Description
In part part of this two-part series on rebooting health, Subbu and Vikram talk about the importance of diet and nutrition for health, and share their methods for keeping calories under check, getting enough protein, foods to absolutely avoid, how to get back on track when our diets fall off the wagon, and how to deal with challenges and temptations that arise regarding foods in our day to day lives.
Links
Subbu's diet and nutrition spreadsheet
Open Food Facts
Chapters
00:00 Intro
04:30 Setting diet and nutrition goals
10:10 Designing a practical diet you can follow
16:41 Learning intuitive eating
20:14 Protein, fat and fiber
34:50 Reasons to use a nutrition spreadsheet
39:00 Cutting sugar intake
41:15 Falling off the bandwagon
43:20 Enjoying cuisines
47:20 Supplementation
52:40 Outro
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Description
In part one of this two-part series on rebooting health, Vikram and Subu talk about the importance of consistent exercise as we age, describe tools and frameworks that they use to get started on exercise especially strength training, and ways to develop consistency. They talk about workout programs that work, and those that do not, and why, how different programs are suited to different people, and how to design a 21-day workout challenge for yourself.
Links
BowTiedOx - Your guide to baseline optimization
Peter Attia - Outlive
Fitbod.me - App for workouts
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
04:35 Getting started with exercise
09:56 Frameworks for being consistent
21:11 Designing a 21 day challenge
25:47 Walks are under appreciated as exercise
28:33 Why strength training is essential
31:57 Starting strength training: The buddy system
39:55 Starting strength training: Join a 1hr strength session
43:32 Starting strength training: Fitbod app
45:10 Starting strength: Other considerations
48:21 Conclusion
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Description
In this episode Subu and Vikram distill down ideas from the book Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. They discuss better ways to organize your productivity and time, and the importance of not getting distracted and spending your attention wisely.
Links
Amazon book link
Vik’s book notes
An interactive book summary
5 ways to create time
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
2:24 Productivity
13:45 Time
25:32 Attention
35:10 The Middle Path
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Description
Inspired by the Cortex Podcast, this episode is about why new year resolutions don’t work and a better approach to setting your intent for the new year. Subu and Vikram reflect on how 2022 was and talk about their yearly theme for 2023.
Links
Last year’s yearly themes episode
Cortex Podcast - Our inspiration for Yearly Themes
Alan Watts Lecture on Taoism
Wu Wei
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
Fitbod App for Resistance Training
Chapters
0:00 The Concept of Yearly Themes
5:14 Subu's Yearly Theme
15:10 Vikram's Yearly Theme
22:51 Core Principle: Restrict
25:23 Core Principle: Focus
29:37 Core Principle: Minimize
30:45 Core Principle: Optimize
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Let's Get Social
In this episode Subu and Vikram talk to Priyanka Shetty, an actor, director and playwright who left her secure software engineering job to pursue a life of acting and theater performance. Her latest touring play is the Elephant in the Room, which was recently premiered in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and is a solo performance, a one woman show, which is a tale of a search for identity with deeply embedded Indian roots, and finding context and common ground in America. We hear tales from Priyanka show on the road, the things that go wrong, and how the show must go on no matter what. We also go back in time to discuss how exactly Priyanka transition from software into a life she always dreamed about as an actor. We talk about how to deal with criticism constructively, and the power that words have in people's lives. And how inspiration takes many forms. It takes a lot of courage to pursue our dreams. And we are always in awe of people who do, especially when they do it for the love of art.
Links
Priyanka's website
Supporting Priyanka's work
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Wacken Open Air Festival
Gojira Band
Raghu Dixit Project
Black Earth Band
Chokher Bali by Rabindranath Tagore
Chapters
0:00 Art, Music and Theater with Priyanka Shetty
1:33 The show must go on
10:49 Being in the moment
16:12 The Elephant in the Room, #Charlottesville and The Wall
29:33 Theater Trends, Heavy Metal Music and Society
37:32 Education for a Career in Theater
46:53 Appetite for Art in India
49:07 Priyanka's path to a Theater Career
55:48 Taking Criticism Constructively
1:02:50 Being inspirational to others
1:06:02 For the love of the craft
1:15:41 Ways to support Theater as an art form
1:23:50 Outro
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In this episode, Subu and Vikram talk to Dr. Harish Vedantham, a radio astronomer and professor at the University of Groningen, about the exciting world of research in exoplanets - or planets in solar systems other than our own, possibility of alien life, building radio telescopes on the moon, the James Webb space telescope and fast radio bursts from the universe. They discuss what it is like to be in an astronomers shoes, places they go, and what the teaching and research life feels like. While we are but a grain of sand in the vast universe, they ponder the meaning of life, and how it ultimately lies within.
