That's Life, I Swear
by Rick Barron
Interview #40 Nina Kolari: You don't need to be a programmer to…
About this podcast
Every Wednesday, join Rick Barron as he unravels the intricate threads of life's most captivating stories. From heart-pounding political dramas to the awe-inspiring challenges of climate change, he explores the topics that shape our world and define our era.
But this isn't just another talk show. Rick delves deep into the human psyche, examining our beliefs, behaviors, and the obstacles we overcome. He celebrates our triumphs and embraces our imperfections, uncovering the profound lessons hidden in everyday experiences.
The episodes are a journey of self-discovery as he shares stories that mirror our collective identity. These tales aren't just entertaining – they're a reflection of who we are, who we were, and who we aspire to be. They carry the weight of our ancestral legacy, the fire of our dreams, and the depths of our pain.
With each episode, you'll confront your deepest anxieties about yourself, your place in the world, and the future that awaits us all. In understanding these complexities, you'll find inspiration, connection, and perhaps even transformation.
"That's Life, I Swear" isn't just a podcast – it's a weekly rendezvous with the extraordinary nature of ordinary life. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts, and join Rick on this unforgettable exploration of the human experience. After all, that's life, I swear.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 336 episodes
- Interview #40 Nina Kolari: You don't need to be a programmer to build an app anymore. · 57 min · Season 5 Episode 335Summary Rick Barron talks with Nina Kolari, host and creator of App Minded, about her move from digital marketing into AI-assisted app development despite having no coding…
- What the Foreclosure Didn't Say: 3 Dead Bodies · 9 min · Season 5 Episode 334Learn how Foreclosure auctions are built on uncertainty. Buyers gamble on homes they've never entered, trusting paperwork more than firsthand knowledge. Supporting links 1…
- Interview #39 Franko Munoz: Don't just speak Spanish, think in Spanish · 1 h 16 min · Season 5 Episode 333Summary Rick Barron speaks with Franko Munoz, founder of Kasa de Franko, about his unexpected path into language teaching and the philosophy behind learning Spanish through…
- Movie Review from Rick’s Streaming Library: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid · 13 min · Season 5 Episode 332Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie is really about obsolescence — about people who are excellent at things the world no longer needs — and lands on the quieter point that…
- Trash Talk: Older Women Cleaning Up Cape Cod · 9 min · Season 5 Episode 331The lesson isn't really about litter. It's that showing up with a mask, a kayak, and thirty women who expect you to keep pace can be its own form of quiet defiance against the…
- Interview #38 Wesley Warshawer: Curiosity builds bridges. Ridicule builds walls. · 1 h 4 min · Season 5 Episode 330Summary Wesley Warshawer shares his journey of traveling through rural America and abroad to understand different perspectives, challenge stereotypes, and foster empathy. This…
- Ringing Hollow: The Rolling Stones Judge America · 10 min · Season 5 Episode 329The real story here isn't the song itself — it's how predictably the reaction machine runs. Any celebrity political statement, however mild, gets sorted instantly into "brave…
- Unsurvivable: The Race to Redesign the American City · 16 min · Season 5 Episode 328Learn how the core lesson here is that climate adaptation isn't a distant policy debate — it's an infrastructure deadline. Supporting links 1. Urban planning and design for arid…
- Interview #37: Suzanne Junered: Persistence was the key in her 11-year writing journey · 46 min · Season 5 Episode 327Summary Suzanne Junered shares her 11-year journey from aspiring writer to published author, discussing resilience, the creative process, and the importance of trusting oneself…
- One Man, One Year, and $167 Million = Absolute Greed · 12 min · Season 5 Episode 326Learn how executive compensation has become almost entirely disconnected from the lived economics of the people who work underneath it. Supporting links 1. What Is the…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: The Culture Map by Erin Meyer · 12 min · Season 5 Episode 325Learn how successful cross-cultural collaboration requires explicit calibration, not assumed shared understanding. supporting links 1. Erin Meyer [website] 2. Erin Meyer…
- The $40 Trillion Warning and Reason to Worry · 11 min · Season 5 Episode 324The core takeaway is simple: debt becomes dangerous not because it reaches one symbolic number, but because deficits keep compounding faster than a country’s ability and…
