Ted Agon is a returning guest to the podcast. He’s not your average author & speaker.
He’s lived in seven countries and set foot on five of the seven continents. The man’s a global adventurer. Not to mention he served in the Vietnam War in the 1970s.
At 79 years young, he’s got incredible energy (& knowledge). He goes ballroom dancing five nights a week, calling himself a table-hopper. It’s how he met the love of his life, Julie.
My favorite part of the podcast is when he shares the pickup line that “worked” with Ms Julie—afterward thinking darn it, how come I didn’t think of that line decades ago. Haha! Amazingly, prior to meeting, he & Ms Julie had been single for 27 & 23 years, respectively.
He believes if you’re looking for love—you will not find it—it must be spontaneous.
Ok Ted, but some of us are going to go looking on that 7,243rd night going to bed alone. I kid, because Ted makes me feel that way sometimes. Lol (let’s see if he texts me asking what “Lol” means:)
Usually, he only texts me when he finds a Joe Rogan clip he thinks ridiculous or finds something that says men are dummies.
Back to Ted’s bonafides. He’s the author of two remarkable books: The Human Key, which is a comprehensive exploration for those seeking knowledge, and The Learning Curve—a condensed version of the book for the modern reader with a shorter attention span.
Ted has a unique ability to observe the simple things in life. His favorite quotes deal with simplicity. You come away from chatting with Ted realizing he knows what’s important. It’s all honed by his upbringing. Raised by a single mother. Limited resources. What they had was community and a profound love of nature.
We discuss being blessed with different aptitudes. What sets Ted apart is his knack for clear writing, which of course is thinking. Or at the very least, enables you to identify holes in your thinking.
Get ready for an insightful & inspiring conversation with my friend & neighbor, Ted.
We cover the following topics:
- Ted’s upbringing
- Growing up in a small community
- How Ted joined the Air Force and taught Advanced Electronics
- Ted getting better in class via collecting questions & doing research
- Men becoming metrosexual to attract women
- How women are now so much more educated than men
- Men becoming less attractive financially
- Women are more nurturing & better communicators than men
- How Ted’s mother raised him & his brothers by herself
- Spring planting (burying people who’d died over the winter)
- Why Ted & his brothers never thought of themselves as “adventurers”
- The absence of community in cities now (why you don’t know your next-door neighbors)
- Effects of social media
- Why Ted thinks people won’t revert to reading books
- Asking questions to “cult followers” to make them think
- Ted believes there’s a serious lack of awareness nowadays
- Ted & company traveling from India to Nepal & Europe in a camper bus
- Common sense only works where you come from
- We all have different talents & aptitudes
- Finding out a child’s needs by allowing them to interrupt teachers & ask questions
- Ted’s thoughts on shaking hands (is it a sign of confidence or something else?)
- Comedian Matt Rife poking fun at women wanting equality now that the worst century in history is behind us and men have developed electricity, air conditioning, indoor plumbing, etc.
- Queens launching more wars than men in Europe per qz.com
- Statistically, what it means to be a man
- Misogyny vs toxic masculinity
- Learning from being social, but absorbing in solitude what we’ve learned from beingsocial
- Importance of journaling/writing
- The “cocktail party effect”
- Whether Dr. Peter Hotez should debate RFK Jr. on The Joe Rogan Experience
- Peddi Sambasiva Rao asking permission to translate Ted’s book
- Importance of having a sense of humor in marriage
- Ted’s first marriage
- Thai cuisine
- Blending of cultures in Asia
- Artificial intelligence
- Ted’s advice for a happy & healthy relationship
- The Human Key and The Learning Curve
Questions asked:
- Where are you from in this world?
- Did you grow on a block of 800 people?
- Don’t you think living in a small-size village keeps people well behaved?
- How old were you when you got out of your town?
- When did you join the Air Force?
- How much would have Google helped you at that time with research?
- Did you feel like you had to build yourself up as a man to attract a woman?
- Why do you suppose men are dropping out of college at such a high rate?
- So you don’t think equally qualified women make as much as equally qualified men?
- Do you know that the average grade of a high school girl is an A?
- What do you think of this generation of young men where our culture tells them that they’re rapists, racists, toxic, or privileged?
- Did burying people change your relationship to death at all?
- Are you not aware of what’s going on with the millennial generation & how things have changed in inter-gender dynamics?
- Is there a correlation between how a woman behaves & how strong her man is?
- Do you agree with Nietzsche’a quote–”Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent?”
- What was that Joe Rogan clip you sent me yesterday & why did you send that to me?
- How long did you stay married to your first wife?
Fun questions:
- Is social media a net negative on society?
- In their prime, who are you taking on a dinner date–Heather Locklear or Christie Brinkley?
- What’s the best food you’ve ever had in the world?
- If you and Julie could go somewhere in the world for one month later this year, where would you go?
- If you were stuck in Vietnam for a month, and you could only bring one album with you, who would you bring?
- If somebody gave you $100,000 and forced you to invest it in 3 companies–Tesla, Amazon, and Apple–how much would you put into each of the 3 companies?
- What do you think of Megan Markle?
- What is one piece of advice for a happy, healthy relationship as you have?
Listen here:
Books mentioned:
- The Human Key by Ted Agon
- The Learning Curve by Ted Agon
Connect with Ted:
- Information Website: The Human Key
