"I like the stories; I love the characters."
Adam benShea, is a lecturer at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and a master at Brazilian Jiujitsu. He talked with Mark and Patrick about his fascination with stories. If the name sounds familiar to you, it is because we have had Adam's father, Noah, and sister, Jordan, on this show. This completes our benShea trifecta.
This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:
Adam explains the difference between a professor and a lecturer. Thanks.
The title of this episode comes from his work in jujitsu - he explains what that means and why it's important to a life off the mat
His life works in Religious Studies
- Specifically Religion and Violence. This class is very popular and interesting to students
His fascination with patterns and repetition.
What's a Textualist?
He understands story architectures and talks at length about The Stage, The Actor, the Day and the Hero's Journey
He helps us understand American Christain Violence (while we are all focused on Islamic terrorism lately)
How current time relates to Ancient Time
How Hamas uses its bombing strategy to deliver 'messages.'
How he found his passion for learning - hint, it was a great teacher/mentor, Richard Hecht
One of his mantras that get explained and referred to a lot: "Everybody fights. Nobody quits." Attributed to his high school wrestling coach Mike Hart
When asked about watching sports he mentioned, "I'm not a great spectator."
Being aware of your cultural baggage
A story about stories with Noah as the example of how he appears in the Bible and the Kuran
"I don't teach theology"
An interesting sidebar on atheism
Didn't know about JewBu's - Jewish Buddhists until this show
His book that let him exercise his writing and entrepreneurial spirit: Jailhouse Strong
"Senseless is not senseless at all"
