June 1, 2020 • 46 mins
It’s our Season 3 finale! If you've been listening for awhile, you already know that we're fans of seasons. We think they're a great opportunity to take stock, find new inspiration, make some changes, and come up with a catchy name. Press play to hear a few of the changes we're making, how we're staying inspired, and what we've named our summers. And yes, there is a Lightning Round.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Limit Does Not Exist is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey, I'm Christina Wallace and I'm Kate Scott Campbell,
and you're listening to The Limit does Not Exist. A
podcast for human then Diagrams, coming at you every single
(00:22):
week and hosted by us. It might be difficult to
know what day it is lately, but there are plenty
of signs that we're entering a new season, and appropriately,
we're also wrapping up another season of this podcast that's
right in our part of the world. Later sunsets, warmer weather,
(00:42):
and intermittent downpours tell us that summer is here. Justice.
Season three of our show is coming to a close.
If you've been listening for a while, you already know
that we're fans of seasons. Yep. We think there are
a great opportunity to take stock, find new inspiration, make
some changes, and come up with a catchy name. Oh today,
we'll fill you in on a few of the changes
(01:02):
we're making, how we're staying inspired, and what we've named
our summers. Christina, if this episode were a swimming pool,
I think it would be time to jump in. Let's
do it. So something about season three of our show
(01:23):
coming to a close is making me feel nostalgic for
some O. G T. L DNNY traditions understandable. What are
you craving right now? So what I'm craving is a
good hashtag book stack and the reason why Christina is
(01:44):
as an avid follower of yours on Instagram. I couldn't
help but notice that you shared a footnote of a
book that you're reading with the name of our very
show in it. So I need to true tell me
everything about this Mathew text that you've been reading. The
(02:04):
book is called How Not to Be Wrong The Power
of Mathematical Thinking is written by mathematician jordan's ellen Burg.
He is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison World. Natalie at them, Yes and I this book
is not new. I think it came out, but I
(02:27):
had never heard of it. It's somehow never made it
on my radar when it came out, and I was delighted.
A friend recommended it to me the other day, and
as I was going through and reading, it came across
this fabulous footnote. He's very funny this note about he says,
in the words of Lindsay Lohan, the limit does not exist.
(02:48):
And I was like, what what, So of course I
had to put it in my stories. So what's so
great about this book? It's been described as the Freakonomics
of math, which it is very similar if you've read Freakonomics,
and it gets into the kind of the the universal
applicability of economics. This gets into how math underpins everything
(03:13):
that we do in our lives, so what we read,
how we understand the world, how we make decisions. It
was one of Bill Gates's favorite books. It made a
New York Times bestseller list. Christina suddenly I'm wearing a
choir robe because this is to the choir. I know,
I know, I mean. So he talks about how, you know,
(03:35):
the math that most of us get in school is
like grammar and spelling, and that we never get to
the reading novels stage of mathematics gets really really good,
you know. And and so he says basically like forget
about all of the baggage that you might have about
(03:56):
algebra or statistics or whatever, and try to come at
this with a fresh mind and really think about numerous
e and sort of mathematical thinking, right, Like, it's not
about calculations, It's about how you know what you know,
and he has this great opening story. I have to
tell you just a little bit of detail on this.
(04:17):
It starts with this story. I'm all ears about this
guy named Abraham Walt. He was an Eastern European mathematician
who came over to the United States during the beginning
of World War two Jewish uh and he started working
for the American government and one day the military comes
to him and says, Okay, we've got this problem. We
(04:39):
send these planes overseas and when they come back, the
engine is fine, but they're the tail is riddled with
bullet holes. So we were thinking, what if we put
more armor on the tails. The problem, of course, is
that if you put too much armor on a plane,
it gets too heavy to fly, and if you don't
put enough armor on the plane, it gets shut down.
(05:02):
So they're basically asking him, like, what is the optimization
of armor, particularly looking at the tail, and he said, no,
you're thinking of this all wrong. They're like, come again.
He said, look, you're asking the wrong question. You need
to put armor where there aren't bullet holes, because when
(05:26):
the plane gets hit in the tail, it makes it home.
That's why you see all the planes with bullet holes
in the tail, the planes that get shot down in
the engine crash, those are the ones that don't make
it home. So it's right. So it's this whole book
is these stories about what seemed like non mathematical systems
(05:50):
but in fact are really anchored in logic and our
understanding of statistics and inference and proofs. Right, it really
do make up how we understand what we know. It's
absolutely fascinating. I love it. I laugh every third page.
I highly recommend it. I am here. Yes, he is
(06:13):
a total human ven diagram. He also wrote a literary
novel back in two thousand three called The Grasshopper King.
Oh my gosh, I am just my palms are sweating
with excitement. I love a good dose of mathematical irony
and humor and engagement. I am so up for this book.
(06:33):
Oh my goodness, I'm going to have to just rain
myself in because I know there's a lot there. And
it's such a what a great suggestion, Christina. I love it.
So I have to know. Okay, what is in your
book stack? Oh my gosh, Well I actually have a
literal book stack, because I brought a crate of books
to Minneapolis. More on that in a moment, But I
(06:56):
literally cannot go anywhere for a couple of nights to
a few months without a stack of books. And what
made it into the book stack? I mean that was who.
That was some high stakes, right, like what we're going
to be those books that I was bringing with me. So, actually, Christina,
in my current bookstack, I have, unsurprisingly to you or anyone,
(07:17):
a couple of math books, including The Joy of X
by Steven Strogatz, which I've really been wanting to read
for many years, which is yeah, a roundup of his
New York Times articles, a few plays of course, some
staples like Mary and Nora, Oliver and Ephron respectively, and
a couple of books that I've really been wanting to read,
(07:38):
by the way, fun fact, one of those is improv
Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson, which was recommended to us
on this show by Brian Cooper, writer way back in
episode thirty eight. Wait, did you like keep a list
of all of these books as we've had all of
our episodes and you're just dabbling in them now or
I only wish that I was that organized, But no,
(08:03):
it's one that I ordered pretty soon after that episode
because Brian really extolled its praises and it sounded delightful,
and I bought it and just have yet to read it,
and it jumped off the shelf at me, and let
me tell you, it is a delight There is so
much wisdom, yes, about life from improv everything from like
(08:25):
literally just try to be ordinary, like don't try to
be brilliant and special, to shun perfectionism. It's a really
lovely read. Okay, okay, you've sold highly recommend. The book
that I feel compelled to talk about from my book
stack is one that is you know, I've mentioned to you,
I've included in notes on our podcast, and I don't
(08:48):
think I've talked about it yet, which is kind of
mind blowing because it's really significantly impacted me in the
past year and it's so relevant for human ven diagrams.
I'm on the in my seat. It's called Crossing the
Unknown Sea subtitle work as a Pilgrimage of Identity by
(09:09):
David White, and I mentioned it to Natalie Settles after
episode one A Pilgrim and Art and Science, because similarly
to how Natalie spoke about her work as a Pilgrimage,
David White writes about how our body of work is
a pilgrimage in which we make progress through the world
(09:31):
and also through these stages of understanding, and White, interestingly enough,
but maybe unsurprisingly as well, is also a human ven diagram.
So he worked as a naturalist in the Galapagos Islands,
then he ran a nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest before
going as he calls it, full time as a poet.
(09:53):
And he leaves them all together in writing this book.
And what I love about it is it's really about
having the courage to pursue the work that is meant
for you, which really is a bold and courageous act.
And he uses all these natural metaphors from his love
of nature in time as a naturalist guide, like how
(10:13):
doing our true work is kind of like being at
the cliff's edge where our passions and presence and commitment meat.
