JAGERO

What does impossible really mean? Is anything truly impossible? I have a few things that I think have been BOLD. I considered them impossible. But finally I did it. I have not cycled for 40,000 miles. I consider it an impossible. I sat down with Elvis Munis who traveled by bicycle from Chile to Tanzania. He tells me the story of how he slept hungry for days. He reminisces taking coca leaves.   Humans can’t fly, but the Wright brothers proved an airplane could get us close enough. We can’t defy physics and teleport from one side of the world to another, but the internet made it possible to instantly bring the other side of the world to us.

This is my naive understanding of friendship: Friendship is letting someone come close to you: To the parts of me that remain hidden to the rest of the world. Letting you see the little potentialities lingering inside of me even those that are yet to be/or need to be actualized. For a while it has always meant something deeper: To let you, as a friend, to see with their very own eyes the darkness and light that compose me.  By doing so, I reveal to you the very essence of what it means to be human, what it means to be me. But I've failed to have such a person. I have come to realize that I cannot give that. So friendship remains something confusing.  I sat with Abby Achayo, a lawyer and a poet. We talked intimately friendship. We found some answers. But not all. 

I have been wooed by a woman. In fact, she wrote me a letter and this did not happen last ten years ago. It happened last year.  Not once. I have always wanted to talk to a lady and hear how women woo men and the thinking behind it. And I got in touch with Sheila Sheila who told me a vivid description of how she wooed a man. She tells me how she asked for a number from a dude. And she got him. This is podcast is her story and our discussion around the issue.

I speak my mind all the time. Do you speak up when you feel you need to? You see something ethically questionable. Notice someone not being included. Run up against offensive speech. Disagree with an opinion that’s all too quickly become consensus. Want to add a different idea to the decision-making process. While we’d all like to think that if we saw something, we’d say something in these situations, we are strikingly bad at anticipating how we’ll feel in future circumstances and, for a whole host of cognitive reasons, it can be incredibly difficult to speak up in the moment. In fact, research suggests that most people tend to not act, and then rationalize their inaction. But it is important to realize how psychologically difficult — and worthwhile — speaking up can be. That is why I talked to Joyce Kayima, a smart and intelligent lady. Joyce is a member of my church, Allsaints Cathedral, and we talked at length about getting your voice. Speaking up. We chatted about her life as someone who used to speak but then took a step back. She took a step back because of judgements and perhaps because people needed her to speak less.

How do you ACTUALLY feel as a woman? This is the most intimate conversation I have had with a woman about being a woman in 2020, or in modern times. I wanted to have this conversation because I thought I needed to have it. I wanted to have it because woman confuse me - as they confuse many other men. I wanted to hear it because Amanda Grafe said something that is deep, really deep. She said… Being a woman has brought with it both heartache and joy, but mostly it  has shackled me to a role that does not fit who I am or what I am about.  Prejudice exists for both men and women and being recognized as a self —  one independent of these categories — might be impossible for most  because our evaluation of others integrates physical appearance,  emotional reactivity or sexual attraction, dictated by the roles  assigned to that specific sex or gender. It is the latter assessment  that gets me into trouble. Like most women, past and present, I have had  my fair share of struggles simply because I am female. My  unconventional personality, coupled with the adversity tied to my  gender, makes it that much more difficult to align myself with  expectations. Shackled. Please enjoy!

By the word life normally we think about physical aspects that includes breathing, having a body, sense of organs, and this whole physical situational world around us which sometimes we control and sometimes we don't. The physical manifestation of all this is a life of the materialistic world which you meant in the question where we see all we feel all we live all we do all that is controllable by our physical body only the part which can be. The other form of life is the life of a spiritual world where we don't have any physical manifestation no eyes no ears no nose etc. As a normal human being, we are unknown to that form of life so we can not control it. But that un-manifested energy is controlled somewhere by someone who don't have physical form. So what do you feel about all these? What do you feel about life. I had a discussion with Omondi Ochuka about what he feels about life. What he feels about capitalism, about love. About being good.  I hope you enjoy the episode. 

