David Mosley - Interview

 

In this interview, I got the opportunity to talk with an old friend, David Mosley. He's a Lamar University Senior, as well as one of the owners of the "Listen To This One" Podcast. We talked about his experiences with the church, his opinions on Portland, Oregon, as well as a plethora of other topics. David and I have known each other for quite some time, so I interviewed him relatively early on in my adventure. Suffice to say, we had a great time, 

I hope you enjoy it. 

So, I've asked this in a few other interviews, and I've gotten some really interesting answers, so, here we go: I saw a Hot Ones Interview featuring Tyra Banks where she talked about teaching a marketing class and having her students identify their personal brands. With that in mind, what is the David Mosley Brand?

My brand, hmm, I really like things that seem timeless, if I look back to now from 30 years in the future and like what I see, then I've done it. I guess I'm thinking about style mostly, but that's what my brain travels to. I don't know if there's much rhyme or reason to it, I just try to do things that are timeless

I feel like that's a worthwhile goal, to be timeless. It's like, you want your impact to be greater than yourself.

Well, that sounds way better than how I put it, so I'm glad that's the perception. That definitely sounds better, haha. 

Back in March of 2017 you posted about being at Big Bend, and I know you also have traveled a few other places for similar types of adventures, is there a place at the top of your travel list that you haven't already been to?

Oh, there's SO many. There's so many places I WANT to go, but I don't really have the money or time that I would want to do most of them. 

Well, if money were no object and no type of resource were keeping you from doing it, is there a place that stands above the rest?

So, I love backpacking a lot, and there's a lot of trips that are pretty expensive even if you are just camping. There's the Patagonia which is in Argentina, it's this huge mountain range. I've heard of some really cool trails all through there. I think that would be a really cool one to do. But, if I weren't backpacking and just traveling, I've always wanted to see parts of Europe. There's tons of historic places I would want to visit, mostly because I like architecture a lot. 

Outside of traveling, in the same sort of vane, is there a bucket list goal you have yet to accomplish, and are you taking any steps to accomplish said goal?

Again, I have a ton of interests, but not enough expendable resources. Regardless, I'll list some: I want to get my pilot's license and I've always wanted to design a house. At one point I wanted to be an architect, I looked into the necessary schooling and the job market and got really discouraged, so I decided to pick a more practical career. Maybe one day I'll design a house alongside an architect or something. I'm realizing that designing a house sounds really boring. 

No, no. Not at all. 

Shifting gears a bit here: in 2018, on your Twitter, you wrote, "Topo Chico: Twisted Grapefruit is the best version of water that we, as a society, have ever created, don't @ me unless you idolize it" Is that an opinion that you maintain?

Oh, yes, absolutely. I am not sponsored by Topo Chico, but I wish I was. I would do ads for them in a heartbeat. Of all the companies that I wish would sponsor me, they would be in the top 5. I will fight for Topo Chico's supremacy. I still consume them on a weekly basis. I stand by words today as much as I did then, maybe even more. 

While we're talking about opinions you may or may not maintain, in your and Adam Cessna's podcast, "Listen To This One" you said, "Portland is the Florida of Oregon", and I think I knew what you meant, but do you wanna explain that?

That's kind of funny, because my fiancee's sibling lives in Portland now, and they and I have talked about that exact thing. Portland is almost like Austin in a way. Austin's motto is "Keep Austin Weird", and I think Oregon feels about Portland the way that Texas feels about Austin. Obviously Florida is still the king of weird and Portland will never take that crown from them. 

You make an interesting comparison to Austin. I've talked to some friends that live in Austin and a lot of them have said the same sort of things. Especially to people not from Texas. They might explain that they live in Austin, and the outsider may say, "Oh, so you live in Texas", and my friends would say, "No, we live in Austin. It is so holistically different from most of the rest of Texas" One of my friends sort of paid homage to John Oliver with a comment that said, "Austin is a primarily liberal and progressive city and most of the rest of Texas is frequently neither of those things." 

I can't explain why, but each Texas city has its own feel. Like you could blindfold me and bring me to a random Dairy Queen in Beaumont, and based on the people that came in, I bet I could tell they were from Beaumont and not Lumberton or Silsbee or whatever. That's not even a bad thing, and I can't at all explain it, but I think I would just know. 

So, I know people learn a lot from their first jobs, and I wanted to ask you, is there any life experience you gained from being a bagger at Market Basket?

Wow, that was a long time ago. Yeah, that was my first real job. I learned a lot of work ethic and taking initiative. It was weird working at Market Basket. At times it felt jaded to be a "go-getter" typer person. Sometimes it felt like you were being taken advantage of in that way, but I don't think that stopped me. I think it taught me that I can be a "go-getter" but that doesn't mean I have to be a pushover or accept whatever other people are trying to push off onto me. 

While we're talking about work you've done, I wanna shift over into your personal work, namely art. Is there a photography or videography piece you've done that is a particular favorite?

So, I would never consider myself a photographer, because I have never been paid for it. It's really more of a hobby for me. As far as video is concerned, we did a backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon and I made a short video based on that. I had to carry a lot of stuff, so I just had my phone. Videography takes a lot of work because you have to commit to having your camera ready, and it can be difficult and distracting if you're on a trip like I was. I stuck with it, and my phone battery somehow lasted. I was so afraid of my phone dying that I turned it all the way off when I wasn't filming. It was great, but it wasn't much that I did, I just captured the already-existing beauty of the Grand Canyon. 