There's also this whole narrative about a well sheep dog
that is like truly a delight. I just couldn't recommend
it more. For like any point that you might find yourself,
(10:34):
whether you feel really far away from the work you
want to be doing or you're in the middle of it,
it's just been a great read. I keep picking it
up and putting it down and reading a line closing it. Yeah.
So anyway, you know you you're selling both of these books. Um,
I am going to have to add them to my
shopping list. Unfortunately, the library obviously is closed right now. Well,
(10:57):
that's right, I have to tell But that's been a
bit of a perk because I have two plays in
my bookstack that I have not yet had to return
to the l a Public library, so I'm holding them very,
very safely. Of course, the online independent bookstore what we
call them, sort of aggregator bookshop, is a great place
(11:18):
to go. A lot of local bookstores are doing curbside
pick up again, so they are. Yes, I've been calling
books are Magic and green Light Books in Brooklyn, both
of which I adore. Basically spending all of my money
on high quality groceries and full price books, I mean,
(11:38):
these are excellent, which honestly is not a terrible thing
to be spending money on right now, this is true.
I absolutely ship this budget. I'm into it. So as
(12:09):
we wrap up season three, I couldn't help but go
back to the beginning of season three, back to episode
one O two If you'll remember, Kate, we talked about
this fantastic article how to recession proof your creative practice.
I mean, I remember there was this pep talk in
this article that said creative people have the best skill
(12:33):
set to successfully surf a recession. Christina, hold on, would
you please read this whole pep talk because it's one
of my favorite energy boosts from that episode. We need
it again. Okay, here we go. Creative people have the
best skill set to successfully surf a recession. Who can
(12:54):
best navigate uncertainty, who can meet unexpected challenges, who can
pivot and switch to Plan B in a second, who
already tends to the work inside of crisis mode a
lot of the time. Who can visualize possible futures. You
hold up, Christina, I don't remember the visualized possible future's part.
(13:19):
That is just oh, I mean I still need that
as an allogy. So here's the thing. We didn't realize
that it was going to be quite this relevant, but nevertheless,
here we are. We're in the middle of uncertainty, and
we are rising to the challenge with some pretty big pivots. Absolutely,
(13:40):
let's talk about them. Kate, you mentioned Minneapolis. I think
that was the time to tell us what that is about.
I need to make good on that very potent little
seed that I planted a few minutes ago. Yes, I'm
in Minneapolis for the next couple of months, and you know, Christie,
there were a few key factors in my decision to
(14:03):
come here that all kind of converged at once. Obviously,
the main one was COVID and the fact that for
the first time in the eight and a half years
that I've lived in Los Angeles, I haven't had a
physical reason career wise to be in l A. Audition
(14:24):
rooms are closed, were fully in self tape mode and
zoom rooms for at least the next few months dot
dot dot. And at the same time, my sublet ended
and Rosie is very portable. So all of a sudden, yeah,
I found myself listening to episode one seventeen Caves, Crystals
(14:46):
and Curiosity with Tyler Thrasher and Christina. It was that
episode that got me thinking about being in a different
place for this time. Tyler talks about making a life
in Tulsa, and it was so interesting that we included
it in our mixtape, episode number one three. But I
(15:07):
just went okay, it could be seen as something that's
frustrating that I have no actual reason to be in
Los Angeles right now, or I could take it as
an opportunity to try something else. And so I called
my friend Larissa, who lives in Minneapolis, and I said, Hey, Larissa,
(15:28):
do you have any friends who might have an open
guesthouse place for me to spend a couple of months
riding out Corona? And Larissa said, oh, my gosh, we do, Kate,
and we'd love to have you. So that was it. Yeah.
I mean, it's a beautiful city and one that I've
(15:49):
been wanting to spend time in for quite some time now,
of course, And it's a great city for theater. It
is such an incredible city for theater and honestly for
design as well. It's interesting that not only my theater life,
but also my copyrighting and content strategy life have really
strong ties and roots here. It's interesting that it's really
(16:11):
the middle of that ven diagram in a lot of ways,
you know, Christina. The biggest challenge for me was how
to get here safely and responsibly from l A. Because
this is not the time for a romantic road trip
at all. This is the time for quarantines and bubbles
and isolation, and so I just treated the journey like
(16:31):
any project that I would produce and direct. I was
overly prepared, I found out, and because of the pandemic,
I was really clinical about it. So I renegotiated a
new Carly's it happens to be a really good time
to do that financially, if that's something you're facing. I
did something that could be described as hotel camping, where
(16:54):
I essentially set up my own sleeping bag, fresh pillow case,
my own pillow, and this one woman the lobby called
from across the lobby. She's like, oh, are you moving in?
I was like, well, I'm hurrying all of my own
things and bringing them out, and I had my rubber
glove mask sanitizing game just down to a very choreograph science.
(17:14):
So so how long did it take? How many days?
Great question? So it took me three days and two nights.
I drove as much as I could without getting you
drove by yourself? I did. And so the reason I
chose to drive is because I could control my environment
the most in my car. Well, also, you have all
(17:35):
of your things, that's right, And it's so funny because
really what I packed were clothes. Of course wigs. I
did pack six wigs, and choosing the six that I
brought was a very difficult decision that I won't tell
the other wigs about anyway. Film and recording equipment and books,
plus my pandemic road trip gear and then everything else
(17:58):
is still in storage. That's eight and so very happily.
The lovely little house that I was sub letting in
l A has a locked garage, and the gal who
took her run back from me um said, yeah, go
ahead and store your stuff here. Yeah. The kind of
cool part, Christina is that the impetus for doing this
(18:19):
was the inability to be in a physical space with
others in l a right that sort of freed me
up to be in a different place, and the fact
that I needed to find a new place to live.
But what's interesting is that I've worked really hard over
the past number of years to build a lifestyle as
(18:41):
an actress and as a human vent diagram that's mobile
and that's flexible, and I've oddly been doing a lot
of paring down over the last couple of years. So
the foundation was already there, and other than really needing
to make sure that I could pull off this pandemic
(19:02):
road trip. It was relatively seamless, It really was. I love. Yeah.
Here's the other thing, Christina, is that I've been telling
everyone this. You and I are the exact same distance
from each other, with me being here versus l A,
We're about thirty six inches apart, with two screens in
between us. So, Christina, speaking about big changes, you have
(19:28):
one that is right at your forefront. Tell me about it.
It's true. I am joining the faculty of Harvard Business
School to teach entrepreneurship to MBA students. All of the
traditional TLDNY snaps for this news so exciting, Thank you. Yeah, no,
(19:49):
it's so funny. I remember. So this is ten years um,
almost to the day I think that I graduated from
Business School. And when I was there, I gave the
speed each my second year at the fellowship dinner where
all of them, the patrons that have kind of named
endowed fellowships come and meet the students that benefited from them.
(20:11):
They asked me to give the speech and and I
talked about two things. One was how in the midst
of a recession, I was in business school during the
financial crisis, that. I was so impressed that Harvard didn't
cut its financial aid at all. There was no pairing
back on the support for students, which is amazing because
(20:31):
they were clearly having to pair back expenses elsewhere. And
the other thing was how impactful the professors had been
for me in my two years at HBS, and how
much I wanted to come back some day and be
a professor there. The dean at the time was like, well,
happy to let you into the PhD program, and I
was like, that's the thing I don't I don't want
(20:52):
to do the like tenure track academic route, which it's
super appealing on an intellectual level, but for me, I
you know, I'm a human and diagram. I want to
do all the things and and it's hard to do
that when you are a PhD. You have to focus,
and we've talked about this. I don't really focus for
sustained periods of time, and so, you know, we shook
(21:14):
hands and I was like, well, that's a bumber. I'll
never be able to teach there. And then over the
last ten years stayed close. I had a case study
written about one of my startups. I go back and
I guess teach from time to time, and finally this year,
I just said it out loud to my context there,
I said, I want to be a professor here, Like
(21:34):
what will it take to do that? And they're like, oh,
we'd love to have you. We have a kind of
professorship here that's not tenure track. It's not for PhD s.
