Sean Ongley

Category: The Not-a-Podcast Show

  • Running the Numbers with Nicco Augustave

    Running the Numbers with Nicco Augustave

    Joining for the last Not-a-Podcast Show of what I’m in hindsight calling Season One is Nicco Augustave. He is a co-host of the Aquarian Anarchy podcast and a young numerologist, tarot reader, and astrologer.

    I emphasize that he is young because it takes many years for people to become masters of these arts, not just from practice but from life experience. He is humble to this fact.

    Still, I wanted to bring him on because I’m interested in doing more purposeful, thematic episodes, especially with past guests. It takes at least an hour to get to know someone, so my first interview with someone will be most about their life and perspective.

    Nicco was one of my first guests, before I decided that one hour was going to be the format for Not-a-Podcast Show (before I had a title for the stream), and we talked for more than two hours.

    In this hour, I attempt to draw out the basics of numerology with Nicco and reveal the ways that numbers become synchronicity, and how to live without becoming obsessed with it.

    One takeaway is that I need to prepare a little more for episodes like this. We did our best but we both left feeling like the narrative got away from us. We talked about doing it again and bringing a third guest.

    I like Nicco, he’s an earnest, genuine young man exploring his consciousness, steadfast in his ethics, taking an unorthodox path in life against the grains of social norms. Respect.

  • Foraging for the Soul with Zora

    Foraging for the Soul with Zora

    Episode 28 of the Not-a-Podcast Show went live on January 04 and my guest was Zora, on Twitter @Zora8Me. I called it “Foraging for the Soul” because she has an offbeat spirituality like myself, likely because we both grew up in Scientology.

    I did not intend to make most of this conversation about Scientology, so there came a moment when I bluntly asked to move another direction toward current life stuff and broad spiritual discussion. I think when us Scientologists get talking about our past strange religion, those of us who left it, we can easily dwell at the social trauma that we went through.

    Quite a lot of this is discussing her life in the church and going to a private Scientology school. I was in public school, so I lived a kind of split life. Both situations involved compartmentalization and social trauma. No way around trauma, I tell you.

    Zora is a regular person who takes time to craft thoughtful tweets and who will follow up arguments that might ensue, but without devolving into nastiness and trolling. I believe that because she is approachable and relatable, she has somehow broken through the noise and developed a fan base.

    The chat was active for this episode, so that was nice, and I picked up a handful of her followers. She is on the libertarian side of things but we hardly deal with politics.

  • Curse of Being a Creator with Nerd Nash

    Curse of Being a Creator with Nerd Nash

    Glad to have a conversation with Nerd Nash, on Twitter @nerdatthecooltable, and to relate to one another on some common threads. We are about the same age and started using the internet as social media from the beginning, before such a term was used. We both have this drive to create and organize, but we find ourselves working and hustling from day to day while ideas just stack up in our heads.

    Nerd has been highly effective at building an online community. His following is nearly 50K, more than most successful artists, without having really done any particular thing to become famous.

    He runs a Twitter community called Gem Factory that has a knack for putting a range of underrepresented profiles into one place, but he’s also tied to the Hotep scene, which is becoming mainstream.

    My following has never grown massively, and until recently, it only reflected the broader community of friends directly tied to my real offline network. Even now, as I am growing outside of this range, it stunts and reverses sometimes.

    I just don’t have the craving to be internet famous. It would be nice if The Not-a-Podcast Show could amass more followers, making it easier to earn some value for value contributions. The more reach that my guests have, the more likely that my reach will grow.

    The issue of imposter syndrome is analyzed in this conversation. We both suffer from that. Do I so-called deserve to have an interview show? Am I qualified? Am I posing? The rational, self-correcting approach to building a project slides quickly into self-doubt and self-abuse.

    If I blame for example shadow banning on my lack of follower growth without examining the quality of my content, my strategies toward engagement, and so on, then I’m just not discovering how to get better at my work.

    Many push that issue deep down by projecting themselves iconically, so I think ego fills that vacuum. For some, faking it until they make it works out. I don’t feel that Nerd or myself can do it that way.

    Self-critique is a huge part of this blog. I’m laying myself out there in hopes that it relates and that personal insight becomes universal.

    For this interview, I was a little bit tired. I usually begin fading around 8pm on weeknights. We went live at 8:30. Also, hadn’t done a show recently, so my intro/out was rusty. I think I spoke a little too much, but it was a good conversation. We learn a lot about Nerd, and I’m glad we did it.

    The holidays are passing, so I’m looking forward to booking a handful of interviews in a row for January, to catch up on the quota.

  • What Makes a Socialite with Kristin

    What Makes a Socialite with Kristin

    Kristen is @CallMeK1123 on Twitter, she has nearly 20K followers and it’s simply because she speaks her mind and is relatable to many people. She is an influencer in the conservative side of my online network, but more anti-establishment than MAGA.

    I invited her on the show and when she asked what we’d talk about, I said we’d learn about her, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how social dynamics are changing, especially in dating and gender dynamics. We’re about the same age range, so our perspective would better line up.

    She doesn’t bring her family into Twitter, so I wasn’t aware that she was married with several children. Moreover, she’s always posing gym selfies, which is a single girl thing to do, but not limited to them. Turns out she works at the gym.

    Maybe I’m just looking for someone to talk to about my difficulty dating right now. I’m really in a rut, in many ways a rut of my own creation.

    Kristin was born and raised in a south Louisiana Christian home, but she doesn’t have much of an accent. She lives in the area she was raised now and focuses on raising her family. Still a Christian, and living traditionally, she doesn’t project that on others and doesn’t really judge people for their path.

    I assumed not only that she was single, but that she had some experience with livestreams, but this was her first one. She was nervous, and that made me nervous, plus her wifi was bogged down by family video streaming, so the show is a little bit tense, and once again, I fall back on monologue.

  • The Middle Way with Ross Farrier

    The Middle Way with Ross Farrier

    The Not-a-Podcast Show with Ross Farrier

    On this Not-a-Podcast Show I wanted to catch up with Ross Farrier, a vegan, Buddhist, Portland lefty, gay man, and covid vaccine denier, living in Jerome, Arizona. We knew each other in Portland, going back to at least 2006.

    His identity is fluid, it was interesting to discuss the ways that he went to extremes to come back to the middle way. He was sober, but realized he wasn’t actually an addict, so sobriety wasn’t necessary. He is a vegan, but it’s more about all natural foods than anti-meat eating. His non-oil diet is interesting.

    It is good to go through a journey with others, with respect to their lifestyle choices in this new world in which all things are possible, despite the appearance of so many limiting economic and social beliefs coming from within and without. The retreat to country is smart to me and something I am working toward while enjoying the fruits of city living now.