by Darren Clarke, May 22, 2021

When we started the Nowhere Bus Podcast our destination, while in the name, was a bit of a concern in that it was by its’ nature entirely ambiguous. After all, what can you get if you don’t aim to get anything? Doesn’t everything have to have a point, if only a really, really, small one?

Maybe it doesn’t.

I would suggest that many things, even most things, don’t have a point other than being. It exists therefore it is. From the Bible to a zillion personal improvement books the idea is there is nothing then there is something. Without something and somewhere what do you have? You, me, we have been hard wired to find meanings, morals to the story, points along the way to THE point. Whatever the hell that is.

On the Nowhere Bus Podcast the aim is to explore more than define, to strip away the need to sump up, to weigh and measure, to qualify people and instead try to appreciate more than possess, to simply revel in another human being’s mystery. But the whole idea is a work in progress. I’m not even fully sure what I’ve meant here so far. But hey, to get to Nowhere we had to start Somewhere.

Four of our most recent guests illustrate how chemistry so often defines exploration beginning with Asia Si.

The first time I met Asia was working at a Call Centre. A friend of mine, Martin, was sitting training agents with people on the floor (to listen to their calls) and he had just sat a really tedious, alt-right, gun fanatic, with me. Martin came by after the agent had left and I reproached him for the painful half hour with the George Bush fan. Martin promised to make up for that. Asia was the next person to sit with me.

And so it was that I met one of my favourite people. While Asia revels in the art of self-deprecation she is unfailingly curious, brilliant, kind and when you least expect it, lethal. When it comes to the art of observation Asia is always picking up what you’re putting down even if you’d prefer she not.

This chat with Asia touches on her love of animals, her tendency to lie to her children, her intolerance of fumbling, lazy Google search based, Polish pronunciation, her travels throughout Canada, the US and France (though she might not allow us to count that) along with her country of birth- Poland.

So get on the bus, enjoy the drive and the lack of a destination.

This chat is from January but I like to think that it is by its’ nature timeless.