It's for practitioners like yourself. You know, it's not adjunct
it's a full time teaching jobs. Yeah. I mean, as
(21:55):
far as I know, they're the only business school that
does this. All the other schools that I've researched into
this are perfectly happy to have adjuncts. But you don't
really get paid enough to cover your lunch as an
adjunct in a lot of schools, so it's not really
possible as a full time gig. But HBS offers a
full time senior lecturer position, and so that's what I'm
(22:16):
going to be doing. I'm so excited, so exciting. There's
you know, a lot of questions. The false semesters probably
going to be on Zoom and that's weird to learn
how to teach on the internet for their first time ever. Um,
but I'm really delighted to get to go back and
hopefully make even a portion of the impact that my
(22:37):
professor's made on me, and to be able to be
surrounded by all these other brilliant people who are on
the cutting edge of thinking, you know, really exciting thoughts
and doing really exciting research at HBS, at Harvard you know,
Large and Boston. So for now we're all staying in Brooklyn.
(22:57):
We don't have to move to teach over Zoom, but
at some point Boston is probably in our future. That
is very exciting, and I'm also personally excited to get
to refer to you as Professor Wallace, which has quite
a ring to it, it really does. I got an
email from HBS Publishing approving my academic account there so
(23:19):
that I could pull up resources, you know, as I'm
putting together still ABI, and it said dear Professor Wallace,
and I was like, oh my gosh, framing that amazing.
William Wallace would be proud, Oh, thank you, thank you.
So yeah, that's the big career change. Um. And then
you know, I'm writing another book, this one I thought,
(23:43):
you know, it's time to focus on capturing some of
the writing that I've done over the last few years.
For Forbes. Some of the tools that I've created, like
the personal Balance scorecard and my sales funnel for dating.
I thought i'd pull those all together, along with interviews
with other amazing people, the research behind why some of
(24:05):
these things work, and really kind of put together a
playbook for people like us who are trying to navigate
careers and lives in a world that is, if nothing
else uncertain. Love it. I cannot wait. I feel like
I've gotten such a wonderful preview, having known you almost
(24:26):
five years at this point. But that's it's true exciting.
Oh my gosh, very very exciting. Lots of changes all around.
In the tradition of the show, I feel like we
need to name our summers absolutely, give it a theme.
What what are you? What are you feeling? What is
the summer of going to be for you? So I
(24:49):
was thinking about being in Minneapolis, so the letter m
sort of keeping it in line with Minneapolis. I like
to do little things like that. I'm going ahead and
naming my summer the Summer of Magic. Yeah, And what
that means to me, thank you, is that for the
(25:10):
last two years, honestly, I've been doing a lot of
heavy lifting financially, emotionally, physically. I did my first Spartan
race in February, which was fantastic and really in all
of my core relationships, and it's been the kind of
heavy lifting that I am so happy and honestly grateful
(25:30):
to have been able to do. And I'm really starting
to feel the fruits of that labor. You know, I
think you you have these stretches of putting in this
work and then you trust the benefits of that work.
And just being here in Minneapolis with these big skies
and long days. Oh my gosh, the sun doesn't set
(25:52):
until nine o'clock and we're still in May. It's very exciting.
I just I just want to leave room for magic,
whatever that looks like in the form of unexpected opportunities,
new friendships, new adventures. I think it's really important to
leave space for that, and that's what I want to
(26:13):
do this summer, Excited to see what comes in. I
love it. I love it. Thank you so Christina. I
have loved your past summers of joy. Can I wait
to know what you're thinking of naming this summer? So honestly, Kate,
I think this summer is going to be the summer
(26:36):
of the here and now. I can already see that
on a T shirt. I love that the focus for
me is on being present and to not worry too
much about the future. Because here's the thing, you know,
I'm a planner. I'm a planner. I love to make forecasts.
I build models of what could be, and those are
(27:00):
incredible tools, and I have a whole chapter in the
book about forecasts and why they're amazing. But the problem
is when you have too many unknowns, too many assumptions
have to go into your model, the forecast just kind
of useless, right If the answer could be zero or
one million, then like there's no point in getting to
(27:23):
that answer, you know. So for me, with too many
variables right now about how the entire COVID thing is
going to pan out, whether the fall is going to
be on zoom, whether my baby can go back to
take it right, there are so many variables, and if
I were to plan out strategy for each of the
(27:46):
possible futures, I would spend all of my time planning
and none of it living. So instead, I'm going to
just focus on the present and enjoy the summer the
best of my ability, and as more information trickles in
then I can put together the plan. I love that
(28:08):
so much, and your thoughts behind it really resonate with
my thoughts behind the summer of Magic, which is this
really immediate feeling of just being happy to be here
despite all of the challenges, the ability to have this
(28:29):
life and all that comes with it and allowing it
to breathe and live and unfold. I'm so right there
with you. So I cannot wait to see what comes
into your summer of here and now and and mine
of magic and uh, you know, just enjoy this big, messy,
(28:54):
beautiful thing called life in which we find ourselves. So Christina,
(29:14):
I feel like we've been using the word delightful a lot,
which feels very right for our show. And a delightful
discovery in this season is how many listeners reached out
to us and asked us to bring back the Lightning Round,
which we rude, who knew you were so attached? I know,
(29:35):
this thing that we continued to fail at by taking
so much time, and it was kind of the point
of the episode, but we were like, is this thing
on or you are you all still with us? But
indeed we brought back a very mathematical lightning round in
episode one thirt for the Love of Pie this season,
(29:56):
but it feels like the way to bring see in
three home is to do another lightning round. I love it,
So here we go, Kay, we gotta kick it off
with the classic first question, Yes, what are you reading
or listening to right now? So? I just finished on
(30:16):
my pandemic straight shot road trip The Rural Diaries by
Hillary Burton Morgan, who is an actress, probably best known
for her time on One Tree Hill. Hillary's book is
all about how she and her husband, Jeffrey Dean Morgan,
bought a farm in Rhinebeck, New York, and decided to
(30:36):
leave l A and just get their elbows deep in
gardening and farming, and how they ended up becoming the
owners of this little sweet shop in town and have
really found this beautiful kind of full life outside of
a large cosmopolitan area. And it's really about, you know,
(30:56):
following the road that's right for you, and certainly couldn't
have been more appropriate on my trip out of l
A to Minneapolis. So it was a great read. And
by the way, Hillary, being an actress, does such a
great job with the audio book that I recommend reading
it that way, A. That sounds like a fascinating book.
But b sidebar, I cannot see the word rural without
(31:20):
thinking the Rural Juror from thirty Rock. Do you remember
that skit? Oh my gosh, I don't think that and
I am so okay, I have to send you this link.
So Jenna Moroney, Yes, Yes, is on this show called
The Rural Juror, And like, try saying that three times fast,
(31:44):
you cannot. Um. It's from like the first season of
thirty Rocket. It's absolutely brilliant and it just makes me giggle.
So you're welcome Rural Yes. Oh. I hope that we
can find a link for the show notes. I really did.
