Better Perspectives with Omar Shaker

EP23. Self Expression | How do we create safety? Season II Finale with Paul Kist and Stacie B.

This Season II Finale is a double feature. Enjoy 80 minutes of crying, laughing, real talk and allowing ourselves to hang loose and be silly with improv actor, teacher and facilitator Stacie B. 
I know that this finale will inspire you to think of how you express yourself, what things may be repressed within you, and an overall picture of how expression impacts us through a lot of our trademark vulnerable storytelling which we hope you know us for by now.
It’s been an honor to create these episodes for you. Please help us fund the third Season by becoming a paid subscriber on findgumption.com. 

EP22. Technology | How can it amplify your Gumption? w/ Islam El Ashi 🇵🇸🇨🇦

How can we use technology to amplify our lives rather than drain them?I traveled to Switzerland to reconnect with my old roommate to discuss this very important question on my quest for gumption. 
Check out this episode with engineer Islam El Ashi, as he takes us on his journey from optimizing ads for Twitter to using his abilities to help Syrian refugees, send a camera into the stratosphere, and now to help build the world's biggest internet computer blockchain.
His perspective will get you thinking about your everyday life and relationship with technology from a lens that will help you amplify your gumption versus letting tech drain it.
Enjoy and let us know if you started playing with these concepts in your life at findgumption.com

EP21. Suicide | How can we show up for the ones we love? w/Anonymous

What do you do when your brother attempts suicide? How does one show up? What is best for them and where do you draw your own boundaries?
Join us on this new Gumpcast episode recorded a few months ago in San Francisco. I interviewed my guest about how he found gumption through that very hard time for his family's mental health. 
In this tender episode, we cover:
- Our takeaways from the Wisdom 2.0 conference
- his story with his brother and how he addressed it as well as how it changed him
- The future of mental health
- We also attempt to define the word gumption! 
Don't miss this one.
We want to know:
- Did you have any similar experiences how did you show up for your loved ones?
- What do you think is the best way to address such issues?
Show notes:
Wisdom 2.0 Conference
Gabor Maté and his work on Trauma
Rick Doblin and the Multi Association of Psychedelic Studies
David Simas - My American Story
Loving Kindess Meditation (Metta)
Dr. Kristen Neff - Self Compassion
An experimental depression treatment uses electric currents to bring relief
 

EP20. Pain | Can stories really save our lives? w/ Gautam Gulati, MD (Dr.G)

We all have a story to tell and stories have a profound impact on what we do. Which stories can save lives? Which stories can be a form of healing for others?
In today’s polarized world, this episode could not be more timely.
My guest, Dr. Gautam Gulati - or Dr. G- is a speaker, doctor, and “Status Quo Agitator”. He is the founder of The Well Home and host of the multiple award-winning podcast Super Humans.
He takes us with him on a trip to Kenya, where a treacherous accident opened him up to the power of storytelling, and created the framework that shaped his current life and work.
After listening, we want to hear from you in the comments, what stories shaped who you are? Which of your stories do you feel are important to share with the world?
Leave a comment
In Search of Gumption is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
http://findgumption.com
 
 
 

EP19. Music | Can it humanizing others in Conflict? w/ Mina Girgis 🇪🇬🇺🇸

How do we challenge our stereotypes about other cultures and humanize others beyond what we assume?
My guest today, Mina Girgis, believes that learning about music and listening to other people’s music is the path forward. What happens when we bring curiosity to the music we listen to?
Mina is a musical anthropologist and current Director of Education, Campus and Community Engagement at UC Berkley CalPerformances. Mina is also the founder of The Nile Project, where he used the power of human connection via shared musical culture to tackle one of Africa’s most challenging sustainability conflicts: The River Nile.Whether yo are into classical music, to gypsy music, or electronic and hiphop, we’ll cover how any music tells a story that can help us understand life and humans on a more fundamental level.
Sample performance from the Nile project:
 
