JChatting - interviews with a Jewish flavour

Slight change of gears here - I thought to expand the blog pool to people who I find interesting, inspirational and just in general to get to know people who take a different slant on life. Feedback welcome! (Simon) Michael Brooke is married with 3 kids and lives in Toronto, Canada (he is also Simon's 1st cousin). He has spent over 40 years loving and making a living from skateboarding. His magazine was read by millions throughout the world. Michael used the skateboarding as a springboard to spread peace and has had great success with gangs in California, in Israel and in other parts of the world through his Longboarding for Peace movement. After finishing with the magazine and a short break, Michael has recently completed his new book and started a new venture "Time for My Story". Is there one butterfly effect story that you experienced - a small, but significant conversation or event that led to something huge happening?   In 1996, I was working at

Avraham Poupko is a software architect who specialized in designing large scale software systems. When he is not designing software he likes learning and teaching pshat in Tanach. Avraham is married to Gital Wolf-Poupko. Together they have 5 children and 1 grandson.   Editor’s note: Avraham is the most creative and stimulating presenter I have ever seen, no matter what the subject. His lectures were always packed!     1.        What was a place, person or event that transformed your ideas, thinking, or perspective?   In a former hi-tec workplace, we had a senior manager called Yossi Tsuria. He had a brilliant mind and was a highly effective manager. But in addition, he was also a talmid chacham and was able to find creative ways to connect the Torah with technological ideas. I try to emulate that kind of thinking. One specific example, before meeting Yossi, I had thought that a dvar Torah was only for religious people but for people who do not live Torah lives, a dvar T