On this week's episode of the Bruce Lee Podcast, Shannon's guest is musician and wellness activist Khnum Ibomu also known as Stic. Stic is part of the duo known as dead prez as well as being a solo artist, producer, speaker, long distance running coach and author. His life experiences have led him to focus his life and music on promoting wellness and healthy living. Stic is someone who we at the Bruce Lee Family Companies have been in contact with for quite some time. He's a martial artist and j...
Nov 12, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 205
On this week's episode of the Bruce Lee Podcast, Shannon's guest is mountaineer and activist and dear friend of hers, Wasfia Nazreen. Wasfia and Shannon met last year at a conference they both were speaking at and they immediately connected. As it turns out, Wasfia had just moved to LA so they were able to hang out. Shannon soon learned that Wasfia is leading a full and extraordinary life. She is most known for being the ONLY Bangladeshi and first Bengali in the world to climb the Seven Summits ...
Nov 05, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 204
On this week's episode of the Bruce Lee Podcast, Shannon's guest is actor and Warrior leading cast member, Andrew Koji. Andrew plays Ah Sahm on the Cinemax series Warrior based on Bruce Lee's treatment. Shannon met Andrew for the first time in his casting session for the show, which she executive produces. Andrew has done such a great job of bringing his own artistry to the role that Bruce Lee would have played without trying at all to imitate him. He showed up in his full soulfulness and genuin...
Oct 29, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 203
On episode 2 of the Bruce Lee Podcast, Shannon engages in conversation with middleweight UFC mixed martial artist Uriah Hall. Uriah and Shannon became friends last year when they met in New York at an event for Shannon's tv show Warrior, and they hit it off immediately. Uriah is getting ready to step into the octagon with his long time idol Anderson Silva on October 31st 2020. Considered one of the most devastatingly dynamic fighters out there, Shannon was reminded of this passage in her book: "...
Oct 22, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 202
On this first episode of the new edition of the Bruce Lee Podcast, Shannon engages in conversation with comedian, actor, dancer, writer, rapper, and music producer Affion Crockett. You may know Affion from his work in such projects as Def Comedy Jam, A Haunted House, the wedding ringer, or in the flow. But Shannon only knew Affion from conversations they had on social media before they sat down to talk for the first time during this episode. This conversation reminded Shannon of this passage fro...
Oct 15, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 201
FINALLY! A new season of the Bruce Lee Podcast drops OCTOBER 15th! What's new? This season, I engage in conversations with special guests from all walks of life about their approach to living life fluidly and the wisdom they have gained along the way. In celebration of the publication of my book Be Water, My Friend and 80 years of Bruce Lee awesomeness, I continue to share my dad's philosophies as my guests and I dive deep into the challenges and joys of being human and the best practices for li...
Oct 08, 2020•3 min•Season 2Ep. 200
New Episode! This is a special quarantine edition podcast episode from Shannon Lee. Originally a video, it can be found on our Bruce Lee youtube channel. Shannon made this "What Would Bruce Lee Do?" video as a way to be helpful in this time we find ourselves in during the Covid-19 Pandemic. She set up an email address at WWBLD@Brucelee.com (What Would Bruce Lee Do?) and asked her followers on her Instagram to submit questions. After answering questions in her video, Shannon wanted to share it as...
May 20, 2020•46 min•Ep. 139
In this special episode Shannon and Sharon respond to questions from listeners wondering "What Would Bruce Lee Do?" With a mixture of Bruce Lee philosophy and personal experiences, Shannon and Sharon discuss choosing career paths, clarifying Bruce Lee's philosophy on goals, how to share spiritual experiences, and seeking validation from those you admire. This is an applied philosophy podcast and these listener questions are real life examples of when we can apply Bruce Lee's philosophy to our li...
Feb 20, 2019•49 min•Ep. 138
The "On Guard" position is what Bruce Lee called his resting stance in JKD. This is the optimal stance from which movement can initiate. The On Guard stance can be used as a metaphor for having the proper stance and orientation in life. With this stance you are poised to initiate movement in your life. Bruce's On Guard stance was a strong side forward stance. For Bruce, he wanted his strongest weapon out front. His stance was a natural step apart and his rear heel was lifted like a "coiled snake...
Feb 13, 2019•40 min•Ep. 137
We return to Bruce Lee's Library to examine another book that greatly influenced Bruce Lee's philosophy. Bruce would underline and annotate his books, and would journal about them creating his own version of a book report after reading. In his volume of Zen in Japanese Art, A Spiritual Experience by Toshimitsu Hasumi, Bruce highlighted passages, made notes throughout, and wrote a long note at the beginning of the book. This book, Zen in Japanese Art, A Spiritual Experience by Toshimitsu Hasumi, ...
