با وجدان (transliterated to Ba Vojdaan) is a Persian word which translates to English as "Conscientious".
This phrase was introduced to me by my Persian wife, who herself displays a great deal of "Vojdaan" in her life. She and I were discussing potential names for a podcast that would identify with me and my values, and we both said at the same time, "conscientious." She then told me about this beautiful Persian word, and it stuck. She and I used this name for a joint podcast we did more or less for fun, but it's very much apropos for our day and age, so I've repurposed it for this show.
I don't know about you, but I'm alarmed by the lack of conviction and integrity in our culture. People are on "autopilot" morally and spiritually. Whatever the talking heads on the boob tube tell us to think, that's what we think.
Sure, this has always been a problem since the dawn of time, but it just seems more pronounced in recent years.
And no one notices.
And those who do notice...they seem to either not care, or have given up trying to make a difference.
This podcast is one man's response to this pandemic of moral laziness and apathy.
Carry yourself with "Vojdaan" and you'll instantly set yourself apart from the zombies inhabiting our land.
This podcast will show you how to do it, and allow you to interact with others who think the same way.
So subscribe to the podcast and reclaim your sanity with daily interviews featuring folks who refuse to march in step with the rhythm of the world that is driving us into despair and chaos.
And if you're able, would you be willing to leave a rating and review of the show while you're here on the app?
It really helps to build credibility for the show!
Conscience Living in a Zunktout World. You're listening to "Bavosh Donk" with James D. Nukem, brought to you by Graeme Petruno. Welcome to "Bavosh Donk". My name is James Nukem, and if you are pressing play on the day of releasing this episode, or close to it, you may have noticed that there have been some changes to the branding of the podcast. Major changes. The title of the podcast no longer bears my name, for example. And I actually have an interesting analogy that I thought was appropriate to share with the changing of the name of the podcast. Fortunately, the podcast is very new, so it's at the point where very few people listen, and I have the numbers to prove it with the download numbers that I look at on my host. So it's not a huge adjustment for a lot of people, but if you are listening and you've listened to this show before, no, it's not a different show. It's the same show, it's got a different name, although the name is much more aligned with myself personally, and the mission or the outcome that I seek with publishing these episodes. Couple of weeks ago, I found a post on Facebook, and it was about Aunt Jemima, the pancake syrup and the pancake mix, that I knew when I was growing up and ate quite a bit. It was delicious, it was wonderful. The syrup and the pancake mix is terrific. Although I had no idea who Aunt Jemima was, it didn't occur to me that Aunt Jemima was an actual person, it was just the name of the pancake mix and the pancake syrup. The thought that there was an actual person who was known as Aunt Jemima just didn't occur to me. It turns out that there was a person, her name was not Aunt Jemima, I'm just going to read this post for you, and it's obviously biased as you will hear in just a moment, but I thought it was interesting, but I thought it was appropriate to go into my own rationale for changing the name of my podcast. So here we go, this is a Facebook post about Aunt Jemima, a great woman erased from history by idiots. The branding of the syrup was a tribute to this woman's gifts and talents. Now future generations will not even know that this beautiful woman existed. What a shame. The world knew her as Aunt Jemima, but her given name was Nancy Green, and she was a true American success story. She was born a slave in 1834, Montgomery County, Kentucky, and became a wealthy superstar in the advertising world as its first living trademark. Green was 56 years old when she was selected as spokesperson for a new, ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flower and made her debut in 1893 at a fair and exposition in Chicago. She demonstrated the pancake mix and served thousands of pancakes and became an immediate star. She was a good storyteller, her personality was warm and appealing, and her shellmanship was exceptional. Her exhibition, "Booth drew so many people that special security personnel were assigned to keep the crowds moving." Nancy Green was signed to a lifetime contract, traveled on promotional tours all over the country, and was extremely well paid. Her financial freedom and stature as a national spokesperson enabled her to become a leading advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights for all Americans. She maintained her job until her death in 1923 at age 89. This was a remarkable woman, and sadly she has been erased by politics. I wanted you to know and remind you in this cancel culture time period, this person is referring to Aunt Jemima changing the branding to what is it called, the Pearl River, Pearl something, Pearl string of pearls, the Pearl River Company, milling company, something like that. I don't even know. And it's sad because we... First of all, the name that they changed it to is not catchy at all, Aunt Jemima. That just got a ring to it, right? It's just got an oomph to it, that instantly likable. And now it's the Pearl something that you can't even remember. And I was just at the grocery store today, and I saw it. And that's what made me think of this story, and I wanted to share it with you here on the podcast related to