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Zach (@zachcantrad): Traditional Architecture, Objective Beauty, and The Cult of Modernism

Posted on May 29, 2020

Hey everyone! This podcast was about architecture and why architecture has become … uglier and wackier over time. Thank you to Zach (who graduated from architecture school in 2019) for joining me and talking about his experience at architecture school. You can reach him on twitter at @cantradionalist. I would post all of the show notes here but they turned out to be three pages long. If you want to know the exact minute you should go to that touchesRead More→

Shownotes from Zach

Posted on May 29, 2020

Here are the reading notes from my conversation with Zach. We talked for nearly two hours and talked about a bunch of things.  2.30 Trad arch: ornamentation, based on old designs. Modernism: clean lines, no ornamentation.  5:00 Zach’s experience at school: you’ve always got to “reinterpret” the architecture; you can’t just build a building. Notre Dame Architecture school, traditional architecture.  Immersion in minimalism and modernism, how Zach came to like traditional architecture. “Beauty” – the word. How architects reject the notion. Read More→

The Loaded Barbell Issue of Hookups

Posted on May 28, 2020

“The first time I saw him was on the bus, on my way home from work. I was sitting in the middle of the bus when he got on. He had a sharp jawline, piercing predatory eyes (just my type!) a shirt which failed to conceal his muscular torso, and healthy, glowing skin.  I looked at him.  He looked at me.  And we knew instantly we’d soon sleep with each other.  He sat down in the seat right next toRead More→

Steve Paolasini (pt. 2) – Deporting Native-Born Citizens, Facebook Arguments, and Government.

Posted on May 27, 2020

Hey everyone! Steve’s back by popular demand for part 2. We talk about what he learned from running for office, his dreams moving forward, his thoughts on COVID-19 government policy, and non-alcoholic beers. Hope you like it!  Here’s how you can reach me: twitter, facebook, website.  Here’s a show index (give or take 3 minutes).  Enjoy! 5:00 – Stephen Harper, how it feels to run, and the Christian Heritage Party. 9:00 – What he’s learned from the process – don’tRead More→

Day 4: The F**k up

Posted on May 26, 2020

Man, I made a HUUGE mistake! A couple of weeks ago, I tried to reduce t-shirt printing costs from $25 to $19 by switching from TeeHatch (the t-shirt printer in Vancouver) to Printify (the more professional website). I added Printify to my store, and then removed the popular TeeHatch t-shirt from my storefront. I thought that this would be enough. This was on Friday evening. Around 7 people bought t-shirts over the weekend. Then, on Sunday, while I was doingRead More→

Michael Kudla: 7th Day Adventists, Atheism, Reason, and Thought

Posted on May 24, 2020

Thanks to Michael Kudla for joining me for the 3rd episode of the podcast. Here are the show notes (where you can find what subjects are spoken about, and when). You can also reach him on Facebook and on Instagram.  To reach me, you can tweet me @eugenefds or email me at lettersfromacontrarian2020 [at] gmail [dot] com. This conversation was recorded on May 22, 2020.  — This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.Read More→

Show Notes from Michael Kudla

Posted on May 24, 2020

0:00 – Being a 7th day Adventist; how the community has its own education system.  6:30 – Being taught evolution in a Christian High School.  9:04 – Cracks in his faith – bible study, reading apologetics. 10:32 – More cracks – conversations with friends, watching the Four Horsemen online, debates.  13:00 – Solution to the doubt – a la Descartes! Figure out first principles. But also, how his social life disappeared.  15:33 – The personal and logical arguments he used to think aboutRead More→

Notes from Made to Stick

Posted on May 23, 2020

This is probably the best book I’ve read on how to write/speak/communicate. It solves all of the major problems I (and every other communicator) has. You need to read the book. If you can’t, at least read the notes below. It’s a Grade A book, for SURE. And it’s also not a time waster book – it’s written by both a theorist and a practitioner. Here’s a link to buy it. Core Message: the messages best remembered all have SUCCES:Read More→

Steve Paolasini: Libertarians, Immigration and Starting a Marketing Company

Posted on May 21, 2020

We’ve made it to episode 2! Hurrah!  Today I have Steve Paolasini with me. Steve’s an immigration consultant based in Calgary, AB. I know him from my time at HustleCo, a co-working firm and marketing agency. He and his business partner Husam Rammini created the company and ran internships too.  Steve told me a bunch of really interesting stories in this podcast (like how he was about to ask HARPER for his ID when he was voting!!), so I hopeRead More→

Show Notes from my Podcast with Steve

Posted on May 21, 2020

Links to the podcast: Anchor, Spotify, Google, Apple. Here are the show notes for my conversation with Steve Paolasini. Here’s a link to his facebook page if you’d like to reach out to him. Update: the times are wrong! You’ve got to add 3 minutes to the times below to get the right time. 2:00 Steve’s protest against traffic tickets during COVID-19.  HustleCo, Husam.  Stopping drinking.  The insecurity of being a contrarian.  His new work in Immigration.  Dropping out ofRead More→

The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need for Learning Latin

Posted on May 20, 2020

Dead language or not, you can still reap plenty of rewards from learning the Roman tongue. Read on to learn how. First, why you want to learn Latin? Are you sure you want to? Latin is not for the faint of heart. It is not a “fun” language that you pick up on your weekend trip to Italy, either. You’ll need perseverance, grit, dedication, and patience. Do you want to be able to chop up a sentence to articulate whyRead More→

Summary of Seven Absolute Rights by Ryan Alford.

Posted on May 16, 2020

So this lovely book came in the mail today, earlier than the release date on Amazon. It’s much thinner than I expected – no more than 2 cm thick. Below are my notes for Dr. Ryan Alford’s book . They’re not yet finished, but what I’ve read so far has been exciting. The biggest reason for why is that there are rights which are absolute. They can’t be limited by the government under any circumstances, and they’re older than theRead More→

The First Episode! A Chat with my good friend Nikola Kuzmanovic

Posted on May 8, 2020

For the first episode of Letters from a Contrarian, we have the one and only Nikola Kuzmanovic!  Nikola and I met around two years ago at SciencesPo in Reims, France. I was there for a semester abroad, he was a full student; we’ve remained in touch ever since. Both of us caused a lot of controversy on campus.  In this podcast, we talked about persuasion, dialogue, social change, public art, and architecture, among other things.  You can find him onRead More→

Show notes from Nikola Kuzmanovic

Posted on May 7, 2020

Here’s where you can listen to the podcast: Anchor Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Here are the topics we covered, roughly speaking. 0:00 Why, Eugene, should you start a podcast? What do you seek to accomplish with it? COVID-19, epistemology, and what it means to be a contrarian. Changing people’s beliefs, encouraging critical thinking. Whether dialogue and discourse are worthwhile. Changing behaviours and actions. Finally, how face-to-face discourse reveals new options and invokes humanity. ~33:00 The place of experience in persuasion,Read More→

Day 3: Dr. Henry Fundraiser

Posted on April 26, 2020

The best marketing doesn’t even know that it’s marketing. That’s a tough lesson I’ve learned in this campaign. One artist from my store made a post on the Dr. Henry fan page. It said, basically, that he put his design on a t-shirt, and now he was fundraising with it. His post was blocked by the admins. But some other person put out a fundraising request and … his post was allowed! A third person was making coffee mugs (fundraising,Read More→