Oh we will. Okay, Christina your turn. What are you
(32:05):
reading or listening to right now? I just finished as
in this morning. Andre Leon Tally's memoir The Chiffon trench
Us came out this weekend. For people who are not
familiar with Andre Leon Tally, he was for many many
years the creative director at Vogue Number two on a
(32:27):
wine tour. He is one of the most influential men
in fashion in the last thirty years and has lived
this like larger than life life um and This was
his kind of, you know, definitive tell all memoir. It
is juicy, but it is also incredibly human and he
(32:49):
is so open and vulnerable, and I was expecting the
juicy nous, but I was really quite delighted. If you
don't mind the repeated use of that word, don't at
how vulnerable he was. It's it's a little bit sad,
honestly in some of the conclusions that he draws about,
(33:12):
you know, the decisions he's made, in the impact he's
he's had, and where he is wrapping up his life.
So it is a beautiful book, highly recommended, especially for
anyone who loves fashion. Oh my gosh, the insight, the
details that he's just he's brilliant. There's a reason he
is Andre Leon telling. I can already tell that I
(33:33):
would love this because the September Issue is one of
my favorite documentaries of all time. Of the making of
the September issue of Vogue. Yes, okay, we're already failing
in the lightning round Kate. Question number two, what is
something you've reconnected with that you want to keep doing? Ironically,
plays and theater. Now, I've never disconnected from plays in theater.
(33:57):
They are my purest love. But I've just been so
chuffed by how much theater and how many plays have
continue to be a part of my life during COVID
and honestly maybe even more than before from zoom readings
of Chekhov and Beckett that wonderful friends and colleagues of
(34:19):
mine have organized and invited me to be a part
of to all of the free performances online. A couple
that I could highlight our seawall starring Andrew Scott, who
many of you may know as fleabags Hot Priest. He
is also a living legend. And if there's one thing
that you might watch in addition to see Wall, it's
(34:41):
Andrew Scott doing the to be or Not to Be speech,
which is available on YouTube. It is unbelievable. Honestly, I've
never seen that speech makes so much sense. Could not
recommend it more. And also another highlight lately has been
that the National Theater in London has been showing free
full length plays every Thursday. Is this production last week
(35:01):
of The Barbershop Chronicles by Inua Elms. That was just
my gosh, the word has to be delightful. Yeah, it's
just been so cool to connect with something that in
its most traditional form has temporarily gone away. But that
is I feel as alive as ever, and it's exciting
(35:23):
to see what the next iteration is, I love, Christina.
What's something you've reconnected with that you want to keep doing?
So I don't know if I would say I've reconnected
with this because I didn't really do this before, but
cooking dinner as the default. Anyone who lives in New
York will know that ordering takeout or going out to
(35:45):
dinner is sort of the default between your schedule and
you know, just the craziness that gets packed into your day.
Like cooking dinner at home was the once a week thing,
and now it's become the seven days a week thing,
and I'm loving it. I mean the asterisk on that,
(36:05):
of course, is that chais is the one that cooks
the dinner, not me. But I meal plan sometimes and
I grocery shop sometimes, and I do the dishes most
of the time. And you bake, which has got to
be I do a lot at times. It's true, I
bake a lot, but we realized that, you know, we've
ordered to take out a couple of times. We're trying
(36:25):
to support restaurants, but there was a long stretch in
there of probably thirty or forty days where we ate
three meals at home straight through, and I was like,
I don't think I've ever done that like ever. So yeah,
I'm loving it. It's healthier, it's cheaper, we have a
chance to connect as a family, and just I'm a
(36:46):
big fan. I love that you're doing this, Christina, because
interestingly enough, cooking is something that I've started over the
last year and a half. Really after my relationship ended.
A good friend of mine said to me, Kate, I
really want you to think about how you're nourishing yourself.
And I was like, yeah, well, probably eating cereal for
three meals of the days not the definition of nourishment.
(37:08):
And I have to tell you, cooking has become one
of my favorite forms of self care, even just the
act of being in the kitchen with your shoes off.
You know, if you pour a glass of wine while
you're doing it, it's even better. But just like being
in the present moment as you're talking about, there's something
that's just so present about it. So that's awesome. It's
(37:30):
very exciting, okay, Christina. In addition to loving having these
dinners at home. What's something that surprised you. So this
is a real surprise, Kate. For sure, I can be
a morning person if I have enough sleep. Unbelievably, So
sleep was the factor, Yeah, apparently I've you know, I
(37:53):
try to sleep. I love sleep, but there's always more
to do than there is time. And and I had
a baby, and you know, we all know you don't
really get to sleep. Then um, and then we sleep
trained her, and so now she's sleeping, but I was
still waking up at four am to pump so that
(38:15):
I could feed her. And we finally got to the
point that I could stop doing that. And so now
I'm sleeping seven hour stretches, and I'm waking up naturally
at six am, and I'm getting all these things done
before noon. Christina, I'm wondering if this is explaining the
addition of exclamation points in your text messages as of
(38:37):
late I meant them. There might be an extra cup
of coffee in there too. If you start your day
at six plenty of time. This is awesome. And by
the way, this feels like a huge milestone of parenting
to have gone through sleep training. The fact that Art
and sleeping twelve hours of night. Congratulations, that's no small
(39:02):
I got the easiest baby in the world. There's no
small It's not that we're brilliant parents. We just got
the easiest baby, which means the next one is going
to be a terror. It's just how these things work.
I'm preparing myself for that. Wait. So, Kate, what is
something that has surprised you? I love mountains, Christina, I
(39:24):
love them. I discovered this on my trip through Utah
and Colorado to get to Minnesota. Now, being a California native,
having lived by the ocean, or at least a pretty
quick trip away from it, I've already known that I
love the ocean, but oh my gosh, I took so
many photos of rocks on my car trip. I got
(39:49):
happily sidetracked at Zion in Utah, which you are able
to drive through, which was really cool. And I also
just found points to hop out of my car on
I seventy enough to take photos of places like Devil's
Canyon and Spotted Wolf. If you're at all interested in
any kind of natural monuments and haven't heard of these places,
(40:10):
I highly recommend looking them up. And that was something
that I could also appreciate on a trip that had
a very on purpose, short itinerary and no human contact.
But I have to say that there's just something about
seeing these just huge stretches of land with these enormous
(40:31):
natural monuments on them that just puts everything in a perspective,
just really does. And I love Los Angeles. There's also
just this sense of kind of like you're the center
of the world there in a way, and you know,
not that everyone shares that, but it's hard to feel
that way when you're standing at the base of something
(40:53):
that is just so massive. And so I cannot wait
to plan a longer trip when we can all road
trip for real. I love it. Okay, question for Kate,
what is something that has brought you joy in this
past week? Oh? That's easy. That's something I'm going to
call my Minneapolis baptism, which was my first bike ry
(41:14):
around Lake of the Aisles here and I got completely drenched.
It's that kind of rain that I've only experienced in
this part of the country where your insides get soaked.
It was really great and intense, and it felt like
a nice, strong welcome. Christina, what's something that's brought you joy?
(41:35):
This past week. I went shopping for groceries this morning
and it's cherry season. Oh I got cherry is what
a good reminder. And of course it's rose a season,
so that brings me joy. I mean, I would argue
it might be rose a season all year long, but
it's definitely rose season. If only I could in vite
(42:00):
you over to a dinner party and just ask you
to bring those two things with you, that would be enough.
That's true. Okay, let's bring this home. Let's give a
shout out to a person or a group of people
who have just made your life better through all of this. Oh,
such a great question. Certainly I can shout out my
my family and friends, whom have become increasingly grateful for.
(42:23):
But a group of people that I'd love to shout
out is the one one, which is this group of
actors that I am so thrilled and grateful to be
a part of in l A. It's headed up by
my friend Christian Cordula. My friend James Kyson invited me
to join in about a year ago when I was
(42:43):
really looking for a community of actors. And I have
to say we meet every Friday, and COVID has kept
us going. We just moved over to Zoom so to
Christian and Hillary, Andrea, John, Katie, drown Aimes, Marie and all.