my own name change of my podcast. And it's... I was just there today, and I don't remember what the name of it is. I was just on the website just a few minutes ago, getting ready to record this, doing a little bit of research, and I still don't remember it. It's the Pearl milling company. I think that's what it is, Pearl milling company. Anyway, the Pepsi Co is the name of the entity. They got scared off by all the people who are screaming racism at every corner, and they didn't want anything to do with that, and they decided to play it safe, and take a colored person off of their branding and just have something neutral. Now I'm not gonna get too deep into the woods with my commentary on this, because that's not why I am telling the story. I have a agenda that I'm going to shift over, but very quickly, I just occurred to me, that's actually racist, isn't it, to remove a black person off of your branding. What are they ashamed that they have a black person that is represented on their branding? It's just crazy that they would make this decision based off the fear of man, the fear of the mob coming after them and filing lawsuits, and we've lost the legacy of this Aunt Jemima, Nancy Green, and I did some research, and I actually found a article on ABCNews.com, and it turns out that this Nancy Green was a great activist. Let me see if I can find a couple of these, let me hear some quotes. While some people might view the image of Aunt Jemima as antiquated or insensitive, Williams, the person who's featured on this, does not see it that way. No time ever have I heard anyone in my community, and this is a black woman, anyone in my community say that this image was one that was derogatory, I don't know where that sentiment is coming from. Let's see here, long before she pioneered her pancake mix, Green was born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, I've already mentioned that. After the Civil War, she moved to a deeply divided Chicago, becoming a strong voice at Olivet Baptist Church, the city's oldest black congregation. This church was noted for its work to shield those who had escaped slavery, who arrived here in Chicago because there were many slave catchers in Chicago, still pursuing people who were of African descent. Williams has been shining a light on Green's story for more than a decade, giving underground railroad tours of the city, of the neighborhood, and in the past few years, she finally identified the exact location in Chicago's Oakwood Cemetery, where Ms. Green was buried, and they gave her a proper gravestone. So at least we have that that she has some way to be remembered, but what better way than to name a pancake mix after the person who formulated the pancake mix? And it's even greater that this person who formulated the pancake mix was very much an activist and very much stood for the principles on which the megacorporation PepsiCo is pretending to uphold. They say that they are reasoning for taking the imagery of Nancy Green off of their branding was out of respect for the sensitivity of people who are of color, who might feel offended that someone of color is on their branding. Black people are just slaves, all they do is cook, all they do is serve the white people. I don't know what the exact rationale was, but that's what happened. And it is a shame that this happened, that we don't know or like my son will never know the story of Aunt Jemima unless I tell it to him. He's never going to go to the store and say, "Dad, who's Aunt Jemima?" And I won't be able to tell him that unless he listens to this podcast and he'll know the story, but still, it's politics, political correctness, one out. And this person that was truly an activist and really spoke with a lot of Voshdan in her life is now lost in the dustbin of history because some people wearing suits at PepsiCo were afraid for their stock prices. That's what it comes down to. So what does this have to do with me changing the name of my podcast? When I started this, it started out with the title Nukem with Love. And there was a good rationale behind it. And I'm not saying this to put myself down or that I was going the way of PepsiCo, who out of fear of the mob changed the name of Aunt Jemima to something that it's been five minutes since I mentioned it. I don't even know what it is, Pearl River. Isn't that what it is? Pearl River, whatever it is, it's been lost to history. I'm not saying that this is what happened with me naming my podcast that. What I'm saying is that I did not have the right name. I had a good rationale for choosing this name. The word Nukem, you hear the play on words of Nukem, Nukem until they glow, like a nuclear reactor. But rather than bringing chaos and destruction onto the planet, you Nukem with Love. It's a good name. It's a clever play on words. But ultimately, I realized this is not going to have the longevity that a podcast has to have. It doesn't have the impact upon hearing the name of the show. And even I wrestled with it for a long time. And I just thought, I just need to give it time and it will grow on me and it never quite grew on me. So something had to be done and fast because this is a show that I intend to take very seriously and make it more than a hobby and make it a commercial enterprise, something that I intend to use to pay my bills someday. Something had to be done. I needed something that was more, just had more oomph on it, just that sock in the gut that I believe we all crave. We really want just that feeling, I can't even put it into words what it is. It's just something when you know someone is right, you just know it. When they're speaking the truth, there's something inside of you that just hits you. And you say, I know what this man or this