16 episodes
Sonder Union Owen McGrann
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- Society & Culture
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5.0 • 6 Ratings
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Sonder Union is, at heart, an exercise in human connection. In a world that encourages spit-polished projections of ourselves on every kind of social media, marketing, personal branding, etc., are we able to actually connect with people we don't already intimately know?
Sonder is defined as "the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it."
Let's start paying attention to the complex lives around us.
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Ep 16 - Time is a Flat Circle
What's it like to talk with a friend for the first time in 23 years? Not because you had a falling out, but simply because life happens. Will it be like you just saw each other, or will it be awkward and weird?
Luka Poulton was kind enough to run this experiment with me and we have some answers to that riddle, at least for us. YMMV.
Luka and I had a pretty wide-ranging discussion and I'm pretty confident you'll find something in here to your taste, even if some of this is just old buddies catching up.
You can reach out to Luka on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukapoulton/
All music copyright Owen McGrann -
Ep 15 - The Culture is Embedded in the Lanuage
What a treat it is to speak with Dr. Theodora Ziamou! Theodora is a behavioral psychologist, and as you might expect, a keen observer of people. We have a wide-ranging conversation touching on language, culture, and change.
You can find Theodora on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drtheodoraziamou/
If you're interested in helping your customers make better decisions, you might want to visit https://www.enlexis.com -
Ep 14 - Mapmaking and Strategic Perplexity
What do you talk about when you've got a guy who's won one of the world's toughest races on your podcast? Well, raising children, writing and reading books, and, yes, why doing hard things isn't about the hard thing, really, so much as about breaking bread with our inner animal.
Paul Watkins is a delightful guest: full of expected and unexpected wisdom and a wonderful sense of humor about things. He is able to appreciate Nassim Nicholas Taleb's work and still recognize what a gigantic douche he is.
You can find Paul at https://www.paulwatkins.com.au and on LinkedIn (where he's doing some actually interesting stuff) at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-watkins-92125499/
Music copyright © Owen McGrann 2023. -
Ep 13 - Queen Maeve and the Popcorn Man
Charley Mann has "coffeesodes" on his podcast – short narrative episodes in between his interviews. I guess this is similar, except not really. Helpful description, I know.
If you don't want to hear a story about miscarriage or pregnancy loss, I would skip this one. -
Ep 12 - Babysitters and Cheerleaders
Sarah Ennor and I both have ADHD. Although we didn't intend to talk almost exclusively about ADHD, it just kinda happened ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It was an absolute blast trading stories with Sarah and I suspect you'll find it pretty interesting too. Sarah has played Aussie Rules Football for Team Canada, worked as a badass lawyer for a large bank, opened her own business, and has made it a mission to speak about ADHD in the professional world.
She's awesome and you can find her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-ennor/
Music copyright © Owen McGrann 2023. -
Ep 11 - On Losing Things
Happy New Year and welcome back to Sonder Union. We have a treat in this episode, with Lenor Marquis Segal returning to discuss why losing things is bad, the impact of Covid, and, of course, writing.
Lenor was a guest on Episode 3, The Irish Goodbye. She was a tremendous guest, and I was a tremendously shitty host. I kept cutting out during recording, leaving her hanging in the room, and then managed not to record the last 50 minutes of our conversation. She was gracious enough to come back.
You can find Lenor on LinkedIn (and you should: she's one of the very best writers around): https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenormarquissegal/
Customer Reviews
Beautiful conversations
There’s a hidden side benefit to this show. It shows you how to have deep conversations and ask better questions. Be brave and be curious like Owen the next time you are out in a social setting. You will love the outcome far more.
Breathe-Taking
Literally the breathe of fresh air, space and thinking we all need apart and away from the polished fictions too much all around us! Thanks for this realness!