Feb 06, 2019•41 min•Ep. 136
What does it mean to be healthy in our mind, body, and spirit? Health is not limited to our physical wellbeing, but encompasses our mind, body, and spirit. In order to get to optimal health, we have to be willing to look at the unhealthy parts of ourselves. Bruce Lee pursued not just his physical health, but also his mental and spiritual health. "Health is an appropriate balance of the coordination of all of what we are. A healthy person has both a good orientation (sensoric system) and ability ...
Jan 30, 2019•44 min•Ep. 135
"Don't think, FEEL." This line comes from a scene in Enter the Dragon where Bruce Lee is instructing a student. He tells the student to throw a kick, the student kicks, and Bruce says, "What was that? What is this an Exhibition? You need emotional content." The student kicks again and Bruce says, "I said emotional content not anger! Try again, but this time with me. Don't think FEEL." When Bruce Lee says, "Don't think," he means, "Get out of your head." When he says, "FEEL," he means really feel...
Jan 23, 2019•41 min•Ep. 134
Taking action, the physical act of "doing" can be like salve to the soul. It can be a tool, a medicine, a cure, something that actually leads us on a path to healing and what we want to accomplish in our lives. If we get caught up in our thinking and thoughts it can be paralyzing. In order to free ourselves from that paralysis we have to take action and do something. A simple example is just to get up and move your body. If your body is feeling stiff, get up and stretch, go for a walk, and by mo...
Jan 16, 2019•37 min•Ep. 133
"Using no way as way; having no limitation as limitation." The idea of being limitless was a core tenet of Bruce Lee's approach to his art and his life. He lived the philosophy of being limitless and took action. The idea of being limitless is a mindset and a sense of freedom within one's own life; it does not mean that you have no boundaries or that you are negligible of your environment or others around you. Being limitless is the ability to make the decision to be and do anything that is cent...
Jan 09, 2019•47 min•Ep. 132
Happy New Year! To kick off 2019, Shannon and Sharon wanted to share their goals for the New Year and have a discussion surrounding creating goals, working towards them and maintaining momentum. When creating and pursuing goals it is important to have awareness, intention, clarity, and the will to take action. Bruce Lee was a man with many goals. He had big, visionary life goals and he also had smaller daily goals. Bruce believed that goals often just serve as a target and that the important thi...
Jan 02, 2019•45 min•Ep. 131
Thank you to all of our listeners for a wonderful year! In this episode Shannon and Sharon reflect on the lessons that they have learned in the past year. We want to encourage all of you to look back on the year and notice your progress. It is important to not only look forward, but to reflect on what we have learned. The end of a year is a good marker to reflect back on the progress we have made and we wanted to share the lessons we have learned over the past year with all of you. Bruce Lee was...
Dec 26, 2018•44 min•Ep. 130
This week we share wisdom from our podcast listeners. We've selected a few stories to share about how listeners have incorporated Bruce Lee's philosophy into their everyday lives and the impact that the philosophy has had on them. Thank you to all of our listeners who write to us sharing the impact that Bruce Lee and this podcast has had on their lives! We love reading how you all are living your lives fully and authentically. We wanted to share these pieces of listener wisdom because they are a...
Dec 19, 2018•48 min•Ep. 129
"The autonomous individual is only stable so long as he possessed of self-esteem. The maintenance of self-esteem is a continuous task which taxes all of the individual's power and inner resources. We have to prove our worth and justify our existence anew each day. When, for whatever reason, self-esteem is unattainable, the autonomous individual becomes a highly explosive entity. He turns away from an unpromising self and plunges into the pursuit of pride, the explosive substitute for self-esteem...
Dec 12, 2018•41 min•Ep. 128
Disclaimer: Some of the language in this episode includes profanity In this episode Shannon and Sharon were joined on the podcast by special guest Mike Vallely. Mike Vallely is a professional skateboarder, owner of Street Plant, musician, actor, tv personality, stuntman, professional wrestler, and FHL hockey player. Mike shares with us his philosophy on skating, how he first encountered Bruce Lee at flea markets, what it was like growing up as a skater in 1980s New Jersey, and how he first start...
Dec 05, 2018•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 127
Bruce Lee referred to the separateness of all the martial arts styles as a "Fancy Mess" or "Organized Despair." This included the blind devotion of martial arts students who lacked a real sense of individual and personal investigation and growth. Bruce Lee created his own art of Jeet Kune Do which he called the "style of no style." He was really interested, both combatively and philosophically, in researching one's own experience and creating what works for you as an individual. Bruce had his ow...
