Bell Peppers, Butterflies & Book Challenges | Easy Company for a Quiet Afternoon

In Bell Peppers, Butterflies & Book Challenges, Marco is joined by friend of the show Nima Kharrazi for a gently winding conversation that begins with the humble bell pepper and gradually stretches as far as the shores of Hawaii. Along the way, Nima reflects on his love of photography, Marco playfully challenges him to write a book, and a small but memorable butterfly story adds a light, unexpected smile to the mix. The topics shift naturally, without urgency, creating the kind of easy rhythm that feels both curious and calm.
As always, this calming podcast episode is designed to help you fall asleep, ease anxiety, or simply provide steady background listening when racing thoughts need something soft to settle against. The tone is unhurried and conversational — engaging enough to keep you company, but relaxed enough to let your mind drift. Whether you’re winding down at bedtime or taking a quiet pause during the day, let this wide-ranging yet gentle exchange guide you toward rest.

​Bell Peppers, Butterflies & Book Challenges
(Original airdate: August 13, 2025)

 Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a calm conversation that's meant to sort of help you drift off and find your way to sleep. I'm pretty excited today, so I'm trying to measure that or monitor my excitement because I have A wonderful guest, a good friend of mine who's joining us here on the podcast. Also another podcaster, great creative, awesome storyteller, fantastic drummer, inspirational speaker. It's my delight to invite my great friend Nima Kharrazi to the podcast today.

Nima: Oh, thank you, Marco. It's always such a pleasure to be on this lovely podcast.

Marco:  Nima, I'm so happy you're here because for our listeners who never made the association, Nima is the person who tells me if the ads are too loud in California, so he'll always message me. Unfortunately, he doesn't have access to the podcast around the world or he'd probably let me know. Hey, in Bristol right now your podcast is really loud. They have an ad that's really loud and it's specific to each, to each city, country. I don't know how they work it. Having said that, Nima, I am closer and closer to being able to offer listen or ad free episodes. I've even got a new icon for it, whatever your podcast artwork for. Yeah, so I'm really excited about that. That's going to be happening hopefully by next week. I'm just doing all the little, making sure the episodes get migrated to that website, et cetera, et cetera. So we'll see.

>> Nima Kharazi: Especially for a podcast as tranquil as this one, I know that most people use it to fall asleep too, right? And I actually have a friend of mine who was telling me he was having trouble sleeping and he said that he was trying to exhaust himself at the end of the night so that he would just be so tired that. That he could just shut his brain off and fall asleep. And I said, do yourself a favor and listen to the Insomnia project. It is boring on purpose and low dulcet tones. When I want to take a nap. It doesn't take much, but I've taken to recently listening to like a spa music.

Marco:  Sure.

>> Nima Kharazi: Kind of thing. My wife, the lovely Michelle, or as miracle as a lot of her friends refer to her as, she listens to white noise.

Marco:  Right.

>> Nima Kharazi: So those kinds of things have been around for a while, but I told my friend about it. I haven't heard back from him yet, but he hasn't complained about it. So it.

Marco:  Well, there you go.

>> Nima Kharazi: Might be a. You have another listener.

Marco:  I hope so. That's always nice. Listen, if you find value in this podcast, please share it with your friends. Let your friends know because we always love to have new listeners joining us the podcast and then get to know you. Lima, you're looking fantastic. These days I Must say.

>> Nima Kharazi: Oh, thank you. I actually just changed my workout regimen this week and I did something I don't normally do, okay. Where I have a really bad habit of feeling like I want to start something either at the beginning of the month or the beginning of the week. And so last week I said to myself, I'm going to start doing a full body workout three days a week. So instead of having a day where I do pulling exercises and a day where I do pushing exercises and a third day where I just focus on legs, I'm going to do all three each time, three days a week. And it means I have to start over with lower weights because I'm doing like 13 different exercises. But still, it'll be worth it. And anyway, so I was gonna start it last week, but then I said to myself, I'll start on Monday. It's okay. So started on Monday, not the beginning of the month. I did not want to wait until the next month to start. And then I went into Chat GPT. Okay, not a sponsor of the podcast, but they and ChatGPT. And I said, I walk for 30 minutes and then I go do my workout. Then I hit the sauna for 30 minutes and it's 180 degrees Fahrenheit. And ChatGPT responded with, if you're doing that three days a week, you should really only do 20 minutes because that's the peak level. After 10 minutes, you're not getting any more benefits and you have to super hydrate afterwards. And it's a whole thing. So I. I did my workout on Monday and I did 30 minutes of sauna Tuesday. I spoke with chat GPT, okay. And I got this feedback. Then I did a bunch more research. Then today is Wednesday. I went to the gym again, and today I started my 20 minutes and I never had. It was the right amount of time. You know what it made me think of?

