Patrick borrows Gwen’s social skills to deal with some chromosone challenged wallflowers.  A good time is had by all.

Links mentioned:

• An article about how being able to read faces is key for social interaction.

• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly trailer.  Skip the movie read the book!

Books mentioned:

• If you don’t want to read the whole book, here is a low-fi summary of Dale Carnegies principles from How to Win Friends and Influence People.

• The ubiquitous Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui.

Hey did you hear about that terrible thing happening in that far-away place that you know nothing about and can have no impact on!?  You gotta get INVOLVED man!

Links mentioned: 

• Jim Davis, creator of Garfield, has no kokoro.

• But we like this song Cucurrucucu a lot.

• Gwen’s scathing post on the concept of Earth Hour.

• An article on how the internet is reducing our empathy.

Books mentioned:

• Anything by Pema Chodron.

(music used with permission by Peter John Ross)

To make up for the long absence due to Gwen’s technical difficulties, we went storytime bananas this episode.  Still working out the audio so the Elton John in Patrick is NOT satisfied with this quality.  But hey, it’s not like you paid for it… yet.  Also Patrick never gets around to divulging the secret of Zen in this episode.  Maybe over a beer sometime?

 Links mentioned:

• The Knoll Bertoia chairs Gwen almost scored for $40.

• The worst Price Is Right contestant ever. 

Books mentioned:

• Herb Cohen’s  You Can Negotiate Anything.

Patrick tries to get that happy-go-lucky feeling back that he never really had in the first place.  Plus,  funbrows, factoids, flow, and fabulous dancing.

Links mentioned:

•  Gwen’s adventure in ThemePark Land World.

• The original classic, Jizz In My Pants

• The inferior knock-off that tries to sell you crap, Puke In My Mouth.

Books mentioned:

• An excerpt of one of our favorite books, Japanese Death Poems.

Making friends with death so that you’ll be better at life.

Links mentioned:

•  The Guardian’s moving photo series of people before and just after they’ve died.

Who are all these people trolling the internet searching for things to label as “fail?” Why are we so afraid of screwing up? Plus, cool beans.

Links mentioned:

• The NY Times article, Earplugs to Lasers article on concentration.

• A post from Merlin Mann about embracing “Courageous Sucking“.

• Gwen’s post on burning grilled cheese and other failures.

• Patrick’s post on his not “9 to 5″ lifestyle.

Books mentioned:

• Benjamin Franklin’s The Art of Virtue.

Dealing with that bewildering species of fauna, the Dudicus Radicalus.

Links mentioned:

• Autotune!

• In our detailed research for this podcast, we came across this excellent resource for more information on rad dudes, http://www.rad-dudes.com.  That’s where we pulled the above picture from.

(Music from  Mr. Macleod at Incompetech)

How did Gwen naturally come out with a healthy relationship with food?  Why does Patrick inhale brownies like there’s no tomorrow?

Links mentioned:

• You heard that right, Gwen went and signed herself up for Patrick’s Peak Condition Project!  Follow her progress here.

• Get up close and personal with freaky Abraham Lincoln with this giant sized photo!

Books mentioned:

• The Skinny Bitch book universe.

If you spend hours a day in front of a screen, a swift punch to the gut might be more grounding than an hour of meditation. Move people!

Links mentioned:

• George Packer’s blog about the NYC roofer and yuppie buffers.

• Parody video of Microsoft’s “PCs for Poor People” campaign.

• The future of Nanoblogging, Flutter.

Books mentioned:

• The World is Flat, by The Lexus and the Olive Tree author Thomas Friedman.

• Here Comes Everybody, by the brilliant Clay Shirky.

(Music from Black Box.  Old Skool baby)

Behold the decaf Patrick!  A meandering conversation that touches on transferring your practice to real life, skillful teaching, and dealing with people who want your attention.  Plus Gwen reveals her new company’s name and asks for feedback, so people, feed us back yo!

Links mentioned:

• The new Sacha Baron Cohen movie trailer, Bruno!

• William Blake’s acid and metal etching of The Sick Rose.

Books mentioned:

• Nicholas Nassim Taleb’s perspective changing book,  The Black Swan.