Jedi Mind Tricks: Ben Weaver's Magical Leap to the Hobby Side

watch the episode here 📺

or listen to it here 🎧

I met Ben Weaver at the huge beer garden in the British Oak in Stirchley on an uncharacteristically chilly half term day. He coached rugby and sport at KE five years ago and it was wonderful to catch up.  We took shelter to record this episode. It was the first videocast I recorded. We started by asking if hobbies are just obsessions in disguise. Ben shared how he got into magic during lockdown. He talked about the fine points of holding a deck of cards. To me, the differences seemed tiny, but Ben assured me they were crucial! 🤯He described the rush of performing magic live, and how it was the most nerve-wracking experience for him. We then turned to education. Are schools focusing too much on grades and not enough on hobbies? Ben suggested an ‘enrichment week’ where students try new hobbies. We also discussed AI. It's getting good at tasks like reading and writing, which are highly valued in schools. What can humans bring to the table? What will set future generations apart? I brought up my worries about social media and loot box games. They’re addictive and time-consuming but not fun or creative. Are they keeping people from doing things they really care about? We ended with a bang – Ben performed an amazing magic trick that left us in awe. I can’t wait to have him back for more magic!

Setting up the episode as a videocast on Spotify was a massive faff and a time drain, and it ultimately didn't work, so I have the episode as an audio-only file on Spotify. However, I managed to upload the episode on YouTube.