Marco:  What?

>> Nima Kharazi: And I know, I know it's going to sound like I'm making this up, but your podcast is exactly how many minutes?

Marco:  26.

>> Nima Kharazi: 26, 26 minutes. Because that is the perfect amount of time for a nap.

Marco:  Well, NASA said that 26 minutes is the perfect amount of time for a nap to get the full benefits of that nap. Anything less, your body doesn't get the benefits of it. Anything more. Let's say 30, 35 minutes. And then you wake up groggy.

>> Nima Kharazi: And. And it's.

Marco:  And it. And it's not ideal. So the ideal amount of time, according to NASA. NASA, if I'm not mistaken, is 26 minutes. And so when we started the podcast, we were really particular about making sure it got right to 26 minutes. So I would be editing, you know, within an inch of the podcast, right. And then it just became too, too hard. So about when it gets to about 25 minutes, I start to wrap it up. You might hear me trying to corral Amanda, who starts another story as. And I'll even give her a signal, like, as if I have my index finger in the air and I'm doing, like a lasso with it, right? Do this. Like, I gotta wrap up. And that's what I meant. It's like, I just want to say. And she goes on to another story, and I'm like, now we're 28 minutes, and it's just going to be a longer podcast. But generally speaking, we try to hit the sweet spot is 26 minutes and 26 seconds.

>> Nima Kharazi: Yeah. And I think for me, I'm a real stickler on time. Like, if I think I walk for 30 minutes, it's not a. I walk this many miles. It's I. I go for a walk for 30 minutes and then get my heart rate up to X amount, and then I go into the gym. So I made that conscious effort, but I started recognizing in myself when I was at the gym, when I would sit in the sauna, if I was at 20 minutes, I felt like that was the right amount of time. And in the last 10 minutes, I was really suffering. And I spoke to someone about this, and they said, yeah, but there's like a euphoric, kind of like a runner's high that happens in the sauna after 25 minutes. And I said, I never feel that. It always feels like work.

Marco:  Oh, you just describing exercise feels so uniform for me. I am not. I. Even the thought of going into a gym, I just. It's not. It's not for me. That's not me.

>> Nima Kharazi: That's.

Marco:  I haven't found what's perfect for me yet. But it's not that. And I've tried. You know, I always say I feel like I'm lighter when I subscribe to a gym membership, but then I never go in. Right. But it's like, no, I know for a fact. And Nima and I have this discussion fairly often where at a certain point in your life, you know what you don't like, no matter how many times people want to insist on, you're gonna like this. And for me, it's bell peppers. Every color of bell pepper, but in particular, green and red. I don't like them. I can't digest them. If you like them, more power to you. I don't resent you. I'm happy for you. Eat all the bell peppers. I don't want them. Now, both my mother and my mother in law, when I say that to them, I cannot eat them. I don't like them. They disagree with me. They don't hear that. They're just like, we've got to find that bell pepper that works for you. And it's like, no, no. And I feel that way about gyms and other things where it's like, that's just not for me. And it's okay to say no when you know it's not for you.

>> Nima Kharazi: I actually have the same negative reaction to bell peppers. And it's amazing to me how many people say, yeah, but have you tried it in this? Have you tried it with that? We have a stuffed bell. And I'm like, listen to me. Just be happy I'm not standing in front of you in the bell pepper line, right? There's all these bell peppers at the grocery store that you get to enjoy and all the different colors they come in. And I will be on the other side getting fennel. Like an adult.

Marco:  Love it. Your bell peppers, my mom's favorite thing is like, the orange ones aren't so bad. They're lighter. They're not. And I'm like, look, at this point, even the thought of eating it, I don't want it. I just do not want it. Thank you. And the interesting thing is I love all peppers, all other peppers, with the smile on my face. But it's the bell pepper. And so every once in a while we forget to put that in. When we order, especially Thai food, we always have these. No bell peppers, right? We forget and then we get a plethora.

