My Podcast: Wandering with Ravi Ram

Today feels like a day of new beginnings. It's a new moon. And my family is also celebrating my mom's third "re-birthday" -- it's been three years since she went into remission from multiple myeloma.

So today, I've launched my podcast: Wandering with Ravi Ram

The idea for this podcast first came to me during the pandemic in 2020, when I felt a desire to get outside more and connect with people. I wasn't exactly sure how to do this given quarantine requirements.

I decided that every so often I'd call someone while taking a socially-distanced walk, and informally ask them to tell me about their life experiences. I called these Wisdom Walks. I even recorded (but never shared) a couple of these conversations when the person was willing.

Since then, I've felt an itch to actually make something like this come to life. Now I have.

(side note: people have been telling me for years that I have a podcast voice, but one of my closest friends Umut makes fun of me instead, and leaves me voicemails imitating me sounding like Batman).

Why Wandering?

I explain the concept in my first episode, a short introduction to the podcast.

In each episode, I have a wandering conversation with someone -- a conversation filled with wit, wisdom, and who knows what else.

We (1) wander together, (2) wander without purpose, and (3) discuss wandering through life.

What do I mean by this?

(1) Wandering together

I've written previously about how we can do more and more things today without even having to interact with another human. Asking for directions. Buying groceries. Having food delivered. Being driven places. Getting medical advice.

The list is endless. It's growing. And it's only getting exacerbated by AI. In fact, as a society, we are even celebrating the idea that we can do more and more without interacting with other humans.

The potential damage of this got extra real for me when I re-watched The Matrix on a recent flight. There is a scene where Morpheus has an exchange with Neo to explain what the Matrix is.

Morpheus: “At some point early in the 21st century, all of mankind was united in celebration. We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI."

Neo: "AI.. you mean Artificial Intelligence?"

Morpheus: "A singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of machines. We don’t know who struck first. Us or them.”

Morpheus goes on to explain that soon after this widely lauded birth of AI, humans became subservient to machines, enslaved by them (without even being aware of it), and literally "grown" or "cultivated" by the machines to serve as energy sources for them.

We are now in the early 21st century, united (perhaps) in celebration, marveling at our own magnificence as we've given birth to AI -- exactly what Morpheus said. BTW The Matrix came out in 1999(!!). Eerie much?

I want to do something about this.

I want to create a space where we can wander, together, anytime. Where we can hear each others' stories and find ways to relate to each other.

I imagine most of us can remember a time when we wandered alongside someone just for fun -- maybe on a walk, a road trip, a holiday -- and the experience left us bonded for life.

Which brings me to...

(2) Wandering without purpose

How many things do you do today without an explicit goal in mind? Without trying to gain or achieve something?

Do you ever go for a walk without tracking your steps? Do you ever go on a trip without trying to take the perfect picture to post online? Do you ever play music or create art just.. because?

Do you often analyze whether something is worth your time, trying to decide if it'll increase your productivity, efficiency, credibility, health, wealth, or visibility?

I struggle with much of this daily. I want to know that I'm making the most of my time on this planet, which often means trying to squeeze something out of every moment. To feel like I've accomplished something with my time, over and over.

In fact, for years I tried to leverage meditation (perhaps one of the most powerful atelic activities) as a goal-oriented exercise. I was practicing meditation specifically to ensure I'd feel more peaceful and happy. I wanted to get "better" every day instead of practicing from a place of letting go, of not trying to control outcomes. I lost the plot.

I want to do something about this.

I want to create a space in which we can practice spending our time just... wandering. Without trying to achieve anything.

To this end, I can't -- and won't try to -- prove that any episode of this podcast will "add value" for you or have "impact" on your life.

Which brings me to...

(3) Wandering through life

All of us are wandering through life in some way or another. Geographically, Professionally. Emotionally. In our relationships. In exploring our passions. Whatever.

But our society, our cultures, our communities, our advisors, our social media feeds often glorify revelations, making breakthroughs, having things figured out. This creates immense pressure such that people feel they have to put on a face, to display that they too have their life sorted.

I want to do something about this.

I want to create a space in which we share openly about things we're still figuring out, areas in which we're still... wandering.

I want to hear about what still feels uncertain or unresolved for us, about the parts of life where we feel unsure if something is working, about the times when we're perhaps not even clear on what we truly want or value.

I hope we can help each other breathe easier knowing that this experience of wandering through life is universal to all humans in some way or another.

So how is each episode structured?

Each episode will be called "Wandering with [Name of Guest]" and the only introduction you'll get to my guest is their name and how we met. That's it.

The idea is to make it harder for a listener to determine whether or not an episode is "worth it." You won't necessarily know beforehand what our guest wanderer does in life, who they are, where they're from, or what expertise or credentials they have.

You can of course look someone up, but part of what I'm going for here is to have people (including myself) practice doing things without assurance of outcomes.

Each episode has 3 segments:

(1) Warmup

In the Warmup segment, my guest and I go through a series of "A or B?" questions, where I ask my guest about their preferences. They have to choose either A or B, or can say neither and give a different option C.

I often make these questions up on the fly. This gives us a much more endearing introduction to a person than anything I could write up in a personal bio or read on someone's LinkedIn.

(2) Wit & Wisdom

In the Wit & Wisdom segment, I ask my guest a series of both fun and reflective questions.

For example:

• "What's the most embarrassing thing you did recently?"

• "If you could go back and tell your younger self something, what would you tell them?"

• "What's a habit you have that the people who love you make fun of you for?"

• "Is there something you spend time on today which you're really good at, but which saps your energy?"

I also change these up randomly based on what comes to mind or what feels right in the moment.

(3) Wandering

In this final Wandering segment, we continue to improvise... er... wander.

We might circle back to something which came up earlier in the conversation. We might explore something new. Who knows.

And that's it.

Ok phew.. that was a long wandering post. So what's the deal again?

I started this podcast because I want to create a space for us to (1) wander together in conversation, (2) wander without purpose, and (3) discuss wandering through life.

Maybe we'll learn something, maybe we won't. Maybe we'll laugh, maybe we won't. Maybe we'll feel inspired, maybe we won't. Maybe we'll come out feeling glad we spent our limited time this way, maybe we won't.

And that's the beauty of it. For me, it's a practice in just sitting and wandering as well.

If you feel like listening, I'd recommend starting by choosing a 5-minute segment of any particular episode, at any point in the episode. And then just listen.

Maybe you'll find it riveting and you'll lose track of time. Maybe you'll be wildly confused and completely tune out. Who knows.

Come wander with me.

P.S. You can expect new episodes on each full moon and each new moon day.

P.P.S. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has supported me on this journey. If any of you reading this would like to join me for an episode as a wanderer, please let me know :)