washington D.C., hosting underground music and artistic events at the iconic One Love Massive space as well and being integral in the “DC as Fuck” scene.

But I first met Molly in Tamarindo, Costa Rica when we both moved there in late 2020 as Covid-era refugees (at that time, the only safe choices for expats were pretty much Costa Rica or Nicaragua!). 

Molly was thrilled to be there from the start, living by the beach in the tropics as she ran her thriving podcast production company, HeartCast Media.  

But only a few short weeks after she arrived in the land of pura vida – pure life – she ran into a nightmare when she was drugged and rubbed during a home invasion.

Despite that horrific start, Molly bounced back and refused to quit or run – a testament to her strength, character, and no-back-down spirit. Not only did she keep her bags unpacked and remained in Costa Rica, but she found a way to thrive, creating an intentional, balanced, healthy new life.

She continues to explore Costa Rica while running HeartCast and other media projects like a bad ass boss, and recently bought an incredibly beautiful property right on lake Arenal in the country’s most underrated region.

In this podcast, I catch up with Molly right before she heads back to D.C. to work the National Cannabis Festival and hang out with Wiz Khalifa, so we certainly had a lot to talk about…and celebrate!

Enjoy this chat with Molly Ruland and thanks again for listening and sharing this podcast with your homies.

Cheers to 20 more episodes! 

-Norm :-)

In this episode, I chat with my old homie, Stephen White. 

Stephen (or just "Whitey" as his friends and coworkers call him) came from the East Coast like me but made his way out west, finding his way to San Francisco, California post-college. 

I moved out to San Francisco around 1995-98 as well, and together with our incredibly eclectic but tight-knit crew, we ripped up the city. 

But more than just partying and experiencing the music and culture the city had to offer, Stephen was like a big brother to me, guiding me socially, artistically, and professionally. 

(In fact, I think it was Whitey who gave me my first chance at a writing gig for his e-zine, Lifted, and I was shocked when one of my articles - Deep Drying the American Dream - went viral and made it to the front page of Yahoo.) 

He always looked out, gave me wise counsel, and rarely would let me pay for a thing (since I was so broke I'd be lucky just to make rent money every month!). To this day, when I hook so many people up and don't ask for anything in return, I'm passing on the good karma and mentorship that Whitey extended to me. 

I haven't lived in San Francisco for a long time, but Whitey is still ripping it up, mostly through his career in the music industry.  

He's long been the CEO of music tech companies and startups, and currently works with Empire, a record label that focuses on empowering their artists - something very rare in the record business. Empire features many notable hip hop artists but is also active with growing Afro Beats and many other genres. 

 So, I hope you thoroughly enjoy this podcast interview with Whitey as we take a trip down memory lane, talk about how San Francisco has changed, his career and life in the music industry, and still finding that artistic outlet and passion in life. 

Let's gooooooo! 

-Norm Schriever

🎸 In this podcast, I’d like you to meet my good friend, THE Tek Cortez, the Philippines favorite musical busker.

🇵🇭 For those who don’t know (like I didn’t), busking is a word that describes street performance, whether its art or movement or music.

🎹 And Tek Cortez is one of the Philippines favorite buskers, singing and strumming his guitar along Bonifacio High Street in the BGC area of Manila many evenings. 

🎶 I first spotted Tek on Instagram when I lived in Manila back in 2018 and 2019 and became a big fan of his musical talent. Soon, we met in person on High Street and became good buddies, and now I’m also close with his family.

🎸 In a country that’s often stereotyped that everyone can sing like an angel (not true: only about 80% of Filipinos can sing great!), Tek’s love of music branches out beyond the norm. He’s actually a student of the Blues, and his tastes go into Depeche Mode, The Cure, and other alt-punk/rock far more than they do any pop music. 

🇵🇭 Tek also doesn’t busk because he has to (he’s got a great job as a manager at a telecom firm nearby), but just to decompress and share his love of music and performance with passerby’s on High Street.

🎹 In this podcast, we chatted about his musical influences, the busking movement in the Philippines, what he loves most about playing for people, and even how he deals with drunks requesting songs!

🎶 As a special treat, I’ve included clips of some of his live busking performances there in the Philippines, so you can hear Tek play.

Enjoy this podcast with my brother, THE Tek Cortez, and thanks for listening to the Who in the World Podcast! 

-Norm Schriever 
🎙 🌎

I recently got back from a three-week trip to Medellin, Colombia. My first time in the country, I was lucky enough to meet a few other young expats and digital nomads from the U.S., albeit in their 20s – the next generation of Road Dogs.

These guys were totally unique and interesting in their own way, with different backgrounds, motivations, and goals, but collectively they assured me that there are still some cool people worth celebrating out here.

So, I had the chance to sit down and chat with Jay “The World” as I call him, or Jay Caviel. 

Assigning any definitions to Jay is a fool’s errand, but we might as well try. He’s a Portland skater, creative genius who hated school, and went from selling weed to the iron workers union to corporate sales and tech recruiting.

Jay just recently moved to Medellin, Colombia on a whim, where he bought the biggest computer monitor I’ve ever seen and jumped into the world of FX or forex trading (I had no idea what that was, but it’s a foreign currency trading – quite a complex and daunting undertaking).

Now, he’s 100% locked in and focused on becoming an “all-star FX trader.” He speaks limited Spanish but will soon start an immersive nine-month course. He lives with locals and rides a bike around the city.

Jay is ready to learn how to surf and asked me extensively about Costa Rica, but admittedly can’t swim that great yet.

He’s fearless, disciplined, and balanced but with the wisdom of an old soul - a true lifestyle architect. 

Try putting him in a box, I dare ya…

It would need to be as big as the world. 