Nov 28, 2018•44 min•Ep. 126
In this episode Shannon and Sharon sit down with Doug Palmer, a student of and close friend to Bruce Lee. Doug shares with us personal stories and anecdotes about his friendship with Bruce, including how they spent a summer in Hong Kong together and went on double dates when they both still lived in Seattle. Doug first met Bruce Lee when he was in high school in Seattle during the summer of 1961. He first saw Bruce perform a demonstration at a Chinese cultural event in Seattle's Chinatown and th...
Nov 21, 2018•41 min•Ep. 125
In this episode, we continue our discussion of Bruce Lee's cards he wrote to his friend and first assistant instructor Taky Kimura. In these cards to Taky, Bruce lays out these principles on how to be a Gung Fu man and how to own and operate a school in the best way without Bruce being there himself. In Part 1 we talked about self-cultivation, no-mind, no-thought, and following nature. Listen to #123 A Gung Fu Man: Part 1 at brucelee.com/podcast. Read Part 2 of the Taky Kimura letter at Brucelee...
Nov 14, 2018•40 min•Ep. 124
In this episode we discuss some cards that Bruce Lee sent in 1964 to his best friend Taky Kimura. Taky was Bruce's best friend, he was the best man in Bruce and Linda's wedding, and Taky was Bruce's first assistant instructor in Bruce Lee's first school in Seattle at the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. In 1964, Bruce Lee left Seattle and moved to Oakland to open a second school with James Lee. When Bruce moved he wrote these cards and gave them to Taky, who was now going to run the school in Seattle,...
Nov 07, 2018•38 min•Ep. 123
Bruce Lee's The Tao of Jeet Kune Do was published posthumously in 1976 and the very first section is titled "On Zen." While the Tao of Jeet Kune Do is an instructional book, it is not structured that way as it begins and ends with sections on philosophy. This chapter "On Zen" was made the first section of the Tao because it is supposed to orient the practitioner to this mindset and also to infuse the practitioner with the importance of the philosophical approach to the art and not just the physi...
Oct 31, 2018•42 min•Ep. 122
Bruce Lee had a giant library and read voraciously. He would annotate his books, and it's evident that these books helped influence his philosophies and approach to living life. We think it's important to share these books because they help illuminate the process of Bruce Lee becoming himself and how he used the insights gained from his reading and molded them to fit himself. In this episode we return to the Bruce Lee Library to discuss his annotations of the book, Great Ideas from the Great Boo...
Oct 24, 2018•42 min•Ep. 121
This episode features a letter that Bruce Lee wrote to his good family friend Pearl Tso when he was 21. Pearl was around Bruce's age, and her mother was Bruce's favorite auntie who was a mentor and good friend to him. Bruce wrote this letter after he had left Hong Kong and had been living in the United States for around three years. The reason we have this letter is because Bruce Lee liked to present a beautiful finished product and would create drafts of letters. This version of the letter that...
Oct 17, 2018•39 min•Ep. 120
"Be water, my friend." This is one of Bruce Lee's most famous quotes, but how did the idea first come to Bruce? In this episode we share and discuss an essay that Bruce wrote around his epiphany on the nature of water. When Bruce first had his epiphany on water he was 18 and this essay is him reflecting back on that time. When Bruce was 18, he had been studying wing chun gung fu with his sifu Yip Man for about four years. Being a teenager, Bruce was filled a fiery dragon energy, and was set on b...
Oct 10, 2018•45 min•Ep. 119
This week we have one of our favorite guests back on the show, Shannon's mom, Linda Lee Cadwell! Linda joins Shannon and Sharon to talk about the making of Enter the Dragon . With rare insights into Bruce Lee's process and experience on the set of Enter the Dragon , Linda shares behind the scenes stories, discusses how important this movie was to Bruce Lee, and talks about the lasting impact Enter the Dragon has had in action films. It is always wonderful having Linda on the Bruce Lee Podcast, a...
Oct 03, 2018•51 min•Ep. 118
"Thinking is rehearsing in fantasy for the role you have to play to society. And when it comes to the moment of performance, and you're not sure whether your performance will be well received, then you get stage fright. This stage fright has been given by psychiatry the name "anxiety". "What will I have to say on the examination?" "What will I say in my lecture?" You meet a girl and you think, "What will I wear to impress her?" And so on. All this rehearsing for the role you play." Anxiety has b...
Sep 26, 2018•46 min•Ep. 117
"The ego boundary is the differentiation between the self and the other. It is not a fixed thing. If it is fixed, then is becomes a character or an armor like the shell of a turtle. The two phenomena of the ego boundary are identification and alienation. Inside the ego boundary, there is generally cohesion, love, cooperation; outside the ego boundary there is suspicion, strangeness, unfamiliarity." – Bruce Lee Join Shannon and Sharon as they discuss the ego boundary and the polarity between insi...
Sep 19, 2018•44 min•Ep. 116