Episode 1 - Seeing The World With New Eyes

Two people can watch the same scene and leave with different truths—so what bridges that gap? We kick off our new series by trading arguments for attention, asking how culture, place, and personal history shape what we notice, what we miss, and what we assume. As a Native American host from a federally recognized tribe, I share why belonging and borders look different from the 1% of original inhabitants, and how that vantage point challenges “us versus them” thinking without turning the conversation into a fight.

Across the 1/2 hour, we lay out a simple framework: experience over opinion, context over snap judgment, and critical thinking that looks for root causes instead of easy villains. From supply chain breakdowns to everyday choices like routes home and how we speak at work versus with family, we show how systems and norms quietly steer behavior. Misunderstandings thrive where context is thin—a pill at a table, a joke out of place, a name that carries a different meaning in another language. When we slow down and ask what problem we’re really solving, better questions follow—and so do better answers.

We also set expectations for what’s ahead: candid solo reflections, guest voices from varied cultures, and honest reviews of tools, travel, and services I actually use. No hype, clear disclosures, and practical tips you can test in your own life. If you’ve ever felt stuck between certainty and curiosity, this space invites you to listen first, think deeper, and let empathy do the quiet work of changing your mind.

Subscribe for new perspectives, share this episode with a friend who loves a good rethink, and leave a review to tell us where your view shifted—and why.