Got just to see those shining faces every week and
(43:05):
to be able to text some questions and just have
their support throughout the week has been huge. You know, Christina,
we can do things on our own, but the Beatles
song remains true that we get by with a little
help from our friends. So mine goes out to the
one one today, Christina, give a shout out please to
(43:27):
a person a group of people who have just made
your life better through all of this. I mean obviously
Chas and Arden. It is been amazing to see just
how much Arden has changed in the few months we've
been on lockdown. When you're only seven months old, every
month counsel a lot, So that's been amazing, and getting
(43:50):
to have this kind of time with her is something
I didn't expect to have, and I think most women
who go back to their jobs don't get the luxury
of having so um certainly the two of them, but
also my sister Stephanie, who I find myself calling a lot.
She had her third kid two months before Arden, and
(44:11):
so it's been fun to kind of stay in touch
and at a preview of what's up next developmentally and
ask her questions instead of going to Google because she's
got three of them. She knows how this thing works
and can prevent me from going down terrible internet rabbit
holes baby search terms, but also just having an excuse
(44:33):
to talk to her the long meandering phone calls that
we don't really do anymore, um like we as a society.
I mean, those have come back, So Stephanie, thanks. Oh
you know, I had exactly one of those with my
brother Scott last night and I've been able to have
those through this time and I feel the exact same
way truly, and Scott has been able to completely pivot
(44:57):
from a full time DJ career to whole other career
in this time. So cheers to our siblings, truly. So
we would love to know your answers to these Lightning
Round questions and what you're going to name your summer.
You can tell us on Twitter or Instagram at t
l d n E Pod or you can email us
(45:18):
at hello at t LDNY podcast dot com, or if
you want to leave us a voicemail, you can do
that at eight three three Hi t L d n E.
That's eight three three eight five three six three, then
dial eight oh three and we'll share the books. Hopefully
that linked to the rural and everything else we've mentioned
(45:43):
at t L d n E podcast dot com slash.
Thanks so much to our producer Maya Coole and to
you for tuning in. As always, please subscribe, rate, and
review on Apple Podcasts if you like what you heard.
(46:05):
It really helps us get the word out to fellow
human ven diagrams. Until next time, remember the limit does
not exist. The Limit does not Exist is a production
of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(46:26):
you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah
The Limit Does Not Exist is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey, I'm Christina Wallace and I'm Kate Scott Campbell,
and you're listening to The Limit does Not Exist. A
podcast for human then Diagrams, coming at you every single
(00:22):
week and hosted by us. It might be difficult to
know what day it is lately, but there are plenty
of signs that we're entering a new season, and appropriately,
we're also wrapping up another season of this podcast that's
right in our part of the world. Later sunsets, warmer weather,
(00:42):
and intermittent downpours tell us that summer is here. Justice.
Season three of our show is coming to a close.
If you've been listening for a while, you already know
that we're fans of seasons. Yep. We think there are
a great opportunity to take stock, find new inspiration, make
some changes, and come up with a catchy name. Oh today,
we'll fill you in on a few of the changes
(01:02):
we're making, how we're staying inspired, and what we've named
our summers. Christina, if this episode were a swimming pool,
I think it would be time to jump in. Let's
do it. So something about season three of our show
(01:23):
coming to a close is making me feel nostalgic for
some O. G T. L DNNY traditions understandable. What are
you craving right now? So what I'm craving is a
good hashtag book stack and the reason why Christina is
(01:44):
as an avid follower of yours on Instagram. I couldn't
help but notice that you shared a footnote of a
book that you're reading with the name of our very
show in it. So I need to true tell me
everything about this Mathew text that you've been reading. The
(02:04):
book is called How Not to Be Wrong The Power
of Mathematical Thinking is written by mathematician jordan's ellen Burg.
He is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison World. Natalie at them, Yes and I this book
is not new. I think it came out, but I
(02:27):
had never heard of it. It's somehow never made it
on my radar when it came out, and I was delighted.
A friend recommended it to me the other day, and
as I was going through and reading, it came across
this fabulous footnote. He's very funny this note about he says,
in the words of Lindsay Lohan, the limit does not exist.
(02:48):
And I was like, what what, So of course I
had to put it in my stories. So what's so
great about this book? It's been described as the Freakonomics
of math, which it is very similar if you've read Freakonomics,
and it gets into the kind of the the universal
applicability of economics. This gets into how math underpins everything
(03:13):
that we do in our lives, so what we read,
how we understand the world, how we make decisions. It
was one of Bill Gates's favorite books. It made a
New York Times bestseller list. Christina suddenly I'm wearing a
choir robe because this is to the choir. I know,
I know, I mean. So he talks about how, you know,
(03:35):
the math that most of us get in school is
like grammar and spelling, and that we never get to
the reading novels stage of mathematics gets really really good,
you know. And and so he says basically like forget
about all of the baggage that you might have about
(03:56):
algebra or statistics or whatever, and try to come at
this with a fresh mind and really think about numerous
e and sort of mathematical thinking, right, Like, it's not
about calculations, It's about how you know what you know,
and he has this great opening story. I have to
tell you just a little bit of detail on this.
(04:17):
It starts with this story. I'm all ears about this
guy named Abraham Walt. He was an Eastern European mathematician
who came over to the United States during the beginning
of World War two Jewish uh and he started working
for the American government and one day the military comes
to him and says, Okay, we've got this problem. We
(04:39):
send these planes overseas and when they come back, the
engine is fine, but they're the tail is riddled with
bullet holes. So we were thinking, what if we put
more armor on the tails. The problem, of course, is
that if you put too much armor on a plane,
it gets too heavy to fly, and if you don't
put enough armor on the plane, it gets shut down.
(05:02):
So they're basically asking him, like, what is the optimization
of armor, particularly looking at the tail, and he said, no,
you're thinking of this all wrong. They're like, come again.
He said, look, you're asking the wrong question. You need
to put armor where there aren't bullet holes, because when
(05:26):
the plane gets hit in the tail, it makes it home.
That's why you see all the planes with bullet holes
in the tail, the planes that get shot down in
the engine crash, those are the ones that don't make
it home. So it's right. So it's this whole book
is these stories about what seemed like non mathematical systems
(05:50):
but in fact are really anchored in logic and our
understanding of statistics and inference and proofs. Right, it really
do make up how we understand what we know. It's
absolutely fascinating. I love it. I laugh every third page.
I highly recommend it. I am here. Yes, he is
(06:13):
a total human ven diagram. He also wrote a literary
novel back in two thousand three called The Grasshopper King.
Oh my gosh, I am just my palms are sweating
with excitement. I love a good dose of mathematical irony
and humor and engagement. I am so up for this book.
(06:33):
Oh my goodness, I'm going to have to just rain
myself in because I know there's a lot there. And
it's such a what a great suggestion, Christina. I love it.
So I have to know. Okay, what is in your
book stack? Oh my gosh, Well I actually have a
literal book stack, because I brought a crate of books
to Minneapolis. More on that in a moment, But I
(06:56):
literally cannot go anywhere for a couple of nights to
a few months without a stack of books. And what
made it into the book stack? I mean that was who.
