Season 2 · Episode 5
Where Do We Come From, Religion in Society & Spiritual Enlightenment
ZADAN with Nicholas Lehman
· 2:03:29
The conversation
Nicholas Lehman and ZADAN start with remote work and where transportation is heading, from Elon Musk's tunnels to a Tesla that drives for Uber while its owner is at the office. That turns into origin theories: talking trees and mycelium networks, the stoned ape theory, life arriving on comets, and a story about Francis Crick suspecting DNA was seeded across the universe. ZADAN lays out his water drop theory of God, and the pair compare Christ with Krishna before debating how Constantine spread Christianity.
The middle stretch follows Nicholas from the National Guard and ROTC to field artillery at Fort Sill, then a Wells Fargo offer that moved him and his wife from Chicago to Los Angeles, and finally to an acting conservatory at New York Film Academy. ZADAN pushes him to start an Instagram and YouTube presence now rather than wait. The last hour returns to belief: healings ZADAN says he witnessed in several faiths, his childhood visions, the Federal Reserve, and the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
Topics, with timestamps
Pick a time to start listening right there.
- Working from home and the remote job shift
- Car subscriptions and a Tesla that earns money
- Talking trees, mycelium and the stoned ape theory
- Francis Crick, panspermia and the Urantia book
- ZADAN's water drop theory of God
- Constantine and how Christianity spread
- Skipping AMDA and choosing New York Film Academy
- A Wells Fargo offer and a move to LA
- An Instagram and YouTube plan for a new actor
- National Guard, ROTC and field artillery at Fort Sill
- Why ZADAN stepped away from organized religion
- ZADAN's childhood visions and passing on messages
- The Fed, Keynes and the trouble with hourly pay
- The Library of Alexandria and lost knowledge
Worth hearing
- Nicholas left a full-time role he landed through Wells Fargo's eight-week veterans program to study acting at New York Film Academy in Burbank, using the year he had left on the GI Bill.
- A former casting executive at an NYFA business of acting symposium told students that 50,000 people move to Southern California each year chasing fame and 95 percent are gone two years later, which Nicholas sees as an advantage for someone planning to stay.
- ZADAN's content plan for a new actor: one YouTube video a week, seven stills pulled from it for daily Instagram posts, and 13 videos batched at once to cover three months.
- ZADAN's water drop theory holds that people are energy taking human form the way a water molecule becomes a raindrop, and that what we call God is the ocean those drops make up.
- Nicholas joined the National Guard in Pittsburgh as a way to pay for college, did ROTC at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and was commissioned into field artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
- Nicholas, raised Catholic, proposes what he calls the platinum rule: treat others as if they are you.
- The two argue that hourly pay rewards doing the minimum, and that Keynes's prediction of a much shorter workweek never arrived because companies kept the eight-hour day.
ZADAN's original episode notes
On this week’s episode, with the guest appearance of Nicholas Lehman; a filmmaker, actor and seeker of information as a jack of all trades; spreading his knowledge and personality through meaningful interactions and connections with others with real interpersonal relationships - favoring in person communication to the bustling of social media. Nicholas' interesting perspective as former field artillery in the army with his amazing outlook on life and personality allow him an empathetic approach to the world and allows him to build a legacy on the back of his passions and beliefs.
In this episode Nicholas and I talk about so many awesome topics; from predictions on technologies and strategic systems to religion's role in our society and the benefits of working remote, we dive deep into topics that are extremely relevant with the changing job world and digital environment across the world. We get super detailed into spiritual enlightenment and our theories on the universe and how we connect with each other on a molecular level and an intriguing arrangement of additional topics; so without further ado I give you, Nicholas Lehman.