WEBVTT - Ronan Farrow 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:05.760 Mini, This is such a good idea. I love the 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:09.480 questions and they do draw out a frightening the confessional 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:11.640 quality because their their tough ones to grab with. They 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:14.640 adapted prost questions or it's just the same concept. It 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.680 was the concept of the prosting questionnaire, but I needed 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:19.560 to modify them because there were other things that I 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.720 wanted to ask, and good God, there's so much that 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.239 I want to ask you and talk about. I feel 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.040 that really specific questions can elicit answers to questions other 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.080 than the ones asked. If you see that, absolutely, and 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:36.400 you've calibrated these well, because there are maddening in various ways, 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:39.800 and ones that I hadn't really contemplated in all cases. 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:44.080 But I'll give it a world. Hello, I'm Mini Driver, 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.640 and welcome to many questions. I've always loved priest questionnaire. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.839 It was originally an eighteenth century parlor game meant to 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.640 reveal an individual's true nature. But with so many questions, 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.040 there wasn't really an opportunity to expand on anything. So 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.120 I took the format of proofs questionnaire and adapted what 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.800 I think are seven of the most important questions you 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.800 could ever ask someone. They are when and where were 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:13.200 you happiest. What is the quality you like least about yourself? 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:19.319 What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you? What 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.920 question would you most like answered, What person, place, or 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:28.040 experience has shaped you the most? What would be your 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.960 last meal? And can you tell me something in your 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.920 life that has grown out of a personal disaster. The 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.800 more people we ask, the more we begin to see 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.960 what makes us similar and what makes us individual. I've 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.119 gathered a group of really remarkable people who am honored 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.320 and humbled to have had a chance to engage with, 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.440 and today I'm talking to Ronan Farah. Ronan is an 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.600 extraordinary polymath. He is a Rhodes scholar. He has worked 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.760 for the Obama administration, and he's been a voice actor 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:04.320 in Miasaki films. As a journalist, he conducted a revelatory 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.000 investigation into sexual assault against women working in film, and 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.400 in doing so he acted as an empowering ally to 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.440 those women. The work on this investigation also won him 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.840 a Politzer Prize. He has been a speechwriter and advisor, 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.000 has a j d from Yale, law, a PhD from Oxford, 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.680 and as I learned my conversation with him today, He 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.960 is also a songwriter. His resume speaks to his rigorous 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:35.000 intellect and curiosity, and in action he illuminates stories and 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.520 ideas that need to be heard, whether he's advocating for 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:42.119 the protection of refugees, is a political advisor, or unmasking 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.799 insurgents of the US capital. As an investigative reporter, Ronan 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:50.920 tirelessly pursues truth, even if and oftentimes when it means 0:02:50.919 --> 0:03:01.639 speaking that truth to power. I go backwards and forwards 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.720 on the first question of where and when were you happiest, 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.640 because we're so encouraged to be happy all the time, 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.519 rather than the place that we're headed. I don't think 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.640 that's fair. Well, not to be terribly pedantic right out 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:15.680 of the gate, but you know, what is happiness is 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:17.640 what you come do very quickly in answering this question, 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:20.160 or I did anyway, And I also I found it 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.960 surprisingly hard to answer by any metric. You know that 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:28.080 there are a lot of professional moments of fulfillment that 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.160 came to mind as obvious answers. Getting a tape of 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.120 Harvey Weinstein trying to entrap a woman after months and 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.240 months of trying to get that those are obviously moments 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.640 of fulfillment of a kind, But then I think was 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.720 I happy then? Because those high points were also marked 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:48.240 by a lot of stress and can also be frankly 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.160 kind of scary. I mean, I think both on a 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.880 level that any writer would relate to, where you're in 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:56.520 the zone crafting a scene, but also you're on a 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.120 terrifying deadline and it's stressful and you're afraid you're going 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.080 to fail, and is a lot writing on it, I think, 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.080 particularly when it's investigative reporting and in ways that are 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:06.200 unique to my kind of work, which is very combative 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.440 in some ways, and you know, there are sometimes private 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.600 investigators hired to follow me around and smear me in 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.560 various ways. So those moments of fulfillment are often entwined 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.320 with a lot of anxiety. And I don't know if 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.440 happiness quite captures what those moments are, and I don't 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.680 think they're mutually exclusive. No, I agree, it is part 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.000 of the satisfaction of doing an incredibly hard job that 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:33.800 is dangerous and frightening at times but also incredibly necessary, 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:36.560 and then that paying off. I think there are ways 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.159 in which that's a healthy happiness. You know, if you 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.640 are doing something whatever your profession is that you feel 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.200 is contributing in a positive way to other people's lives. 