woman is saying is true. You just know it. Now, there is a word in the Persian language that was introduced to me by my wife, Sana, who is Persian? Born in Iran, she's been living outside of Iran since she was a child, but Sana has a great deal of reverence for her culture and for her heritage as a Persian woman. And in spite of the unfortunate regime that is currently running the show in Iran, Iran has a deep history. A beautiful history that we here in America, we don't know about. In some ways, Iran has been given the Aunt Jemima treatment. Americans think of Iran and we think of deserts, pollution, a whole nation of nobodies, that if they were to be eradicated from the face of the earth, then who would really notice? And that's the American military propaganda to the extreme. Generally speaking, Americans, we don't really appreciate the Iranian people, the Persian people. We don't have a really deep understanding of the Persian impact on civilization that goes back millennia, even predates Christianity, even Judaism. If you're careful with how you study history, but this word Voshdan was my wife taught me this word. This was in, this was years ago, I think it was the fall of 2021. I want to say it was 2021, October, November timeframe, it was the fall. And I was thinking of doing a podcast that is essentially what you're hearing here. This is my idea for a show like this, went all the way back to 2021. And I was just thinking, just asking, Sana, what word, what word would you use to describe me? And I told her what I was wanting to do, start this podcast and something that really resonates with me on a deep level, going beyond just the musician, but really represents who I am as an individual. And almost together, we both said simultaneously conscientious, or I think I said, I think I said the word conscientious, and then she said, that's exactly what I was about to say. Something like that. Of course, this is years ago, I said, I don't remember exactly how it went down. But she said, and then I said, what is the Persian word for conscientious? As she told me, the Persian word is Voshdan, Ba Voshdan. It means with conscientiousness, uh, Voshdan means that you are, you're awake in a world where everybody seems to be marching in step with this rhythm that is leading humanity into chaos and despair and destruction, Voshdan is awakened to that. The best word that I can think of is a Christian word called righteousness. And I don't think that it's exactly, and I don't think it's an exact match with Voshdan, but it's the closest one that I can think of. Christians use the word righteousness, meaning we are made righteous in the eyes of God, not because of our own works, not because of anything we do, but because of the, the Voshdan that our Lord Jesus showed while he was on this earth and he lived a sinless life and he willingly sacrificed himself and paid the penalty for sin and was that ultimate sacrifice for sin so that we can be victorious over sin. That's Voshdan. And it doesn't mean that we live a sinful life like Jesus. It just means that we're awake, we're conscious in an unconscious world. So I was just at the amusement park with my son and his cousins. We just had a day at the amusement park and this was weighing on my mind. I thought I have to change this for the reasons that I've given. And I didn't, it's not like I was just in an intense meditation session or intense brainstorming session. I just let go. I just was enjoying the roller coasters and watching my son and my niece just enjoy each other's company form a really deep bond. I was just enjoying that. I wasn't even thinking about my podcast or anything, I wasn't thinking about anybody's podcast. I was just having a nice time on the way home from the amusement park. That word came to my mind. And this is a word that Sana and I had used not for a commercial podcast. It was more or less something that we just did together that kept us together while we were apart. But it gave us something to do and something to share our talents. We had a fun time with it. The intent was never to be a commercial enterprise. It was always something that we just did. And somehow a few people heard about it and listened, but we didn't do it because we were trying to get a lot of people to listen. We did it because we just had fun doing it. But the importance of that word Voshdan has never left me. And I was just driving down the road, nearing my home, and that word came to my mind. And I just knew it. Yes, that is what you want. And so that was Friday. This is Monday. And over the course of the weekend, I've done some changes with the artwork for the podcast. I've done, I've changed the podcast page on my website. If you go to JamesDNukem.com/podcast, you'll see it's just fun. I've had some fun with the branding of it. But more importantly, this is something that really resonates with me personally and what I envision the impact this show having in my own life, as well as those who subscribe to the podcast and become eventually a part of the community of listeners who listen to the podcast. I'm going to close our time together by sharing with you the script that I wrote out for the description of the podcast. And this is what you're going to find on your podcast app, wherever you're listening to it. If you go to the show, you'll find it, but I just want to read it for you because this really is the essence of what I want to accomplish with this show. So here we go. Conscious living in a zonked out world. If you consider yourself to be reasonably sane and constantly find yourself saying words to the effect of WTF has happened to this world, welcome. You're among friends, I have the Persian script of Voshdan, and then I say transliterated to