- Interview #36: Julieta Duvall : Exploring how self-awareness and resilience can transform parenting and education · 1 h 0 min · Season 5 Episode 323Summary DONE In this episode, Julieta Duvall shares her journey with Rick Barron, from unschooling to becoming a children's advocate, and explores how self-awareness and…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: How to Know A Person by David Brooks · 9 min · Season 5 Episode 322The central lesson of the book, How to Know a Person, is deceptively simple: attention is love, and most of us are worse at paying it than we think. Supporting links 1. David…
- Engineering Your Way Out of Flossing: Sir James Dyson Explains · 7 min · Season 5 Episode 321The lesson for entrepreneurs isn't "charge $499 for everyday objects” it's that deep, obsessive problem-solving can create demand for things people didn't know they wanted, even…
- When Strongmen Believe Their Own Myth · 15 min · Season 5 Episode 320Learn how unchecked ego is not strength; it’s a liability. Nations survive not because leaders are infallible, but because systems exist to tell them when they’re wrong — and…
- Movie Review from Rick’s Streaming Library: Notting Hill · 14 min · Season 5 Episode 319Builds the argument that the film's real subject is what fame does to a person's permission to be vulnerable, and that William's gift to Anna is not excitement or transformation…
- Pssst, Baseball was invented in Canada! · 10 min · Season 5 Episode 318By the early 20th century, Canada had handed baseball back across the border and claimed the ice instead Supporting links 1. Beachville, Canada [Small Town Canada] 2. Abner…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson · 12 min · Season 5 Episode 317This book teaches us that genius is not purely innate. It is cultivated through relentless practice, honest self-interrogation, and a willingness to be wrong publicly and often…
- Interview #35 Amy Wong: Why Anger Feels Normal Now · 57 min · Season 5 Episode 316Summary Amy Wong and Rick Barron explore the impact of emotional contagion, social media, and societal exposure to negativity. They discuss how awareness, curiosity, and…
- Movie Review from Rick’s Streaming Library: The Odyssey · 11 min · Season 5 Episode 315Homer called it The Odyssey. Most of us just call it the template for every story we've ever loved. supporting links 1. Christopher Nolan [IMDb] 2. The Odyssey [IMDb] 3. Odysseus…
- Run 26.2 Miles and 20 Wine Stops: What Could Go Wrong? · 8 min · Season 5 Episode 314The real takeaway isn't about wine or running — it's about how people redefine "achievement" on their own terms. Supporting links 1. Marathon du Medoc, world’s booziest marathon…
- Movie Review from Rick’s Streaming Library: Casablanca · 11 min · Season 5 Episode 313The movie, Casablanca, is the real thing; it was and still is a classic. supporting links 1. Casablanca [Wikipedia] 2. Casablanca trivia [YouTube] 3. Humphrey Bogart [Wikipedia]…
- Movie Review from Rick’s Streaming Library: Backrooms · 11 min · Season 5 Episode 312The lesson Backrooms offers is an old one dressed in terrifyingly new clothes: a life half-lived in avoidance is its own kind of infinite corridor. supporting links 1. Kane…
- From War Zones to Corn Rows · 14 min · Season 5 Episode 311Agriculture is deeply exposed to global shocks, and farmers survive by being flexible, not fixed. Supporting links 1. Trade concerns, crop input costs driving farm revenue…
- Dismantling of USAID was Cruel and Jaw-droppingly Stupid! · 14 min · Season 5 Episode 310Expertise is invisible until it's gone. The most important systems — disease surveillance, early warning networks, on-the-ground aid presence — look like nothing when they're…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie · 10 min · Season 5 Episode 309John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie—a book that redefines the relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney as something far more intimate than collaboration…
- The Storm You Won't See Coming · 16 min · Season 5 Episode 308What makes the OOI shutdown so alarming is not just what it eliminates, but when. The global oceans are in a period of historically anomalous change. Supporting links 1. The End…
- Interview #34 Rick Barron: What's Life Trying to Teach You? | A wisdom conversation · 44 min · Season 5 Episode 307Summary I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Skip Lineberg, host of the podcast: The Main Thing. Content below is courtesy of Skip Lineberg. Rick Barron has lived several…
- Interview #33 Darya Katkavets: From Belarus to California: A Journey of Cultural Discovery · 53 min · Season 5 Episode 306Summary In this episode, Rick Barron interviews Darya Katkavets, who shares her journey of immigrating from Belarus to the United States, exploring cultural differences…
- Built Last Year, Gone in a Minute · 12 min · Season 5 Episode 305We cannot control where the storm goes, but we can control how prepared we are, how we respond to a crisis, and how we help one another rebuild afterward. Supporting links 1…