The idea of being a man is no longer what it was. Men were were asked to be strong, not to cry (or do it in the toilet if they have to), be the leader, the bread winner, and not wash dishes, or baby sit. They have been told to see themselves as equal to women. That women can do what they can - even do it better.  There is feminism, which fights for the equality of women and in so doing, questions what it is to be a man, which obviously affects men pretty directly. I wanted to know what a father of a young man think in the face of this 'shift'. What does he tell his son about leadership or relationship with other women?  On this podcast, I chatted with Eric Mungai, the CEO and Founder, Yazua Africa.  Eric’s journey began with his own experiences growing-up in low-income housing in Nairobi and the reality for others in this situation; the lack of options and positive exposure sentencing young men to a life of crime, drugs, and hopelessness. Through active and intentional parenting, his caregiver ensured he was exposed to learning, reading, and interactions that opened his mind to all possibilities. Enjoy the episode. 

In the words of Njoki Ngumi... There are three main concerns Kenyans from all walks of life have during illness or any manner of health crisis: 1) Who is going to take care of me, and where do I have to go to access that care? 2) Will all the options I need for full care be available to me, and are they the best ones there are? 3) Who is going to pay for the options I take? Is it going to have to be me, and what does that mean for my budget and my life? How does it feel to be a Kenyan Health professional? Who pays for universal healthcare? The organic segue when discussing value of life in healthcare is to ask ourselves a few rather philosophical questions. How much are states willing to invest in the life and wellbeing of their citizens? A quantification of the amounts of money a nation’s citizens pay out of pocket for healthcare would be one way to understand that. Understanding where citizens have to plug in from their own net income—and why—may be a more qualitative way to map out any gaps in a country’s healthcare spend. I discuss health care with Madina Wa Chege, a health specialist and an activist.

I have published three books and I have a fourth on the way. The truth is that it has been a tough, tough journey. Then there is writing; a tough thing as a Kenyan. Then we have all the writers in this country who have loads of manuscripts that cannot be published one way of the other. What is happening? We had Kwani? that everyone thought was going to step in forcefully. That is arguable. Then we have many more such as Jalada. We discussed it. Candidly. Troy Onyango runs Lolwe and he is the publishing manager for the new publishing company called Jahazi. Troy Onyango is a writer, editor and lawyer. His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Doek!, Wasafiri, Johannesburg Review of Books, AFREADA, Ebedi Review, Nairobi Noir, Caine Prize Anthology (Redemption Song & Other Stories), Kalahari Review and Transition among others. The winner of the inaugural Nyanza Literary Festival Prize and first runner-up in the Black Letter Media Competition, he has also been shortlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize, the Brittle Paper Awards, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

In this series, "How I feel as a..." I am speaking to different people in different disciplines and careers. My guest, Brian Ogola, is a Kenyan film, stage and television actor. His film, Poacher is coming to Netflix on the 30th Sept. 2020.  Ogola  discovered his passion, love and appreciation for performing arts in high school but begun acting professionally in 2012. His break out role was in the hit Kenyan television series JANE AND ABEL produced by Dorothy Ghettuba, where he was cast as the lead.  In 2015, he was cast in the movie KATI KATI, a feature film nominated in the 90th Academy Awards (Oscars) in the category "Best Foreign Language Film." He graciously stars alongside Joyce Maina in the only African short film (NEOPHOBIA, 2017) selected for screening at the prestigious 70th Cannes Film Festival in France. On stage performances, he takes the city by storm with the TOO EARLY FOR BIRDS play series based on odd stories from Kenyan history as featured on the blog OWAAAH. Through his art, Brian is committed to projects that spark conversation and shift opinions on vital social issues affecting Kenya today. He was cast as a lead role in the award-winning movie 18HRS, which aims to give perspective to not only the Kenyan Health Care System but Africa’s as a whole. The film won “Best Overall Movie in Africa” in the 6th Annual AMVCAs.His role in the 2018 film POACHER got him a few nominations in the 2018 Kalasha Awards, one of them being “Best Lead Actor” in a film. The film lenses in on the broad issue of poaching in Africa. It won “Best Short film” in the prestigious awards amongst other international awards. Brian Ogola is a seasoned, ethereal and risky actor that enjoys intentional healthy living, music and some alone time.