That was some high stakes, right, like what we're going
to be those books that I was bringing with me. So, actually, Christina,
in my current bookstack, I have, unsurprisingly to you or anyone,
(07:17):
a couple of math books, including The Joy of X
by Steven Strogatz, which I've really been wanting to read
for many years, which is yeah, a roundup of his
New York Times articles, a few plays of course, some
staples like Mary and Nora, Oliver and Ephron respectively, and
a couple of books that I've really been wanting to read,
(07:38):
by the way, fun fact, one of those is improv
Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson, which was recommended to us
on this show by Brian Cooper, writer way back in
episode thirty eight. Wait, did you like keep a list
of all of these books as we've had all of
our episodes and you're just dabbling in them now or
I only wish that I was that organized, But no,
(08:03):
it's one that I ordered pretty soon after that episode
because Brian really extolled its praises and it sounded delightful,
and I bought it and just have yet to read it,
and it jumped off the shelf at me, and let
me tell you, it is a delight There is so
much wisdom, yes, about life from improv everything from like
(08:25):
literally just try to be ordinary, like don't try to
be brilliant and special, to shun perfectionism. It's a really
lovely read. Okay, okay, you've sold highly recommend. The book
that I feel compelled to talk about from my book
stack is one that is you know, I've mentioned to you,
I've included in notes on our podcast, and I don't
(08:48):
think I've talked about it yet, which is kind of
mind blowing because it's really significantly impacted me in the
past year and it's so relevant for human ven diagrams.
I'm on the in my seat. It's called Crossing the
Unknown Sea subtitle work as a Pilgrimage of Identity by
(09:09):
David White, and I mentioned it to Natalie Settles after
episode one A Pilgrim and Art and Science, because similarly
to how Natalie spoke about her work as a Pilgrimage,
David White writes about how our body of work is
a pilgrimage in which we make progress through the world
(09:31):
and also through these stages of understanding, and White, interestingly enough,
but maybe unsurprisingly as well, is also a human ven diagram.
So he worked as a naturalist in the Galapagos Islands,
then he ran a nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest before
going as he calls it, full time as a poet.
(09:53):
And he leaves them all together in writing this book.
And what I love about it is it's really about
having the courage to pursue the work that is meant
for you, which really is a bold and courageous act.
And he uses all these natural metaphors from his love
of nature in time as a naturalist guide, like how
(10:13):
doing our true work is kind of like being at
the cliff's edge where our passions and presence and commitment meat.
There's also this whole narrative about a well sheep dog
that is like truly a delight. I just couldn't recommend
it more. For like any point that you might find yourself,
(10:34):
whether you feel really far away from the work you
want to be doing or you're in the middle of it,
it's just been a great read. I keep picking it
up and putting it down and reading a line closing it. Yeah.
So anyway, you know you you're selling both of these books. Um,
I am going to have to add them to my
shopping list. Unfortunately, the library obviously is closed right now. Well,
(10:57):
that's right, I have to tell But that's been a
bit of a perk because I have two plays in
my bookstack that I have not yet had to return
to the l a Public library, so I'm holding them very,
very safely. Of course, the online independent bookstore what we
call them, sort of aggregator bookshop, is a great place
(11:18):
to go. A lot of local bookstores are doing curbside
pick up again, so they are. Yes, I've been calling
books are Magic and green Light Books in Brooklyn, both
of which I adore. Basically spending all of my money
on high quality groceries and full price books, I mean,
(11:38):
these are excellent, which honestly is not a terrible thing
to be spending money on right now, this is true.
I absolutely ship this budget. I'm into it. So as
(12:09):
we wrap up season three, I couldn't help but go
back to the beginning of season three, back to episode
one O two If you'll remember, Kate, we talked about
this fantastic article how to recession proof your creative practice.
I mean, I remember there was this pep talk in
this article that said creative people have the best skill
(12:33):
set to successfully surf a recession. Christina, hold on, would
you please read this whole pep talk because it's one
of my favorite energy boosts from that episode. We need
it again. Okay, here we go. Creative people have the
best skill set to successfully surf a recession. Who can
(12:54):
best navigate uncertainty, who can meet unexpected challenges, who can
pivot and switch to Plan B in a second, who
already tends to the work inside of crisis mode a
lot of the time. Who can visualize possible futures. You
hold up, Christina, I don't remember the visualized possible future's part.
(13:19):
That is just oh, I mean I still need that
as an allogy. So here's the thing. We didn't realize
that it was going to be quite this relevant, but nevertheless,
here we are. We're in the middle of uncertainty, and
we are rising to the challenge with some pretty big pivots. Absolutely,
(13:40):
let's talk about them. Kate, you mentioned Minneapolis. I think
that was the time to tell us what that is about.
I need to make good on that very potent little
seed that I planted a few minutes ago. Yes, I'm
in Minneapolis for the next couple of months, and you know, Christie,
there were a few key factors in my decision to
(14:03):
come here that all kind of converged at once. Obviously,
the main one was COVID and the fact that for
the first time in the eight and a half years
that I've lived in Los Angeles, I haven't had a
physical reason career wise to be in l A. Audition
(14:24):
rooms are closed, were fully in self tape mode and
zoom rooms for at least the next few months dot
dot dot. And at the same time, my sublet ended
and Rosie is very portable. So all of a sudden, yeah,
I found myself listening to episode one seventeen Caves, Crystals
(14:46):
and Curiosity with Tyler Thrasher and Christina. It was that
episode that got me thinking about being in a different
place for this time. Tyler talks about making a life
in Tulsa, and it was so interesting that we included
it in our mixtape, episode number one three. But I
(15:07):
just went okay, it could be seen as something that's
frustrating that I have no actual reason to be in
Los Angeles right now, or I could take it as
an opportunity to try something else. And so I called
my friend Larissa, who lives in Minneapolis, and I said, Hey, Larissa,
(15:28):
do you have any friends who might have an open
guesthouse place for me to spend a couple of months
riding out Corona? And Larissa said, oh, my gosh, we do, Kate,
and we'd love to have you. So that was it. Yeah.
I mean, it's a beautiful city and one that I've
(15:49):
been wanting to spend time in for quite some time now,
of course, And it's a great city for theater. It
is such an incredible city for theater and honestly for
design as well. It's interesting that not only my theater life,
but also my copyrighting and content strategy life have really
strong ties and roots here. It's interesting that it's really
(16:11):
the middle of that ven diagram in a lot of ways,
you know, Christina. The biggest challenge for me was how
to get here safely and responsibly from l A. Because
this is not the time for a romantic road trip
at all. This is the time for quarantines and bubbles
and isolation, and so I just treated the journey like
(16:31):
any project that I would produce and direct. I was
overly prepared, I found out, and because of the pandemic,
I was really clinical about it. So I renegotiated a
new Carly's it happens to be a really good time
to do that financially, if that's something you're facing. I
did something that could be described as hotel camping, where
(16:54):
I essentially set up my own sleeping bag, fresh pillow case,
my own pillow, and this one woman the lobby called
from across the lobby. She's like, oh, are you moving in?
I was like, well, I'm hurrying all of my own
things and bringing them out, and I had my rubber
glove mask sanitizing game just down to a very choreograph science.
(17:14):
So so how long did it take? How many days?
Great question? So it took me three days and two nights.
I drove as much as I could without getting you
drove by yourself? I did. And so the reason I
chose to drive is because I could control my environment
the most in my car. Well, also, you have all
(17:35):
of your things, that's right, And it's so funny because
really what I packed were clothes. Of course wigs. I
did pack six wigs, and choosing the six that I
brought was a very difficult decision that I won't tell
the other wigs about anyway. Film and recording equipment and books,
plus my pandemic road trip gear and then everything else
(17:58):
is still in storage. That's eight and so very happily.
The lovely little house that I was sub letting in
l A has a locked garage, and the gal who
took her run back from me um said, yeah, go
ahead and store your stuff here. Yeah. The kind of
cool part, Christina is that the impetus for doing this
(18:19):
was the inability to be in a physical space with
others in l a right that sort of freed me
up to be in a different place, and the fact
that I needed to find a new place to live.
