QCP #019 | Connor McCann of the Brain Drain Podcast | How Can We Better Relate To Each Other?

GUEST BIO

Connor McCann is the host of the Brain Drain Podcast. I came across his video about San Francisco's graffiti culture on YouTube, which was a topic that I was very interested in for so many reasons. 

That led me to his other videos, topics about the far corners of the world, geopolitics, organized crime, interwoven between personal stories about growing up during the early to mid-90s as a son of Irish immigrants in the middle of the city of San Francisco at the cross streets of gang violence and cultural diversity. 

In listening to his videos, I noticed the way he recalled information. The way he tells these stories, sometimes seemingly without any pre-written script, connecting the dots between two or more things that, on the surface, have no connection is nothing short of amazing to me because he often finds a way to make it work. On a deeper level, this conversation showed me how little I know and why it's vital to learn deeply about the cultures around us about the cultures around the world. How they affect us, the decisions we make, the decisions our leaders make for us, and how it affects the rest of the world, including some of the people in our communities, if not only because they are interesting stories, but because in learning we might be able to offer a unique observation to contribute ideas that spread love and light in the world. Or admit that we don't know enough and accept the moments that we must sit and listen to the people around us, despite the urge to jump to sudden conclusions.

In taking on a project like this podcast, I thought to myself - how can I possibly contribute ideas that bring people together if I have no idea what deeply divides us in the first place?

I hope this conversation inspires that in you, the way it has inspired me to question the personal, social, and systemic barriers between all of us, the people right next to you, and everyone you might come across on a daily basis. How can we better relate to one another?

Connor McCann joins us from his place in Ashville, South Carolina. A place wherein recent years, he's made home. Although San Francisco is a place he holds close to his heart, he has no plans of returning any time soon. In this conversation, we get a glimpse of his side of the San Francisco cultural landscape, how to see the conflict from a multidimensional perspective, and most importantly, I got a sense of someone that has indeed crossed over the barriers and borders in his mind to seek truth with the awareness that there is always a different answer or explanation, and in embracing curiosity and our pursuit of knowledge, there is a deepening of our relationship with the world and the people around us. 

SHOW NOTES | MENTIONS

• Carabas Barabas (sp?) Russian Mafia
• Odessa
• Tsarist Times
• Ben Davis
• San Francisco Gangs in the mid 90s
• Commonalities between Latin and FIlipino cultures
• Irish Conflict and History
• Turkish Mafia
• Khmer Rouge
• Geopolitics of Syria
• Khmelnytsky Uprising - Stuck In the Middle episode (Brain Drain)
• Russian Revolution
• Fall of Communism
• Hapsburgs
• Shrimp Boy Chow
• Mohammed Nuru