EPISODE 77 Bruce Lee (Part 1)

06/05/21 • 136 min

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“Energy is eternal delight.” William Blake

“Hong Kong in the 1950s was a depressed place. Post–World War II Hong Kong had suffered from unemployment, a poor economy, over-crowding, homelessness, and people taking advantage of each other. Gangs roamed the street, and juvenile delinquents ran rampant.” Hawkins Cheung

“Teachers should never impose their favorite patterns on their students—he said—They should be finding out what works for them, and what does not work for them. The individual is more important than the style.” Bruce Lee

“I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision. It is all of these combined…” Bruce Lee

Ask anyone for one name they associate with martial arts, and odds are they will mention Bruce Lee. Because of his career, millions of people were introduced to martial arts. Thanks to his movies, Lee achieved enduring, worldwide fame, broke plenty of box office records, and forever changed the aesthetics of action films. Not bad for a skinny kid from Hong Kong who arrived in United States with the proverbial shirt on his back. The image of his hyper-muscular body in combat pose has become iconic. But there was a lot more to Bruce Lee than meets the eye. He could have been a rock star or a spiritual leader or anything else he had wished… Martial arts was just a channel for his energy. Had he put that same energy anywhere else, he’d have probably had similar success. Despite Hollywood turning him down time and time again due to racial prejudices, Lee refused to take no for an answer and more or less single-handedly changed the way in which Asian people were perceived in the West. His philosophical insights also changed the face of martial arts training, and introduced masses of people to Taoism and Zen Buddhism. His creative & anti-authoritarian approach to life captured the best of the essence of the 1960s. Get ready for a ride because this is an incredible story I have wanted to tell since I first started podcasting.

This episode covers Bruce Lee’s life from birth to his famous fight with Wong Jack Man in 1964.

“Energy is eternal delight.” William Blake

This episode covers Bruce Lee’s life from birth to his famous fight with Wong Jack Man in 1964.

Previous Episode

EPISODE 72: John Brown (Part 3): Violent Delights, Violent Ends

“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.” John Brown

“If you seek my blood, you can have it at any moment without the mockery of a trial.” John Brown

“John Brown, and a thousand John Browns, can invade us, and the Government will not protect us. To secure our rights and protect our honor we will dissever the ties that bind us together, even if it rushes us into a sea of blood." Mississippi congressman Reuben Davis

“John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic.” Frederick Douglass

"I looked at the traitor with unlimited, undeniable contempt." John Wilkes Booth

“Had I interfered in the manner which I admit... in behalf of the rich, the powerful... the so-called great... every man in this Court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.” John Brown

The subject of this series is easily one of the most divisive individuals in U.S. history. The man we are talking about is Mr. John Brown. Many, in fact, see Brown’s actions as the spark that ignited the Civil War. He has been described as a civil rights hero, a terrorist, and everything in between. Some have argued he was clinically insane. Others believe he was the most principled man of his age. Regardless of how we interpret his story, certain facts are beyond dispute. Throughout his life, slavery was the law of the land in much of the United States. With hardly any abolitionist willing to do more than use words against slavery, while pro-slavery forces demonstrated they were quite skilled at using violence to further their worldview, it seemed inevitable that slavery would last for the foreseeable future. To John Brown, that was an unacceptable option. Allowing it to continue for one more second was cowardly and evil. If pacifist means weren’t enough to bring about the end of slavery, then John Brown was more than ready to speak the language of violence. For the sake of destroying slavery, he would shed the blood of his enemies, the blood of his family, and his own blood.

In this final episode of this series, we’ll cover: John Brown’s meeting with Harriet Tubman, a raid to free slaves and bring them to Canada, the loyalty of Shields Green, Dangerfield Newby dying to save his family, the attack on Harpers Ferry, stealing George Washington’s sword, drunkards shooting corpses, Silas Soule’s jailbreaking skills, the trial of John Brown, the dangers posed by Zombie John Brown, guest appearances by Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, John Wilkes Booth and Jeb Stuart, and much more.

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EPISODE 78 Bruce Lee (Part 2)

“Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and since Jeet Kune Do has no style, it can fit with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do utilizes all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any techniques or means which serve its ends.” — Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee’s methodology :

“1. Research your own experience.

2. Absorb what is useful.

3. Reject what is useless.

4. Add what is specifically your own.”

“I maintain that truth is a pathless land and you cannot approach it by any religion. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others.” — Jiddhu Krishnamurti

“This doesn’t look like success to me.” — Sovannahry Em

“A martial artist is a human being first. Just as nationalities have nothing to do with one’s humanity, so they have nothing to do with the martial arts.” — Bruce Lee

This episode covers Bruce Lee’s philosophy and life from 1965 through his death in 1973.