Rane Bowen: AI Podcast Tools, Yoga Healing & Cancer Survivor Story

Rane Bowen is a seasoned software and web developer with over 20 years of experience in the technology sector. Originally from New Zealand, Rane now resides in Melbourne, Australia, where he combines his passion for technology and yoga. He is the co-host of the Flow Artist Podcast alongside his wife, Jo Stewart, a yoga teacher and author. Rane is the creator of innovative platforms like Sound Made Scene and Guest Made Simple, designed to enhance the podcasting experience. He is also a yoga teacher who has used yoga as a tool for healing and personal growth.

Visit Rane: https://gardenofyoga.com.au/

Key Takeaways:

• Rane Bowen has a rich background in software development and utilizes his skills to enhance podcasting through AI-driven tools like Sound Made Scene.
• His experience as a yoga teacher and cancer survivor gives him a unique perspective on combining technology with holistic practices.
• The advances in AI are transforming industries, but Rane underscores the importance of using these tools responsibly and creatively.
• Platforms like Sound Made Scene and Guest Made Simple aim to simplify the podcasting process by automating tedious tasks and improving workflow.
• Rane highlights the significance of approaching tech innovations with both optimism and skepticism to balance progress with ethical considerations.

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Subscribe to Native Yoga Center and view this podcast on Youtube.

Thank you Bryce Allyn for the show tunes. Check out Bryce’s website: bryceallynband.comand sign up on his newsletter to stay in touch. Listen here to his original music from his bands Boxelder, B-Liminal and Bryce Allyn Band on Spotify.

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Transcript

Todd McLaughlin: 0:33

Welcome to Native Yoga Toddc ast. So happy you are here. My goal with this channel is to bring inspirational speakers to the mic in the field of yoga, massage, body work, and beyond. Follow us at @ Native Yoga, and check us out at Native Yoga center.com All right, let's begin. Hello, welcome to Native Yoga Todd Cast. I am your host, Todd McLaughlin, and today our special guest is Rane Bowen. Rane is the husband of Joe Stewart. You probably listened to episode number 273 recently published, and they are both the co-host of Flow Artists Podcast, and had a wonderful discussion with Joe, and she was talking about her eight limbs of aerial yoga book that she's just published, and in the process of her talking about how much her husband has assisted and helped her through all of her marketing as a yoga teacher, he's he's a tech professional. He's been working in the tech space for the last 20 years. He has developed Sound Made scene.com which is an AI platform that helps people like us, me, who is a podcaster, and he's also come up with a another platform called Guest Made Simple, which I'm super excited to try out, that helps can help me in actually getting guests for the show. There's a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes for this episode, and I am so excited that Rane is focused on creating solutions and tools to make this process run a little more smooth, so I am so honored to have Rane here, and we cover so many topics. He's incredibly gracious in my opinion, and truthful and honest about his journey, and I found it really refreshing. And I'm so happy you're here. If you want to share the episode, we really appreciate it. Any comments and questions you have, please direct them our way. We greatly appreciate it. All the links are in the description below. And on that note, let's go ahead and begin. I'm so happy to be here today with Rane Bowen. Rane, thank you so much for joining me. Can you tell me how you're feeling?

Rane Bowen: 3:00

I'm feeling great, Todd. And thank you so much for having me.

Todd McLaughlin: 3:04

Well, this is a real honor and a privilege. I had the joy of podcasting your wife, Joe Stewart, a couple episodes back, number 273 and in the conversation she had spoke so much about the role that you've been able to play in helping her with while teaching yoga, getting your studio going, having an online platform that I was, I just was piqued my interest. I really excited to have this chance to meet you and speak with you. So, thank you so much. I really do appreciate

Unknown: 3:37

it. Oh no, it's glad to be here.

Todd McLaughlin: 3:38

Can you tell me a little bit about how you, you work with technology, and you also are a yoga teacher, and you've been able to blend these two skills together. Can we start first with the technology side? Can you give me a little bit about your background, and how you have come to this point, where you. I'm gonna, I'm gonna say that you feel comfortable with technology. Would that be an, would that be an assumption that's fair to make?

Unknown: 4:08

I think that that's pretty fair to say. I guess I've been, I've worked as a software developer or a web developer for about 20 years now, so I've got a bit of experience there, and in some ways I still feel like very much a learner, a beginner, but it's something I have always really enjoyed working with, really enjoyed doing from when I was pretty much a kid. I don't know if you know these computers, but because they're English in origin, but back when I was a pretty young kid, I had a ZX Spectrum, so I'd programmed that using Basic, had a little rubber keyboard, so I was in 48k of RAM, so you know, very, very, very basic, very primitive, but a lot of fun. And and I guess technology is, you know, come well beyond that since then, and but it's something I really enjoy doing, and really enjoy solving problems and getting into, into things like that.

Todd McLaughlin: 5:15

Oh, that's cool, man. Where did you grow up?

Unknown: 5:18

So I grew up in Aotearoa, New Zealand, originally from a small town on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, called New Plymouth. It's a pretty quiet little town, very pretty, but currently I'm living here in Australia, in Melbourne.

Todd McLaughlin: 5:35

Nice. What age did you move to Australia?

Unknown: 5:39

I've lived here for about, I think, since 2007 so about, I guess, 1617 years, something like that.

