Chats Over Chicken Soup: Recent Episodes

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My guest in Episode 6 is Aaron Nebauer, a man whose pathway parallels mine in many ways, beginning when we met as kids. We're both still living in Queensland, but occupy some disparate spaces in terms of politics and societal imperatives. Within this context, this episode gravitates around commonalities, such as our childhood immersion into evangelical Christianity, and the emergence into fully aware adulthood and philosphical openness. Aaron tackles the questions of being seen as a rebel, exploring Rumi and Hafiz, being ignored on Facebook, and avoiding hot topics at family dinners. Over 55 minutes, we settle into a groove which suggests that further topic exploration - politics, the creativity/spirituality interface, and Aaron's book "The Importance of Learning to Be Unimportant (while still knowing that you are)" - is calling... calling us all, in fact.

Aaron's online links and contacts:

• Apple Music and Spotify
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdNR0wrNnI0 ; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8MSpQ2fBE-HTgk7Ke2E-Jw
• Purchase his book via: http://aaronnebauer.com/?fbclid=IwAR0afEVRmauRywv76Xx5pbBiIVFnbbmwnUnQeKMGfYZDeVzsKTx7Ynw7sQI

Chapter Markers
2:14- Meeting at basketball, Christian Outreach College, Sega games and devotionals

6:58- Inspired by Krista Tippett, Richard Fidler, Youtube and Ted Talks

9:37- Aaron's spiritual background

13:06- "...at 22, I politely and respectfully left the Baptist Church I was at"

14:05- The influence of Dave Andrews and moving to Brisbane's West End

17:25- Monastic Monday

22:28- "By the time I was 15, I felt like I'd heard all the sermons"

28:13- Evolution of Aaron's evangelism

30:40- Hafiz, Rumi, and other "rebellious" influences; "Truth is a feast"

35:36- High praise for Aaron's activism: truthfully integrating higher spiritual truths into his life...impacting his community

41:35- David clarifying what he meant by "the truth"

46:10- "Don't drink and Post (on Facebook)" - Aaron's book, "The Importance of Learning to be Unimportant (while still knowing that you are)"

52:50- Creativity is spirituality; "Life is...a dance."; "Arrange the pieces that come your way" (Woolf); Aaron's song "January" from his 2010 album, New Age Neanderthals

Credits and Licencing
Music: Sunbird-Audio; Soulful Drive; Item URL: https://audiojungle.net/item/soulful-drive/7966390; Item ID: 7966390.

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Host, David Sretenovic, chats with two men who have been friends since their teens, Lazar Sretenovic (his father) and Dusan Velevski. It's a story of immigration, mateship via cars, boxing and girls, as well as a common appreciation for the deep: truth, spirituality and the gospel. Dusan's work in remedial therapy reveals a number of incredible health insights and success stories. Moreover, between Lazar's insights about the gospel, and Dusan's pull-no-punches theory of human free will, the discussion really gains some wings and is sure to either inspire, educate or agitate... or all of the above! [Clickable chapter markers via this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/807296/4470971-chocs-episode-5-lazar-sretenovic-and-dusan-velevski ]

For those interested in more from either Lazar or Dusan, see their websites listed here:
Lazar Sretenovic - The Ultimate Context (website). About the author: https://www.theultimatecontext.net/about/ . Home page: https://www.theultimatecontext.net/ .
Dusan Velevski:
Facebook page, "Depression Causes and Cure" - https://www.facebook.com/648522535204720/posts/1933313170058977/
Facebook page, "Life for You and Me" - https://www.facebook.com/lifeforyouandme/

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Host, David Sretenovic, welcomes Kym Dickman, a long-time friend and mother of his high school mate. David and Kym go back in time to 1995 - a significant turning point in her life when her father had surprisingly come to faith - and even further back as Kym's life and experiences are shared. This chat evokes memories from throughout Kym's fascinating life, including a miracle of healing when she was a young girl with Epstein Barr disease. Other topics include parenting styles, hearing God in day-to-day activities, and using her experience of co-dependency to minister to others.

3:30 - Formative memories from 1994/1995 and the miracle of seeing her father lay down his rebellious nature and returning to faith.
16:40 - Kym's childhood: things that brought her joy.
18:26 - Kym's experience with Epstein Barr disease and her miraculous healing. "By the time my eighth birthday came around, I was actually in the Brisbane Children's Hospital, not expected to live." (19:25)
25:05 - Earliest experience of believing in God and the hope of going to heaven.
27:55 - Biggest influences of faith, religion and the Bible in Kym's childhood.
29:00 - the roots of co-dependency; father's alcoholism; mother pouring out "a lot of things into my little ears that I couldn't process"
30:10 - how God comes to Kym: scriptures, continuous prayer; ministering to others
34:50 - three days of experiencing God closely as a high school student at Cavendish Road State High School.
37:45 - religion in Kym's adult life, since meeting her husband-to-be Greg: "he had a sense from God that he was to marry me, when he was only 12 years old"; "My spiritual walk with God has been stronger than my connection with my husband. It's the strongest thing in my life....My connection with God was what drove my parenting style, my teaching style, everything."
42:35 - Parenting: "My view of our children ... I viewed them as the adults they are today, right from the start. I saw the potentiality of what God was intending to bring them to."
49:45 - rapid fire questions: a baking win and fail; European travel memory...

Credits and licencing
Intro audio: Sunbird-Audio; Licensee: David Sretenovic; Item Title: Soulful Drive; Item URL: https://audiojungle.net/item/soulful-drive/7966390 .
Additional BGM: Waves by Pictures of the Floating World . (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Pictures_of_the_Floating_World/Waves_1528/Waves_1217).

