Pandemic Take Aways with Mike (S3E13) / April 26, 2020 by Mandy Wintink

Five weeks after the social distancing started — and LOTS of conversations later — I actually recorded something… me and Mike talking about it. I got a bit nervous at the thought of this lifting, to be honest. There are many parts of this experience that I love and that I think is important for the world.

Mike's Cancer Patient Experience (S2E34) / August 5, 2019 by Mandy Wintink

A year ago Mike was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, a cancer of the kidneys. He had surgery 6 months later. His experience was, on paper, great because everything went medically well. But his patient experience made him think very deeply about how to improve the cancer patient experience. Mike is the Design Director at Healthcare Human Factors, a consultancy through University Health Network in Toronto. He is fortunate to be in a position to rethink and design cancer care and he’s doing that now. Here we talk about his experience, which laid a foundation for rethinking cancer care!

Feeling our inner sense with Mike (S2E15) / January 10, 2019 by Mandy Wintink

Mike and I got into a conversation about The Interoceptive Mind, a way of feeling our inner body provoked partially by a book that I picked up at the Society for Neuroscience back in November. According to the authors Interoception is “the body-to-brain axis of signals originating from the internal body and visceral organs (such as gastrointestinal, respiratory, hormonal, and circulatory systems).”

Sorry it's been awhile... here's what I've been up to. (S2E14) / December 10, 2018 by Mandy Wintink

Clearly, I have more important things to do with my time than creating episodes. Here’s a little snapshot into that. Note, this was recorded by Mike at the end of our date night, on Dec 1st. I only found out about it yesterday (Dec 9th). Apparently he sent it to me but I didn’t even see it or listen to it.

Enjoy. ;P

What is the internet? And Blockchain... with Mike (S2E7) / October 3, 2018 by Mandy Wintink

Ok so Mike learned a whole bunch about the blockchain a while ago when we bought some bitcoin and ethereum and all that fun cryptocurrency stuff. I didn’t. But then I started listening to the Zig Zag podcast and wanted to learn more about it. So… on our next date we find ourselves going down the rabbit hole of trying to figure it out. It got fun for me when we realized that I was part of the internet era before the world wide web and he was not. Mike’s 5.5 years younger than I am, which equates to 6 grade school years. So that’s a pretty big difference during the internet era. Anyway… it turns out our understanding of the internet and the world wide web was different. So we figure that one out and continue on talking about blockchain and ethereum, which we both think are important to watch and understand because they might end up being the next new “internet”. This conversation is really funny to me… partially because I think in 5 years we’ll look back and laugh at this. Kind of like having a conversation about a phone WAY back when it started and asking questions like “so where do the voice live?” “Who delivers the voice?”. Even listening back 2 months later while writing these notes, I see that I know so much more now! Anyway… here is a conversation we should probably be embarrassed to share. Please don’t quote us on the details… like what gopher is!

Mike has cancer (S2E2) / August 29, 2018 by Mandy Wintink

So we’re starting off with a doozy… me and Mike talk about his recent diagnosis of Renal Cell Carcinoma. Yup, that’s what’s been happening over the summer. It started with a few scans for an unrelated reason and a tumour in his left kidney was detected incidentally. Surgery is planned and there is a good prognosis for it being curable. Here we discuss our feelings about it… sort of.

Enlightenment in Death with Mike / March 30, 2018 by Mandy Wintink

Background

We’re on a date night… and this is what we end up doing: talking about death! We talk about it from the perspective of my fear of dying and also from Mike’s perspective of not being afraid and then with respect to (assisted) suicide and enlightenment.

3 Part Series on Quitting Ultimate: Part 2: Getting Out of My Head with Mike / February 2, 2018 by Mandy Wintink

So I made a big decision recently, which was to quit playing competitive ultimate this summer. The process was grueling for me and it brought up a lot of interesting things for me. I start with wrapping my mind around letting go of an identity (in my own monologue) to discussing my body with Mike and ending with confidence in how I want to grow old with my body and try to embrace death with Mike, Lindsey, and Bronwyn (and the kids in the background). Who knew it would be a spiritual journey to quit ultimate? Actually, it’s not that surprising when we consider how our egos get wrapped up in identities… and it failing to let go. The last conversation gets into so peripheral topics about what is an athlete and is it different for men and women? I also liked the deeper conversation about growing old with yoga.

Everything is exactly how it should be / November 17, 2017 by Mandy Wintink

We’re at Merchants of Green Coffee in Toronto. Just before I started recording Mike said that he had the thought that everything is exactly how it is suppose to be. So I start recording as we are launched into a conversation about enlightenment, objective truth, and activism. Because we’re at a coffee shop, we have some great background music that sets a nice atmosphere, I think. The conversation ends with Mike's distraction.

Craft, Apprenticeship, & Mentorship with Mike / November 1, 2017 by Mandy Wintink

Mike and I somehow end up in a debate on “what is a hipster?” It’s an old conversation, from 2014. I honestly can’t remember how it started but it did lead to a deeper (?) conversation about craftship, apprenticeship, and mentorship. You have to wait about 10 min to get to that part but I found listening to us figure out what a hipster is, kind of amusing. Then, we talk about the difference between craft, apprenticeship, and mentorship compared to design-based problem-solution-type business models.

Prototyping Your Career? with Mike / October 11, 2017 by Mandy Wintink

This was recorded back in the summer of 2014, long before Mandyland was conceptualized. At the time, I thought I would have a podcast with mine and Mike’s conversations. You can tell it’s old because I refer to Jian Gomeshi as the host of the Q back before we knew what kind of asshole he was. Most of what we talk about is the career of ranting and my desire to have pursued that, had I known about it at the time.

Doing what you love without any other agenda with Mike / September 15, 2017 by Mandy Wintink

We’re up at the cottage driving back from town. We start talking about my podcast but that leads into talking about doing things just for doing them, without another agenda. This leads into a conversation about science and how basic science is just for the sake of curiosity and how there is value in that. Despite this deviation into science, the conversation actually relates to people doing what they love and seeing where it goes. This is a belief I have held for a long time and it is the foundation of my coaching practice and how I personally navigate through life. At one point Mike also suggests that “Mandyland” sounds like a self-centred circus event! After listening to this podcast after the fact, I have to defend my desire to use Mandyland as an umbrella term. I don’t think it’s self-centred in the negative way we think of it but I do think it is self-centred in the sense that it is centred on me and my thoughts. And I stand by Mandyland as my playground! The conversation ends when we arrive at the cottage!