Todd McLaughlin: 5:48

Nice, nice. Did you meet Jo in Australia? Did she travel to New Zealand, and that's where she met you.

Unknown: 5:57

Funny story, so I met her when I was living in Australia. We actually met at a mutual friend's child's first birthday, so yeah, that was a fun time, but it turned out that this mutual friend of ours, we were both at her wedding in New Zealand prior to that, and we did not know, so, so we probably met each other, but didn't even know, didn't even recognize each other. That's

Todd McLaughlin: 6:33

cool. It's almost like the universe is like, you guys got to get together, and then the first try didn't happen, so it's like, wait a minute, this needs to happen, that needs to happen. That's awesome. Exactly. Well, you know, having 20 years in the tech world, and I mean, how do you even make sense of the advancements that have occurred based off of like what you're talking about, like your first interaction with beginning to work with computers and having a fascination for them in the level that they are at 20 years ago, and where we are now today. Could you even imagine that? And, or, what do you.. what do you.. how are you processing the rapid speed of development that's going on?

Unknown: 7:15

I mean, it's pretty wild, actually. I mean, now I essentially work every day with AI tools, and that's something that was just science fiction when, when I was growing up, you know, you'd see a TV show with a little talking robot, or, you know, someone I know, maybe talking to a computer and thinking, you know, it's just a fantasy, it's not going to happen, but now something we kind of do on a daily basis, so yeah, it's pretty wild.

Todd McLaughlin: 7:47

Yeah, great point. How do you.. there's so much talk about either fear around it or optimism, and.. and I know that it seems to me that we can fall into that sort of either fear or love spectrum all day long with every single subject or topic that comes up, and I just getting a sense that you're more on the side of seeing the optimism because you're working with it regularly. Can you talk a little bit about why you think that is, and/or if anyone listening has the skeptical opinion about it. What would be your rebuttal in relation to your choice to use and work with

Unknown: 8:31

it? I think it is a very complex topic, and though I may sound quite optimistic about it, I do have, I feel, a pretty good understanding of all the negative consequences that are happening around it. There's, there's many, I guess, people who have encountered what they're calling AI psychosis, so maybe getting a little bit too, too much positive feedback from the AI tools, that is sort of, I guess, leading them astray, that's that's not a good thing. There's also, I think, also that they are AI companies themselves are responsible for a lot of kind of excessive hype, and a lot of their marketing is in fact fear-based. So, by saying that they're going to put, you know, 1000s, if not hundreds of 1000s, or millions of developers out of work, that's obviously a fair-based marketing idea, and I think time is showing that that's not necessarily what's happening.

Todd McLaughlin: 9:52

That's fast.

Unknown: 9:54

Yeah, sorry. Oh, there's actually been a slight rise in. Are in developer hires or developer job postings lately, and I think that, as far as developers go, at least it's, it's actually, if it's used correctly, it's a tool that can help you, but it does have its pitfalls, and you can't really just believe the AI, or you know what it's doing is correct. You really need to sort of test your code and kind of still continue to follow best practices when it comes to developing software, and I think AI can help with that too. So, it's in addition, you can also use it to sort of learn more about what you're doing, so you can ask it questions and get answers, and then you can test out those answers, and so I think it's, it's very powerful. There's obviously other, I guess, problems, you know, around water usage, power consumption, especially when data centers are set up in urban areas, and I think this is more a problem in the United States than, say, Australia, but a lot of, I guess, municipalities and state governments will give a lot of incentives to data centers to turn up, so that's public money going towards this, this private industry, which is not such a good thing, so as I said, we don't have as much of that here, so I guess there's just a lot of things that we need to be mindful of, and and it's just a tool like any other, but I guess if it's in the wrong hands that can have bad consequences, so yeah.

Todd McLaughlin: 11:44

Wow, Ron, I hear you. Well said. I mean, first of all, the fact that you brought up this is a concept I haven't really thought about yet, but that the actual developers of the AI are utilizing the fear concept as a marketing tool, and I'm just kind of.. I want to just try to understand how this can work, so like in the idea of like if I'm, if I'm creating this, but then I'm creating this fear that all these jobs will be lost, would that you feel like that drives people to use AI more than knowing that there is the potentiality for that type of situation, or can you explain, I guess if I were to put it in relationship to, say, like cigarette companies, if a cigarette company is selling cigarettes, and then put on the box they put, I mean, the government puts a label that says this could kill you, and then, and we would always think that would deter, but I guess, in a sense, if we were to relate it like that, maybe we could say that that warning almost helped sell the cigarettes, which is such a bizarre concept, right? Like that, the fear, the danger of it would be maybe what if I really analyze why I'm doing what I'm doing, maybe that would be the reason why I'm doing it, because I want death to come a little quicker, or I want to suffer a little bit through the.. so I just.. I'm trying to understand how. how that's how that could work,

Unknown: 13:03

I mean, I guess when they say that it's going to put a lot of people out of work, they're kind of appealing to CEOs or large corporations who have, you know, an impetus to lower their costs when it comes to hiring people, and a lot of the big layoffs that have, in my opinion, but a lot of the layoffs that have been happening lately in tech, like say Oracle, for example, basically they're saying it's AI, but really it's because they've borrowed money to finance AI, so they need to

