The Banal Podcast The Banal Team

Welcome to episode 32 of the Banal Podcast. In this special installment, we’re thrilled to dive into the innovative realm of FabLab Nepal with our esteemed guests, Pallab Shrestha(Technical Lead) and Shashank Dewan(Technical Officers). From the intricacies of mechanical design to the community-driven initiatives of FabLab, we cover it all. This conversation sheds light on the intersection of creativity, technology, and education in Nepal’s vibrant maker community.

In this episode, we take a journey through the corridors of innovation and machinery with Pallab Shrestha and Shashank Dewan. Our discussion orbits around FabLab Nepal's foundations, its powerful influence on local makers, and the synergies with Impact Hub Kathmandu. We navigate the challenges of operating a makerspace, celebrate the successes, and unearth the potent combo of design software and mechanical creativity.



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Hello and welcome to this episode of the Banal Podcast in 2024. In this episode, Pikam and Umesh have a chitchat about Umesh's recent trip to Nepal and rejuvenating the sluggish nature of the podcast release. This is a short episode to mark the comeback of The Banal Podcast.

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Welcome to this episode of the banal podcast. This week we are excited to bring a conversation with Urja Singh Thapa, a student in the Graduate Program in Economics Development at Vanderbilt University. We talk about economics as a discipline and what Urja’s experience has been so far in pursuing this degree. Overall this was a good conversation, we hope you will enjoy it.

All in all, this was a good conversation with a lot of interesting informative nuggets, and by our character a conversation about living as ex-pats on foreign soil. Thanks



#thebanalpodcast #nepalipodcast #theeconomist

Hello and Namaste,

Wishing a happy Tihar to all of you.

This week, we present a conversation with Swastik Bhandari, a Project Consultant at Civil and Environmental Consultants. Swastik got his master's degree in civil engineering with a focus on water resources from southern Illinois university Carbondale and is a professional engineer working as a consultant. In this episode, we discuss ins and outs of Civil engineering career in the US from Swastik's point of view, we hope you will enjoy it.

We start the conversation with chitchat about football and begin by introducing Swastik's job description. We talk about many aspects of civil engineering and career in the US. Probably the most informative nugget in this episode is about the fundamentals of engineering and the professional engineering certification that almost every civil engineering graduate in the US takes. While it is not mandatory, Swastik explains how having these certifications helped him with his career.

All in all, this was a good conversation with a lot of interesting informative nuggets, and by our character a conversation about living as ex-pats on foreign soil. Hope you will enjoy it. Thanks

#theengineer #thebanalpodcast #nepalipodcast #civilengineering #waterresourcesengineering #feexam #peexam #audiopodcast #videopodcast

We have been off for a month or two but now we are back with a new episode. We are pleased to bring you a conversation with Dr. Bal Krishna Bal, Associate Professor & Head of Department, Computer Science & Engineering, Kathmandu University (KU). Dr. Bal’s research focuses on natural language processing with local languages at the front and center, and over the years he has been leading the efforts on various projects related to that. This podcast is a summary and high-level overview of Dr. Bal’s Journey, his research as well as teaching and research at Kathmandu University. Hope you will enjoy it thanks.

This week, we are excited to bring you a conversation with Nabina Budathoki Magar. Nabina is a technical official at the Nepal Taekwondo Association as well as a former taekwondo player herself, 4th dan to be precise. Additionally, she is also a second-class national referee for Taekwondo. You should have guessed it by now, and yes this podcast is all about Taekwondo. We venture into many avenues of the sport as it relates to Nepal. Since Nepal is a powerhouse for Taekwondo in South Asia, it was valuable for us to delve into the world of Taekwondo in Nepal. We hope you will enjoy it.

We also bring you the personal story of Nabina and how the sport helped shape her. From being an official, getting ranked 4th dan, involving in NGOs like ECDC, being a technician for SAF games as well as organizing and referring for various local and national games, Nabina has done it all. To our pleasant surprise, she is also pursuing two Masters degrees. Holy moly, she is quite impressive, isn’t she?

We discuss various aspects of Taekwondo and its popularity in Nepal. There are various roadblocks to its development but the future is optimistic. We are really thankful to Nabina for her time and insights as well as hope that this episode will be helpful for you, the viewer.



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