>> Nima Kharazi: It infiltrates any sauce that it's in. Even if you pick it out, you can still taste the bell pepper and everything. And no, listen, no hate to people who love bell peppers.

Marco:  They're good for you.

>> Nima Kharazi: I love that for you.

Marco:  They're colorful. They. They add a schward de viv to any salad you put them in.

>> Nima Kharazi: Yeah, sure.

Marco:  I have a challenge for you. I have a challenge for you, Nima, that I just thought of while you were talking. Actually, I was like, nima is such a great person to confide in or talk to. If you're going through great things or if you're going through not so great things and you have a bit of time on your hand these days. I would Challenge you to write a book. I think you would be great. A great author of a book, an inspirational book. How, you know, certain things in your life have inspired you or what lessons learned. You know, things I learned from being Iranian. Whatever it is, you pick it. If you wrote a book and pub and self published it.

>> Nima Kharazi: Yeah.

Marco:  I would be the first to buy it and to promote it because I think you would be a great author if you spent like even an hour a day writing your book. I think that would be great. So I'm gonna toss that your way as a challenge. Whether you do it or not is entirely up to you. But that's just a thought that came to my mind.

>> Nima Kharazi: I love that idea. I have a few children's books in my mind. I have a friend of mine who's a composer, and I spoke to him about it one time and I said, I have three children's books that I have written in my head and I just have not put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to get it down somewhere visually that I can see it and then I can manipulate it into an actual book. Sure. And I feel bad about that. And he looked at me with this such a smile. And he said, I have so many symphonies up here. And he pointed to his head and I was like, okay, good. So we're in good company.

Marco:  Yeah.

>> Nima Kharazi: I do like the idea of writing a book also. I. Can I. Let me just say this. I know that we actually had a topic, but this is so much more fun. And we can get to it if we get to it. One of the things that drives me bonkers.

Marco:  Yes.

>> Nima Kharazi: Is when you ask someone, what do you want? Like, you should write a book. And then they go, there's so many books out there. Right. And you go, I'm sorry, is there only one burger joint in your country? Is there only one pizza place place? Is there only one Italian spot?

Marco:  Like, sure.

>> Nima Kharazi: There's so much. There's all the way from fast food. And I mean, literally the only drive through I have never seen is Italian because that would just not make sense. But every other type of food that is like what we know as fast food centric has that. And then there's all the way from that to like elevated Michelin stuff star restaurants. There's space for everybody from franchises and corporations to mom and pop shops, holes in the wall that have been around for 20, 30 years. And you get to enjoy all of that. And there's people opening a new fill in the blank spot every month.

Marco:  Yes.

>> Nima Kharazi: And you're like, I. Everyone's written a book about, so whatever. Who care? You're. I'm a photographer. People have taken all the photos that I've taken in the past, I promise. Yeah, so I just saw a butterfly yesterday and it was so pretty and I've been trying to. I've been trying to find it. I've seen it around my neighborhood. This butterfly, beautiful yellow butterfly.

Marco:  Do you know what the butterfly is called?

>> Nima Kharazi: It's, I think it's called a leopard tail butterfly or maybe a tiger tail butterfly. I actually ended up getting a picture of it and.

Marco:  Oh, you did? Can you send that picture and I'll put it on our Instagram?

>> Nima Kharazi: Yeah, I will.

Marco:  Oh, it's beautiful. If it's the, if it's this, it's not the. The swallowtail came up.

>> Nima Kharazi: It is. Yeah, the western tiger swallow tail.

Marco:  Oh wow. Yeah, the tiger swallow. It's gorgeous. Okay, great. If you don't mind.

