Tag

podcast

Mar 26
Love25

Eric Hayden

By Business, Podcast No Comments

This week on Here’s What We Know, we welcome Eric Hayden, founder and CEO of Urban Catalyst, a company that’s helped drive billions of dollars in development across Silicon Valley. He was also named the 2025 Silicon Valley Business Journal Newsmaker of the Year.

That’s the resume. But that’s not the story. Because this conversation goes beyond real estate and development. It’s about how someone goes from selling sand dollars as a kid… to helping shape an entire city.

And really, when you strip it all down, it’s about how we think, how we build, and how we show up in the world.

This episode is sponsored by:

Be sure to tell them Gary sent you!

In This Episode:

  • Why housing is so expensive, and why it’s not an easy fix
  • What it really means to “win” at school, work, and life
  • What it actually takes to build in places like Silicon Valley
  • The hidden systems behind growth, cities, and opportunity
  • How curiosity and creativity can shape a career in unexpected ways
  • And why success has a lot less to do with intelligence than people think

Quotations:

“You just have to prioritize time management and do the work and do it good, do it better than they expect. “ – Eric Hayden

“Supply and demand. The neighbors love complaining about height, density, traffic, and parking. Those are their big four anti-development things. “ – Eric Hayden

“You need people. You want to have success in retail and restaurants and all that stuff, you need people to actually go there. You need the population.“ – Eric Hayden

Bio:

Eric Hayden is the Founder and Managing Partner of Urban Catalyst. Responsible for developing more than $3.5 billion in real estate projects, including over 2,300 residential units in the California Bay Area, Mr. Hayden has experience in acquisition, contract negotiation, due diligence, risk assessment, financing, construction, and disposition of multifamily, single-family, and large mixed-use and master-planned developments. He maintains relationships with a broad network of property owners, enabling him to identify and acquire prime investments. Mr. Hayden also has expertise in navigating projects through the entitlement process by working with elected officials, community groups, and political organizations to gain support and get projects approved.

Guest Contact Info:

Website: https://www.facebook.com/urbancatalystfund/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikhayden/

Mar 18
Love22

Thant Myint-U

By Author, Leadership, Podcast, Politics No Comments

History tends to remember the loudest voices in the room. But sometimes the person who actually helped prevent disaster is the one sitting in the middle.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the world stood just hours away from nuclear war. Most of us remember the names Kennedy and Khrushchev. What we often forget is the man working behind the scenes at the United Nations, trying to slow things down before the world lost its mind. His name was U Thant.

This week on Here’s What We Know, we sit down with historian and author Thant Myint-U, who also happens to be U Thant’s grandson. His book Peacemaker tells the story of a schoolteacher from a small town in Burma who somehow found himself standing between the superpowers at one of the most dangerous moments in modern history.

We talk about the Cold War, the role of the United Nations, and what it was like for a grandson to discover the real scope of his grandfather’s life by digging through archives decades later.

This episode is a fascinating story about diplomacy, history, and the people who sometimes carry the biggest responsibility. Listen now!

This episode is sponsored by:


(Use code “Gary” to get $89 off any service!)

License #: 679261

In This Episode:

  • The Forgotten Peacemaker Behind the Cuban Missile Crisis
  • Growing Up With the UN Secretary General
  • When Did He Realize His Grandfather Was a Global Leader?
  • Why U Thant Was Left Out of the Cuban Missile Crisis Story
  • From Burmese Schoolteacher to UN Secretary General
  • The Human Side of a World Leader
  • Taking Over the UN During the Cold War
  • Political Assassinations and Cold War Tensions
  • The Golden Age of the United Nations
  • Can the United Nations Still Prevent Global Conflict?
  • The Power and Limits of the UN Security Council
  • What the UN Was Originally Designed to Do
  • The Decline of UN Peacekeeping Influence
  • Why the UN Still Matters Today
  • The Personality of U Thant: Calm, Pragmatic Leadership

Quotations:

“We don’t have that person who has listened to everyone and who can try to come up with formulas that might make sense in different situations.” – Thant Myint-U

“The ingredient that’s so important in that job is political courage. If you sit around waiting for what the big powers are going to agree on and tell you to do, you’re going to be sitting around waiting forever, and the war will be finished, and another million people will be dead.” – Thant Myint-U

Bio:

Thant Myint-U is a historian, author, and former United Nations official specializing in the history and politics of Myanmar and Southeast Asia. Educated at Harvard, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and Cambridge, he served on UN peacekeeping missions in Cambodia and the Balkans and later worked at the UN Secretariat in New York on humanitarian and political affairs. He has also advised Myanmar’s government on economic reform and peace negotiations and founded the Yangon Heritage Trust to preserve the city’s historic architecture.

Thant Myint-U is the author of several acclaimed books on Myanmar, including The River of Lost Footsteps and The Hidden History of Burma. His work has appeared in major publications such as The New York Times, Financial Times, and London Review of Books. He has been recognized as one of Foreign Policy’s “Leading Global Thinkers” and received numerous international honors for his contributions to scholarship and public service.