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.880 That's a great thing to nurture in yourself. On the 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.960 other hand, that can take a lot of unhealthy forms. 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.400 You know, I know and really respect a lot of 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.360 great war reporters who famously do get a high off 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.160 of being in conflict zones. And you know, during time 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.120 I've spent in some those types of places, you encounter 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:03.760 a lot of those people who are in it, maybe 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.120 for all the right reasons, but also I think you know, 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.400 if they were to search themselves on a personal level, 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:10.719 it's probably not the healthiest thing that they need to 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.080 be in those high octane places all the time. So 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.719 is that happiness or is that kind of getting a 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.120 certain kind of high again, regardless of how noble the intentions, 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.160 And we all benefit so richly from people who take 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.320 those risks. I just know plenty of people who thrive 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.159 in those settings and do us all a public service. 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.800 But also I think it comes from a place of 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.200 brokenness in part. You know, I don't know that that's 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.800 anything to be discouraged, because we do all benefits so much. 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:39.240 You know, the world is a better place for that. 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:41.960 But can you box that into a simple term like happiness. 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:43.760 I don't know. I know, I was going to say, 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.719 maybe happiness expands or retracts according to the person. The 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.599 intense joy that I felt when I had my son, 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:55.039 it's different from the intense joy that I felt when 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:59.599 I traveled to Cambodia with Oxfam years ago and there 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.760 was these blacklisted workers. They'd all been fired from the 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.080 sweatshops for, you know, not wanting to work for a 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:06.880 dollar a day and be able to take bath and breaks. 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.680 And they started this factory and I arrived there on 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:14.200 my birthday and they made this whole party for me, 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.000 and I spoke a bit of French, but they were 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:18.080 all speaking camar I mean, it was. It was one 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.919 of the most intensely happy experiences of my life. But 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.640 it was completely different to having my son. And was 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.200 that happy because you felt you were doing something that mattered, 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.479 that was in the public interest. Yeah, it was. All 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:31.679 of these things were wrapped up in one the idea 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.400 that these women had started their own factory. It was 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.040 my birthday that I thought had been the last by 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.440 traveling to the other side of the world, and the 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:40.960 fact that they'd used what little resources they had to 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.120 make me a cake and decorate the factory, and we 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.200 were just women, not speaking the same language, but celebrating. 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.400 So it was a convergence of a lot of different 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.640 kinds of happiness. Is that's exactly and maybe that's it 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:56.280 is It is pluralistic happiness. I also got to thinking, 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.360 in reflecting on this question now harderist answer, I think 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.280 I allowed a lot of very happy moments to be 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:07.919 shadowed by anxiety or sadness in a way that I 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.280 wish weren't the case. You know, simple things like getting 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:14.400 recognized by fellow journalists, are finally getting that graduate degree 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.520 after seven years of work. That's gratifying but also feels 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.320 more like relief than happiness in the moment, and I 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.600 think I allow those moments to immediately turn to thoughts 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.400 of not even on a totally conscious level, it's just 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.880 sort of hovering there, What am I going to do next? 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.200 How can I be this useful again? Can I match this? 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.000 You know? All these So this is this is really 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.880 interesting because do you think I'm trying to think of 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:40.800 a different word than overachiever, Because there's I don't think 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.200 there's any such thing. There is just doing the things 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.920 which you feel compelled to do. But you have done 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:51.280 an enormous amount of things that are big and extraordinary, 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.560 and you've done them very young. Do you think that 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.680 because you do so many different things that are big, 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.560 that their bullets are and their New York bari and 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.200 their modeling college and their road scholarly and their advocacy 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.560 and there's global in the title, do you think that 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.680 the bar is set incredibly high for what might be 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.560 perceived as happiness for you because of how you'm roll? Yes, 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.120 And you know, there are all these studies over the 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.240 years of people who are happiest and least happy, And 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.480 of course it doesn't track to a particular worldview of 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.160 success that or commendations that that you just kind of 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.040 touched on. You know, I think they are simpler and 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.000 maybe more essential things to be happy about, and I 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:32.520 don't know that I'm always the best of being in 