Todd McLaughlin: 13:41

interest to

Unknown: 13:42

spend less money on hiring people, so I think that's that's where the, you know, they're not so much trying to appeal to people's fear, but they, they kind of are using it as leverage,

Todd McLaughlin: 13:56

I see that,

Unknown: 13:57

and I guess you could also take the angle that if you're worried about your job, you're not as likely to ask for a pay rise, or you're not as likely to be so many editorial here, but no,

Todd McLaughlin: 14:13

no, I hear you, that's cool, man. I really appreciate you enlighten me to that, those ideas. Thank you. Well, I mean, I guess then to turn a little bit of a corner here, we're recording a podcast right now, and you're right. When I grew up watching the Jetsons cartoon, this idea of talking to you on the other side of the world and having the ability to also share it through these channels is mind-boggling to me, and so you have developed a platform called Sound Made Seen, and which helps podcasters. Can you talk a little bit about what the platform is and how it came. To be that you designed it

Unknown: 15:02

absolutely well, I guess. Joe and myself, we host our own podcast, The Flow Artist Podcast, and one thing that kept on coming up for me is when I was trying to, I guess, let people know about the podcast, often I'd started making little videos to help promote it, and quite often I, at the time, I was using Final Cut Pro, and so I'd, I'd find a little section of the podcast that I wanted to use, and then I'd find an image I wanted to use, and then I'd sort of subtitle it, but I had to do it all manually, so I had to sort of put in some, some titles, some words, and then sort of sync it up with the audio, and and that was a very time consuming task, and at the time there, or there were there, and there are other platforms around, there's things like Wave or Headliner, which do a similar thing, but being a developer and being someone who loves a project, I decided, why not make something yourself? So I started on Sound Made Scene, and what Sound Made Scene does is it does a few things, but one of the main things it does is that you can upload your podcast after you've recorded it, and then it will transcribe it, and then it can analyze it, and determine which, which parts you most would most like to share, and then it can make little clips out of those, and then convert them into little videos, and then you can just publish them on social media, and then it's all done, and you can share them with your guests as well. And I just found it's a nice easy way to get things out there, so I built that into Sound Nasa, and there's some other tools as well, and you can also use it to write your podcast show notes, and you can sort of choose from a few different, I guess, tones. I guess you want to be careful there. There is a lot of content out there that's obviously created by AI. They don't call it slop for no reason at all. So, what I like to do, I like to think of it as a bit of an inspiration that I can then use to sort of write, you know, the full podcast show notes or social media posts, that sort of thing. I've found it's a, it's a pretty fun to use and convenient tool that really saves, saves me a bit of time, even though I've spent hours and hours working on it. Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 17:39

I hear you, I hear you. Are is it has it taken a little bit of momentum in relation to people utilizing it? Are you, are you noticing any feedback from users? How has that evolved for you? How long has it been on, how long has it been on the market now?

Unknown: 17:57

It's been online for about, I guess since 2024 so a couple of years. It's actually available on AppSumo. I'm not sure if you heard of AppSumo, but it's a sort of online marketplace where you can buy lifetime deals on software.

Todd McLaughlin: 18:14

Cool. Check it out, AppSumo, would you call it a ABP SUMO?

Unknown: 18:20

That's correct. Yes, all

Todd McLaughlin: 18:21

right. Thank you.

Unknown: 18:23

So, you can get a lifetime deal, and I've actually got quite a few customers through that, and people seem happy there, and they keep coming back. So, and you know, the thing is always evolving, though, and people are asking for new features, and another feature I've added recently, this isn't so much for podcasters, but it's something that sort of scratches my itches, that you can kind of upload music, and then it will kind of determine the beats, and then from there you can sort of generate a video with effects in the background, like fireworks or other different things like that, and they'll be aligned with the music, so that's another cool little feature. It does nice,

Todd McLaughlin: 19:09

you know. I'm so curious, because I'm not a developer. How do you get a platform like yours to analyze a transcript and know what potentially would be interesting. Are there certain key words that trigger curiosity, fascination from the human side? Are how do you.. how do you do that? Like, how is that even done? Does it.. you know, I.. I'm just trying to wrap my head around. I do enjoy using these tools, and it's made podcasting for me so much easier in relation to all the editing and the publishing component. So, I, you know, I'm a.. I'm a fan, and to be very honest, Ron, when I.. a long time ago, when I was young, like when I was in my early. The 20s, I was at that place in my life where I said I'll never use a computer, like I had this sort of vision that, like, computers were gonna be the worst thing for the world, and, and I'm gonna make a vow that I'll never touch one, which is a crazy thing to even, like, I don't know why I was there in my life that I thought that, but now I use it so much, and I have to laugh at myself, that I've, you know, really was scared of all this stuff, and didn't know where it would lead, and now I'm such an avid user. I guess I say that too, because I know there's a potentially a listener that might think I wouldn't be able to use this stuff that might be too difficult, or it seems like so overwhelming in relation to trying to get some of this stuff going, so I guess from your experience navigating this field, what sort of advice and or encouragement could you give someone who maybe is skeptical and or nervous about starting their own platform? The reasons why you think it's a good idea

Unknown: 21:01

to do it, I think you know it's healthy to be skeptical, and, and quite, you know, I think that's a good thing. I think if you're, you're trying to work on something like this, for me, I think the essence is to be playful with it, you know, you have to, I guess, be a little bit serious, but I think you've got to just, just like anything you do, you got, you've got to give yourself room to fail sometimes, you know. And, and I think, I think that's okay. I'm, I'm not sure I'm answering this question that well, but yeah, what I try and do is just have fun with what I'm doing, and it's the same way I was with podcasting. I knew when I started doing that that it's something that I wouldn't start off being good at. I'm probably not that great at now. I think Joe's actually a lot better than I am, but I think you've just got to just got to have fun with it. I hope that I hope that answers your question.

