- Hi, (laughs) this is Brie.
- Hi, I'm Jessie.
- And we are Learning Lots. - Learning Lots.
- Yes, we did it.
And then like a theme song-- - Follow along.
("Learning Lots")
♪ Learning Lots ♪
♪ With Brie and Jessie ♪
("Learning Lots")
- Welcome to the first episode of Learning Lots.
Dear viewer, listener,
we're so grateful that you are here with us
as we are in real time learning how to make a podcast.
- Yes, we're hoping that this podcast is an opportunity
for us as long as anyone who wants to participate
to learn some more.
- About what?
- Lots.
(both laughing)
- Just lots of stuff.
(both laughing)
A little bit about the two of us.
We are best friends for over a decade now.
Feels very good to say. - Yes.
- And so we've lived through so many different, gosh,
changes, heartbreaks, successes.
- Styles.
- Oh, man, the fashions.
- [Jessie] Lots of fashion changes.
- And so the two of us together
through our unbreakable friendship,
will be talking with some interesting people
and hopefully it's good.
- All right, our topic this week is comfort.
And I feel like I had so much fun diving
into the research aspect of this,
exploring the fact that like, for me,
this is outside of my comfort zone,
the idea of hosting a podcast
and being someone who's driving the conversation
was thrilling and exciting and also a big leap outside
of being in my house for an entire year.
- Yeah, that's true, it is.
Like we're coming out off of...
We're coming into this space live from my garage
to have these conversations when we've been isolated.
And I will just reiterate, we've been tested,
we are negative.
So there isn't fear in that regard, but the mere act.
- Yeah. - Of trying something new.
Our first guest.
- Our very first guest on our very first episode
of our very first podcast is Rupi Kaur,
who wrote "Illustrated" and self published her first book
of poetry at the age of 21.
Her poems reveal intimate thoughts on love,
loss, trauma, healing,
femininity and migration.
We are delighted to have Rupi as our guest today
as she teaches us about the power of vulnerability.
Her poetry has been translated into 42 languages
and have sold over 8 million copies,
a true testament to how universal
these sometimes uncomfortable topics really are.
Ruby, thank you so much for joining us.
We're thrilled to get to talk to you.
- Thank you for having me on.
I'm really excited.
- I just want to tell you there've been so many instances
where reading your poetry has brought me
such an indescribable sense of comfort,
and I feel really seen when I read your poetry.
So thank you so much for publishing it
and putting it out there.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading it.
It still shocks me.
I put it out there and I wrote it for myself.
So every time somebody shares what you just shared,
I'm like, wow, that's the power of like telling your truth.
- Do you always feel comfortable with what it is
that you're putting to paper or what it is you publish?
Like by the time the book is coming out,
do you feel like you're comfortable with it?
- I'm most comfortable when I'm writing it,
and then as we get closer to the publication day,
all the insecurities come.
It's like a day where I think, "This is completely crap
"and nobody's gonna like it and you're an idiot."
And then I wake up the next day and it's like, "Oh my God.
"I think it's gonna do really well."
- I was wondering, is there a poem in your new book
that you would like to share with us?
- Yes, let me read...
You know what, I'm gonna just read one about friendship
because why not?
"I miss the days my friends knew every mundane detail
"about my life,
"and I knew every ordinary detail about theirs.
"Adulthood has starved me of that consistency,
"that us.
"The walks round the block,
"the long conversations when we were too lost in the moment
"to care what time it was.
"When we won and celebrated.
"When we failed and celebrated harder.
"When we were just kids.
"And now we have our very important jobs
"that fill up our very busy schedules.
"We have to compare calendars just to plan coffee dates
"that one of us eventually cancels
"coz adulthood is being too exhausted
"to leave our apartments most days.
"I miss knowing I once belonged to a group
"of people bigger than myself.
"It was that belonging that made life easier to live".
- Thank you.
- I feel really, really lucky to know you.
So thank you very much. - Thank you, I appreciate you.
- Thank you very much.
Wow, she's so special.
I can't believe we get to do this.
- Whoa.
All right, so, our next guest is my friend, Jimmy Chin.
He is a professional mountain sports athlete,
a Nat Geo photographer, an Academy Award winner
for the film "Free Solo",
which he co-directed with his wife Chai.
This dude is a true legend in the art of discomfort.
He climbed Everest just to ski down it,
created first ascents on all seven continents
and has survived many close calls with death.
Welcome Jimmy Chin.
- Yay!
- Hi.
I wanted to ask you, I know that you survived an avalanche,
how long did it take you after that experience
to wanna get back out there?
- Well, I've been in a couple avalanches,
there's one in particular that was probably
more traumatic or difficult to process.
You know, I think after moments like that,
it took me a few months
to decide to go back in the mountains.
So I did a lot of evaluating of like what I wanted to do.
And so, I think having time to think through very clearly
what gave meaning and purpose to my life
and what experiences I was looking for in my life
made me go back, even though I didn't wanna go back.
I just decided that there was no way I was gonna live
the rest of my life without doing this thing
that I loved, even though basically it almost killed me.
- I was telling Jessie earlier
about a really profound experience I had as well
when we were climbing the Tetons.
And I will honestly, like never forget
the most grueling four hour hike.
I didn't even know a hike could be that.
That was in a completely different...
I was used to like, "Oh, Los Angeles hike."
This was full body, just to get to camp,
then the two hours to get to the base of the mountain,
and then whatever, the 10 hours of climbing.
And I got to the top, it was like, my pants were all ripped.
I was somewhere between freezing and sweating
and just like a total mess.
It completely changed my perception of myself,
what I'm capable of.
And it is an actual location in my brain of that gratitude.
- Yeah.
The thing I'm most grateful for is being able to work
with a lot of the people that I get to work with.
- I think my question is what's the scariest thing
that you've committed to?
- Children, for sure.
(all laughing)
But, you know, like film projects, expeditions,
the scariest thing for me to commit to
is I know that if I'm gonna commit to something
that I'm gonna bring everything that I have to the table.
My own standards for myself
and my own expectations for myself are hard to live up to.
And I should probably see a therapist about that, but yeah.
(Brie and Jessie laughing)
- I have two, I can totally pass one your way.
Thanks so much pal.
- Thank you so much for having me.
- Oh, thank you. - Thank you.
Appreciate it. - Appreciate it.
Bye. - Bye.
- Wow.
- Gosh, I feel so lucky and grateful
to have witnessed this and partaken in both
of these conversations today.
Taken part.
(Brie laughing)
- Partaken?
- To have taken part.
- To have taken part, of course.
- I think a major theme this week was about
what aspects of your life that you would label discomfort
is in fact comforting.
- Very, very well put.
I think that's exactly it.
And something that I will be thinking about
for the rest of my life.
- Okay.
- Well to wrap it up, we would love to hear from all of you
in the comment section of this video
or on our Instagram @LEARNINGLOTSPODCAST.
You can comment topic submissions
or also if you have music.
- Poems.
- Spoken word.
- Art pieces.
Personalized shoes. - Dance?
Oh, I love the idea of personalized shoes.
Clothing designs, I mean, whatever it is
that if you're listening to this and you're inspired
to create something or reminds you
of something you've created that we could share.
- A story.
- Yeah, we wanna keep this conversation a conversation.
- Yeah.
- Well, this was... - Episode one
of Learning Lots. - Of Learning Lots.
Yes, we said it at the same time.
See you next time.
- Thanks for listening, bye.
("Learning Lots")
♪ Learning Lots ♪
♪ With Brie and Jessie ♪
("Learning Lots")