But what's interesting is that I've worked really hard over
the past number of years to build a lifestyle as
(18:41):
an actress and as a human vent diagram that's mobile
and that's flexible, and I've oddly been doing a lot
of paring down over the last couple of years. So
the foundation was already there, and other than really needing
to make sure that I could pull off this pandemic
(19:02):
road trip. It was relatively seamless, It really was. I love. Yeah.
Here's the other thing, Christina, is that I've been telling
everyone this. You and I are the exact same distance
from each other, with me being here versus l A,
We're about thirty six inches apart, with two screens in
between us. So, Christina, speaking about big changes, you have
(19:28):
one that is right at your forefront. Tell me about it.
It's true. I am joining the faculty of Harvard Business
School to teach entrepreneurship to MBA students. All of the
traditional TLDNY snaps for this news so exciting, Thank you. Yeah, no,
(19:49):
it's so funny. I remember. So this is ten years um,
almost to the day I think that I graduated from
Business School. And when I was there, I gave the
speed each my second year at the fellowship dinner where
all of them, the patrons that have kind of named
endowed fellowships come and meet the students that benefited from them.
(20:11):
They asked me to give the speech and and I
talked about two things. One was how in the midst
of a recession, I was in business school during the
financial crisis, that. I was so impressed that Harvard didn't
cut its financial aid at all. There was no pairing
back on the support for students, which is amazing because
(20:31):
they were clearly having to pair back expenses elsewhere. And
the other thing was how impactful the professors had been
for me in my two years at HBS, and how
much I wanted to come back some day and be
a professor there. The dean at the time was like, well,
happy to let you into the PhD program, and I
was like, that's the thing I don't I don't want
(20:52):
to do the like tenure track academic route, which it's
super appealing on an intellectual level, but for me, I
you know, I'm a human and diagram. I want to
do all the things and and it's hard to do
that when you are a PhD. You have to focus,
and we've talked about this. I don't really focus for
sustained periods of time, and so, you know, we shook
(21:14):
hands and I was like, well, that's a bumber. I'll
never be able to teach there. And then over the
last ten years stayed close. I had a case study
written about one of my startups. I go back and
I guess teach from time to time, and finally this year,
I just said it out loud to my context there,
I said, I want to be a professor here, Like
(21:34):
what will it take to do that? And they're like, oh,
we'd love to have you. We have a kind of
professorship here that's not tenure track. It's not for PhD s.
It's for practitioners like yourself. You know, it's not adjunct
it's a full time teaching jobs. Yeah. I mean, as
(21:55):
far as I know, they're the only business school that
does this. All the other schools that I've researched into
this are perfectly happy to have adjuncts. But you don't
really get paid enough to cover your lunch as an
adjunct in a lot of schools, so it's not really
possible as a full time gig. But HBS offers a
full time senior lecturer position, and so that's what I'm
(22:16):
going to be doing. I'm so excited, so exciting. There's
you know, a lot of questions. The false semesters probably
going to be on Zoom and that's weird to learn
how to teach on the internet for their first time ever. Um,
but I'm really delighted to get to go back and
hopefully make even a portion of the impact that my
(22:37):
professor's made on me, and to be able to be
surrounded by all these other brilliant people who are on
the cutting edge of thinking, you know, really exciting thoughts
and doing really exciting research at HBS, at Harvard you know,
Large and Boston. So for now we're all staying in Brooklyn.
(22:57):
We don't have to move to teach over Zoom, but
at some point Boston is probably in our future. That
is very exciting, and I'm also personally excited to get
to refer to you as Professor Wallace, which has quite
a ring to it, it really does. I got an
email from HBS Publishing approving my academic account there so
(23:19):
that I could pull up resources, you know, as I'm
putting together still ABI, and it said dear Professor Wallace,
and I was like, oh my gosh, framing that amazing.
William Wallace would be proud, Oh, thank you, thank you.
So yeah, that's the big career change. Um. And then
you know, I'm writing another book, this one I thought,
(23:43):
you know, it's time to focus on capturing some of
the writing that I've done over the last few years.
For Forbes. Some of the tools that I've created, like
the personal Balance scorecard and my sales funnel for dating.
I thought i'd pull those all together, along with interviews
with other amazing people, the research behind why some of
(24:05):
these things work, and really kind of put together a
playbook for people like us who are trying to navigate
careers and lives in a world that is, if nothing
else uncertain. Love it. I cannot wait. I feel like
I've gotten such a wonderful preview, having known you almost
(24:26):
five years at this point. But that's it's true exciting.
Oh my gosh, very very exciting. Lots of changes all around.
In the tradition of the show, I feel like we
need to name our summers absolutely, give it a theme.
What what are you? What are you feeling? What is
the summer of going to be for you? So I
(24:49):
was thinking about being in Minneapolis, so the letter m
sort of keeping it in line with Minneapolis. I like
to do little things like that. I'm going ahead and
naming my summer the Summer of Magic. Yeah, And what
that means to me, thank you, is that for the
(25:10):
last two years, honestly, I've been doing a lot of
heavy lifting financially, emotionally, physically. I did my first Spartan
race in February, which was fantastic and really in all
of my core relationships, and it's been the kind of
heavy lifting that I am so happy and honestly grateful
(25:30):
to have been able to do. And I'm really starting
to feel the fruits of that labor. You know, I
think you you have these stretches of putting in this
work and then you trust the benefits of that work.
And just being here in Minneapolis with these big skies
and long days. Oh my gosh, the sun doesn't set
(25:52):
until nine o'clock and we're still in May. It's very exciting.
I just I just want to leave room for magic,
whatever that looks like in the form of unexpected opportunities,
new friendships, new adventures. I think it's really important to
leave space for that, and that's what I want to
(26:13):
do this summer, Excited to see what comes in. I
love it. I love it. Thank you so Christina. I
have loved your past summers of joy. Can I wait
to know what you're thinking of naming this summer? So honestly, Kate,
I think this summer is going to be the summer
(26:36):
of the here and now. I can already see that
on a T shirt. I love that the focus for
me is on being present and to not worry too
much about the future. Because here's the thing, you know,
I'm a planner. I'm a planner. I love to make forecasts.
I build models of what could be, and those are
(27:00):
incredible tools, and I have a whole chapter in the
book about forecasts and why they're amazing. But the problem
is when you have too many unknowns, too many assumptions
have to go into your model, the forecast just kind
of useless, right If the answer could be zero or
one million, then like there's no point in getting to
(27:23):
that answer, you know. So for me, with too many
variables right now about how the entire COVID thing is
going to pan out, whether the fall is going to
be on zoom, whether my baby can go back to
take it right, there are so many variables, and if
I were to plan out strategy for each of the
(27:46):
possible futures, I would spend all of my time planning
and none of it living. So instead, I'm going to
just focus on the present and enjoy the summer the
best of my ability, and as more information trickles in
then I can put together the plan. I love that
(28:08):
so much, and your thoughts behind it really resonate with
my thoughts behind the summer of Magic, which is this
really immediate feeling of just being happy to be here
despite all of the challenges, the ability to have this
(28:29):
life and all that comes with it and allowing it
to breathe and live and unfold. I'm so right there
with you. So I cannot wait to see what comes
into your summer of here and now and and mine
of magic and uh, you know, just enjoy this big, messy,
(28:54):
beautiful thing called life in which we find ourselves. So Christina,
(29:14):
I feel like we've been using the word delightful a lot,
which feels very right for our show. And a delightful
discovery in this season is how many listeners reached out
to us and asked us to bring back the Lightning Round,
which we rude, who knew you were so attached? I know,
(29:35):
this thing that we continued to fail at by taking
so much time, and it was kind of the point
of the episode, but we were like, is this thing
on or you are you all still with us? But
indeed we brought back a very mathematical lightning round in
episode one thirt for the Love of Pie this season,
(29:56):
but it feels like the way to bring see in
three home is to do another lightning round. I love it,
So here we go, Kay, we gotta kick it off
with the classic first question, Yes, what are you reading
or listening to right now? So? I just finished on
(30:16):
my pandemic straight shot road trip The Rural Diaries by
Hillary Burton Morgan, who is an actress, probably best known
for her time on One Tree Hill. Hillary's book is
all about how she and her husband, Jeffrey Dean Morgan,
bought a farm in Rhinebeck, New York, and decided to
(30:36):
leave l A and just get their elbows deep in
gardening and farming, and how they ended up becoming the
owners of this little sweet shop in town and have
really found this beautiful kind of full life outside of
a large cosmopolitan area. And it's really about, you know,
(30:56):
following the road that's right for you, and certainly couldn't
have been more appropriate on my trip out of l
A to Minneapolis. So it was a great read. And
by the way, Hillary, being an actress, does such a
great job with the audio book that I recommend reading
it that way, A. That sounds like a fascinating book.