Todd McLaughlin: 22:09

It does, it does. I think that's actually a really good answer. That's a great answer, actually, because it does seem sometimes so serious and or overwhelming. So I hear you just come at it from a fun place straight away. Yeah, I'm also curious, too. You had made mention that you have now designed Guest Made Simple, also with the solutions-based mind frame of, hey, I have a problem. How could we fix it? Can you talk a little bit about what this platform is, and how it can help

Unknown: 22:45

us. Absolutely, so I guess a problem we've had on our podcast multiple times is, you know, it can be, it can be kind of hard, sort of getting together with a guest, so first you've got to sort of get the information you need from the guest, so their bio, maybe a headshot that you can use. You might have some questions you want to ask them before the interview. So, what I've done, I've built a system that can do that, and then the next thing I find rather difficult is you have to organize a time, and when you're working across time zones, that can be a long convoluted process. So, as I mentioned to you before, as we're organizing the time to do this episode, I was thinking this could be so much simpler with with guests made simple, and what that essentially lets you do as a host, you can say I'm available at these times, and once you've vetted your guests, you can just send them the list of availabilities, and then they can go, okay, I'll choose this time, or maybe they can suggest a time, and then you can sort of work that out through the app as well, and then once the podcast episode is actually published, you can automatically send a guest kit to the guests, and that might have some clips that were generated with the sound made scene, or maybe it has a transcription, or just little snippets that they can share on social media to help both of you out, and I think, in my opinion, this will would bring the time involved down quite a bit, because I personally find, yeah, one of the.. I wouldn't say annoying, but it can take up a lot of time, you know, just going through the whole steps of creating a podcast episode, so that's that's something I'd like to bring down as much as possible.

Todd McLaughlin: 24:49

Oh man, Ron, yes, I'm glad you're bringing attention to all this. I think that's huge. That is one of the big challenges, you're right, in real. Information to the whole scheduling process, the ability to capture the information that we need to be able to send or share larger files. It does take a lot of work. I love the way you're thinking, and that I think would make it a little bit more fun. That probably is part of the stuff that makes people say that's too much work, man. It's just too much work. So, I see what - why you're doing what you're doing, because that would make this a little bit easier and enjoyable.

Unknown: 25:32

Well, that's the dream. That's the dream. Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 25:34

right. Well, can you talk a little bit about what the podcasting experience for you has been like in relation to your own learning and development,

Unknown: 25:44

so the podcast came about. It was shortly after I had actually finished my yoga teacher training, so I was doing my yoga teacher training, and that was taking up pretty much all my spare time. So once I finished that. I realized I had a lot more spare time left over, so I thought, why not fill that up with another project? And I was talking with Joe about it. I think poor Joe, because she's been a yoga teacher for many years, but pretty much every every night before we'd go to bed or to sleep, I'd start asking her questions or wanting to have discussions about yoga.

Todd McLaughlin: 26:32

Yes,

Unknown: 26:33

right when she just wanted to read her book or go to bed. So poor Joe, but thanks, thanks so much to her for putting up with me, but we decided, why don't we actually start a podcast, you know, talking to some of our favorite yoga teachers, you know, both here and around the world, and, and that's basically what we did, and it's still going, we're still talking to yoga teachers and people of all, you know, all different types of expertise and subjects that we want to talk about, so that's been a real great process for us, because we got to actually talk to a bunch of awesome people, sort of indirectly as a result of that as well. Joe got to write and publish a book, and which has just come out, so that's all very exciting, and yes, it's been a great experience for us, and so, so many different learnings, and meeting so many different people, it's been amazing.

Todd McLaughlin: 27:31

Oh, that's so cool, Ron. I, for those of you that had a chance to listen to the episode with Joe, you'll remember that she was talking about her eight limbs of Ariel Yoga book. Ron, can you tell me a little bit about your role in the writing of that book, and or creation of that book? Like, what, what sort of assistance were you able to offer?

Unknown: 27:54

I guess my assistance was a bit more of a background on in a lot of the photos in the book, and you know, I guess I worked as a sounding board for Joe for a lot of it, but to be honest, she, she did, you know, she did, she wrote the book, she, she researched it, it was mostly here, and yeah, all credit to her, she's, she's done an amazing job, in my opinion, I actually think it's a huge accomplishment.

Todd McLaughlin: 28:24

I, oh man, I agree, Ron. I have been wanting.. I would love to write a book, but I think that the daunting component of it has always kept me at bay. So, I agree with you, that is a huge accomplishment. That's really cool. Congratulations!