Mundo Mondays

Transcript

Welcome And Premise

Why This Podcast Exists

Experience Over Opinion

Everyday Critical Thinking

Misconceptions And Bias

A Native Lens On Belonging

Systems Thinking And Root Causes

Habits, Norms, And Context

Honest Reviews And Transparency

What Future Episodes Bring

Mission Recap And Sign Off

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Two people can stand in the same place, see the same thing, and walk away with completely different truths. So why do we experience the world so differently? Why does culture shape the way we think? And what happens when we actually listen instead of arguing? Most of the world's problems don't come from bad intentions, they come from misunderstandings, different backgrounds, different experiences, different perspectives, and yet we all share the same world. So what if instead of focusing on who's right, we focus on understanding each other's better? Welcome to Mundo Ex Perspectives, a podcast about understanding the world. So first of all, before we begin, I'd like to apologize. I'm actually dealing with a call. So right now what you're experiencing is me dealing with my call. And you're gonna hear me kind of dealing with a lot of the sniffing and basically my symptoms. So with that beginning, let's jump right into it. So again, welcome to Mundo Perspectives Understanding the World. So what is understanding the world? Well, the reason why I created this podcast, this is the third time I've tried to create it in three years. The first time I was up late at night and I was trying to just do it on my phone. And I listened to it, it sounded okay, but there was something missing. And then I realized that I was recording from my iPhone and I need better sound equipment. So then I waited to get my microphone from Amazon, and when that came I recorded two more episodes. But there was something else that was missing, and I couldn't figure out what that was. So I stopped podcasting for well, the three episodes I did. I interviewed a few people and they came out pretty good, but still there was something missing. So last year I actually enlisted another person to help me kind of co-host and be the co-producer. It had worked out to some degree, but there was some differences of the vision of where I was going, and so now we're here, year four. So I apologize. I say it was gonna be year three, so it's technically easier year four. So it's 2026. So what does that mean? How do we go from here? So the podcast, let's start over. The podcast is about different perspectives, seeing the world through different lenses, more or less through my lens. And a lot of you are gonna say, Well, what makes your lens so different? Why does it seem so special? And honestly, it's not, it's one of seven billion voices on the flake face of the earth, but I bring a different unique lens. Being from the United States, being an indigenous, a first American, a Native American, American Indian, that has some merit behind it, and being educated has also given me the opportunity to articulate my perspective more efficiently. And I think that's that's what gives my podcast a unique twist, is because I'm able to articulate my points a lot more clearly and talk about my viewpoints a little bit more differently. So that's what the podcast is first mission. The second mission is to bring in real experiences instead of opinions, and I think that's important because a lot of the interviews I intend to have may seem opinion-based, but in reality, these are experiences of how these individuals, as well as my perspective, see the world through a unique lens, a different perspective. So that is kind of the idea. So learning how people, culture, and places shape the way we think. And honestly, there's no right way to see the world, only understanding a deep, deeper understanding, basically. So with that being said, I think that is the main point that I want to say is understanding the world in that way. But what we do also is talk about critical thinking. Critical thinking it seems like it's getting less and less and less in this modern day world. And critical thinking can go actually in everyday life, everything from going to the grocery store, picking up some items, and even the route that we come home. These are different ideas, and even the clothes we wear, the interactions that we have with friends and family, the way we present ourselves in society, that's critical thinking of how we manage to go from point A to point B and point C. And lastly, you know, the last thing this podcast tends to focus on is honest reviews. And a lot of people are gonna say, so are you gonna be talking about product product reviews? Yes and no. So I've learned a lot of things along the way, you know, about certain products, staying at certain hotels, taking certain airlines to travel, and even like packing, you know. I think that's important because it gives you guys a unique lens of how I see the world, and it goes back to the name of the podcast, Mundo Perspectives. So Mundo is actually my name, and a lot of people, well, I think I overstated the part of my name. So my name is Cameron, last name Mundo. So therefore you can see the connection, but there's also a twist on that. You have Mundo, which is my last name, but in Spanish it means the world, so it's kind of a two-meaning thing. So it's my perspective, but also the world perspective, and that's why we bring on certain people and certain guests. So I digress. Let's continue on. So another thing that should be talked about is why does this product this podcast exist? And I think I touched on a lot of these ideas so far, but everyone's life experience is different. Yes, as I mentioned before, you know, even for someone like me, my culture, my background, and the environment shape how we think. And the same thing goes for the people that I tend to bring on as special guests to see their culture, their background, their environment that shape how they think. And honestly, I think that's where some of the misconceptions come in. We look at someone, we assume we know these people, and that's the way society has framed our lens of seeing the world. We think about someone just by looking at them or hearing how they talk or expressing an idea, and we immediately make a misconception about them, a misunderstanding. And I think that's why we have so many conflicts that come from misunderstanding these perspectives. And it's kind of important to discuss these perspectives because I think that's the the root of all or most problems. We don't understand the actual issue, we don't understand people, we don't understand how the world has affected them in a way that they have a unique lens and they interact with the world. Therefore, we just make an assumption about people, even me. I make