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Speaker 1: Quest. Yeah, welcome friends to the Christian O'Connell Show podcast.

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Speaker 2: Hey, this is Christian from the Christian O'Connell Show with

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Speaker 2: a very special kind of podcast today. This isn't a podcast,

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Speaker 2: it's well, I've been interviewing people for over twenty five

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Speaker 2: years and my favorite guests. People always say to me,

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Speaker 2: who's your favorite guest that you've interviewed, and I always

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Speaker 2: say one name is Henry Winkler because whenever I've come

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Speaker 2: away from chatting to him, it's more like life lessons

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Speaker 2: than an interview. And we played this out today, so

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Speaker 2: I'm actually recording this after today's breakfast show. It's just finished,

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Speaker 2: and I guarantee you'll get something from this. It's a

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Speaker 2: quite an incredible chat with Henry Winkley. He's seventy eight

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Speaker 2: and he's led an incredible life and he's really got

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Speaker 2: something to share. I love this book, read it in

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Speaker 2: two days being Henry, so we thought we'd do this

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Speaker 2: as a special stand alone podcast. I've actually made notes

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Speaker 2: after it, listening back to what he said because there's

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Speaker 2: so much in there, and there's things that I started

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Speaker 2: talking to my daughters about listening to it as well.

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Speaker 2: And if you listen to this like me and end

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Speaker 2: up pausing it and almost rewinding to hear what he said.

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Speaker 2: You might have questions. I'd love to know what the

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Speaker 2: questions it raises in you. Or you might have things

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Speaker 2: that stirs up for you that you want to share.

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Speaker 2: It's one of those chats where you want to go

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Speaker 2: and talk to someone about it. So please email me

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Speaker 2: after this if it just stirs something up in you.

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Speaker 2: Christian at Christian O'Connell dot com today you but please

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Speaker 2: enjoy our chat with the one and only Henry Winkler. Henry,

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Speaker 2: you like a member of the Rolling Stones. You like

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Speaker 2: the Stones on this big worldwide megator.

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Speaker 3: Oh my god, you know what I want to tell you.

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Speaker 3: I get tongue tied when I meet us singers, you know.

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Speaker 3: And I got to see in my favorite sushi restaurant

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Speaker 3: in La Mick Jacker is sitting at the table. I

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Speaker 3: went up and I said, oh my god, Mick, I

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Speaker 3: have all of your records. I can't believe it. I

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Speaker 3: am really a big fan. And he just turned very slowly,

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Speaker 3: looked me in the eye and set Henry and at

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Speaker 3: which time I slinked away, like okay, I'm going to

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Speaker 3: let you enjoy your your tuner right now, and thank

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Speaker 3: you so much. And I'm so sorry I bothered you.

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Speaker 2: But Henry, Mick Jacker just spoke to Henry Winkler. You

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Speaker 2: should see this other way around. I think he was

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Speaker 2: to because even Mick understands there are levels to the

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Speaker 2: showbiz game.

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Speaker 3: Okay, but you know what, then, I want to say,

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Speaker 3: I can dream. I don't think that's what happened. He

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Speaker 3: was so icy cool that you could have used me

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Speaker 3: in your Coca Cola.

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Speaker 2: Now, Henry, I loved your book. I really enjoyed it.

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Speaker 2: It's a beautiful read, and you really it's an incredible life.

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Speaker 2: And what's lovely about it is that you're still learning.

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Speaker 2: You're still figuring out who you are. What is this thing?

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Speaker 2: What are we here to do? How does it all work?

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Speaker 2: The title says so much about it being Henry, tell

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Speaker 2: me about that the being pop.

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Speaker 3: I'll tell you exactly what I have learned from when

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Speaker 3: I started, when I was twenty seven in Hollywood till

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Speaker 3: write this second, when I'm sitting here talking to you,

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Speaker 3: I think that I had all these great thoughts and

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Speaker 3: there was a lid at the bottom of my brain

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Speaker 3: that was soldered shut so that all those thoughts were intellectualized.

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Speaker 3: I had them, but they never integrated into the rest

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Speaker 3: of me. My image is when you pour cream into

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Speaker 3: black coffee, it swirls and it makes all those beautiful patterns. Well,

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Speaker 3: those thoughts never swirled out of my brain into my body,

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Speaker 3: and I have learned to be more authentic. I am

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Speaker 3: getting to be more authentic now than I've ever been.

