Review Fix chats with career Martial Artist Gene Dunn, who discusses the inspiration process and goals for his new podcast, The Gentle Art.
About Gene Dunn:
Gene Dunn is a lifelong martial arts practitioner, and has dedicated his life to propagation of traditional martial arts to students through safe, effective, non-competitive methods. His influence as an instructor and educator now reaches from his home base in Brooklyn – where he has taught for over 20 years – to as far away as Melbourne, Australia.
He began his martial arts training in Shotokan Karate at the age of 11 and has gone on to achieve the rank of 6th Degree Black Belt in karate under Mr. Toyotaro Miyazaki and Mr. Kai Leung; 1st Degree Black Belt in judo under Mr. Kyoshi Shiina; and 4th Degree Black Belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Mr. Renzo Gracie.
He also holds the rank of double-black Pra Jiad in Muay Thai under Mr. Jamie Crowder. In addition to working in boxing and wrestling throughout New York City, he has practiced extensively in the art of Kung Fu with Mr. Paul Vizzio and in Tae Kwon Do with Mr. Herb Perez and Mr. Kevin Padilla.
Shihan Gene Dunn was also recently inducted into the USA Karate Hall of Fame (2019)
Review Fix: What inspired the podcast?
Gene Dunn:The Gentle Art Podcast evolved out of another podcast I’m doing with renowned martial artist, professor Brian Glick called The Martial Arts Mind Podcast. We’ve spoken to many martial artists and It’s great and we get a lot of good work done but I wanted to expand that conversation into other areas like Art, Food, Music, Love, Relationships, Spirituality, etc. Exploring elements of mastery. Asking what are the common bridges? I want to know the gentle part and I wanted to explore what is inside of people and bring to light what unites us, the good we do, the nuances of that.
Review Fix: What makes it special?
Gene Dunn:I typically don’t use the term special but what makes it unique is its perspective. It challenges some of the social norms around Art, Spirituality, Martial Arts, Manhood, Womanhood, etc. At the moment we do this in two ways. 1. Long form conversation with a wide variety of guests and 2. Mat Chats. Mat Chats are ideas, concepts and stories I share with my students at the end of their Martial Arts training sessions.
Review Fix: What are your goals for it?
Gene Dunn:We say in the podcast description that we’re “Exploring new paradigms with ancient roots”, Jiu-Jitsu directly translates to The Gentle Art. The Masters of the past named it that on purpose, they could have named it anything but they chose The Gentle Art, so the goal of the podcast is to share that philosophy and life style with as many people as possible.
Review Fix: Who is your ideal listener?
Gene Dunn:It’s really for everyone, you don’t have to be a martial artist to connect with these conversations.
Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone tune in?
Gene Dunn:In many ways this podcast is counter culture to the vast majority of what is being put out today. All around the world violence and fear seem to control the discourse using the old journalism adage “if it bleeds it leads”. That is fear based thinking and a horribly sad way to live. Tune in to hear about ideas in action like abundance and Love in the face of challenges.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Gene Dunn:We keep making one episode at a time. Maybe video episodes and more social media content for the future.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Gene Dunn:Let us know what you think of the podcast. Please feel free to reach out on social media @thegentleartpodcast (FB, IG & Twitter) and [email protected]. Rate and Review, that helps us a lot to get the message out into the collective conscious.:
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