Unknown: 28:39

Yeah, and we're really excited. We just got the author's copies now, so we finally got to see what it looks like in print, and in my opinion, it's a beautiful book. So, and I think I think it'll be great for all yoga teachers. It's mainly about aerial yoga, but it uses the eight limbs, obviously, as a, as a nice framework to actually demonstrate all the different benefits that aerial yoga has, and I think it, it, it's a, I think the aerial hammock is a great, useful tool for, for yoga teachers and therapists in general, so yeah, I guess I'm biased, though. So

Todd McLaughlin: 29:26

right, yeah, you have a lot of contact with it, and you've been able to be in and around it so much. I hear you, that's cool, though. I know it sounds amazing. I can't wait to check it out. Can you, can you tell me what your for, how you got into yoga, what were the circumstances, and or what? What was the where did you, how did you find yourself on a mat, yoga mat? Maybe was the first way you started with yoga, or maybe there was a different entry point. I'm curious.

Unknown: 29:52

Yep, yep, I guess many, many years ago, when I was still living in New Zealand, I did a few I. Ashtanga yoga classes just around the corner from my house. I still remember my first class. I, I think I, I probably fell over at one point. It was, it was really, really quite intense. Who

Todd McLaughlin: 30:14

was it with? Because there's

Unknown: 30:16

so long ago. Okay, fair enough. Name was Bill, back at back in New Zealand, in Wellington. He was a great guy, actually, but I kind of dropped off from that for many years, but then obviously I met Joe over here, and Joe's been a yoga teacher for about 20 years or something like that, and I started having a bit more of an interest in yoga to do yoga with her, and we'd go to retreats and do all sorts of fun stuff, but I guess about 15 years ago I was actually diagnosed with stomach cancer and discovered that my stomach had to be removed and during that whole process, yoga was actually really, really useful for me, and before the surgery, a local yoga teacher at another studio near us actually gave me free classes for a while, which was very kind of them. I'm very grateful to that, and I think just during my whole treatment and recovery, yoga was a very powerful tool, both physically and for the, I guess, the mental and the spiritual aspects, because at one point I received a diagnosis that the cancer had become terminal. It did actually turn out that that diagnosis was completely incorrect, that there were a few weeks there that I actually thought I was going to die, and I think yoga philosophy actually helped me through that a little bit. Wow,

Todd McLaughlin: 32:05

wow, Ron, wow, I believe it. What, what was it like when you heard the information that we're sorry we made a misdiagnosis or a mis calculation here, and you aren't in a terminal state. What was that like? I mean, what? How do you process all that?

Unknown: 32:30

Well, it was, it was a different doctor that, that told me, you know, that it wasn't a state. So, I guess my feeling was just relief, yeah, and what the different, the

Todd McLaughlin: 32:48

different doctor, in the sense that there wasn't any upset, you want, you know, you're not like, you know, the anger wasn't the emotion that came up, of like, how could you have made me live or tell me that, and had me live through these last four or five, or how many weeks it was thinking this is it, and I guess to go back a little bit on that. I'm curious, what do you do when you have that sort of information? I mean, do you start reaching out to your friends and family? Did you go.. I don't get the feeling. I mean, I don't get the feeling that you went into a depressive state, but I would think it would put you in some type of.. I don't know, I just.. I'm so curious, what type of state of mind did that put you in?

Unknown: 33:29

I guess when Joe and I were both told the news that, you know, they thought I was going to die, we left in a bit of shock. We were both, I guess, a bit shout-shocked, and I think we found a kind of a nearby park or something like that, and just howled each other and cried. And then after that, we came home, and then I rang my parents back in New Zealand, and that was a bit, that was very difficult.

Todd McLaughlin: 34:09

Oh

Unknown: 34:09

man,

Todd McLaughlin: 34:10

oh man, I can't imagine.

Unknown: 34:12

Yeah, my mum at the time was in the early stages of dementia as well, so it was kind of hard explaining to her what was happening, so yeah, that period of time was a bit rough, but yeah, I guess the thing, like we got through it, we got to, you know, I, we got a second opinion, they did another scan that turned out was a lot more accurate, and turned out everything was okay.

Todd McLaughlin: 34:45

Wow, wow,

Unknown: 34:48

yeah. So that was good. There's a story with a happy ending.

Todd McLaughlin: 34:51

Yeah, I appreciate you being honest and open about all that. I, that's maybe not, probably not the easiest. Topic to discuss, so I really appreciate your, your honesty with that. I remember the first time I met someone who had been diagnosed with cancer, and I was really young, and I remember she was going through chemotherapy, and and the whole process of watching her go through that, and as a child trying to even come to terms with what is, what does this mean, and life and death, and some of the heavier questions that we all have to grapple with throughout life. It really got me thinking deep about what it would be like to go through that, so and one of the things I hear from folks is that it brings this incredible appreciation and gratitude for every moment, or a deeper sense of appreciation for life. Can you share any insights into that side of it as well, or what you've noticed in relation to that?

Unknown: 36:40

I think he definitely gave me a lot more of an appreciation for life. I think at the time, I'll be honest, I think at the time I did find it hard to find gratitude, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think there is the possibility to, you know, feel a little bit sorry for yourself. Why, why is this happening to me? What, or, and you know, even though I knew I wasn't going to die, I'd still lost my stomach, so there was a period of adjustment to that as well. So I'm not going to say, you know, I became this transcendent angel after, after the surgery, but it did, I guess, drive me more to just, I guess, do things that I wanted to do, if that makes sense. So, I guess that's why, why I sort of like, okay, I'm going to start this project now. I'm going to do this, just because I know I'd like, why not? Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 37:53

great point, great insight. Can you fill me and the listener in a little bit? Ron, on what it's like to live without a stomach. How, how does this work? How hunger, what happens there? How do you? What does that feel like? Where I've never even contemplated this, to be very honest. Can you tell me a little bit about what it's like? If, unless it's too personal, I totally understand.