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Speaker 3: I'm a better husband, I'm a better actor, I'm a

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Speaker 3: better dad, I'm a much better a pet owner.

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Speaker 2: My daughter crazy, I'm a fellow dog. Oh so I

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Speaker 2: do get. There was a line in the book that

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Speaker 2: I think is such an amazing line, and I wish

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Speaker 2: that I'd actually understood it when I was eighteen. I

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Speaker 2: am becoming who I am. A lot of us do

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Speaker 2: an impression of some version of ourselves, especially in your industry.

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Speaker 3: You know what, that is exactly correct. What you just

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Speaker 3: said is exactly correct. When I started in Hollywood, I

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Speaker 3: seemed like a whole person when you looked at me.

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Speaker 3: You know, I was funny. I could do my work,

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Speaker 3: but I couldn't live my life. I was, you know,

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Speaker 3: like a third of myself, and it took me all

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Speaker 3: this time to journey from who I think I thought

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Speaker 3: I should be to who I am, And it's freeing

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Speaker 3: being who you are and not really caring that much.

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Speaker 3: It gives you an enormous amount of freedom.

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Speaker 2: Right And it's the hardest and most courageous thing to

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Speaker 2: ever do. It sounds so simple, doesn't it, to just

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Speaker 2: be who you are, But it probably is the most

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Speaker 2: important advice you can ever give to yourself or anyone, really,

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Speaker 2: is to actually learn how to or just allow yourself,

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Speaker 2: give you self permission to be yourself.

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Speaker 3: It is true. And the other thing that I am

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Speaker 3: passionate about is any child I meet, whether they want

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Speaker 3: to hear it or not, I tell them how you learn,

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Speaker 3: no matter how difficult it is for you to learn.

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Speaker 3: It has nothing to do with how brilliant you are.

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Speaker 3: All of my children because dyslexia is hereditary, so all

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Speaker 3: of my children are dyslexic in some way, But we

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Speaker 3: did not care about what grade they brought home. We

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Speaker 3: only cared that they tried, and if they tried, that

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Speaker 3: was enough. One is a director, one was an extraordinary

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Speaker 3: teacher and is now the mother of three boys, and

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Speaker 3: the other is in the secondary ticket market for concerts,

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Speaker 3: and I have no idea what he does.

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Speaker 2: I'm glad you said that because I was getting confused

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Speaker 2: to are they your promoter? Are they taking a big

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Speaker 2: cup from dad's money? You know what?

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Speaker 3: They They don't promote to take a big cut. They

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Speaker 3: just say, like the character my daughter in uh Parks

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Speaker 3: and rec money please. They just pulled a vacuum cleaner

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Speaker 3: a hose and suck it out of my pocket.

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Speaker 2: You've been trained. As we speak right now.

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Speaker 3: I'm telling you I am a shadow of my former self.

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Speaker 1: The Christian Connell's Show podcast a very very special guest

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Speaker 1: today is live on stage next week The Fons and

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Speaker 1: Beyond Henry Winkler Hammerhole.

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Speaker 2: Tickets are on sound now. I'm going to be going

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Speaker 2: on to this next Thursday. We're having a lovely chat with

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Speaker 2: Henry Winkler this morning about his life and what he's

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Speaker 2: learned from it as well. Henry, welcome back to the show.

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Speaker 2: So what do you think is how to become more

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Speaker 2: who you are? Your books called Being Henry? What do

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Speaker 2: you think is how you become more who you are?

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Speaker 3: Because you know there'd be people listening, you know what,

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Speaker 3: I'll tell you that is a great question. I'll tell

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Speaker 3: you exactly. I knew what I wanted. I swear to you,

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Speaker 3: the key to life is knowing without ambivalence what it

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Speaker 3: is you want, and if you do that, you will

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Speaker 3: eventually you will somehow wiggle yourself to be there. Exactly,

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Speaker 3: no joke.

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Speaker 2: I love that. I love the word wiggling. You're right

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Speaker 2: because I think some people sometimes they give up because

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Speaker 2: they think they haven't got it to carry on the

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Speaker 2: journey whatever they're trying to get in life or get

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Speaker 2: out of life, or whatever their purpose is. But actually

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Speaker 2: sometimes it's more subtle, isn't it. A wiggling is a

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Speaker 2: is an inch. It's incremental, it's not massive. It's such,

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Speaker 2: it's barely recognizable.

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Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, I have to tell you

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Speaker 3: I'm going to steal that from you.