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:34.400 touch with them, But ultimately that is what I came 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:36.600 down to and deciding how to answer this question, I 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.000 ultimately came to thinking about really simple pleasures and times 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.560 and places. You know, that memory came to mind of 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.120 being a teenager lying in bed in my childhood home, 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:51.200 just crushing a box of Mint Milano cookies and playing 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.280 this game. I remember vividly. It was a visual novel 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:58.040 on the Nintendo DS called Phoenix Right Ace Attorney, which 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.680 is a bonkers Japanese courtroom draw. There will be some 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.200 tiny segment of your audience that gets that reference, and 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.040 I I was really content then, I think in a 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.400 very kind of quiet, low key way, and is this 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.280 too off color? Also in my teens, you know, making 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.760 out in a bathroom with a crush during a house party. 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:18.920 That was like some things like that, And I think 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.520 I could probably do a better job in my adult 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.480 life of embracing those small and simple moments. Now, you 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.240 know what. I love that your paradigm runs from busting 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.840 predators to making it in a buthroom when you're a teenager, 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:36.240 to playing Nintendo DS. Like, I love that paradigm, and 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.240 it's why you're such an interesting person because that's where 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:41.439 you live. You can't do all three of those things 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.000 at once, I've found, but there is time enough in 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:49.320 life to multitats. Yeah, that was That's a very spec 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:51.400 That would be a very specific kind of multit It 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:53.960 would require a lot of just manual dexterity. It would 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:57.840 need another, It would need at least two more of Yes, Yes, 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:15.400 this is a hard question. What is the quality you 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:19.040 like least about yourself? I found this much easier to 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:23.400 answer because there are so many rich and wonderfully terrible 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.199 things about me to choose from. Lack of punctuality is 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:31.400 up there. Not in important professional things, but in most 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.880 other things. I am always late, and I think that 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.160 flows from a broader issue. I see this trait in 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.160 a lot of super ambitious people. You kind of think 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.760 you can accomplish it all in any amount of time. 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.800 So it's like meeting in ten minutes, Well, let me 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.680 start writing the Great American novel in those ten minutes. 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.000 There's a fair amount of perfectionism run amuck. I think 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:54.480 in me that that leads to a lot of procrastination. 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.000 You know, every book that I've done has been a 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.240 year late. This is obviously nothing new if you talk 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.400 to any writer. But I've let it get to the 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.199 point of several times in life where it really does 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:07.480 threaten to sort of cause real problems. And I think 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.600 that is an offshoot of that same worldview of like 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:13.600 I can do anything in any amount of time. So 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:15.840 I'm gonna leave it till later. And also it's got 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.360 to be so good, so I'm afraid to start. I 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.160 think the big one, though many as I really thought 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:26.200 deeply sort of what's most consequential is an inability to 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.720 be in the moment. I do a lot of songwriting, 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.560 and it really shows up there. Especially I'm used to 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.760 brute forcing things by overthinking them, and I think that 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.320 that actually can work well in a writing and a 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.560 particularly a lyrical context. You know, I like narrative and 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:46.079 character driven lyrics and and that can involve a cerebral approach. 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:50.160 But as a performer in particular, it can be a handicap, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.760 I think, just even not knowing that much except from Afar, 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:55.680 you know, just growing up around actors, I see this. 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.120 You need to be spontaneous and trust yourself to fail 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:03.000 and be rough around edges, and that doesn't come naturally 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.120 to me. It's why I really respect actors, you know, 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.679 the the Udha Hogan thing of being present and being 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:10.600 just in touch with your emotions in a really raw 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.360 an unfiltered way. You know, I don't know about acting specifically. 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.640 I've I've done a little light voice acting, anime voice 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.640 acting of all, you know, and we've both worked with Miyazaki. 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.679 What a thrill right beyond I couldn't believe that you 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.240 work with his son and with him, and I couldn't 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.200 believe that you've done that at all, Like it was 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.640 shocking and amazing to discover that. I mean, it's, you know, 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.600 a grand statement to say worked with them. I did 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.760 tiny parts in the American dubs, but I would lick 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.000 stamps for Studio Jibli that their work is so incredible. No, no, 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.480 I mean I did the American dubs to on Princess Mononoki, 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.760 but when he came to your part, I love that. 