Unknown: 38:20

No, no, it's absolutely fine, I guess. As far as hunger goes, I find I'm actually always hungry, if that makes sense. So, when they remove your stomach, they essentially bring the esophagus down slightly, and then they bring up the small intestine, and they kind of build a little bit of a pouch out of it. The small intestine actually does a lot of what the stomach does already. The only things that this that the small intestine can't absorb are iron and vitamin B 12, so I have to supplement for those, and I guess the other thing is, have at least to begin with, having very small meals, chewing all your food very carefully, and being very careful when you do eat over time, that pouch that they've built expands out, so it's not, you can, you can eat larger meals. I'm eating essentially meals close to what I, I was eating at the time, though. I guess I am a lot thinner than I was back then. I think I was at my top weight, I was over 100 kgs, which is, you know, kind of big. I'm not sure what's that, over 200 pounds, probably. So I was a big boy. So I actually think, in a lot of ways, losing my stomach actually helped me. Interesting.

Todd McLaughlin: 40:03

And I guess you know an assumption that I incorrectly made is that my hunger comes due to the fact that I'm feeling something in my stomach, but then maybe hunger is more of a whole body thing, maybe hunger comes because, like, obviously the body needs energy, so you know we would be craving energy, and if we go without food for a long period of time, that hunger feeling, and I guess it's obviously not just the stomach, because the fact that your answer was that you kind of always feel hungry means that the sensation of hunger doesn't leave. Body, if the, if the stomach is removed, am I right?

Unknown: 40:46

I guess my understanding, though, is other people without stomachs might have completely different, yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 40:52

understood. Yes, yeah, yeah.

Unknown: 40:55

And, and I'm not sure whether it's something with, you know, because I think in some cases that they might touch the vagus nerve or something like that. I'm not a medical expert, so I probably should be, but yeah, my understanding is some people might not feel any hunger at all, but I know for me I'm pretty much hungry always, which is not a good combination of not having your stomach, you're always being hungry, so the phrase eyes bigger than your

Todd McLaughlin: 41:28

stomach. Oh man, I hear you. Well, that's incredible. And so this is 15 years ago. Am I.. did I hear that right? Wow,

Unknown: 41:37

yes.

Todd McLaughlin: 41:38

Congratulations, incredible. So obviously you've adapted, you feel like you, you've adapted. I mean, is it something that's at the forefront of your mind each day when you wake up? I know one time when I had a surgery, the recovery process seemed like it was so all in consuming to me and my thoughts, and now I never think about it, right? And there's like this process from the time that occurs to now, and it's just not at the forefront of the mind. Do you feel like you're at that point where you don't really need to contemplate it, or is it? Is it always something that does have to be attended to on some level?

Unknown: 42:12

I wouldn't say so much that it's something that needs to be attended to constantly, but is something that I notice all the time. There is that kind of tightness, you know, where that join is, so it's something I always notice. And then, obviously, when I do eat, if I'm not careful, you know, or just after lunch, I'll be sitting there, my eyes might be bulging a little bit, I might be looking a little bit uncomfortable, I'm perfectly fine, but yeah, just, just always a little bit of a reminder that there's something going on there.

Todd McLaughlin: 42:50

Understood, understood. I appreciate your honesty. Thank you so much. That's amazing, Ron. I, how, what about how has your yoga practice in relation to, I mean, you had already touched a little bit upon how the philosophical side had helped you in relation to the mental health component. Can you talk a little bit about the Hatha yoga aspect, and or like the physical practice aspect? And you made mention how much you appreciate working in the aerial hammock, maybe you could touch a little bit upon how you are able to utilize that just in relation to stretching your body and what moving your body feels like, and how that's playing out.

Unknown: 43:33

I think probably now I'm more physical than than ever. I guess the yoga I do practice, though, is very gentle. At least the yoga I teach is very, very gentle. I teach a gentle yoga class. I don't teach aerial yoga so much these days, but I still do occasionally. But I guess there as well, my approach is generally quite gentle, but I also go to the gym, and I've just taken up running as well. So, I guess I'd say I'm pretty, pretty active. So, I don't know, I do enjoy the feeling of being in my body, if that makes sense. It

Todd McLaughlin: 44:22

does. Amazing can Can you tell me? I love teaching and practicing gentle yoga. Can you tell me a little bit more about what your intention is when you begin teaching a class? Do you have a certain goal that you're aiming to bring your students toward, or the people that are practicing with you.

Unknown: 44:44

Yeah, absolutely. I guess I start off with a very gentle meditation. I like everyone to just begin to feel into their bodies, maybe start noticing where they're at, you know, in their mind, their breath, and from there I like to just keep things really calm and get everyone into a, I guess, very very calm state, and then we'll start with a little bit of gentle movement, a little bit of breath awareness, a little bit of flowing movement, and then we'll actually spend the rest of the class sort of on the floor, and it doesn't get much more, I guess, I guess I'm not articulating myself that well, but. But not a lot more active from there, so I like to start the class slow, make it even slower, and then finish off with a, I guess, shavasana, that's like 1015 minutes or so, so yeah, my intention is to have a nice calm environment where Brian can just sort of, you know, find, find the bliss, I guess.