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Speaker 2: Please.

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Speaker 3: That is exactly correct. I started in when I was

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Speaker 3: twenty seven in Hollywood. I am seventy eight years old.

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Speaker 3: I am still here. I'm talking to you. I have

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Speaker 3: this show everywhere in every major city in this beautiful Australia.

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Speaker 3: And that doesn't happen out of blue thin air.

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Speaker 2: This is lovely. I'm really enjoying this. And tell me this,

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Speaker 2: Henry did you find that actually, in meeting again who

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Speaker 2: you are, did you find that actually a lot of

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Speaker 2: it is who we were in childhood and you kind

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Speaker 2: of you kind of walk back towards your life in

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Speaker 2: some way.

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Speaker 3: Okay, that is more profound than I have ever been.

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Speaker 3: And yes, that is exactly the truth you wind up

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Speaker 3: at the beginning. Yes, I closed off who I was

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Speaker 3: in order to be who I thought I should be,

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Speaker 3: and finally opened up the encasement of who I was

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Speaker 3: to to finally get there.

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Speaker 2: And you find in doing that that I bet then

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Speaker 2: young Henry was waiting for you all along and kind

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Speaker 2: of like, what took you so long?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? And I want to tell you that the ice

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Speaker 3: cream cone had completely melted the time adopted.

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Speaker 2: That's such a lovely, lovely image. And you know there

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Speaker 2: are so many people these things. They get lost and

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Speaker 2: intimidated by the pea word purpose. You see it all

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Speaker 2: the time on social media. Now what's my purpose? How

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Speaker 2: do you find it? And some of the clues are

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Speaker 2: in childhood, an't they? Henry?

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Speaker 3: That is another thing. I made a promise with my

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Speaker 3: wife that I would let my children be who they

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Speaker 3: are as as opposed to try and mold them into

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Speaker 3: who I wanted them to.

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Speaker 2: Be as a parent myself with two teenage daughters, it's

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Speaker 2: it's such a BEAUTI vice to be reminded of that

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Speaker 2: on some level, you know it, but sometimes it's so hard.

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Speaker 3: And you know, here's the thing. I want to tell

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Speaker 3: you something that I have learned. You have two teenage daughters.

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Speaker 3: They are powerful, are way.

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Speaker 2: More powerful than me and you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so here it is. I promise you they

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Speaker 3: hear everything that you say, except they just don't want

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Speaker 3: to admit it. And then one day they say, I

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Speaker 3: heard you, Dad, and you just melt into water, a

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Speaker 3: buddle of water on your rug.

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Speaker 2: Do you know what I will look forward to that

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Speaker 2: day of melting into a puddle of water. Whenever it arrives,

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Speaker 2: I'll I'll be ready for it.

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Speaker 3: You're going to do that, and you're going to say,

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Speaker 3: Henry told me.

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Speaker 2: And so, Henry, this is so lovely. What what did

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Speaker 2: you get from writing a memoir? Because I'm sure you've

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Speaker 2: had many opportunities over the years of your career, in

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Speaker 2: such such an amazing life you've led.

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Speaker 3: I'm going to have to answer that question the next

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Speaker 3: time we speak, because I'm now walking through a hall.

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Speaker 3: I'm walking into a door. Have you been opened by

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Speaker 3: a lovely lady in black shorts? And I am now

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Speaker 3: going to do a television interview, Henry.

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Speaker 2: I'll tell you this then when you're in Melbourne in

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Speaker 2: two time, why don't we do a part two? Why

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Speaker 2: didn't you come in live on the on the on

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Speaker 2: the Breakfast show with me, come in and do part two?

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Speaker 2: So come and do the show with me.

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Speaker 3: I'm telling you, ah, absolutely all right, now it's a date.

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Speaker 2: You gotta go.

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Speaker 3: There was not a good looking guy holding the door

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Speaker 3: open on a black shirt. He said, hey, you gotta

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Speaker 3: be quiet.

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Speaker 2: Okay, well listen, we will meet again in two weeks time. Okay,

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Speaker 2: all right, it's a date, David Dary, Henry. We do

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Speaker 2: we carry this to be continued, Henry, to be continued.

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Speaker 1: I like it.

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Speaker 2: Speak to you again. I'll see you in Melbourne, Henry.

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Speaker 2: For now, bye bye, take care, whye bye bye.

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Speaker 1: This is the Christian O'Connell Show podcast