vanilla.club

In this episode, we are joined by Alex Woo, director of the Netflix hit "In Your Dreams."

As founder and CEO of Kuku Studios, Alex is a business-creative hybrid - something he is all too modest about, but something that is a key part of Alex's secret sauce.

Alex is also a dear friend and classmate. We went to the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU together. I don't have any beer pong gone wrong stories to share, or drunken late night hijinks to tell, probably because Alex was in the cutting room, perfecting his craft, all the way back to the last millennium. I can tell you that even in high school the lore was that Alex was destined to be a master filmmaker.

We also learn plenty of tidbits about the movie making process. Alex gives some specific examples of how particular jokes get woven into the film---sometimes they are core elements in the early script, other times they are monkey-wrenched in there---like a particular "Don't Cha!"

Alex gives some vignettes of his childhood in the States and the Hong Kong, and how certain cultural and family experiences came to inspire the film.

Ultimately, 'In Your Dreams' really reminds us why storytelling is king, and why in a media landscape filled with lots of mediocre and increasingly AI-generated content, parents should opt for the high quality choice, like In Your Dreams.

We hope you enjoy.

Cairns Native Bee

In this breezy but immersive episode, Vanilla Club Podcast gets out of the studio and into the field, or the paddock, as they say Down Under. I sit down with Zac Peterson, founder of Cairns Native Bee/Hinterland Hives, and Anoob Davidraj, a fellow Vanilla Club team member, to unpack the remarkable world of bees.

What begins as a conversation about starting our own apiary at Vanilla Club, quickly expands into a sweeping exploration of the craft of beekeeping, and the science of the hive mind. They are wonderful creatures these bees!

As the episode unfolds, we dive into the chemistry of taste - how compounds, plant stress responses, soil profiles, and even pollination behaviours influence what we perceive on the tongue. This is terroir if I have ever seen it, applicable as much to Chardonnay grapes in France as it is to native Australian honey in Queensland.

One of the episode’s highlights is Zac’s breakdown of honey production: how bees perform the waggle dance to guide others to nectar, why honey flavour changes every season, and how a single hive with ten frames can produce ten completely different honeys depending on where its foragers decide to fly. With yields ranging from 30 to 60 kilos a year, each hive becomes its own micro-ecosystem of chemistry and flavour.

We discuss the calming effect of smoke, to the evolutionary reasons bees are more aggressive toward darker colours - a survival trait shaped by ancient predators. Are bees racist? We now know the answer.

Anoob shares a bit of his background with us, tracing his passion for beekeeping back to his childhood in South India, where his family produced seasonal honey from blooming rubber trees.

We then reflect on the future of ethical beekeeping, the alarming impact of agricultural chemicals, and the urgent need for younger keepers. In preparation of our own Vanilla Club honey concoctions, we are embracing the idea that we are partners with our bees; in fact their collective decision making determine the precise flavours of each season.

Keep it sweet!

We hope you enjoy.

Nicola on LinkedIn

Nicola's Documentary

Pragmatic Practice

Click here if you need help with gambling

With two gambling scandals shaking both the NBA and Major League Baseball, the integrity of sport is under scrutiny.

Last month, in the NBA, Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier were arrested after investigations uncovered a network of illegal betting and high-stakes poker schemes.

And now in baseball, two legit pitchers - Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz - were indicted after being accused of intentionally rigging some of their pitches and manipulating game outcomes. Legit becomes illegitimate in a flash.

Both scandals are timely. And, furthermore, especially awkward as it was only days after the Dodgers won a legacy-sealing, multiple-precedent-setting, arguably fairytale World Series-- one for the purists that is, that the story broke.

This week on Vanilla Club Podcast, I speak with behavioural scientist and psychologist Nicola Coalter, who has spent years studying gambling-- and she is quick to point out that it is indeed gambling, not the softer and fuzzier "gaming" nomenclature preferred by the industry.

Gambling is so ingrained into Australian sport that we no longer blink an eye at betting app logos on jerseys (which is still taboo in the U.S.), or normalised betting advertising during every ad break. Nicola explains the danger of these newfound digital betting formats, as they are algorithmic, tracking every press of the button, and designed to psychologically lead the bettor to more time spent, more funds staked per spin. The free accessibility, cultural permissivity, and the on-demand nature of this generation of gambling offerings is clearly way ahead of what the combined culturo-socio-governmental status quo can muster as far as prevention and frankly, crisis management. The numbers? Well, they speak for themselves. Of almost 200 countries in the world, Australia is #1--yes, numero uno, in terms of gambling losses per capita.

Nicola regularly works with clients at the ground-level who are struggling with this kind of addiction, and encourages us to avoid moralising individuals with messages to “gamble responsibly”. This kind of rhetoric unfairly blames individuals, and does little to address the intricate system upholding the extraction and exploitation.

Nicola’s upcoming documentary, Clubs at a Crossroads, continues her mission to expose the systems behind gambling harm and advocate for meaningful reform. Her work and insights are accessible via the above links.