Todd McLaughlin: 46:05

Yeah, amazing. Ron, can you share? I had an opportunity to live in Hawaii for a year, and I loved every opportunity that I had to interact with the locals and the indigenous population, can you tell me a little bit about your Maori culture, and, and anything that we could learn about your tradition that, that would help us to just have a little insight.

Unknown: 46:38

Absolutely, so yeah, I'm Maori, I'm from a few iwi or tribes on the west coast of the North Island, so Nati Tama, Nati Rua Nui, Te Ati Awa. My father is European, Caucasian, my mother is Maori. So I grew up in a kind of a mixed culture household, but when I was young, we would spend a lot of time at our marae, which is, I guess, a meeting, a meeting place, or, you know, a cultural area, so I was quite exposed to, you know, our culture, our language, I'm not fluent in Te Reo or Maori. I'm not a fluent speaker of the language. I guess the generations after, after me, the government actually brought in, I guess, preschools called Ko Haranga Kohanga Rio, where kids were immersed in Maori language, so I'm a little bit envious of that, but I guess in New Zealand, you know, Maori and English are kind of used almost interchangeably in some senses, so, so that's a great thing, but I have lots of memories of being around my family, and you know, there's a huge sense of community there. Everyone pitches in when it comes to feeding everyone, to, I guess, cleaning up afterwards, doing the dishes, you know, and it's a very hospitable culture. They have a concept called, I think it's Te Maki Tanga, I could be wrong there, but it's about, it's about hospitality, if that makes sense. So, a big part of multi culture is hospitality, and I guess one thing about Maori, that you know, you see a lot of imagery of Maori doing the haka, being fierce warriors, that kind of thing. Well, I have ancestors who were, I guess, pacifists, if that makes sense, and there's, in particular, there's Tefeti and Todd, who I'm descent on, the descendant of Tohu, and they were, they were Christians, and they considered themselves prophets, but they lived in a small village called Pariaka, which was being harassed by English troops, so they were being, I guess, shot with cannons and all sorts of horrible things that they preached a philosophy of pacifism and non-resistance many years before Gandhi, even so, I think that there's a, there's a powerful culture there of resistance and strength and resilience that isn't so much talked about in favor of the fierce warrior aspects of Maurydam. So, I don't know, I think that's just something we should be talking about more

Todd McLaughlin: 50:04

amazing round. Oh, wow. Thank you so much. That isn't so.. that is so interesting. I'm curious, how you would.. how you'll react to the first understanding of Maori court culture I had was watching Once Were Warriors, which was a film that was made that depicts a kind of heavy situation in it, where if someone grows up in a situation where there's a lot of abuse and difficult, that it could turn into a very abusive type of lifestyle, and it. And I love that you're bringing attention to the representations that we see of like fierce, but also that you're talking about, but there also was pacifism too, because maybe what if there's one ideology of only this fierce thing that creates it does not a very well round a fully full well rounded picture of of the history and the beliefs of a culture, so that's that's really fascinating to me. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Unknown: 51:10

Oh no, Orison, yeah, I actually, that is a great movie, Once We're Warriors, but yeah, I do think it sort of does focus on an aspect that is not great, and I'm not saying it doesn't happen, or you know it isn't a situation that exists, but you know, like any culture, there's there's a rich heritage there, and you know multiple aspects that we need to be mindful of.

Todd McLaughlin: 51:37

Yeah, yeah, amazing. How often do you get a chance to travel back there? Am I correct that you were there recently. I feel like in our email conversations prior to meeting up here today, did you mention you were, you were traveling there?

Unknown: 51:50

I'll be heading over there next week. Actually, I'll go to.. yeah, it's just a short trip to visit my family, so I'm looking forward to that. Should be good. Do

Todd McLaughlin: 52:00

you mind if I ask, how your mom is doing, is she?

Unknown: 52:05

Oh, look, she's, she's in a fairly late stage of dementia now. Unfortunately, she, she's living in a home, she needs full-time care, and we actually hit it over over Christmas, but due to some issues, the place she's at was under lockdown, so I couldn't visit her, and that's that's part of the reason I'm going back. I understood,

Todd McLaughlin: 52:31

understood, like,

Unknown: 52:32

see my mum. Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 52:34

man, Ron, I, I feel for you. My mom passed from Alzheimer's, and, and she, in this room right here, where I'm sitting, her and my dad came and practiced yoga with my here with me, for we've been open here for 20 years, so they came every day for like 16 years before she passed away. So I watched her go through the whole thing, and, ah, man, I'm really sorry. So I'm so excited, though, to hear that you get to go back and be present, and it's really amazing, you know. I hope you don't mind me talking about this, but one thing that I noticed was that when my mom stopped, you know, remembering my children's names, and you know, and you get to that point where I start wondering, started wondering how much of recognition is there, like how much is there still, and and then I recently came across a situation where a husband was talking about him caretaking his wife, who was undergoing memory care, and that he didn't think she could communicate, but through a certain situation he was able to telepathically communicate with her, and I, and which then triggered me upon hearing that, remembering a moment before my mom passed, where I did feel like even though she wasn't there, she was, and that there still is communication ability, but, but done on a different level. So, I guess I just mentioned that, because I'm excited to hear that you're going to get a chance to spend time with her, and I'll be.. I would love to hear afterward what your experience is like, and just in relation, all that. But, uh, anyhow, hopefully I didn't digress too far there.

