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Shadowboxing rounds are solo episodes where I, Life-Sparring host Fabian Gruber share "What's On and Poppin" in my life, what current books provide "Food for Thought," and what else is going on. There are no interviews, just a bit of solo rambling and occasionally some awful singing. This episode is somewhat of a comeback after an almost four-month podcasting hiatus. As it looks, a lot changed, and in the meantime, we entered a new world order. My thoughts on the state of the world and how to deal with such a historic inflection point are the show's main topic. Even the books reviewed in the "Food for Thought" segment fit the theme. This is probably a bit of a heavier solo round; let me know if you liked it.  For more information visit Life-Sparring.com/podcast

For the last three years, working out during my lunch break with a personal trainer has been one of the few affordable luxuries in my life. Since the summer of last year, I have trained twice per week with Aiko Liu, also known as " Little Hulk, " in Hong Kong Bodybuilding circles and by his 10k followers on Instagram. Aiko has been successfully competing in the amateur bodybuilding circuit in Hong Kong and beyond for the past five years and is working as a coach with several other competitive athletes. In addition to competing as an athlete and working as a personal trainer, Aiko has been an investor in gyms in Hong Kong. Reason enough to take the Life-Sparring Podcast out of the comfort of my home studio and meet Aiko in his brand-new Vision PT gym, in Shatin Hong Kong, to talk about bodybuilding, gym economics, steroids, and workout and diet routines. Let's kick this year off strong and do what people usually do in January, going to the gym. More info and all links to Aiko's Social Media profiles in the Show Notes on Life-Sparring.com.

Before I started podcasting and Food for Thought became a regular book review segment in the shadowboxing solo podcasts, it was the title of an annual blog post introducing my top five books I read in the outgoing year. I just published this year’s Food for Thought blog; it is the seventh consecutive year. But since 2021 was the year of the Life-Sparring podcast, it felt unavoidable not to record a Food for Thought Podcast special.  To make the best of the audio/video format and to spice things a bit up, I invited a guest for this round, Hong Kong-based executive coach and friend of the show, David Siu. Together we discuss each of our top three books of the year and more generally about reading and life. Books we are covering in the show: Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics, by Tim Marshall Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, by Scott McCloud Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, by Michael Lewis A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell, by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg & Alan Eagle For more details and links to all books, head over to Life-Sparring.com/podcast

Middle of October, I was glued for 4 days to a Facebook Live stream from Bell Buckle, Tennessee, following Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra, one of the craziest ultra trail running races in the world. Different from a traditional start to finish race, “Big’s” does not have a finish line. Instead, all race contenders must start a loop of the course at every full hour. If they manage to get around the 6.7056 km / 4 miles 880 feet long loop in less than 60 minutes, the remainder of the hour can be used for resting, refueling, running to the toilets, or even sleeping. The race winner is the participant, who manages to complete one more round than the second last contender. For Morten Klingenberg, aka Løbetossen / Run Crazy, the trip from Denmark to the Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championships was a big step up to the world stage and only his second race outside of his native country. As a trail running enthusiast, albeit a slow one, I couldn’t have been more excited getting Morten on the show, talking about running with the “big dogs,” and developing the ultimate ultra mindset. For complete show notes, all relevant links and more cool content, go to Life-Sparring.com

I always get real experts in their respective feels to join me in the virtual Life-Sparring ring. However, this time, I hit one out of the ballpark and convinced an actual rockstar of medicine to spar with me. Henrik Widegren (MD) is based in Lund, Sweden, where he works in the university clinic as Otolaryngologist or Ear, Nose & Throat doctor. When Henrik is not seeing patients or is participating in clinical research, he is composing, writing, and performing songs about healthcare and medicine. He published several albums in Swedish and English, and in 2019, Henrik landed a viral hit with his song “Never Google Your Symptoms,” attracting more than 4.3 million views on YouTube. My conversation with Henrik covers a lot of ground, Henrik’s musical career from playing the recorder to becoming a recording artist; why he chose Otolaryngology over heart surgery, how it feels to become a viral sensation, and being the most prominent singing medical professional since Dr. Alban (It’s my Life – you remember?). Last but not least, we talk about the state of the medical profession and what we believe could improve the communication between doctors and patients. We also discuss critical medical topics such as the Man Cold, snoring, excessive earwax, and losing your voice to a spicy Malaysian dish. I had an absolute blast talking to Henrik, and I am sure you will also enjoy this one. For a video version of this podcast, go to YouTube, for the full show notes to this round and more quality content, visit Life-Sparring.com/podcast