Notes:
Romani People/ Gypsies
The Nile Project: http://nileproject.org/music/musicians/
Illuminations - Human and Machine https://calperformances.org/learn/illuminations/illuminations-2022-23/
Othering and Belonging Institute
https://belonging.berkeley.edu/
 
 

EP18. Homophobia | Standing your ground without losing your loved ones

 There are many voices that tell us to express our truth, but almost none that tell us to do so with grace and respect to our loved ones and their truth.
Our anonymous guest spent 14 years building his own sense of safety before coming out as a homosexual man in a society that was directly opposed to it.
It is remarkable how he created space for his mother, a member of that society, to live her own story.
Our guest today bravely shares his journey of conscious self-acceptance, while waving a tapestry of love to hold his family despite their conflicting views on homosexuality.
“I wanted us to go through it together. I did not want to become someone they did not recognize”
Today’s Gumpcast story will leave you with:
-A new perspective for what it looks like to speak your truth, while holding space for others.
-A model for how knowledge can help build a sense of self that is shielded from society.
-A deep probe into how the gay identity is engineered for a Western society. How the Arab homosexual identity is inspired by it but does not relate to it.
-A big question in the end about the history of man and our relationship to nature.
9 min Bonus Soundbite next week!
There is a segment of the conversation that took us on a riff where my guest shared a lot of the history of homosexuality and the “scientific”-ization of it with Freud and Eugenics.
He masterfully pieces together the bits of history as he discovered them in his quest to understand how society reacted to homosexuality, from political will power, and the utility of the Gay identity.
We decided to cut it from the episode but will make it available as a stand alone 9 min segment this week.
Stay tuned for a follow up soundbite at findgumption.com 
References:
Desiring Arabs Paperback – Illustrated, September 15, 2008
by Joseph A. Massad (Author)
Orientalism Paperback – October 12, 1979
by Edward W. Said (Author)
Desperate housewives scene: Bee’s son comes out
Juste une question d'amour,TV Movie 2000 1h 28m
Contracorriente (VOST) 2009 ‧ Romance/Drama ‧ 1h 50m

EP17. Losing Loved Ones | Mending the heart with Somatic Therapy w/ Staci Haines 🇺🇸

What do you want? What do you value? What do you long for? What is yearning to heal? What do you want to be possible for your community or for the world?
What if your body already knows all the answers to these questions?
 
Staci Haines, Somatics teacher and practitioner and Author of The Politics of Trauma breaks this down for us in an another authentic and vulnerable Gumpcast conversation.
In this episode:
Her story of holding space for her mother’s passing away, and how everything she learned in the field of Somatics prepared her for for that moment.
What is the Soma? How is it different from the body?
How we identify what we are longing for and become a commitment to it?
Practical Live session: I offer myself as a guinea pig for all of you, Stacie offers offers me a live session to heal my aching heart, and give you a taste of what working with Somatics looks like.
Enjoy,
Omar
 
 
 
“Resilience is the ability to somatically, holistically renew ourselves during and after oppressive, threatening, or traumatic experiences. We are able to shift ourselves, physiologically and psychologically from traumatic hyperalert states to calmed cohesive states. It is the ability to regain a sense of hope and imagine a positive future.“ - Staci K. Haines
Show notes:
The Politics of Trauma
Strozzi Institute Somatic Programs: Declaring a New Future
The Tibetan book of living and dying
Healing Sex: A Mind-Body Approach to Healing Sexual Trauma
 
 

EP16. Heartbreak | How do we heal that? w/ Sherin Wafaai 🇪🇬 🇫🇮

How does one take care of heartbreak? What messages do we get from society when going through a heartbreak? And how does it actually impact us compared to breaking an arm or a leg?
In this most vulnerable episode, I discuss all of the above with my Sherin Wafaai, my ex-partner. Together we tell our two-sided story and then dive into what her vision for a place that can tend to heartbreak is. If you stick to the end, you'll also get to hear one of my poems read by her called "Heart Break Hotel" 
Let me know your thoughts in the comments on youtube or on the blog below
Join the conversation at http://findgumption.com