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:47.960 But I mean, I'm an actor. Like the fact that you, 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.040 how dare you? How dare you have gone to Oxford 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.760 and also done a Miyazaki movie and also want upon 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:57.640 it set those kinds of little exposures to that sort 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.559 of performing aside, I would probably have trouble ever delivering 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:06.000 a truly great piece of acting, because I do think 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.120 I tend to be too cerebral and in my head 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.439 too much of the time. And you know, I could 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.760 perhaps do things that are technically great, but that next 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.600 level of transcending technique is a real reach for me 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.160 and I frankly don't know. Maybe you have advice on 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:24.120 this how to get past that? Well, I would say 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.600 as any therapist would advise you. Awareness is the only 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.040 place to begin as an actor. Awareness of like what 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:34.680 it is that you're doing wrong. God, I remember I 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.920 was invited by this amazing artistic director CaAl Richard Air, 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:40.480 who was the artistic director of the National Theater in London, 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.120 and I was invited to this cabal of actors to 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.800 to work on Shakespeare. And you know, I duly did 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.640 my my balcony scene and at the end of it 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.680 he was like, great, this is so great because it's 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.160 so important to see how not to do this scene. 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:00.520 It's so important to see how terrible it can be 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.640 when you know all the rules of iambic pentameter ignored. 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.679 And I was. I was so embarrassed and so crushed. 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:11.600 It's devastating. Here's the deal. He's absolutely right, and it 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:17.280 forced me to study Shakespeare with ten times more attention 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.440 than I had before. So I think awareness of the 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:23.480 place to begin, and that requires humility, and it requires acknowledgement, 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.080 and then you just begin. And I think, then desire, 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:27.880 if you really, if there was something that you really 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.480 wanted to do, you would figure it out. You know. 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.240 I obviously this is most relevant in my life, not 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.200 because I'm you know, trying to crack the nutb could 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.600 I ever theoretically be a great actor, but but because 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:39.200 in so many of the things I do, I do 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.360 think you need to possess both of those abilities, being 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.920 able to rigorously overthink everything and be precise and technical, 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.080 and then also knowing when to let go and just 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.720 be emotional and honest and in the moment. I mean, 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.640 I think you need that in any profession where you 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:56.480 have to communicate, whether it's to an audience as I 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.600 sometimes have to, or in reporting when you're trying to 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.720 connect with someone and unearth what's going on in a situation. 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.360 And so I'll take those thoughts to heart. You know, 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.520 I think I sometimes want it too much. You know 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:12.720 that the quality you described of do you do want 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:15.680 it enough? I think sometimes for me that leads to 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:20.600 overthinking and not being able to just clear your mind. Well, 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.960 in that case, you know, I prescribe, I don't know, 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:29.000 yoga and a few more milkshakes, right I relaxed? There 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:32.400 you go? That would be three Also a note, I 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.280 will take perfect This is my this is my therapy. 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.840 You're right, you just need therapy. You don't need therapy 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:47.480 per se. I'm fascinated to hear how you answer this. 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:52.240 What question would you most like answered? If I could 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.840 wave a magic wand and answer anything, I would obviously 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:01.680 choose the question whose answer would save the most lives. 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.239 You know, I'd go for something really meaty and high priority. 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:07.920 I don't know what the biggest scientific obstacle right now 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:13.560 is to better energy storage, or curing cancer, or developing 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:18.040 technological approaches to reversing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.320 but I would enlist a lot of experts to try 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:22.920 to determine what single answer could help the most people. 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.680 Now for something more fun. I know this is random 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.000 as hell, but here's what leapt to mind from my 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.120 own career. There's this guy, Sandy Burger, who was Bill 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.960 Clinton's National security advisor, who went into the National Archives 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.800 while he was Clinton's liaison to the nine eleven Commission. 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.080 And I'm not kidding. Many stuffed a bunch of sensitive 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:48.240 documents down his pants and socks and hid some and 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:52.960 destroyed others. And because of the record keeping practices there. 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:57.680 We actually never conclusively found out what might have gone missing. 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.920 And this guy was a constant guest on cable news 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:04.240 up until his death a few years back, and to 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.159 the best of my knowledge, no one ever got a 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:08.600 satisfactory answer out of him. No one knew what he 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:13.960 stuffed down his knickers. Oh, I mean, I think there 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.439 was some limited accounting, and he did plead guilty to 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.000 that charge, but to my knowledge, there's never been a 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.040 full accounting that we can really trust of what he 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.080 was up to or why. And I even had him 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.479 on my cable news show once and I was like, 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:30.320 I'm going to ask him. I told my colleagues this, 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.160 and my producer, who was a veteran journalist I really respect, 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:35.320 and at the time, bear in mind, I was a 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:39.600 very young anchor just starting out, said you absolutely cannot. 