Baboshdan, Baboshdan is a Persian word which translates to English as conscientious. This phrase was introduced to me by my Persian wife, who herself displays a great deal of Voshdan in her life. She and I were discussing potential names for a podcast that would identify with me and my values. And we both said at the same time conscientious. She then told me about this beautiful Persian word, and it stuck. She and I used this name for a joint podcast. We did more or less for fun, but it's very much apropos for our day and age. So I've repurposed for the show, for this show. I don't know about you, but I am alarmed by the lack of conviction and integrity in our culture. People are on autopilot morally and spiritually, whatever the talking heads on the boob tube tell us to think. That's what we think. Nobody thinks independently anymore. Sure, this has always been a problem since the dawn of time, but it just seems more pronounced in recent years. And no one notices. And those who do notice they seem to either not care or have given up trying to make a difference. This podcast is one man's response to this pandemic. It's not just one man's response to this pandemic. It's not one man's response to this pandemic. This podcast is one man's response to this pandemic of moral laziness and apathy. Carry yourself with Voshdan and you'll instantly set yourself apart from the zombies inhabiting our land. This podcast will show you how to do it and allow you to interact with others who think the same way. So subscribe to the podcast or reclaim your sanity with daily interviews featuring folk who refuse to march in step with the rhythm of the world that is driving us into despair and chaos. And if you're able, would you be willing to leave a rating and review of the show while you're here on the app? It really helps to build credibility for the show. This is what happened with the sudden change of the name and the artwork and the logo, the music. It's not even myself on the intro. It's a voice that I found. It's an AI generated voice. It sounds pretty good. That's what happened. And that's the story behind it. So expect this show to be, you know what to expect with this show after listening to this. And I'm excited about it. I really feel like I have finally found exactly where this show needs to be in the branding. I had the concept. I had the mission of my head and my heart were in the right place. The actual branding just wasn't in alignment with it. So that's what you're going to hear on this show. It is grace, mercy and peace, spoken in truth and love. That is my personal mission statement. Grace, mercy and peace, spoken in truth and love. And I've even formed a business called Graemer Petrilo. If you take the first two or three letters of the words grace, mercy, peace, truth, love, you have Graemer Petrilo. And so that's what you heard when this podcast was introduced brought to you by Graemer Petrilo. That's the name of my business. It's also the mission statement by which I live my life. It's very easy to talk about current affairs and the things of this world. And to think that we're hopeless, things that think that things are hopeless, that we're all alone or just this voice crying in the wilderness, that is not the case. My aim with this show is to deal with things that are relevant to us, that are important to us, raise awareness to things going on in our world that are worthy of our time, but not to get stuck in that rut of negativity, that rut of despair, thinking that we're all by ourselves. We speak grace, mercy and peace in truth and love. We say what needs to be said, but not at the expense of someone else's character, their reputation. We expose falsehoods and wrongdoings where necessary, but we don't slander anyone. That is grace, mercy and peace spoken in truth and love. And that is the guiding principle of my show, my business, and I hope my life. I can't do this in my own strength, I rely on the strength of my Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit guiding my own spirit and my own thoughts and pointing out where I'm in error in my own ways, but by God's grace, we press on, ask for forgiveness when necessary. So that is the story behind the renaming of the show. It is now called Baboshdan. There's also the Persian script right after it. And I do that just, I think it just looks cool. I think it looks amazing. And it's also a tribute to my lovely wife, Sana, who has made a tremendous impact in my own life. And when I met Sana, the first time, there's just something inside me that said you need to get her on your good side because she's going to make her life better. And that has been the case. Sana, I love you and you have made an impact not just on this show, but in me personally. Thank you all for listening and we'll be in your ear balls very soon. We've got some great interviews that have already been recorded that are going to be released in the near future. Some other interviews that are yet to occur that will occur in due time, but I'm excited about the future of the show. It's really a lot to be optimistic about. And I'm glad you're here for the ride. Grammar Petru Low is your go to full service publishing and marketing firm specializing in podcasts, copywriting, email marketing, website design, course creation, and much more. If it involves clicking a button that says publish, we're here to help. Let us handle the technical side of things while you focus on creating and delivering value for your audience. With Grammar Petru Low, your vision becomes reality shared with grace, mercy, and peace in truth and love. Remember the Grammar Petru Low difference today, visit GMPTL.org and receive a free gift just for checking us out. That's GM as in Mary, PTL.org.
