By Karanja Ngugi
(You can find more from Karanja on his incredible Substack, @KaranjaNgugi. It will be worth your while, I promise!)
Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home album contributed to the naming of the podcast Busy Being Born, hosted by two brothers, Kamande Wambui and Martin Kigondu.
On this day, 20th June 2026, Busy Being Born Podcast was hosting a live recording episode at Sugar and Lime Restaurant on Mombasa Road. One of the lessons that echoed throughout the event was showing up: for yourself and, in an effort to give back to the community, for others. We showed up, and that’s all that mattered. One of the benefits of arriving at an event early is that you get to see the missile launchers that sound engineers use to launch sound to the event. Launchers often breed chaos, but this time they launched sound that bred good tidings. A good day it was for the nerd in me, learning about machines I didn’t know about.
We had two segments this day.
The first segment started with the guest host interviewing the podcast hosts, asking them about the Busy Being Born Podcast.
“How did the name Busy Being Born come to be?” he asked.
My mind started running towards answering the question of how one can be busy being born. You can be busy doing lots of things: eating, sleeping aimlessly, doomscrolling, or this classic busy I’m doing now as I wait for either Kamande or Kigondu to answer. As aforementioned, the name of the show came from Bob Dylan and, boom, Busy Being Born Podcast was born. On this day, we were gathered for the second live recording of Busy Being Born Podcast. For those who might try to pull that “Just their second? They have a long way to go…” line, this was their 82nd episode. Most podcasts don’t go past five episodes or, in extreme and not so rare cases, are those podcasts, like my favorite one, The Calgrian, that don’t operate outside our heads. Being Men’s Mental Health Month, the first segment of the show brought us to it, and these were among the questions asked: how the guests’ daily routines were, how they tackle the challenges that come with life in general, how they have been keeping the podcast going for five plus years, you must note that five years is longer than all your relationships combined, and how they deal with emotions like anger.
The second segment introduced us to a very powerful guest, Dr. Zippy Okoth, an award winning filmmaker and a lecturer at KCA University. She was an embodiment of what joy is like and spoke so joyously on family, self belief, filmmaking, and more.
To summarize the premises that housed my spirit from both segments:
1. Trusting my gut more.
Both Kamande and Kigondu echoed the same thing on trusting one’s gut when it came to the pursuit of life.
“Just DO IT and let it flow.” This was in line with a struggle that had me in a chokehold for a period longer than the two World Wars, and listening to the two reminded me that I am not lost, broken, or devoid of talent. Dr. Zippy specifically spoke of believing in one’s ability to do something. One has nothing to lose but their own chains. It reminded me that all I had to do was trust my ability to do anything. Maybe I’d be married if I just called Lorna, trusting she also speaks nerd like me. I know she doesn’t, but remember…
Trust.
Jiamini.
2. Continuous Improvement.
This premise reminded me that true growth compounds from what we do daily. I had come across this before. They had called it Kaizen. You see, this Kaizen thing had been following me everywhere, and this day was no exception. I don’t know what the Japanese want with me. Must be because of my past life where, if I’m to put it in modern IG lingua, I’d have said, “#Kamikaze4Lyf.” Or, “Just hit a Thai plane. #AviatedThais #Kamikazes.” It spoke to me specifically because I was wondering how we can change this country. Maybe Day 1 should be all about changing its name before Day 2, where we move the capital city from Nairobi to my hometown.
3. Emotional Health.
As you know, men tend to ignore their emotional health, mostly because we don’t know such a thing exists. But since I am among those who are busy being born, I happen to know that a man should have sound and healthy emotional health. Among the things touched on were anger, public display of emotions, and more. The shocking thing I learned is that it’s okay for men to cry. I had never tried it outside the shower, and the reason it hit me hard is because crying outside the shower was blasphemous in my world.
4. Family.
Dr. Okoth’s story on her childhood was a testament that healthy families do exist. She reminded me of my childhood. Some echoes from the hosts and the audience spoke of how jealous they were of how she grew up. Maybe it’s what Tolstoy said in Anna Karenina: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way..”
It was a lesson on the importance of community and having a support system. We all need one.
This day was amazing, and I’ve probably left out a lot.
Jiamini!
And remember, “If you’re not busy being born, then you’re busy not living.”
Live!