>> Nima Kharazi: Yeah. So I was. So I was walking like a last week and I saw it and I had this idea of like I'd love to take a photo of that thing, but it just wouldn't land. Sure. Then I went back to my walk and then finally yesterday I was walking and I saw it. It was in this little area with these like garlic flowers and I just waited. I stopped walking and I waited and I watched it and it finally landed to get some nectar out of these flowers and then I finally caught its photo and then I looked it up on my phone and it's this beautiful western tiger swallowtail. And it just even something like that that makes me think if you look up a western tiger's world, there are thousands of just user created, user generated content. Right. Just like tons of people that have seen this butterfly and thought, that's so pretty, I should take a photo. Who am I to take a decent photo of this thing, put it in a frame, try to sell it at a, at a show. And yet that's what I've done my whole life is take photos of things that everyone else has taken photos of, put it in a frame and then offer it for sale or show it to friends and share it online and say, hey everyone, I did, did this thing that everyone else has done. And everyone goes, hey, good job. So in the same vein, writing a book or writing a movie or writing or you know, whatever, I think it's, it's very. We need to be nicer to ourselves overall. And so you.

Marco:  All it takes is picking up the pen and starting with the first word or clacking the first keys and starting with the first words and just go from there. And, you know, that's with writing a book. It goes to. It goes. Stands to reason. With any endeavor you've always wanted to do, but maybe told yourself that you can't or that there's already enough of those things out there, I would say just go give it a try. Doesn't hurt to try. And I should mention that Nima's coming to us from Santa Clarita, California. I'm here in Toronto. I didn't mention that off the top. And so, yeah, I would love to see you as an author in some shape or form. So I'm just going to throw that challenge out to you. Nima.

>> Nima Kharazi: Yeah. You've only written one book so far, right?

Marco:  I've only written one. I'd like to write more, but I'm not as prolific in the summer. I find the summer is when my creative juices kind of dry up, if you will. Or, like, they're just. It's just too hot for me to do anything. But in the fall and in the winter, I'm much more, you know, active. So who knows? I've always wanted to write, like, you know, these books where it's like, what I've learned as a podcaster, let's say how, you know, it's like not saying it right, but, you know, those, like, the things that I learned as a podcaster that apply to your life. I'm not saying podcasts are fill in the blank there. Right. But I've. I've always wanted to write one of those kind of. Kind of books, and I think there's a market for that kind of stuff because those are the kind of books I like to read. I love to read books where it's like, here's some tips I learned I share with you.

>> Nima Kharazi: But I think, Marco, you particularly as a person who has hosted multiple podcasts, had so many guests on, and has produced so many podcasts that when people ask me, what is the one thing that. That you noticed that has changed in you since you've started podcasting? There's two things that have changed in me. The first thing is I. The way that I speak has changed, okay? In that I try really hard not to use ums and us as. And you can tell if I've been recording a lot lately because I will use fewer of them. And the reason is because I'm training myself to not use them when I'm recording, so I have fewer things to have to edit out of that conversation. In the podcast. But the second thing is, especially if you're doing a co hosting podcast or an interview type episode, you learn to be very patient and you learn to ask a question and then hold space. And I think oftentimes when you talk, even when you talk to friends, if someone is sharing, and I'm guilty of this so much, so often that when someone is sharing a story and they say, we went to Mexico and I've never ridden a horse before, but we got on these horses and we rode them into the ocean and then afterwards we got to brush the horses and we got to do all this stuff and it was so great and it was really just a great experience and we had so much fun. I want to share with them in that moment that, oh, when I was a kid, I also used to ride horses and we did. That's not the point. You don't need to connect every dot to every dot so you can just go, oh, that was about, how did you feel? What was that like? Was it scary at first and then exciting and then. And then enjoyable? Did you appreciate it after the fact more was you do it again. Those are the kinds of questions that you do in as a podcaster that if we also did in real life, like miracle says something often to me and it has really changed my life. Before we go into a party or any sort of event where there's people there, she'll remind me sweetly and gently, try to be interested, not interesting.

Marco:  Right?

>> Nima Kharazi: Oh, I mean, what a great life lesson.

Marco:  Yeah, people always make. Remember how you made them feel then, you know, I mean, so if you. And when someone feels listened to, they'll always feel like you are an awesome person. Like, oh, it's so great. You know, Nima so asks great questions or really is so attentive or whatnot. You make them feel like they're important by listening to them and following up on what they've said with other inquiries or curiosity or whatnot. It's a great, it's a great life lesson, actually. Yeah, the other life lesson, when you were talking about, you know, doing, doing the project or doing the, the event or thing you always wanted to do. I've mentioned this before on the podcast. One of my favorite expressions in Italian is tradire e fare CE mezzo mare, which means between doing, between saying and doing, there's half the c. So, you know, you could say it's like, yeah, yeah, everyone always talks about, actually, you know, I should write a book. I should have write a book. But those who actually sit and do it. They cross half the sea and they get it done right. So it's pretty awesome. So I challenge you. I would love to read your book, Nemo.

