🎙 Cozy Chaos — “Hobbies: More Than Just Free Time”

Host: Michael Swetly

Guests: Kirill Kambulatov, Nastya Byshenko

We live in a world that constantly asks one simple question: “What do you do?”

Not who you are. Not what makes you feel alive. But what you produce, earn, and can explain in one sentence. Somewhere between deadlines, notifications, and responsibilities, there is a quiet, stubborn space called a hobby — something we do without pressure, without clear goals, and often without an audience. And yet, these moments feel deeply necessary.

In this episode of Cozy Chaos, we talk about hobbies not as productivity tools or self-improvement strategies, but as human rituals. Why do we need them? Why do adults feel guilty for enjoying things that aren’t “useful”? Can hobbies regulate our emotions, protect our inner freedom, or even help us survive overwhelming reality? And what happens when joy turns into work, visibility, or expectation?

Together with Kirill Kambulatov and Nastya Byshenko, we explore hobbies as spaces where time isn’t optimized, value isn’t measured, and identity can exist without performance. We talk about escapism and recovery, boredom and creativity, digital communities and lost solitude, forgotten hobbies we grieve, and the quiet rebellion of choosing joy without justification.

This is a warm, honest conversation about play, curiosity, and the parts of ourselves that don’t need to lead anywhere to matter.

Hobbies don’t ask us to be productive.

They ask us to be present.

And in a world obsessed with outcomes, doing something just because you love it might be one of the most human acts left.

🎙 Cozy Chaos — “Why Do Dreams Exist, and What Do They Reveal About Us?” Host: Michael Swetly Guests: Madina Beikenova, Nastya Byshenko Every night something strange happens to us. We close our eyes — and reality quietly steps aside. Logic loosens its grip, time bends, familiar people appear in impossible places, emotions speak louder than words. Dreams feel deeply personal and completely uncontrollable at the same time. We don’t choose them, we don’t fully understand them — and yet they return almost every night, like private messages written by a version of us that only exists in sleep. In this episode of Cozy Chaos, we talk about dreams not as symbols from a book and not as strict psychology, but as lived experiences. Why do dreams exist at all? Why do some disappear the moment we wake up, while others stay with us for years? Why do dreams sometimes feel more honest than real life? And what do they quietly reveal about who we are — or who we are becoming? We explore dreams as emotional processing, as a space where feelings speak in images instead of words. We talk about whether dreams tell the truth, why fear and anxiety appear so often at night, and why certain dreams feel “important” even if we can’t explain them. We touch on memory and time, on how dreams mix childhood, loss, the present, and imagined futures into a single moment. We reflect on nightmares, lucid dreaming, control, and whether dreams are meant to be directed — or simply experienced. And we look at dreams as a source of creativity, where ideas are born without permission or logic. With me in this quiet, intimate conversation are Madina Beikenova and Nastya Byshenko — people who know how to listen carefully to inner worlds, hidden meanings, and the space between logic and emotion. Together, we don’t try to decode dreams or turn them into instructions. We let them remain what they are: reflections, sometimes messy, sometimes beautiful, sometimes unsettling — but always honest in their own strange language. This episode of Cozy Chaos is a soft, unhurried exploration of the inner night. A reminder that we are deeper than our schedules, larger than our routines, and more emotional than we usually allow ourselves to be. Tonight, when you fall asleep, don’t rush to understand your dreams. Just let them speak. They already know your language.

🎙 Cozy Chaos — “Games. Why Do We Need Them?” Host: Michael Swetly Guest: Gabriel Boos Games quietly entered our lives — and never really left. What started as pixels, beeps, and simple rules slowly became entire worlds. Places where people live second lives, build identities, fail, restart, and feel real emotions. In this episode of Cozy Chaos, we’re not talking about games as entertainment or products. We’re talking about why humans need games at all. Why games feel comforting. Why effort in games feels more meaningful than effort in real life. Why modern games turned into endless worlds. And where the line is between healthy play and quiet escape. 🎮 In this episode: — What a game really is (beyond fun) — Why modern games became worlds, not experiences — Games as emotional training grounds — Failure, progress, and control — Graphics, realism, and immersion — Identity, avatars, and self-expression — When games help — and when they start to hurt — Streaming culture and watching others play — Games as cultural and emotional memory 🎤 Guest: Gabriel Boos — someone who understands games not just as software, but as systems, experiences, and emotional spaces. This is a calm, honest conversation about games as mirrors of modern life. Not judgmental. Not technical. Human. 🔥 Cozy Chaos is where warmth meets complexity — where we talk slowly about things that shape us quietly. We don’t play games to escape life. We play them to understand it a little better.