Here at Helio, we love to have creative and innovative personalities running in and out of the building. Aside from our dear members, we also have a lot of exciting companies who sit with us for hours or days, as well as several interesting people who visit us sporadically. One of them is Innocent Mugenga who is recording his podcast “Learnability” in our podcast studio at Helio GT30. He meets individuals and experts on the hunt to learn more himself, and to teach us more. We had a talk with Innocent in order to find out where his driving force and passion comes from.
Hello Innocent! You’ve said that you are addicted to learning, where does this desire come from?
It comes from an early understanding into what it’s possible to accomplish with this desire. We’re all born with an enormous drive to learn, mainly in order to survive and grow. Unfortunately, this drive decreases over time, maybe because we no longer see it as valuable in order to survive. At the same time, we’re living in an age where both our own as well as the planet’s wellbeing depends on us using this curiosity as a tool in order to save ourselves and help each other.
You have just released your fourteenth episode of Learnability along with Anton Granlund. Tell us, where does the idea to start a podcast come from?
The idea behind Learnability comes mainly from an urge to immerse myself in these types of questions and facilitate these conversations. With the help of the inspiring people I know and people I want to learn more about, I want to explore what it is that drives us, where we are going and how we can make sure that as many people as possible can benefit from the journey as well as the destination.
You describe your pod as an open journey of discovery into our ability and desire to learn. What have you learned so far on your journey?
I have learned so much already and I have only scratched the surface. One clear thing that I continue to learn about is all these amazing individuals’ daily routines. Another thing I have learned is that you don’t come from contradictions, for example how we’re supposed to strive for growth, while simultaneously feeling comfortable where we are. Or how we naturally play different roles in life but need to stay true to who we are. We are going to immerse ourselves and connect these kinds of insights and teachings in the podcast in the future. Spider Web Learning, as Paulina Modlitba calls it.
Other people have described you as a very productive and genuine person, what else do you do aside from producing your podcast?
Those are some very kind words! I work with digital communication and explore parallel scalable tools for personifying education, making self-education more tangible and supporting positive information consumption.
You sometimes talk about “junk learning”, what does that entail?
I recorded an entire episode about this and could probably record at least two more. Basically, it’s the result of how we are pre-programmed to take the easy way out. “The path of least resistance”, as it’s called. At one point in time, this was necessary in order to preserve energy and ultimately survive. Now that we in big parts of the world no longer have that need and instead are exposed to an overflow of junk food and entertaining but useless information is only a few thumb-swipes away, it easily leads us to applying this “easy path”-behavior to our food consumption or information consumption, and as a result consume things in a way that doesn’t give us the benefits that we need. When it comes to information consumption, we have chosen to refer to the results as “Infobesity” – same as the episode on this particular topic.
What is the biggest obstacle and apprehension in regards to the learning process in this information-driven world that we live in?
One of the biggest apprehensions would probably be that we don’t learn how to navigate in this world. We don’t learn how we function out of an evolutionary, neurological and psychological perspective or how this is affected by the rise of digitalization. The concern is that we don’t create opportunities to take control of our flow and as a result become overwhelmed, which can damage our mental health in the long run. We should strive to get as few as possible who are negatively affected by this climate and get as many as possible who are strengthened by this climate so that they can contribute to making others feel better, both directly and indirectly.
Each podcast has a theme surrounding the person you are interviewing; can you tell us more about the themes and subjects that you have had?
The theme or name of the episode is usually decided after the episode has been recorded and is then based on the direction of the conversation. For example, I had a lovely conversation with Katrine Bimell about the future of VR and embodied lifestyle design. Or the other time when I talked to Binto Bali about his teachings and experiences as a humanitarian aid in the middle of the most active warzones around the world.
Do you have a favorite episode?
The second episode, “20 Years of Trying Out Life as a Tantric Monk” with Konrad Swenninger was recorded during a week’s visit to Färjås Yogaretreats that he had helped establish, right after 48 hours of complete silence. It was a very educational and giving week for me personally, which is why it is my favorite episode as a subjective listener.
Who is your next guest?
In the next episode, we are visited by the artist Joe Lefty and it will be the first episode released as a vodcast, with video. I am very much looking forward to more conversations with for example the super entrepreneur Ola Ahlvarsson and Jean Rose who is the founder of the ladies’ entrepreneurial network, Shesupp. There are a lot of exciting things happening in the future, so I’m looking forward to continuing to grow this platform.
Finally, Innocent, if you could teach me only one thing, what would you teach me?
To convert your curiosity into productive action that will take you closer to your individual strive to self-realization.
Thank you! We look forward to learning more through you and your channels!
So, if you are curious about lifelong learning and the process around it – make sure to listen to Learnability HERE!
Follow Innocent and Helio on Instagram via @learnability.tv & @wearehelio !