Guest Contact Info:

Website: https://www.thantmyintu.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thant-myint-u-340aa99/

Mar 04
Love21

Shawn Inmon

By Author, Podcast No Comments

What does it really take to build a fictional universe that readers cannot get enough of?

This week on Here’s What We Know, let’s welcome back bestselling author Shawn Inmon, the wildly prolific and deeply thoughtful author behind the Middle Falls series, to explore the discipline behind writing every single day, the emotional depth of the Middle Falls series, and the surprising origin of the Universal Life Center and “the machine” that connects his stories. 

Shawn shares how he writes six to seven books a year, why he never waits for inspiration, and how internal dialogue became the secret weapon behind his most beloved characters.

We’ll dive into redemption arcs, writing action scenes, killing off favorite characters, franchising fiction across continents, and what happens when creativity is fueled by instinct rather than outlines.

If you are a writer, a creative, or simply someone fascinated by how stories shape us, this one is for you.

This episode is sponsored by:

In This Episode:

  • Why he refuses to write multiple projects at once
  • The secret behind writing powerful internal dialogue
  • Killing off characters you love
  • Why action scenes are actually the easy part
  • The origin of the Universal Life Center and “the machine”
  • Expanding Middle Falls beyond America
  • What redemption really means when someone resists it

Quotations:

“I write every day; about two hours every day is all it takes, and that gets me v six or seven books a year.” ~ Shawn Inmon

“A piece of wisdom I always think of is we judge other people by their actions, and we judge ourselves by our motivations.”  ~ Shawn Inmon

“So I’m one of those writers who sees the movie in my head as I’m writing it. So I always say, “I just watch the movie, and then I type up the incident report.”  ~ Shawn Inmon

“I specifically did not want somebody who writes like me. I wanted somebody who writes in their own voice. I wanted to see Middle Falls ideas through a different brain, filtered through a different brain.”  ~ Shawn Inmon

Bio:

Shawn Inmon is a small-town kid who dreamed of being a writer. Today, he is now a full-time author who lives in Tumwater, Washington, USA. He worked several dozen jobs – retail, real estate, traveling with the Unlimited Hydroplanes, crabbing in Alaska, morning disc jockey and station manager, and many others he can’t remember to list. These jobs gave him a wonderful base to write what he knows because he knows a little about a lot.

He achieved his dream of becoming a full-time writer in 2016 and has never looked back. One reviewer called him “The King of Redemption stories.” Shawn says he doesn’t feel like a king of anything, but he does love a good tale of second chances.

He is the author of the ever-growing The Middle Falls Time Travel series, 18 books and counting, and The Alex Hawk Time Travel Adventure series. He is also the author of Feels Like the First Time, a bestselling memoir of growing up in a small town in the seventies, falling in love, and messing everything up.

He lives with his high school sweetheart – now wife -Dawn, two happy-go-lucky Chocolate Labs, and a slightly schizo cat named Georgie.

Guest Contact Info:

Website: https://www.shawn-inmon.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShawnInmonWriter/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shawninmon/

X: https://twitter.com/ShawnInmon

Feb 25
Love22

Mick Wienholt

By Faith, Grief, Podcast No Comments

This week on Here’s What We Know, join us for an unforgettable conversation as we sit down with Mick Wienholt, a man who survived a catastrophic avalanche that should have taken his life. With a fractured skull, a broken jaw, and massive blood loss, Mick walked three miles back to his truck before collapsing into emergency brain surgery.

But that miracle was only the beginning.

Years later, Mick and his wife experienced the devastating stillbirth of their son, Luke, a loss that brought them to their knees and ultimately led them into a life-changing relationship with Christ. What followed was a story of redemption neither of them could have scripted.

This episode explores ego, survival, grief, faith, and the way God can redeem even the darkest chapters of our lives.

This episode is sponsored by:


(Use code “Gary” to get $89 off any service!)

License #: 679261

In This Episode:

  • What really happened the day Mick triggered an avalanche in Colorado
  • Walking three miles with a fractured skull
  • The difference between surviving something… and being changed by it
  • The grief of stillbirth and losing their son, Luke
  • Hitting the emotional bottom and crying out to God
  • Faith as a daily choice, not a family inheritance
  • The redemption of January
  • How twin boys were born seven years after a loss
  • The difference between coincidence and God in action

Quotations:

”And so what ended up happening was through the grief of Luke’s death, we thought we had a Luke-shaped hole in our hearts. God showed us that we had a God-shaped hole in our hearts. He filled that hole, loved us through all the grief, and changed the trajectory of our lives ever since.”  ~ Mick Wienholt

Bio:

Mick Wienholt is the host of the podcast When You Look, where everyday people share extraordinary stories of God’s presence in their lives. After surviving a catastrophic avalanche as a teenager and later experiencing the stillbirth of his firstborn son, Mick’s life took a dramatic turn. What began as a 25-year faith-avoidant journey became a ministry rooted in redemption, raw testimony, and honest conversations about grief and grace. He is a redeemed son of Jesus Christ, grateful husband to an incredible wife, and father of four children, three of whom are living.

Guest Contact Info:

Website: https://www.whenyoulook.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whenyoulookshow/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whenyoulookshow/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhenYouLookShow