Jan. 5, 2025

From Army Vet to Author Joel Bouchard's Journey of Multifaceted Mastery

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Join us on the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball as we delve into the multifaceted life of Joel Bouchard. A local government official, business leader, army veteran, author, podcast host, and doctoral student, Joel shares his journey from philosophy podcasting to public service, and from forming a band to becoming a multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Discover his insights on philosophy, science, and creativity, and learn about his latest book, The Sleeper, the Scholar and the Strix. Don't miss this inspiring conversation!

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome, um, to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. Um, if you believe you can achieve Chee Chee.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate, and inspire. Today I am joined by Joe Bouchard. Joel is a lot of things. He's a local government official, business leader, army veteran, author, podcast host, doctoral student in psychology.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>He's a multi instrumentalist, record producer, and he's just doing a lot of things.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So we're going to be talking to him about everything that he's up to. So. So, Joel, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Speaker B>Yeah, yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Speaker B>Yeah, so, uh, your introduction, you know, covered most of it, but, uh, yeah, I'm just somebody who, uh, who likes to do new things, um, is what it boils down to. So, um, yeah, doctoral student, psychology, um, on, ah, you know, heavily involved with local government, on the board of trustees and things, um, production manager for a manufacturing facility, and, uh, host of the philosophy podcast From Nor to Nothing. And, uh, I've got. Got a few albums online on itunes and Spotify, wherever you listen to music. Uh, so, yeah, it was a good overview.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah. So let's start with your governmental career, you know, you know, tell us about that and how you got into, uh, you know, government and why you wanted to get into it.

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> Speaker B>Yeah, so the funny thing about me is I'm. I'm an introvert by nature.

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> Speaker B>So, like, I'm not really a, ah, people person. I'm not really outgoing or anything like that. But, um, the way I got into government was actually, uh, through podcasting. The mayor of our town ended, uh, up listening to my philosophy podcast. And so, um, he kind of heard me talking with my, My resident expert. And, uh, he goes, you know, you seem like a guy who thinks pretty deeply about things. Um, and we have a position that's open, and normally, uh, you have to, you have to run for the office and you have to be elected. He said, but somebody had stepped down.

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> Speaker B>Uh, so in the interim, uh, the local law allowed for the mayor to appoint somebody to the position. And he said, I want to appoint you to the position.

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> Speaker B>So when, uh, the mayor asks you to do, uh, your civil duty, you. You end up doing it. Um, I. So long story short, I had really no interest in being involved in politics. Um, but if there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that when opportunities arise You.

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> Speaker B>You have to take them because you never know if they'll come back around, so.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah, well, you're also a veteran, so. So, you know, kind of tell us about your military service and thank you for your military service.

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> Speaker B>Sure. Yeah. Um, nothing big to tell there. I, um, joined the. The Army Reserves, um, a little bit later in life when I was about 24. So, um, you know, I'd always wanted to be in the military when I was younger, and, uh, you know, I also had a love of learning. You know, I wanted to want, uh, to go to college, but, um, I didn't want to take on all the student loans and debt and things.

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> Speaker B>So I said, well, I can kind of kill two birds with one stone and, you know, fulfill a childhood dream and, uh, get some money to continue going to school and, uh, joined the Army Reserves. Never, um, never got deployed anywhere. You know, had a few different training missions and, and met a lot of cool people along the way and things like that.

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> Speaker B>But, uh, yeah, that's, uh, that's kind of the. The general overview.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay. Multi instrumentalist, record producer.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Tell us about your music. Tell us how you got into it and what, what kind of music you do.

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> Speaker B>Yeah, yeah. So that, um, is a funny story. Uh, when I was a kid, I didn't really care for music. I didn't really listen to it or anything. So it's not like I'm a child prodigy or anything. Um, then when I was, I don't know, like about 14 or 15, you know, my friends and I, we just did like the most teenage boy thing ever. And we said, why don't we start a band? And, uh, none of us played any instruments, so we just kind of picked them out of a hat. And, uh, I got guitar. So we all ended up just sort of teaching ourselves how to play our instruments and we formed a band. And we, uh, ended up doing pretty well and, you know, got. Got pretty, pretty big locally. And uh, just as we were starting to get some momentum, um, my drummer, who's a little bit older than me, got married really young.

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> Speaker B>And, uh, my bass player, who's a little bit older than me, moved out of state to go to school and. And so the band broke up and I, you know, said, man, you know, I'm just. I'm just starting to get into music, you know, at. At, you know, 17, 18 years old.

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> Speaker B>So I took, uh, my life savings down to Guitar center and I just ended up, um, buying everything that I needed to have, uh, a. A recording studio. So I bought a, an electronic Drum set and a bass guitar and a keyboard and ended, uh, up sort of figuring out how to build a computer. So I built a studio computer and, uh, you know, ended up figuring out some, uh, some of the software side of things and just started piecing together recordings, um, of myself playing all the different instruments. And, uh, over time it's gotten gradually a little, Little bit better. You know, I still don't think I'm a great musician by any stretch of the imagination. But, uh, you know, it's uh, gotten to the point now where I think I've got. I think I got five albums online and a bunch of EPs, uh, and singles and things. And uh, they're mostly in like a, uh, alternative kind, uh, of psychedelic rock kind of genre is what I'd say they are.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well, not only do you write songs, but you're an author, so kind of tell. Tell us about your writings, how you got into that.

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> Speaker B>Yeah, so writing is my most recent, um, kind of project. Um, I guess not.

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> Speaker B>Not recent. You know, I've. I've always liked writing ever since I was a kid.

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> Speaker B>But, um, anybody who's attempted to write a book will tell you that, you know, it's easy to start, but it's very hard to finish.

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> Speaker B>You know, you. It's very easy to write yourself into a corner or to lose inspiration or forget how to integrate characters, this sort of thing. So, um, a couple years ago I sat down and really developed a good framework and, um, kind of fleshed out some points. And then last, uh, year, wrote the book. And then this summer, uh, in between classes, uh, got it out on Amazon. Ah.

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> Speaker B>So the Sleeper, the Scholar and the Strix is what that is. And it's. It's a fiction book. It's fantasy. And part of the reason I wrote it was, um, I'm very interested in philosophy. And, uh, at the time, what I'd been thinking about was mythology and um, Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces and how people across the world have stories that seem to have similar elements to them. And so I thought to myself, well, how can I incorporate some of these similar elements, um, but kind of twist things a little bit along the way to make them new? And I really think that's kind of, um, the hallmark of any good art. Right. I think whether it's music or writing or painting or whatever it happens to be, right. What people want is something familiar presented in an unfamiliar way. If it's too weird, uh, too often to left field, people can't engage with it. But, uh, if it's too familiar, people just get bored, right? So trying to find that balance between what's something people can connect with, uh, but what's something that's sort of fresh or new that they won't expect? So, uh, the story, uh, yeah, you know, uses some. Some sort of typical fantasy tropes, um, but it's presented kind of in a new light, um, given, you know, informed by mythological things that I was reading at the time.

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> Speaker B>So, uh, yeah, that was my most recent project that. That, uh, just released this summer.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, you mentioned painting. You are also a painter. So, you know, kind of tell the listeners how you got into that and what you like to paint. You have any for sale?

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> Speaker B>Um, yeah, I don't. I. I don't, uh. Well, my. My shtick is that I'm the world's worst marketer. Like, I don't. I don't like to market things, so I. I don't, um. So I've never actually put up a painting for sale, but I have sold some when people have asked. Uh, so every once in a while somebody will come through. They'll go, oh, wow, that's really cool. Can I pay you for that? And I'll go, yeah, sure. You know, because I tend not to be really attached to things too much. Usually, um, uh, you know, with like, my music and things. Lots, um, of times the songs on my records, I only play them one time, and that's when I'm recording them and then I never play them again. So people will say, well, what's that guitar part you played? And I'll go, I don't know, you know, because I just did it one time in the studio or what are the lyrics to that? And I go, I don't know. I'd have to look up the sheet that I wrote it down on. So, uh, I don't get too attached to them. So if somebody wants a painting, I'll usually give it to them. Or if they're willing to offer me some money, I'll, uh, give it to him. But yeah, painting, that kind of runs in the family. My dad was, uh, a professional painter, um, and he owned a business making signs for people and things. And he developed the, uh.

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> Speaker B>The logo for the little, uh, village that we live in and things. Um, and I'm by no means anywhere near the painter that he was, but I like doing some. Some landscapes here and there and, uh, you know, playing around with some. Some more abstract, uh, things with color and whatnot. But yeah, for the most part, it's uh, like landscapes.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, talk about your podcast.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>You. You got a governmental position with your podcast, so kind of tell us about that, what it's all about, what we can hear it and how you got that started.

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> Speaker B>Yeah, yeah. So my podcast is, uh, From Nowhere to Nothing. Ah, you can listen to it anywhere.

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> Speaker B>You listen to podcasts. It's a, uh, philosophy podcast. And, um, kind of the. The reason, uh, behind starting that was, um. You know, I've mentioned a couple times now that I, I just love learning things. And where that came from was, uh, um, you know, my mother, early in life would. Would, uh, kind of foster that. But when I got into college, um, I didn't really know what philosophy was. You know, it had something to do with, you know, guys with big beards that were angry at the world or whatever. But. So I took my first philosophy class, and my first. My. My professor just, uh, opened my eyes to what a cool topic it is. You know, philosophy. I really think the philosophy is everybody's favorite topic. They just don't know it, um, because it's the reasoning behind why we think and believe what we think and believe. Um, so, you know, all of us have things that are important to us, and the reason they're important to us is because of our philosophies. Uh, so he really opened my eyes to that in that first class, and there was just some really engaging discussions, uh, with him and with a lot of the classmates.

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> Speaker B>And, um, after I, uh, created my recording studio and released a couple albums, I thought, why don't I start a podcast? You know, I have all the recording equipment. You know, I should just go ahead and do it. And I go, well, what would I do a podcast about? And I thought, well, it'd be cool to recreate discussions like, from that first philosophy class that I took. And so my philosophy professor from that class, uh, you know, I called him up after 10 years of not talking to him and said, hey, uh, Norm, you want to. You want to do a podcast about philosophy? And he said, sure. And so six years later and 200 episodes were still going strong, and usually, uh, what we'll do is we'll just take one word or two words, um, for each episode, and we'll look at, um, formative aspects of it, you know, what philosophers have said about the topic in the past. Um, we'll look at the current state of the topic, what science, uh, and art and philosophy has, ah, taught us about it up to this point. And then we'll look at speculative elements. You know, we'll Say, okay, well, in light of what's been said in the past, what's been said in the future, what we've talked about on the show today, um, how does this affect us as human beings? Or how. How will it affect humanity as a whole in the future? Or you, um, know, what, what sort of, uh, what makes this an important topic? So, yeah, that's kind of the overview of the podcast.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well, sticking to that philosophy topic, in your opinion, what is philosophy? And do you feel like it's still relevant?

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> Speaker B>Yeah, yeah. So, um, you know, kind, uh, of like I mentioned, it's.

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> Speaker B>It's not just what is important to us, but it's why it's important to us. Um, so, you know, it's easy for somebody to say, well, I like music, you know, but if you ask somebody, well, why do you like music? Um, that tends to go from just something that somebody has a general positive feeling about, um, to something that is actually a meaningful topic. You know, a deep conversation.

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> Speaker B>And so that's what philosophy is. It's a deep conversation about meaningful topics. And what you quickly come to realize is that almost any topic, um, can be deep and meaningful. And, uh, almost anybody can talk about certain things in a deep and meaningful way. So we're all philosophers to some extent. Um, some of us have thought about things a little bit deeper than others.

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> Speaker B>Uh, some of us have just a couple things, some of us have a wide range of things. But, uh, we all have things that are important to us. We've all thought about certain things deeply. And, uh, that's why it's important.

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> Speaker B>It's relevant today is having a reason and a rationale for, uh, why you believe what you believe or why you do what you do or why you have certain views about certain things, um, can be important.

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> Speaker B>So that's kind of the. That's sort of the general answer.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, you also talk about science a lot.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So what do you feel science can tell us or what it cannot tell us?

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> Speaker B>Yeah, this is a really important question.

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> Speaker B>Um, I think that, you know, I'm a scientist in training, a social scientist, um, as I'm getting my PhD in psychology.

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> Speaker B>And, um, the one thing that you really learn is that science really tells us, um, you know, what does not exist more than what does.

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> Speaker B>Um, science can only disprove things. It can never prove anything.

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> Speaker B>Um, it can find evidence to support something, but, uh, it can't prove anything. So if you ever hear anybody saying, well, science proved that, that's a big red flag, uh, because I don't believe that any true scientist would ever say the scientists, science has proved something. Uh, the way the scientific method works is to devise experiments and to test null hypothesis, uh, that provide evidence, um, statistical evidence, uh, against, um, you know, to disprove certain theories so we can collect all the evidence in the world. But one example of evidence that disproves something kind of throws the whole thing out. Uh, and that's why science tends to be such a strong way of knowing things that, um, being said, uh, what can we know and what can't we know with it? Um, you're just looking at measures of support.

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> Speaker B>Um, so the things that have the most support tend to be the things that we feel most confident saying that we know. Um, but, you know, like I've talked about just a second ago with one, one, you know, instance, being able to disprove it, you, uh, always have to have an open mind as a scientist.

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> Speaker B>So you can see that something that's heavily supported by the scientific literature.

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> Speaker B>Uh, but if you see any shred of evidence that's pointing the other direction, it's kind of your obligation to investigate it and see how things play out.

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> Speaker B>Uh, and it's not uncommon, especially in psychology, to get conflicting results. Uh, and it can have things to do with demographics or experimental design or all kinds of different things. Um, but yeah, it's very complicated. There's no easy way out in science to um, just say, okay, well, we conducted one experiment and that's the end of it. No, ah, it's always an ongoing thing, right? I think probably the best example would be physics. Um, back in, uh, medieval times, everybody thought that they had the universe figured out when Ptolemy had epicycles. And then Newton came along and he said, well, no, there's, there's Newtonian gravity and well, that explains things pretty well. So now we're done. And then Einstein came along and okay, well, now we have relatively relativity. So now we're done. And then after that, quantum physics came along, right? And now they're trying to come up with a unified theory. Um, there's, there's. You're never, you're never done in science, right?

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> Speaker B>You're always refining. You're always trying to get it better and better.

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> Speaker B>You're always trying to find explanations that, um, are the most accurate. And in doing so, um, you're always finding things that aren't accurate. And that's kind of your next avenues of exploration.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that the listeners need to be aware of.

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> Speaker B>Yeah, so right now, um, I'm pretty deep into my uh, doctoral degree. So I'm taking my last classes. I'm about to start my dissertation. So, um, most my other projects are sort of on the, uh, sort of on the back burner.

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> Speaker B>Uh, it's a slow time of year in between. You know, over the holidays, sometimes I try to sneak out releasing uh, a single, uh, for my music. Or over the summer sometimes I'll try to write a whole album or um, you know, get on a lot more podcast episodes and that sort of thing. Um, but at this point, um, I'm really just focused on doing a good job with, with my degree and trying to finish up strong.

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> Speaker B>So I've got nothing, um, on the horizon for the immediate future.

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> Speaker B>Um, but mostly, uh, going, going around and trying to uh, promote, promote my book a little bit and uh, yeah, just work on my PhD.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well congratulations on that. And so everybody can keep up with everything that you're up to.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Throw out your contact info.

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> Speaker B>So, yeah, um, like I mentioned, I'm the world's worst marketer. I'm not, not great with social media, not great with any of that stuff. Um, but like, like we've talked about throughout the episode, if you, uh, you search for From Nowhere to Nothing, you'll find my podcast.

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> Speaker B>You can listen to that anywhere. You listen to podcasts.

00:20:23.539 --> 00:20:28.680
> Speaker B>If you search my name, um, you know, where you listen to music, you can find my music.

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> Speaker B>Um, if you want to reach out to us on the podcast, we'll talk about any topic that anybody wants to discuss. Uh, so you can send us one at from nor gmail.com and uh, that's pretty, pretty much it covers it.

00:20:46.269 --> 00:20:54.089
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on and just any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> Speaker B>Yeah, ah, I think that, you know, we've, we've covered it uh, pretty well, you know, as far as my background and things and uh, you know, as far as final thoughts for people. I think that it's just important, especially in our day and age to uh, to engage with things philosophically.

00:21:13.038 --> 00:21:46.509
> Speaker B>Right. And it doesn't matter what it is, you know, you don't have to be somebody who um, has done a lot of different things in life or done you, ah, know a bunch of crazy things. But even in your regular everyday life, um, just think purposefully about why you do the things you do and why you think the way you do, um, and why other people might do and think the way that they do, and, uh, it might open up some understanding and, uh, you know, create some bridges and help you, uh, live a more meaningful life. So that's kind of my, my pitch.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, ladies and gentlemen, y'all be sure to check out Joel. He's going to be doing a lot of good things, especially once he gets that degree. Check out his book and his music and podcast everything. Follow Rate Review Share this episode to as many people as possible.

00:22:04.440 --> 00:22:21.983
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Jump on your favorite podcast app, Follow us, give us a review. Share the show if you have any guest or suggestion topics, please send them to curtisjackson1978t.net thank you for listening and supporting the show, Joel.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Thank you for all that you do and are doing.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>And thank you for joining us.

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> Speaker B>Yeah, thanks for having me on. It was a lot of fun.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurveball.com.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>until next time, stay focused on Living the dream. Dream.