Links
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:07 Importance of Good Teachers
8:33 The workings of Radio Astronomy
14:38 Mysteries of the Universe
20:33 Discovering Exoplanets and Alien Life
30:26 James Webb Space Telescope
36:23 We are all Stardust
41:16 The need for Fundamental Research
47:01 A Telescope on the Moon
56:01 Are we alone in the Universe?
59:46 Cool Tales from a Life in Astronomy
1:08:49 A Day in the Life of a Radio Astronomer
1:14:29 Research styles across continents
1:20:33 Views on the education system
1:26:40 Advice to young people
1:37:18 Prof. Vedantham's Book Recommendations
1:43:58 The Meaning of Life
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Description
In this edition, Dr. Sidharth Mohan, a biophysicist and an expert in protein biochemistry, heavy metal drummer and indie music promoter, talks about the fundamental building blocks of life, the wonders and secrets that Mother Nature won’t reveal to us, and the implications of learning those secrets on the future of humanity. He talks about drug discovery and how the entire scientific community came together as one to develop and deliver Covid-19 vaccines to the world. Subu and Vikram also talk about his personal journey, his inspirations and influences which got him to where he is today.
Dr. Sidharth Mohan is on Instagram at @sidmogram
Links
Chapters
0:00 Discovering New Drugs with Dr. Sidharth Mohan
4:01 Protein folding and Levinthal's paradox
22:53 Experimenting with Protein Folding
31:00 How drugs work
34:46 Developing new drugs
46:02 A primer in molecular biology: DNA, RNA and Vaccines
56:49 Solving the COVID crisis
1:01:30 Tools used in drug discovery
1:07:25 PCR: Polymerase Chain Reaction
1:19:37 SidMo's personal jouney into science
1:32:36 Inspiring figures in SidMo's life
1:45:01 Music, Drumming and WTS
2:03:33 Outro
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Description
In this episode, Vikram and Subu explain the meaning of first principles, it's meaning in philosophy and science, and explore what it means to break things down into their basic constituent forms, and how that can accelerate learning. Drawing from a variety of examples from cooking, music and invention, they analyze how to think like the experts and how to become one in a field of one's choosing.
Links
Chapters
00:00 Intro
05:40 First Principles Defined
09:52 Ockham's Razor
14:07 Reasoning by Analogy
18:59 First Principles in Industry
21:42 Invention of the Wheeled Suitcase
24:00 Deconstruct, then reconstruct for deeper learning
34:10 Elon Musk and SpaceX
38:58 VARK Learning Model
43:31 Applying first principles learning
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In this episode, Subu and Vikram discuss what a successful career means, and what it takes to achieve it in various stages of one's career, with examples from Tech CEOs to Navy Admirals. They also discuss important career decisions such as: Should you job hop? How to negotiate salary? Is remote work good for career?
Links
So good, they can't ignore you - Cal Newport
True Learning is done with Agency
Admiral Hyman Rickover
Doing a Job: The Management Philosophy of Admiral Hyman Rickover
Chapters
00:00 The 3 Pillars of Career Success
08:55 Timelines of Very Successful People
17:45 Early Career Moves
30:04 Mid Career Moves
38:34 Late Career Moves
43:18 Should you hop jobs?
46:35 Should you negotiate pay? And How?
51:33 Is Remote-Work good for your career long-term?
55:13 Outro
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Vikram and Subu explore ways to expand the time available in a persons life as a whole, and discuss the principles of Ikigai and incremental work to discover the purpose of life and avoid burnout.
Links
Chapters
00:00 Pastries, Popcorn and Teeth
04:57 Time: The one true resource
11:57 Making Time and Ikigai
17:59 Controlling thoughts about money in your life
23:41 Trading money for time
27:15 Habits, discipline and incremental work
29:53 Viewing time as a form of currency
36:45 The Clock Man and Dharma
40:41 Outro
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Sampath Krishna takes Subu and Vikram on a story-telling trip to the Arctic and back, describing his encounters on the way, and explains what it means to take on a motorcycle ride of massive proportions. Always a traveler, and never a tourist - Sampath talks about the solitude of long rides, the journey into the inner self, and about exploration and discovery - in foreign lands, or within oneself.
Chapters
00:00 Intro and Follow-up from The Giving Tree
03:41 Motorcycle ride to the Arctic Ocean
08:04 Avenging the last journey to the Arctic
11:59 Being rescued and de-risking the ride
15:50 How Sampath got into Motorcyle rides
20:15 Planning vs Overplanning Travel
26:15 Long way round, Long way down
31:07 What is Vipassana, how does it work?