- Interview #32 Kristina Townsend: Open Hearts, Minds, Doors, and Wallets · 1 h 21 min · Season 5 Episode 304Summary In this episode, Rick Barron interviews Kristina Townsend. Kristina shares her unique journey through sports, international travel, and social impact, illustrating how…
- Career: Is That Even a Word Anymore? · 16 min · Season 5 Episode 303The deepest takeaway might be this: we've built an economy that's extraordinarily good at generating corporate profits and extraordinarily bad at distributing the experience of…
- The World Cup’s Other Hydration Break= Beer Run · 12 min · Season 5 Episode 302The real lesson here isn't about World Soccer rules, marketing gimmicks, or even alcohol; it's about how people instinctively turn any structured pause into a personal challenge…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson · 12 min · Season 5 Episode 301In this book review, you’ll explore the life of someone who wanted to change the world. This is the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson supporting links 1. Remembering…
- How 59 Seconds from a Bugle Calls a Community Together · 18 min · Season 5 Episode 300Learn how John Hersh, an ordinary man with a trumpet, transformed a personal routine into a beloved neighborhood tradition by playing taps at sunset, rain or shine. Supporting…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman · 11 min · Season 5 Episode 299The central argument of The Guns of August is both simple and terrifying: the First World War was not inevitable. supporting links 1. Barbara W. Tuchman [Wikipedia] 2. Schlieffen…
- Limitations aren’t the end of a life — they’re the shape of it · 15 min · Season 5 Episode 298Learn how even when a body is broken, a life — rich with skill, love, memory, flavor, and collaboration — can still be fully, fiercely lived. Supporting links 1. Yewande Komolafe…
- How One Podcaster Is Reshaping France's Reckoning With Its Past · 18 min · Season 5 Episode 297Learn how if a society refuses to examine its darkest chapters, those chapters don’t disappear — they just wait for the right conditions to return. Supporting links 1. Philippe…
- Interview #31 Mariah Bonner: From Baltimore to Buenos Aires - Her Musical Journey · 57 min · Season 5 Episode 296Summary In this episode, Rick Barron interviews Mariah Bonner. A former ballet dancer, movie actress, writer, and now international singer. Join us as Mariah Bonner shares her…
- Pointing the Way: The Genius Behind Your Gas Gauge · 20 min · Season 5 Episode 295Jim Moylan may not have achieved the fame of Henry Ford or other celebrated inventors. His name won't appear in most history books or innovation courses. But millions of drivers…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: First Principles, By Thomas E. Ricks · 12 min · Season 5 Episode 294Learn how the book, First Principles, by Thomas E. Ricks, teaches that the intellectual foundations of American democracy are as consequential as the political events that…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, By Walter Isaacson · 12 min · Season 5 Episode 293Learn how In The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, Walter Isaacson dissects the famous line from the Declaration of Independence—“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”—and asks…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: Coming Clean by Liz Fraser · 11 min · Season 5 Episode 292Learn how Coming Clean is a powerful reminder that recovery is relational. It’s not just about the person with the substance use issue but about everyone whose life becomes…
- Enough Already!: America’s Breaking Point with the U.S. Congress · 17 min · Season 5 Episode 291Congress is historically dysfunctional right now — by nearly every measurable standard, from shutdown length to laws passed to member departures. Supporting links 1. Americans…
- My Wife and I Had a Plan, and Then · 15 min · Season 5 Episode 290Learn how you can plan your life with precision—and still lose control of the outcome. What you never lose is how you respond. Supporting links 1. Alzheimer [Alzheimer’s…
- 2026 Midterm Elections: Votes Counted…Maybe · 13 min · Season 5 Episode 289Learn how Trump’s biggest threat may not be winning more votes in the 2026 midterm elections; it may be exploiting loopholes, fear, and institutional weakness to cling to power…
- 3D Printing Paradise: How Tech Is Saving Our Environment and Surfboards · 16 min · Season 5 Episode 288Learn how the most powerful innovations frequently emerge not from abstract problem-solving but from personal experiences of frustration or failure. Supporting links 1…
- Scaling Back after a Divorce · 9 min · Season 5 Episode 287The story doesn't romanticize divorce, but it doesn't flatten it into pure hardship either. There's grief, adjustment, and — eventually — something that's genuinely your own…
- Book Review from Rick’s Library: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans · 11 min · Season 5 Episode 286Learn how life is cumulative, and correspondence—whether via letter or through care, presence, and reflection—helps us make sense of it. supporting links 1. Virginia Evans…







