New Video: History, Jiu Jitsu, and Maps with Ruadhan MacFadden

The second published interview in my "Out on a Limb" episodes.

Lesson learned: Audio can be just as much of a hassle as video, man. My mic picked up everything including the rub against my shirt and the creak of my chair. His mic had the opposite problem; I was lucky he had a soothing baritone to make it a bit easier to catch. There was also a 1.5 to 2 second delay of my recording software. A great challenge, and I learned a lot.

I started with roughly 28 minutes of raw footage. That’s what happens when you get two nerds getting to talk about a confluence of things they love. Paring that down to 10 was the goal. I got pretty close, decided that the narratives fit after some rearranging, and dropped in some pictures to jazz up the visuals.

Ruadhan MacFadden discusses his recent weaving of grappling, anthropology, and cartography for his podcast, A Hero of a Thousand Holds (www.thousandholds.net). Thus far, he has researched a broad range of folk-wrestling styles, Jiu Jitsu (both Japanese and Brazilian), Judo, and Sambo.

0:27 The 5 Maps (currently available!)

Grappling Around the World
Grasping Chaos
The Father of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Choke Points
Iron Roots

3:12 His Inspiration: A workshop at BJJ Globetrotters

7:26 The Problems of Dubious Sources and Historiography: Who can we trust as historians? Which sources are valid? Does a resource that offers another narrative disqualify your source and narrative?