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:41.280 This is not in the news that was years ago. 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:42.840 This would be an ambush, it would be very rude. 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.240 There will be another occasion for that. And I didn't 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:50.240 and then he was completely dead. Oh no, oh god, 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.119 And we never found out what he destroyed her for 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:58.479 whom so after curing cancer or climate change, what the 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.679 hell Sandy Burger was up to? Wow, I go, I 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:10.560 really know, I'm going to be thinking about that for days. Okay, 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:16.320 So what person, place, or experience most altered your life. 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.960 I write about this in my book Catch and Kill. 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.440 I had pitched a story when I was a TV 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:28.639 reporter about the Hollywood casting couch, and I was in 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.760 a meeting with network executives, some of whom were ultimately 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.760 involved in trying to shut down this reporting. Ironically, but 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.480 at the time, one of them said, in an off 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:39.480 hand way, didn't Rose McGowan make an allegation of this 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.680 kind recently? And you know she had spoken without naming 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.760 her alleged assailant. But that kicked off my digging into 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.119 this and figuring out that it was Harvey Weinstein and 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.480 getting a whole lot of people to share their stories 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:55.920 about them very brave people, and I was very grateful 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.280 that they did a very very difficult thing, and that 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.320 ended up being significant in I think both their lives 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.160 and my own. It's interesting that it would come out 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:11.359 of an apparent lack of support from a network and 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.879 not wanting to explore a story, but you didn't stop. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.159 It forced you to continue looking into that story and 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.280 then take it elsewhere, which is where we all then 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.040 got to hear about it. And I've talked a bit 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:26.359 and written in that book a bit about how that 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.119 feels at the time, and I think I myself have 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:31.719 learned a lesson from that experience. It doesn't, or at 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.520 least didn't, in my case, feel like a triumphal moment 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:37.560 of you know, yes, it's a setback, but I'm going 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:39.919 to do the right thing. What it feels like at 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.800 the time is incredibly shitty and scary, and you don't 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.240 know whether the truth is ever going to emerge, and 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.600 you don't know the degree of immolation of your career 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:51.800 and whether it will be worth it. But I think 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:56.200 you do, invariably in those situations have a little voice saying, 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:58.840 you know, well, here's what the right thing is, regardless 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.080 of what the strategic or savvy thing is. And I 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:03.879 think it's good to listen to that. Oh my god, 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:08.840 I mean it literally created a scaffold to which so 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.480 many women could tether themselves to, could feel strong. You 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.800 literally created a framework. I don't know. I've been in 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.520 this business for a really long time. I worked with Harvey, 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:25.480 I've watched the goings on, and you never ever ever 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.959 felt that you would ever be anything than a voice 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.920 screaming into a black hole to say anything about any 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:34.640 of it. And it just changed. It changed in an 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.000 incidant with Rosa's testimony and then with all of the 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.920 women that came forward so bravely. I was going to say, really, 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:43.560 you know that that's on them. It was an honor 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:45.720 to be able to do some reporting, to be one 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.720 of the whole community of reporters who did important work 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.680 on those stories. But really, I think it comes down 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.480 to the bravery of those sources. Yeah, they did a 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:56.320 tough thing, and I think they changed a lot as 0:20:56.320 --> 0:21:10.240 a result. Yeah, so the pendulum is swinging from the 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:15.720 deep to the more delicious. What would be your last male? 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.480 A lobster? Apparently they used to be larger many until 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:25.880 over fishing poor lobsters scientifically interesting trade. I believe they 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:31.240 just continue to get larger and larger until finally the 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.200 size of the shell can't keep pace with the size 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.720 of the body, and they outgrow their shell and they die. 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:38.199 You know that the shedding can't keep up. Well, we 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:41.680 got into lobster science very fast here, But the point being, 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.120 I have an annoying bougie answer to this point, you'd 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:47.600 like to eat a big lobster. I like lobsters. They walk, 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.560 They'll walk in an enormous distance in their life. They're 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:53.720 the greatest marine hikers. I'm not sure I could eat one. 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.280 They're beautiful creatures, and I think you have the moral 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.719 high ground here. U know, I am not a vegetarian, 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.479 and I am self aware enough to know that if 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:04.639 I were a better person, I would be for a 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.119 variety of reasons, the carbon footprint and environmental impact of 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.960