Unknown: 54:22

No, no, I just want to say I'm sorry to hear about your mother, as well. You know, I just know that even I actually think my mum's dementia was harder to deal with than my own cancer. If that makes sense, it does. It does. Yeah, it's such a. it's immensely awful thing to happen to someone, in my opinion, and yeah, I actually did have an experience with my mum, and it was sort of a couple of years ago, but I can't remember, we're having a conversation and I can't remember what we were discussing exactly, but it was kind of to me it felt like Mum was in her own way kind of saying goodbye to me, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, and

Todd McLaughlin: 55:22

indirectly, like the words weren't matching up with that, but the feeling, yeah, wow, yeah, that's

Unknown: 55:30

yes, that

Todd McLaughlin: 55:32

gives me goosebumps. I hear you,

Unknown: 55:36

it's pretty intense, isn't it?

Todd McLaughlin: 55:37

Yeah, it really is. Well, man, I feel for you. But I'm, I'm also very excited for you. I don't know how to.. I don't know if that even makes sense, but I just.. that you, you still have.. you still have time. You're gonna be able to go and travel over there, and hopefully the lockdown situation won't.. some weird thing won't happen as well there.

Unknown: 55:56

Yeah. No, I hope so too. But yeah, it should be good.

Todd McLaughlin: 55:58

Cool, man. Well, I feel like we got a chance to touch upon a lot of your background, and I really appreciate how honest and forthright you're with are with me. Thank you so much. That really means a lot to me, Ryan. Ron, oh no, thank you for correcting me. Initially, I came and I said nice to meet you, and you're like, no, man, it's Ron. So, you know, sometimes when

Unknown: 56:26

you don't correct someone, it just sort of goes on, and the moments passed when you can. Oh, yeah, so true, so true. My wife's name is Tamara,

Todd McLaughlin: 56:35

and she's like, it's Tamara, it's Tamara, and so someone says Tamara or something, she's like, no, that's not it. I hear you, that's cool. Well, I mean, so just to kind of do a quick little recap, everyone can find you at Sci Sound Made scene.com Anyone that's interested or has curiosity, and or is working with technology, and podcasting, and marketing, and all this stuff that we need to do, we can find you at Flow Artist Podcast, with both you and Joe hosting your own podcast show, and also Guest Made Simple, which I know you're soft launching, but if we go to that URL, is it Guest Made simple.com Is there a.au at the end of this or no, have you cool, and and then also the eight limbs of aerial yoga book is now available, so highly recommend everybody to check that out. Ron, is there anything else I missed, or anything else you'd like to mention before we exit?

Unknown: 57:41

I think you've covered everything. Then I just wanted to thank you again for having me on your podcast. Been a great conversation. I've had a whole lot of fun.

Todd McLaughlin: 57:49

Thank you, Ron. I really appreciate it. Thank you for sharing everything. And I hope one day I get a chance to meet both of you in person. If you all are ever traveling through the US, we would love to host you here in Florida, and, and if I get a chance to make it over there again, I would love to come visit you guys.

Unknown: 58:09

Absolutely, and hopefully we get to talk to you on our podcast soon.

Todd McLaughlin: 58:13

Thank you. I follow through now, and also with more appreciation to the workflow of organizing the episode, that's something I'm really excited about, because I did get a chance to start, and I went, and I liked the way that I'm guessing that must be guests made simple. Are you already implementing that on your own website? Because when I went in, you had a questionnaire place, a place that I could kind of send over. I don't know, I don't think. Well, I didn't go all the way through. I got started, and then I, then I, I got to follow through and finish here, and but I saw that I could put a picture in, and something of that nature. I didn't see the calendar part yet. Is that something that would, as I follow the steps through, will eventually get to? Or at what stage are you using

Unknown: 59:02

it? I'm not sure we have been using that yet, but I'll check with Joe. But yeah, we should have it up and running pretty soon, so we can get you, get you all through that.

Todd McLaughlin: 59:13

Awesome. Well, I want to be your.. I want to be.. I want to test it out and give it a try. Yeah, I really want. Yeah, thank you so much. All these like ideas of ways to make this a little bit more where I can just focus on this fun part of doing the the actual podcasting and all the administrative tedious stuff, will the load could be lightened a little bit, which would be amazing.

Unknown: 59:34

No worries. Yeah, no, be great.

Todd McLaughlin: 59:36

Thank you, Ron. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate this. Thank you.

Unknown: 59:40

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Bye. native

Todd McLaughlin: 59:48

yoga todd cast is produced by myself. The theme music is dreamed up by Bryce Allen. If you like this show, let me know. If there's room for improvement, I want to hear that too. We are curious to know what you think and what you want more of, what I can improve, and if you have ideas for future guests or topics, please send us your thoughts to info at Native Yoga Center. You can find us at Native Yoga center.com And hey, if you did like this episode, share it with your friends, rate it and review, and join us next time.

Unknown: 1:00:39

Boy, yeah, now you.