Humans with Josh Levent Josh Levent

Christofer Lövgren calls himself the irrevocably curious d******d. Born and raised in Sweden, he grew up playing with Legos, Gameboy and Trading Cards. When he was 5 he picked up the guitar from his granddad and fell in love with it.

He only gave it up at age 19, when his workout addiction led to extreme pain in his hands and forearms making guitar-playing impossible.

Luckily he’s now again at a place where he can play guitar and is even playing with a band.

Christofer is someone who loves conversations. He told me that exploring the outer world doesn’t interest him much, because he is so fascinated by his own and others’ inner worlds, which he can tap into through conversations.

One of the places he does this is on his podcast, Do Explain, which he started 2 years ago to explore the work of David Deutsch and Critical Rationalism more broadly.

At school, Christofer loved maths when he had fun textbooks until 6th Grade. At that point the serious textbooks with fewer interesting pictures and colours, and a separate book for doing the work made him lose interest. He now says that anyone having fun is learning, even if just on an inexplicit level.

While we also talked about serious and difficult topics related to mental and physical health, at the end, we had a lot of fun recording this episode and you will hear us laughing a lot. And at the end that encapsulates Christofer’s personality completely for me. He is deep, and a great conversationalist for serious topics, but he will always make it fun as well.

Kai Christen was a shy, sensitive child, who found school stressful. It’s something you might not see in him when you meet because he radiates confidence, extraversion and a sense of peace with himself.

Kai was born and grew up in Aargau, Switzerland. In high-school he intentionally tried to be cooler but never felt successful at it. At age 16 he discovered personal development through Dale Carnegie and thought “I don’t have to be broken any longer”. Now he doesn’t like that framing anywhere and laughs about the idea of being broken. But pursuing personal development was one of the most important drivers in his life.

When Kai went to university he felt like he fit in a lot more. But he still describes himself as a bad student who didn’t pay attention in class, and was more interested in partying. He always found school unengaging and now that he teaches at universities himself thinks hard about how to make class interesting for his students.

I met Kai in 2014 when he was working on his first personal development conference and we quickly became friends and business partners running two conferences together. This conversation was recorded in December 2018 and is finally seeing the light of day.

Today Kai runs personal leadership modules at universities around Switzerland, and generally follows his curiosity and passion on new business ventures.

Tinashe Mashungu talks about his passion for igniting an economic renaissance in Africa and recognising how your contributions fit into the big picture.

Key takeaways:

Tinashe’s boarding school experience began the formation of his character
He studied mathematics, physics and computer science
He changed his major at Reed College to study economics
At the World Economic Forum, Tinashe showcased his work and began focusing on bigger issues
He wants to democratize energy provision in Africa

Communications professional Laura Curau talks about her passion for helping others, learning to ask for help, and her journey to finding her balance.

On today’s podcast:

Laura’s family were her role models
Her political activity began in her teenage years
She excelled academically but struggled socially in school
Traveling with Up With People was life changing and inspiring
Dealing with burnout at work
Learning to ask for help

South African manager Bongiwe Beja talks about overcoming heartbreak, picking up the pieces of her life, and her quest to become an influential African leader.

Key takeaways:
The strong, positive influence of Bongiwe’s sister
How her love of music, drama and math were born
Her first life-changing experience
Studying finance and entrepreneurship at university
Her dramatic marriage and having to raise her daughter on her own
Her drive to become an African leader

Chinese filmmaker Yushan Chen talks about her constant search for the truth.

Key takeaways:
Her earliest memory and her first rebellion
Her tough years within the Chinese educational system
Falling in love and discovering rock and metal music
Studying journalism at university and being disappointed with the career prospects in China
Dealing with depression
The path that led her to filmmaking