assumptions a lot, but it's just because of how society has treated me and through my lens. And again, I can be wrong, I've been known to be wrong, and I think that's part of the humbling experience of this podcast is to have open eyes and a new understanding. So the show creates space for listening, learning, thinking deeper. So that's why when we talk to people, or when I share my stories, they're not supposed to be about arguments, it's listening to these perspectives, and I think that's kind of a unique part of the podcast to discuss these ideas, to understand people's world. Because my world, of course, is gonna be different from real world. Being part of Native American tribe, a lot of people may seem see me differently, and it's funny because I'm mistaken for a lot of different other ethnicities. I'm mostly mistaking for some kind of Latino background or Asian background, just by the shape of my eyes, the my facial features, and even the skor of my skin. So why do I talk about this? Because it's understanding these stories shapes us to make better decisions, to see the world a little differently, to understand and empathize with people without making quick judgments. So that talks about understanding the world through experience. As I mentioned before, the traveling I've done in my life ranges from personal journeys, academic journeys, to even journeys through relationships. If that's through family, through friends, through romantic connections, I think that has a neat part of it of understanding the world. Because it's learning, yes, learning by these experiences that shape our world. And we're not just sightseeing in a way, but we are actually trying to make sense of the world. So with this podcast, I plan to meet new people outside of my comfort bubble because I do feel like I've been creating this bubble of mine to not engage with a lot of the world, and I do see different perspectives, I do see different things that happen around me, and sometimes I just sit and I observe because from my perspective, from my unique lens, from an outsider seeing different people act, because I represent 1% of the original inhabitants, and that goes back to what I was saying: being American Indian, Native American, however you want to say it, there is federally recognized tribes and state-recognized tribes. We can talk about that in future episodes, but I'm part of a federally recognized tribe, and there's 500 plus nations. So for me, as part of the 1% of the original inhabitants of this country, I sometimes see the world differently. I see minorities, I see other populations interactive with each other, not just in public, but I see it on the news. And I have all these different ideas, these different unique perspectives. And with my education, it makes it even more kind of an ongoing conversation in my head. So, for example, of course, I don't want to cause any hot button topics right now, but let's talk about the border just briefly. So there is a lot of talk about closing the borders, about certain people should be, you know, the ported, and certain people should stay on this side. And then you see on the news, and even sometimes during political season, you see conversations about us versus them. But that's even more confusing for me because if you're part of the 1% original inhabitants, that means 99% of the populations are migrants that are immigrants. So if the world that I see is talking about let's keep them out, let's keep them out. Who are you talking about? Because you yourself are a migrant, an immigrant. You are a descendant of a migrant and an immigrant. You're not part of the original America. So again, I'm not trying to point fingers, I'm trying to talk about my point to see from that unique lens. So from my lens, you hear about pe keeping people out. And from my perspective, it's just like 99% of the population are immigrants or migrants, and you're saying keep them out, and I look at the news, and you don't look like me, you don't sound like me, you don't have my cultural background, you do not see my world through those lens. See, that's the part that I think about, and that is part of the perspectives that we tend to talk about here, to give that unique glance, not to point fingers, but to open our minds about how we see the world and these misunderstandings. That's part of what this podcast is tending to do. So examining everyday life and reviewing are actually understanding cultural and values of other people and starting to make small shifts on how we see things. So, with that being said, the critical thinking part is think critical thinking without conflict. And this is the part I'm trying to express. We're not trying to debate about certain things, and we're not trying to talk about who's right. Because just like with the example I just gave about the border, I'm not trying to be right. I'm just expressing my perspective, and I'm not trying to debate about it, I'm just trying to open your minds about seeing it from a different perspective. Because I think that's what eliminates misunderstanding the world, and by critical thinking, asking better questions. So, what does that mean by asking better questions? Well, what is the problem? Honestly, what is the problem? Because as we have laws, regulations, things that hold up the society, sometimes those cracks have underlying issues, and we don't ask those questions of like where is the problem really let's take another example. The supply line, those ships that were being stranded on the side, and people were saying, Well, the supply line, you know, there needs to be some issues about where the problem was. And the way that I saw it was like, I'm pretty sure that there was things that were happening behind the scenes that no one was addressing, that questions were being raised, but no one wanted to actually deal with it. So the supply line got disrupted, and then we had all these things that had a repro effect, and that's what I'm trying to say. Because we have certain things set in place, we usually have other problems that stem from that one thing, but sometimes, whatever that one thing is, for instance, in this case, this the supply lines, I'm pretty sure that there was whistleblowers, that there was things that were being ignored, therefore it caused a ripple effect. So, again, not to go into detail, but that's just a quick example. So, by looking deeper into systems, habits, social norms, culture, I think that expands the critical thinking of how we see the world. Because some of us don't even want to understand that there are different systems from our own way of life, that people have different habits. I don't want to share this, but just to give an example for me, I take some medication for an acid every day, and it's something I have to take for the rest of my life to