So, imagine you're 17 and someone asks you, "where do you want to be when you're 24?" is this what you'd say?

I had a lot of goals and aspirations, almost too many. Because I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, I was open to a lot of different possibilities. I just resolved to trust God and see where He brought me. To be honest, 17-year old David was kind of stupid. I'm actually so glad my plans didn't go the way I thought they would at 17. I'm actually very happy with where I am now. There are plenty of things that I didn't get to do, but I grew a lot as a person because those doors got closed for me. I think that's good. 

So, on Twitter in 2018, you ran a poll titled, "Which is more important when choosing who to vote for: policy or character?" and in that poll, policy won with 75% of the vote. Is that what you expected and do you agree with the result?

Here's the thing, I think I was very curious with that poll. People started discussing it, which is good, but that's not really what I thought would happen. Unless the issue os very important to me, I won't often post political content. With that poll though, I think I expected both options to get relatively equal votes. I think that's why I did that poll, because I really didn't know which one people would pick. Personally, I think there is a point where personal character comes into play, and I might not vote for someone based on their personal character, depending on what it is. However, I do weigh their policies and their history of policies as well. I think I kind of pigeon-holed people into an either-or choice with that poll, but I think it's very important to consider both. Even if someone's policies are more in line with your views, but their character is morally corrupt, I think people should have the right to not vote for that person. As Christians, I think we get this idea that voting is an inherently Christian thing to do. Like we say that we vote because it's our right as an American and a Christian, and I don't really agree with that. The only situation where I probably wouldn't vote is when the options are just "the lesser of two evils". I think that's voting out of fear. 

Yeah, as Charles Spurgeon says, "of two evils, choose neither"

Yeah, and I don't necessarily think that Christians should never vote or anything, I think we should. But, I think that we should be weighing policy and character instead of just voting against our ideological opponents. 

Your family comes up a lot when people speak about you, and every family is different. Did y'all ever have any family traditions that maybe people might not know about?

We like to talk as Mosleys, so there might not be too many that people don't know. There is one that's lesser-known. When I was like 5, and my dad would come home from work, and we would say, "Dad's home! Chocolate milk!" I have no idea how it started. It feels like a very homeschooled thing to do. Somehow I equated my dad coming home to getting chocolate milk and my parents just let that happen. It's sort of like how nicknames for grandparents happen because a kid couldn't pronounce "grandma", and everyone just lets it happen. I've never understood that. 

So, while we're laking about your formative years, can you remember a time when The Gospel or some other core Christian Theology first clicked?

I remember seeing a lot of my older siblings' friends get saved or baptized. I knew what the Gospel was, but I thought I was too young. I remember thinking, "Oh, I guess when I'm older or more mature I'll give my life to Christ." I remember wondering what age I had to wait for to get saved. I asked my dad how old you have to be to get saved and he just said, "Well, there's no specific age, you just have to understand right and wrong and understand what Jesus did for you." so I was like, "Well, I wanna get saved then." I remember going to my childhood church and having really good leaders pour into me. It feels like a lot of very small lessons. I feel like God was using all these things to make a ton of small changes that amounted to way bigger changes over time. 

So, I've heard a lot of Christians talk about so-called "life verses" do you think you have anything like that?

As you might have gathered so far, I'm so bad at picking one thing. So I'm gonna pick a book, if that's ok. I would pick Philippians. Romans is also great, but I'm gonna go with Philippians. The letter Paul writes to the church at Philippi. It's the only one he writes just because he loves them. He's not critiquing anything like he does in some of his other letters. There's a lot of coffee cup verses in Philippians. So many verses can be taken out of context, and often do, so I love it all in teh context of the whole book. 

While we're talking about books, I want to ask, what book other than the Bible do you think has helped you the most?

There's this one book called "The Complete Green Letters" by Miles J. Stanford. It's a collection of letters that this pastor has written to multiple people on the subject of spiritual growth. That book has always been very important to me. There were a ton of realizations of things that seem fundamental to me now. I remember going through that book with my youth pastor and old friends. I love that book. 

Based on some conversations we've had in the past, I know you don't shy away from critiquing the church whether it be in smaller ways or somewhat larger ways, with that in mind, what's one thing you think American Christians focus on too much and on thing they don't focus on enough?

Shoot, wow. That's a big question. I think in politics, Christians can really prioritize the economy. Don't get me wrong, the economy affects a lot of your life, but Christians focus on it a lot. I think they focus on it more than perhaps it should be. As far as, not enough, I think Christians should be at the forefront of bipartisanship. I think Christians are called to be peacemakers. We should be leaders in trying to reach people on both sides. I really don't like the notion that only Republicans can be Christians, but I see sentiments like that a lot. People will probably call me a Democrat for even saying that, which is a symptom of the problem.

My final question for you is this: is there a church experience you have had that stands out in your memory?

I have a very serious answer and a very not serious answer. So, here's the serious one: I remember how impactful being part of a small group all throughout high school. Being able to talk with friends who also seemed to care about growing as Christians was so valuable. Also, talking with a youth pastor that really cared about me was very valuable. I would ask him questions, but he wasn't afraid to tell me if he didn't know, and we might try to find the answer together, but it was great. The less serious answer is with that same small group. I grew up going to Westgate Memorial Baptist Church and they had a very tall bell tower. We convinced our youth pastor to let us rappel of the bell tower late at night if we all memorized this long list of verses. The bell tower was our magnum opus. I actually didn't memorize all of them, and he helped me along a lot, but we still rappelled off the bell tower. It was amazing. 

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