Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Minni Driver and I'm excited to be returning
Speaker 1: with the rest of season two of my podcast Many Questions.
Speaker 1: Next week. I had to take a little break because
Speaker 1: my book, Managing Expectations came out and I had to
Speaker 1: go and talk about it in the US and in
Speaker 1: the UK, and it was amazing and if you haven't
Speaker 1: read it, read it or listen to it. I can't
Speaker 1: wait this brand new round of guests and how they
Speaker 1: answered our seven questions. So in the second half of
Speaker 1: season two, my friend and we just co starred in
Speaker 1: a movie together and he's the most amazing person. Simon
Speaker 1: peg is one of my guests. Happiness is a continuum
Speaker 1: which includes despair and everything, you know, because you can't
Speaker 1: have happiness unless you experience the other stuff as well.
Speaker 1: So you need those things as part of your happiness,
Speaker 1: you know what. I think back to the birth of
Speaker 1: my daughter, and I was actually in the midst of
Speaker 1: quite a crisis at that time. Personally. I remember those
Speaker 1: four days in the hospital and she was born on
Speaker 1: the first of July, so we were still in there
Speaker 1: on the fourth sitting on the little window sill where
Speaker 1: I was sleeping and watching the fireworks and having this
Speaker 1: new little life. It was like a little bubble of
Speaker 1: happiness inside a period where I was very, very unhappier.
Speaker 1: Author and psychotherapist and grief expert Juliet Samuel is another guest.
Speaker 1: The first line of a roadless traveled was life is difficult,
Speaker 1: and I thought, hang on, No one ever told me that,
Speaker 1: although it had been my entire life. But somehow it's
Speaker 1: the secret that no one had said. It's normal that
Speaker 1: it's difficult, not like I'm struggling through it and I'm
Speaker 1: the one that's failing and everyone else has got it sorted.
Speaker 1: Life's difficult, right, okay Boom The legendary iconic actress and
Speaker 1: model Brookshields. When I lost my first child, I lost
Speaker 1: a lot of my youthfulness. By that next day, I
Speaker 1: remember thinking, oh, you're an adult now, you know. I
Speaker 1: immediately went to my fault. Of course, it had to
Speaker 1: be my fault, and it was really important for me
Speaker 1: to learn I didn't take too many yoga classes or
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything wrong, you know, it wasn't a
Speaker 1: fault of mine. And that was kind of that. I
Speaker 1: grew up a lot. Neuroscientists and author David Eagleman who
Speaker 1: will blow your mind. The top question for me is
Speaker 1: the question of consciousness, which is why does it feel
Speaker 1: like something to be you or me? Because the brain
Speaker 1: is built of eight six billion neurons. Fundamentally, it's just
Speaker 1: a big biological machine. But the question is why does
Speaker 1: it feel like something to be alive? Why do you
Speaker 1: experience the beauty of a sunset or the smell of
Speaker 1: cinnamon or the taste of fetted cheese on your tongue.
Speaker 1: Why aren't we just like you know, my computer, my
Speaker 1: laptop here. Presumably it's not conscious. And when I watch
Speaker 1: YouTube video that I think is funny, it presumably doesn't
Speaker 1: think it's funny. It's just sending zero, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just sending zeros in one drowd. This is the question
Speaker 1: is how do you build a biological machine and have
Speaker 1: it be self aware? And actor and former Associate Director
Speaker 1: of Public Engagement in the Obama administration Cal pen But
Speaker 1: the stories they would tell us, you know, grandparents telling
Speaker 1: you stories to course you into eating vegetables at the
Speaker 1: dinner table when they visit. And my grandparents would talk
Speaker 1: about how they marched with Gandhi. They're trying to get
Speaker 1: you to eat your vegetables, and Grandpa's talking about getting
Speaker 1: thrown in jail and beaten by British soldiers for standing
Speaker 1: up for his human rights, and of course the eight
Speaker 1: year old you was like, there he goes again, Grandpa
Speaker 1: with another gunsy story and many more. We'll be back
Speaker 1: next Wednesday, October five with a brand new episode. And
Speaker 1: if you missed any episodes from earlier in the season
Speaker 1: or from season one, now is your chance to go
Speaker 1: back and listen. Each episode is a new entry in
Speaker 1: the archive, a new opportunity ty to examine how has
Speaker 1: people were both similar and individual. Join me as we
Speaker 1: continue this exploration on season two of many questions on
Speaker 1: the I Heart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your favorite podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers. See you
Speaker 1: next Wednesday, October five,