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22nd March, 2020Host, David Sretenovic, welcomes his friend, Keelan Parker – a man who occupies vast, fascinating realms, including digital graphic design, video gaming, character illustration and fantasy narrative development. These in addition to the deep-end: being a husband and father of three littlies! The conversation covers these topics and also has Keelan connect his early life with the transitions to family and professional life. Showing his philosophical qualities, moreover, Keelan tells of his path of maturity and growth, and shares his walk on a tightrope between deep religious conviction and doubt. There's a great story about one of his musical heroes too: the enigmatic and talented, Dustin Kensrue, of Thrice.

Time stamps:
4:30 – Keelan on his early life; illustration based work, character design, layout and logo creation
10:05 – University life: adult decisions and being a provider for a family
23:30 – God's presence via Keelan's early family life, his believing wife, Rebekah; Keelan's unique sense of wavering agnosticism and faith from his university days to now:

• "...if you were to ask my wife I think she would tell you that ...was all pre-ordained (God kind of stuff)...some days I agree with her!"
• "...it's comforting...and sometimes that's exactly what you need...even when you don't fully want to buy-in to it...having it there and being reminded that it's there can go a long way
• "I can't stomach people talking bad about the faith, the beliefs...the heretical comments that people might make... The idea of having faith in something beyond what you can see and touch and smell... It's always just been this thing that's there...that sort of comfort in your life that there's something out there, and sort-of being humble to that is...to me that's a very brave thing to give yourself to."

30:42 –Why it's brave to be a person of faith in the 21st century; Keelan's admiration for those who hold to their creed without wavering
39:00 – Music and Keelan's deep engagement with it; on sharing lyrics on Facebook:

• "Sometimes you just have something in your head and it's not enough to just have it in your head, you need to put it onto other people's minds as well"
• "...I got very very interested in learning the inner workings of things that I was interested in. You could put that down to my over-analytical state of mind and overthinking things a lot...with music, I did the same thing.

45:31 – On Dustin Kensrue:

• "It's a weird thing to become so interested in another person's creative work that you stop liking them and start admiring them and respecting them as an individual.

50:40 – Gaming as a semi-professional pursuit in Keelan's life; putting up boundaries

• "Obviously, time spent with [wife, Rebekah] is more important than time spent shooting people in Call of Duty."

55:15 – on creative design and cartooning:

• "For a very long time now I've been drawing a character called Takoshi and then I went and named my third child that.”

Credits and licencing
MUSIC LICENSE CERTIFICATE : Sunbird-Audio; Soulful Drive; Item URL: https://audiojungle.net/item/soulful-drive/7966390; Item ID: 7966390.

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Host, David Sretenovic, welcomes his friend, Tim Philp, to discuss David's recent blog, entitled 'Go Off the Rails to Save Your Marriage.' With a number of friends in a similar boat – that of facing the steep hill of sustaining a marriage through the rockiest of times – these two get honest about what it might take to follow through with the intentions of those precious, heartfelt vows we utter on that special day of union. Although the blog was only in draft form at the time of the podcast, the ideas were in tact! Our listeners can view the polished blog via the link here at the Universal Connection website: https://universalconnectionx.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/go-off-the-rails-to-save-your-marriage-explicit-content-warning/ . Recorded 15/11/19, in Toowoomba, Australia. (As with our first episode, this one was under our previous name "Earthen" and re-labeled later. It was early days, a practice-run, on borrowed equipment! But we liked it so much we decided to publish it.)

Credits and licencing
Intro audio: Sunbird-Audio; Licensee: David Sretenovic; Item Title: Soulful Drive; Item URL: https://audiojungle.net/item/soulful-drive/7966390 .
Additional BGM: Waves by Pictures of the Floating World . (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Pictures_of_the_Floating_World/Waves_1528/Waves_1217).
Outro audio: https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Derek_Clegg/Solar/Derek_Clegg_-_Solar_-_08_Cest_La_Vie Licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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This is the inaugural episode of Chats Over Chicken Soup. The podcast was named Earthen at this stage, but has since been updated. Jacob Ugljesa, local pastor and chaplain here in Toowoomba, is interviewed and gives a bit of his life story and discusses topics which include: his transition to working life, unexpected aspects of pastoral work, and the importance of family. We also touch on his own podcast, Beyond the Pew, and take a few interesting tangents such as Jacob's love for Lego. Hosted by David Sretenovic, and recorded 03/12/19 in Toowoomba, Australia.

Catch Jacob's podcast, Beyond the Pew, via these links:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheOfficialBeyondThePew/
Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2YNfnyS
iTunes - https://apple.co/2JG1kFj
YouTube - https://youtu.be/iNPT60MHfgs

Time stamps
3:45 Jacob’s early working life: KFC to Bachelor of Theology
10:59 Expectations for pastoral life versus the reality
18:38 Transition from study to work as a pastor
19:54 Reflection on having the “pastor vibe”
24:35 “The closer you get to me, the less you’ll be impressed”
26:58 The importance of family in Jacob’s pastoral life
32:10 Lego and play in Jacob’s life - “Adults need to get into [Lego] more”!
37:17 Jet, Duplo/Lego and Kommonia Land
39:02 Jacob’s podcast “Beyond the Pew” and how it’s going; “Atypical Christian” episode.
42:00 Rapid-fire questions wrap-up: fav food/drink; which animals would Jacob and Dari be; Jacob’s beard
44:38 Cool beans

Credits and licencing
Music: Sunbird-Audio; Soulful Drive; Item URL: https://audiojungle.net/item/soulful-drive/7966390; Item ID: 7966390.