reduce acid in my stomach. Otherwise, it's gonna cause chaos, and I'm gonna have some more health issues of that nature. So I have habits when people see me taking a pill out of context, and I think that's the important part is that we don't have context sometimes. They might see, well, are you taking a vitamin? Are you doing Something that you're not supposed to, and see that's the misconception, that's the misunderstanding. And for me, I don't like to share my personal health issues, but for this case, I will, I will make that exception. So I have that habit. And you know, we'll talk about social norms. My social norms are different from your social norms, and I think that's the part that gets us into trouble because we just assume that our perspective is right, and we forget society has their own norms, but then in certain groups, in certain cultures, there's different social norms, and that leads us to the culture of how we interact with people. Because for me, as a Native American, and that's something you should know, I like to kind of switch between Native American and American Indian. So, from a Native American perspective, the way that I talk, the way that I joke, the way I talk with my family is different from those of how I act off the reservation. And it's true, my jokes are different, my lexicon of my vocabulary is different, and even the way that I see the world is different. So moving on. The last part, honest reviews and real world tips. This one is kind of self-extent explanatory, so you know, sharing travel tips, experiences, products, services that we actually use, or what I actually use, because I don't want to talk about a product or a service that I don't personally use. Because it's not fair to you guys, it's not fair to talk about something that I don't use or I don't believe in. And again, that might be hypocritical because I just talked about you know seeing it from a different lens, and here I am talking about products. Well, this one is kind of a fun one, and it's just to give you a unique lens of how I see things and how I do things. So the products and service I actually use, and hopefully, you know, you guys will like to understand that because you know there's not gonna be fake hype. If I like a product, I'm gonna tell you. I'm not gonna say, Oh, you have to do this, you have to go out there and buy it. And you as a listener might say, Well, what do you get out of it? What's your take on it? Why are you talking about this? And then most of the time, I'm just gonna be talking about it. However, if someone approaches me and tells me, Hey, we want you to try this product or service, and we want your honest opinion, I'm gonna tell those people and as well the listener, hey, this is a paid product, this is a paid service, I'm being paid to use this, and I'm gonna give you your on my honest opinion, my honest feedback. Let's put it that way. My honest feedback. Because if I say opinion, then you guys are gonna kind of come back and say, wait a minute, Mr. Mundo, you said this on episode one, so let's put that in review. It would be an honest feedback. So, honesty builds trust, and I think that's the whole part about being honest in this podcast, especially with honest reviews and real-world tips. But my experiences will come first before any type of money compensation for products or services, and I will always tell you, the listener, if I'm being compensated or if it this episode is being sponsored by. Because I think that's important. In this day and age, we don't know who to believe, we don't know how to take it, and we even have this common how would you say, phrase of fake news. So I would like to be as honest as I can with you. So let's talk a little bit about the future episodes. So a lot of these episodes are gonna be about self-reflection of me seeing things in different perspectives, talking about different ideas of my own reflections. Another part, of course, is the special guests' conversations and hearing from their voices. And hearing my travel stories, how I got from point A to point B, point C. I will even share my story of how a single dime influenced my trip across the United States. That's actually a good one. But also perspective shifting moments that even I had an idea of something changing my whole world, seeing things in a different perspective, and I think those moments are important to share with you in future episodes. And yes, they're gonna be special long episodes or multipark multipart episodes with special guests, and these long episodes will have the special guests. It's not me that's gonna be continually talk about something, because I know that sometimes my voice can put people to sleep. So I plan to keep a lot of these podcasts between 20, 30, 35 minutes at the most. So that brings let's take a moment. That brings us to the ending part of the podcast of episode one. So let's refocus on the name Mundo Perspectives. Mundo Perspectives equals curiosity plus understanding.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Yes, understanding and curiosity equals mundo perspectives.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

And secondly, the world's complex, and that's okay. It's a complex world, and I've been on this world on this earth for many, many moons, many seasons, and I do see things differently. And it's okay to be confused, because it's a complex world that we live in. But with growth starts with listening. Again, growth starts with listening, and I think that's part of the idea of these podcasts. So a final reminder about the mission It's about understanding, it's about trying to see the world from a different perspective. Just like the tagline understanding the world, what does that mean? This podcast is about different perspectives, real experiences over opinions, learning how people, culture, and places shape how we think. And of course, talk about critical thinking and honest reviews and travel tips. That's basically what the podcast is. So I sure hope you guys got a lot out of this first episode. But the most important thing I think I want the viewers to walk away with is understanding the world builds empathy. Growth starts with listening and curiosity and being open-minded will help with misunderstandings. Because understanding the world starts with understanding each other. And with that being said, I hope you enjoyed this first episode and I welcome you to come back. I appreciate your time, I appreciate the effort, and I hope you, the viewer, the listener, come back for more and get a unique lens of my world, the Moon, the Perspective world. Alright, this is me signing off. I wish you a good day, a good night, a good morning, a good afternoon, whatever time zone you're in. I hope you had a great time, and I hope you come back next time. Alright, take care.