In Life-Sparring Round 14, Jonathan de Potter, founder and CEO of Behold Retreats, takes us on a trip far outside my comfort zone and our usual range of topics. Lo and behold, we are talking psychedelic plant medicine! Psychedelics received in recent years a scientific renaissance. Reputable institutes like Johns Hopkins or the Imperial College London are conducting studies on substances like Psilocybin and Ayahuasca, showing promising results in treating addictions, trauma, and depression. However, when talking about psychedelics, you quickly enter a rabbit hole that leads from science to philosophical questions and the esoteric. Is the self just an illusion? Where does our consciousness come from? Is there really a god molecule? My discussion with Jonathan de Potter touches on a lot of these topics. For show notes and more information, visit Life-Sparring.com/podcast

Round 13 of the Life-Sparring Podcast is an ambitious one. With Professor Elizabeth George and Professor Prithviraj Chattopadhyay, I face not just one but two academic heavyweights in the virtual Life-Sparing ring, and our topic is nothing less than the eternal question “Who Am I.” As Professors of Management, both Elizabeth and Raja have spent large parts of their professional lives researching and teaching what makes organizations run. The social and personal identity of employees is a recurring theme of their research. In our almost one-hour-long discussion, we cover many aspects of Elizabeth’s and Raja’s Identity (Re-)Search. How to define identity? What role does identity play in our lives? How does Social Media or working from home influence our identities? These and a lot of other questions we are trying to answer in our discussion. For detailed show notes and more information visit Life-Sparring.com/podcast.

Shadowboxing rounds are solo episodes, where I, Life-Sparring host Fabian Gruber share “What’s On and Poppin” in my life, what current books provide “Food for Thought,” and what else is going on. No interviews, just a bit of solo rambling and occasionally some awful singing.  The summer heat in Hong Kong made for a slow summer. What’s On and Poppin’ is all about carbohydrate supplement UCAN SuperStarch, which I have tried for the first time. I also recap a German podcast that I just did, talking about one of my favorite topics, the quantified self. In Food For Thought, I talk about John Irving’s The Water-Method Man and The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. For good measure, I also throw an article in the mix on the economics of Dollar Stores in the US. For more information visit Life-Sparring.com/podcast

As the founder & editor-in-chief of Green Queen, Sonalie Figueiras is somewhat of a role model for me personally and Life-Sparring. After all, Sonalie turned a personal blog that she started ten years ago, fueled by her search for a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle into a sprawling impact media outlet. Today Green Queen generates 7 million-plus monthly impressions, with the mission to inform, inspire and empower. In our discussion, Sonalie tells her story and how she, of all people, became the Green Queen of Hong Kong. Sonalie shares what she believes are the most impactful steps a mindful individuum can take to lower one’s ecological footprint and how she sees the currently blossoming sector of Alt Protein, meat or meat replacement harvested without harming animals. More info and all show notes, links, and resources, as usual, at Life-Sparring.com/podcast.

For the May round of Life-Sparring Shadowboxing, I spare you the usual signing. I usually interpret a loneliness-themed song, but this time there is a special feature guest. No loneliness and no singing! You wonder, who that surprising guest is? Well, nobody other than The Wife. Usually, she contributes to the show through constructive or not so constructive criticism, but this time she joins me on the mic. In “What’s On and Poppin’” we recount our experience with moderate side-effects taking the BioNTech - Pfizer - Fosun vaccination and share the data from our health wearables. I also talk about the ultra-light T8 running underwear and shorts, I recently got. In "Food for Thought", the book segment of the Podcast, we are back on the topic of COVID-19, as the book I just finished reading is Michael Lewis’ brand new book “The Premonition: A Pandemic Story”.

Shadowboxing rounds are solo episodes, where I, Life-Sparring host Fabian Gruber share “what’s On and Poppin” in my life, what current books provide “Food for Thought,” and what else is going on. No interviews, just a bit of solo rambling and occasionally some bad singing. In this round of Life-Sparring Shadowboxing: truly awful singing and an attempt to explain it, a first review of the Oura Ring health monitor and reviews of Laura Huang’s book “Edge” and the late Clayton M. Christensen’s book “Competing Against Luck.” More info and all show notes, links, and resources, as usual, at Life-Sparring.com/podcast.

OKRs, Objectives and Key Results - After the Life-Sparring Podcast has been heavy on health and fitness topics recently, it is time for an exciting business and personal productivity round. Our guest, Simon Klaiber, is not just a successful business agility consultant and coach from Frankfurt, Germany; he also runs two Podcasts (in German) on business and personal agility. In episode 21 of his Personal Agility Podcast, Simon shared his experience using OKRs for personal goal setting. Introduced initially at Intel in the late 1970s, early 1980s by then legendary CEO Andy Grove, OKRs were later popularized by Intel staffer turned private equity investor John Doerr. Doerr brought OKRs to the young team at Google and several other Silicon Valley start-ups, from where the concept diffused into the broader tech industry. Today OKRs are a widely used method to set goals for an organization and create alignment, transparency, and accountability across different corporate levels. Together Simon and Fabian explore the advantages and pitfalls of OKRs and how a tool originally designed for big corporations can be helpful to achieve your personal goals. For more details check out the show notes at Life-Sparring.com/podcast