>> Nima Kharazi: Oh, yeah, I'd love that. I'd love to. To get into. I think you might. I think I will learn something just from the process of starting to write a book and where. Where all of that lives for me.

Marco:  No doubt. And you said that you have a. A love for photography, too.

>> Nima Kharazi: Oh, yeah.

Marco:  I didn't know that. I knew you were a very skilled photographer, but I didn't know you've been doing that for quite some time.

>> Nima Kharazi: Yeah, I was in. I. I was in Hawaii, and I saw these guys skim boarding, which is like a very thin. Almost like a very thin boogie board. It's a wooden board.

Marco:  Okay.

>> Nima Kharazi: And you use it just when the waves come up to the shore, when it's just about an inch or 2 inches deep after the wave crashes, when it comes up, that's where they skim along the water. And it's a very difficult skill. And you have to be very light and very young and very agile. So it's usually like kids that do it. And. And it's also not very dangerous. And these three kids were doing it, and at one point, one of them just got flipped up into the air like a seal being tossed by an orca. And I just happened to snap that photo. And then another time, the waves, there were these. It's very interesting. In Hawaii, depending on the island that you go to and the time of the year, there are. The waves kind of come in sets, so they'll come in, like, three waves, and then you wait a beat, and then it's two waves and then three waves. And then you'll have, like, a three to five minutes of no waves at all. And if you happen to, like, look up from your picnic and you look, oh, my God, there's no waves at this beach. That's amazing. And then if you look within, like, five minutes of that, there's a ton of waves happening.

Marco:  Sure.

>> Nima Kharazi: So there was this, like, a lull that was happening longer than another one. And the. The one of the kids just had his. His skim board in front of him, and he was just on his knees on the beach looking, like. Looking a little forlorn and a little bit with yearning at the ocean to kind of turn on again. And it was so beautiful. So I took a couple of those shots and I took a couple of really lousy pictures while we were there, too, and then came back And I saw some cool stuff. And then I started going to beaches and beaches kind of became like a real big deal for me. And most places that I go, I try to look at, like, kind of the, the sandy beach or the rocky beaches of the, of the Upper west coast out here, like Seattle, Oregon have really rocky beaches. But then I love, like white powder sand, like in cool Boracay in the Philippines, black sand beaches, red sand beaches in Hawaii. So that kind of became a thing and then wildlife became a thing. And yeah, it all just kind of meshed together into this, like, passion and love. And I'll be honest, as, as much as I love doing photography, Miracle has a better eye than I do. She's. I mean, she's not called Eagle Eye Miracle for no reason.

Marco:  We used to call her Whale Eye. Whale Eye Miracle. And not because she had a large eye or anything like that, but because she could spot whales when we were on the boat, she could spot whales miles and miles away.

>> Nima Kharazi: Oh, yeah.

Marco:  She's like, there's a whale. And we're like, where? And then you'd see just a plume, a little burst of, of, you know, spray of, of water coming from its blowhole. And it was like, oh, my goodness, Miracle, you've got a whale eye. We kept saying, she's like, I really don't like the way that sounds. But that was our nickname for her. Well, listen, Nima, it's been a pleasure. Maybe, maybe you'll stay on for a bit more and we'll record a continuation for our Patreons on this episode. Okay, great. So we hear more from Nima for all the Patreons patrons out there who subscribe to Patreon. Until then, until next time. You know, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. I want to mention and give a shout out to your podcast, My gastric sleeve. I believe you've sunset it.

>> Nima Kharazi: I have, yeah.

Marco:  But it's a great podcast.

>> Nima Kharazi: Yeah, it. And it has just a few. There's a few bonus episodes of some interviews that are going to be happening in the next year or two, but it's real slow and steady and it, but it is, it's up there. There's a ton of. There's like 90 plus episodes. And it goes all the way from my gastric sleeve surgery to a revision and then a secondary revision. So it has all the ups and downs and good and bad. So wonderful.

Marco:  Thanks so much, Nima. Until next time, listeners. And until next time, Nima, I hope you were able to listen and slee.