It’s encouraging for me to see that there are people who travel and live abroad for the right reasons – not just to leverage comfort and pleasure at low prices, but to explore the world, experience other cultures, learn every day, humble themselves, and increase the vibe no matter where they are.

Enjoy this podcast interview with Jay, who doesn’t know where he’s going yet…but is on the exact right path.

-Norm Schriever 🙏

In this podcast episode, please meet John Abate. I’ve known John all the way back to my post-college days back in Colorado, where we definitely saw some wild stuff and have some stories to tell.

John and I both happened to move to San Francisco years later and were friends there, where I always got a kick out of his bike messenger lifestyle and crowd. He went on to race semi-professionally for years in Encinitas before tragedy came on August 16th, 2016. 

John was struck by car while on a cycling ride only one-half mile from his house. The impact sent him about 45 feet and 12 feet in the air, his body almost clipping a tree branch. The hit-and-run driver sped off, leaving him for dead on the side of the road.

Just about everything in his body was broken, including his back that would need five vertebrae fused and serious internal bleeding.

But he lived, defying the odds and amazing even his doctors, a testament to the incredible physical shape he was in, as well as a good amount of luck.

During the excruciating recovery and rehabilitation, found forgiveness and mindfulness as a way to heal, mind, body, and soul.

Particularly, he used a method called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to aid his healing and send him on his spiritual journey, and became a certified teacher in MBSR.

In a recovery that would take most people years or even decades, John was somehow healed and up and walking within only four months. Of course, there was still a lot of work to do and rehabilitation, but John’s turning inward somehow sped his miraculous rehabilitation.

Now healthy, happy, and still enjoying athletics, John teaches MBSR and meditation workshops to individuals and companies, and even offers free courses for anyone who would benefit.

Long gone are the days of college antics and bike messenger wildlings, and the evolved man before us now concerns himself with helping others find compassion, forgiveness, and becoming aware of their true (higher) selves.

Enjoy this chat with John Abate and thanks for listening and subscribing to the Who in the World podcast!

-Your friend, 

Norm Schriever :-)

Today on the Who in the World podcast I’m super stoked to have on my friend Jen Queen, who I met around 2015 when we both we’re living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Originally from Ohio before relocating to San Francisco, Jen is a world-class bartender and Mezcalier, the term for someone who’s an expert in Mexican mezcal spirits. 

Similar to a sommelier with wines, my understanding is that Jen was only the 14th person in the world to earn that Mezcalier designation. She went on to establish herself in San Diego before taking the huge leap of faith to move to the capital city with high-wire energy in the Kingdom of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

After years in PP working for La Familia, educating and collaborating with other local bars and industry folks, and plenty of ripping up the nightlife scene in a getaway tuk tuk, Jen moved on to Yangon, Myanmar (formerly Burma).

There, she picked up where she left off as a Bar Manager for 57 Below and Union Bar & Grill in the vibrant British colonial city shrouded in mystery, which had just recently opened to the outside world again.

But political unrest in Myanmar forced her and her new bride to relocate, taking refuge during the pandemic back in the U.S. and Mexico. 

Now, Jen Queen has a bright and bold new chapter to her story in Hong Kong, the preeminent hub of everything food, drink, and bar related.  

From discussing her concepts on building culture to what makes a great bar to her day-off ritual (Fresh Cut Fridays and a bottle of So Co and lemons in a dark piano bar), seeing the world through Jen’s lens of experiences makes me want to pack my suitcase again – and order another round.

Enjoy this podcast and all hail the (Jen) QUEEN!

Meet Gaspar - the "Nicaraguan Ray Donovan" and on e of my best friends.

One of the most memorable and positive experiences of my life was the year I lived in a local barrio in the sleepy seaside town of San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua. There, I met Gaspar, who was sort of like the patron saint of Barrio Chino – or, China Town. 

Gaspar grew up right there in Barrio Chino in the wake of the revolution and ensuing civil war in Nicaragua. With no father and a mother forced to cross the border into neighboring Costa Rica to take any work she could, he was forced to become self sufficient at a young age.

Soon, Gaspar began fighting in the streets, first with a lot of older kids and then even adults. His reputation as the toughest kid in the barrio and San Juan del Sur grew, but so did his aspirations for a better life. 

Only a middle school student, Gaspar climbed the wall and broke into his own school at night. But he didn’t try to steal just anything or pocket things he thought he could sell. Instead, Gaspar broke into the school’s library and stole a big, virtually unused book: the English dictionary.

He began teaching himself one word per day, underlining it when he’d mastered it, and then, ten words and soon, forty per day. In short order, he was conversational in English in a time and place where few were. 

Despite his wild, hard drinking, knuckle bruising antics as a teenager and young adult, Gaspar simultaneously put himself through business school and then law school, becoming an attorney.

 His new role as high-end "problem solver" for foreigners, the rich, and politically connected have earned him the nickname, "The Nicaraguan Ray Donovan."

These days, Gaspar is a family man, with a beautiful wife, Rebeca, a seven-year-old son, Gasparcito, and a newborn daughter who was less than a week old at the time of this recording, Luz (light).

Nothing much else has changed – he still lives in San Juan del Sur where he sells real estate, develops land, and has his sights on eventually becoming mayor, serving the people who both nurtured and sharpened him as a youth.

I started this humble Who in the World podcast to share the life stories of the remarkable, interesting, and downright crazy people I met around the world, and Gaspar is a prime example. 

In fact, his life story and these conversations bring to mind the famous quote by Mark Twain who said, “Travel is “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

Enjoy this podcast and some next-level real life shit with the one and only Gaspar.

-Norm Schriever