Juan David's Newsletter - February 20, 2022

The UIUC Talkshow

Everyone will tell you college is a place to explore ideas. But in my experience, it’s been the worst place to do so. Through classes and tedious busy work, you barely have time to think.

But I want to change that. I want to feel alive and excited about being in college and using college as a way to learn from the smartest people in the world.

How?

My friend and I are starting a new project to explore and get excited about ideas.

We are calling this, “The UIUC Talkshow.” UIUC stands for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Talkshow, well you know what that is.

Our goal with the show is to introduce you to the most interesting people with the most interesting ideas from the U of I campus.

But beyond that, we’re doing that for ourselves. These are the conversations my friend and I want to have, and we will be making them public. If you ask someone “important” to have a conversation, they’ll probably say no. But if you ask them for an interview, they’ll almost always say yes.

Now, we need to find interesting people!

So far, we’ve had two conversations with two friends, and they’ve been absolutely freaking AMAZING. The energy my friend and I experience afterward is like riding a never-ending rollercoaster with an infinite climax.

I’ve been emailing professors and just by looking at the variety of people outside of engineering who are on this campus is insane.

Engineering is cool but have you ever met a professor who knows everything about Ancient Cities? Video Essays? History of Calculus? The Transition from Enlightenment to Existentialism?

Just to name a few out of the almost 3,000 faculty and 50,000 students!! THIS WILL BE such a great EXPERIENCE.

And if that wasn’t enough, my friend Aaryaman is an absolute badass at making the experience feel legit. Me? I would start filming with my phone and a shitty microphone. My friend? A professional studio with perfect lighting and audio with the only Netflix-approved camera. I know, WTF?

We complement each other perfectly: a combination of moving fast with excellent quality.

That was the first day and we didn’t what we were doing. The second day, the quality was through the roof.

Doing things like this feels like the true purpose of college. Exploring ideas through experimental projects.

To get you even more excited, look at the trailer I made:

I hope to have your support, feedback, and excitement.

Support us by:

• Subscribing on YouTube

I’m genuinely excited. We’ll be posting the first three episodes this week. Now, I have to go back to editing the videos.

See you next week,

Juan David Campolargo