34:49 Role of Silence in Vipassana
39:23 Meditation and Influence on the Self
41:52 Managing conditioned responses
44:05 Retaining realization of the Self
50:12 Finding the balance
56:34 Wrap up
Links
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Let's Get Social
Half life show's first book club episode! Subu and Vikram go back to the basics and talk about a timeless children's classic - The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, and all the lessons we can learn from it at any age.
Chapters
00:20 Follow up
04:07 The Story of The Giving Tree
11:18 Unconditional Love and Materialism
17:00 Finding Contentment and Happiness
21:36 The bright side of life
26:18 Outro
Links
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Subu and Vikram look back at how 2021 went, create new strategies for maximizing 2022, discuss what really grinds their gears and list out the good and bad.
Chapters
00:00 Date System Nerd Out
05:31 Positives and Negatives of 2021
10:07 New Ideas for 2022
20:43 A Year of Focus
33:21 Books and Audiobooks
45:16 Podcasts
48:57 TV Shows
51:28 Outro
Links
Episode Transcript
Onepod.fm - Subu’s podcast transcription and search software
Audiobooks
Books - Fiction
Books - Non-fiction
Podcasts
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In this episode, Vikram and Subu discuss work-life balance using the analogy of four light bulbs. Vikram presents a holistic approach to defining the four light bulbs, and Subu describes how managing expectations and priorities within constraints has reduced anxiety and increased health and happiness.
Chapters
00:00 Movie Nostalgia
02:25 The Four Light Bulbs Concept
06:48 Subu's four lightbulbs
09:00 Vikram's four lightbulbs
16:30 Calibrating your lightbulbs
23:00 Prioritizing whats important
27:09 The end of immortality
31:02 Renewed focus on health
35:20 Desired form of happiness
37:25 Outro
Links
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Let's Get Social
How do you start a new project and make it successful? Vikram and Subu discuss starting the Half Life Show, and how they navigated challenges as first-time podcasters. They also share their experiences with technical blogging and open source programming, while identifying their past mistakes, finding strategies to beat inertia, and brainstorming ideas to sustain and grow a new project into something successful.
Links
Chapters
00:03 Kissing the Rug
02:21 Narcissistic Creations
06:10 Starting a Podcast
11:15 1000 True Fans
13:46 Having a Consistent Workflow
19:27 Beating Inertia
24:37 Hidden Benefits of New Projects
28:59 Sustaining and Growing Projects
35:18 Outro
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Ever wondered what language you think in, or why you prefer subtitles in foreign films and anime? From Dostoevsky to Camus, what did we lose in book translations? Do you find yourself using multiple languages in the same sentence and will your children speak all the languages you do?
In this episode, Subu and Vikram explore the power of language in the emotions they convey, how we perceive them, and how it connects us to our past and the stories almost forgotten.
Links
Chapters
00:00 Still uncashed cheques
01:52 Snacks, done and dusted
04:05 How's your sex drive?
07:45 How Language affects Perception
12:34 Lost in Translation
15:35 What's the Good Word?
19:54 Reconnecting with our past
27:13 Talking to our polyglot families
31:42 The value of social interaction
36:47 Reliving Lost Stories
42:54 Outro
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Let's Get Social
Should you be a helicopter parent and what are the signs of a good parent? Children are not playing enough! Are you expecting too much out of your school? Expensive school districts in US, how has COVID affected education? What are the four planes of child development? Effects of early education in children, how teachers shape the future of kids, and modern education in India.
In this episode, Vikram and Subu discuss the education choices they face as parents, reflect on their own experiences, and imagine a new and bright future.
Links
Chapters
03:42 Getting kids to the Ivory Tower
08:23 Manufacturing Graduates
10:41 Difficult Parenting Decisions
14:20 Lets be good parents
22:15 4 Planes of Child Development
25:59 The Lost Decade of Education
33:07 Good teachers shape futures
36:26 Getting bang for the education buck
40:31 Modern education in India
43:04 Post-Covid Education
47:41 Outro
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Subu and Vikram discuss the role of luck in science, career and their own lives
Links
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:34 Wasabi and Babies
03:33 Did Feynman get Lucky?
08:30 Vikram's own aha moment
11:37 Purposeful Practice and Unfair Advantage
15:10 Getting lucky with Viagra
17:26 Good Friends and Lucky Failures
27:30 Cringey Metaphors
30:00 How Vikram and Subu met
33:36 Luck in Career
38:39 Outro
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Let's Get Social
Vikram and Subu are heavy metal musicians disguised as tech nerds who obsess over living life to the fullest while balancing family, career and personal hobbies. In this podcast, they discuss a layman's approach to living a meaningful life, with anecdotes and inspirations from their own experiences. After realizing they spend half their waking lives at work, Subu and Vikram embarked on a quest to find ways to enrich their other half-life - the one they have control over and filled with things that matter most - to make life a memorable journey.
Episode Links
Social
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