But b sidebar, I cannot see the word rural without
(31:20):
thinking the Rural Juror from thirty Rock. Do you remember
that skit? Oh my gosh, I don't think that and
I am so okay, I have to send you this link.
So Jenna Moroney, Yes, Yes, is on this show called
The Rural Juror, And like, try saying that three times fast,
(31:44):
you cannot. Um. It's from like the first season of
thirty Rocket. It's absolutely brilliant and it just makes me giggle.
So you're welcome Rural Yes. Oh. I hope that we
can find a link for the show notes. I really did.
Oh we will. Okay, Christina your turn. What are you
(32:05):
reading or listening to right now? I just finished as
in this morning. Andre Leon Tally's memoir The Chiffon trench
Us came out this weekend. For people who are not
familiar with Andre Leon Tally, he was for many many
years the creative director at Vogue Number two on a
(32:27):
wine tour. He is one of the most influential men
in fashion in the last thirty years and has lived
this like larger than life life um and This was
his kind of, you know, definitive tell all memoir. It
is juicy, but it is also incredibly human and he
(32:49):
is so open and vulnerable, and I was expecting the
juicy nous, but I was really quite delighted. If you
don't mind the repeated use of that word, don't at
how vulnerable he was. It's it's a little bit sad,
honestly in some of the conclusions that he draws about,
(33:12):
you know, the decisions he's made, in the impact he's
he's had, and where he is wrapping up his life.
So it is a beautiful book, highly recommended, especially for
anyone who loves fashion. Oh my gosh, the insight, the
details that he's just he's brilliant. There's a reason he
is Andre Leon telling. I can already tell that I
(33:33):
would love this because the September Issue is one of
my favorite documentaries of all time. Of the making of
the September issue of Vogue. Yes, okay, we're already failing
in the lightning round Kate. Question number two, what is
something you've reconnected with that you want to keep doing? Ironically,
plays and theater. Now, I've never disconnected from plays in theater.
(33:57):
They are my purest love. But I've just been so
chuffed by how much theater and how many plays have
continue to be a part of my life during COVID
and honestly maybe even more than before from zoom readings
of Chekhov and Beckett that wonderful friends and colleagues of
(34:19):
mine have organized and invited me to be a part
of to all of the free performances online. A couple
that I could highlight our seawall starring Andrew Scott, who
many of you may know as fleabags Hot Priest. He
is also a living legend. And if there's one thing
that you might watch in addition to see Wall, it's
(34:41):
Andrew Scott doing the to be or Not to Be speech,
which is available on YouTube. It is unbelievable. Honestly, I've
never seen that speech makes so much sense. Could not
recommend it more. And also another highlight lately has been
that the National Theater in London has been showing free
full length plays every Thursday. Is this production last week
(35:01):
of The Barbershop Chronicles by Inua Elms. That was just
my gosh, the word has to be delightful. Yeah, it's
just been so cool to connect with something that in
its most traditional form has temporarily gone away. But that
is I feel as alive as ever, and it's exciting
(35:23):
to see what the next iteration is, I love, Christina.
What's something you've reconnected with that you want to keep doing?
So I don't know if I would say I've reconnected
with this because I didn't really do this before, but
cooking dinner as the default. Anyone who lives in New
York will know that ordering takeout or going out to
(35:45):
dinner is sort of the default between your schedule and
you know, just the craziness that gets packed into your day.
Like cooking dinner at home was the once a week thing,
and now it's become the seven days a week thing,
and I'm loving it. I mean the asterisk on that,
(36:05):
of course, is that chais is the one that cooks
the dinner, not me. But I meal plan sometimes and
I grocery shop sometimes, and I do the dishes most
of the time. And you bake, which has got to
be I do a lot at times. It's true, I
bake a lot, but we realized that, you know, we've
ordered to take out a couple of times. We're trying
(36:25):
to support restaurants, but there was a long stretch in
there of probably thirty or forty days where we ate
three meals at home straight through, and I was like,
I don't think I've ever done that like ever. So yeah,
I'm loving it. It's healthier, it's cheaper, we have a
chance to connect as a family, and just I'm a
(36:46):
big fan. I love that you're doing this, Christina, because
interestingly enough, cooking is something that I've started over the
last year and a half. Really after my relationship ended.
A good friend of mine said to me, Kate, I
really want you to think about how you're nourishing yourself.
And I was like, yeah, well, probably eating cereal for
three meals of the days not the definition of nourishment.
(37:08):
And I have to tell you, cooking has become one
of my favorite forms of self care, even just the
act of being in the kitchen with your shoes off.
You know, if you pour a glass of wine while
you're doing it, it's even better. But just like being
in the present moment as you're talking about, there's something
that's just so present about it. So that's awesome. It's
(37:30):
very exciting, okay, Christina. In addition to loving having these
dinners at home. What's something that surprised you. So this
is a real surprise, Kate. For sure, I can be
a morning person if I have enough sleep. Unbelievably, So
sleep was the factor, Yeah, apparently I've you know, I
(37:53):
try to sleep. I love sleep, but there's always more
to do than there is time. And and I had
a baby, and you know, we all know you don't
really get to sleep. Then um, and then we sleep
trained her, and so now she's sleeping, but I was
still waking up at four am to pump so that
(38:15):
I could feed her. And we finally got to the
point that I could stop doing that. And so now
I'm sleeping seven hour stretches, and I'm waking up naturally
at six am, and I'm getting all these things done
before noon. Christina, I'm wondering if this is explaining the
addition of exclamation points in your text messages as of
(38:37):
late I meant them. There might be an extra cup
of coffee in there too. If you start your day
at six plenty of time. This is awesome. And by
the way, this feels like a huge milestone of parenting
to have gone through sleep training. The fact that Art
and sleeping twelve hours of night. Congratulations, that's no small
(39:02):
I got the easiest baby in the world. There's no
small It's not that we're brilliant parents. We just got
the easiest baby, which means the next one is going
to be a terror. It's just how these things work.
I'm preparing myself for that. Wait. So, Kate, what is
something that has surprised you? I love mountains, Christina, I
(39:24):
love them. I discovered this on my trip through Utah
and Colorado to get to Minnesota. Now, being a California native,
having lived by the ocean, or at least a pretty
quick trip away from it, I've already known that I
love the ocean, but oh my gosh, I took so
many photos of rocks on my car trip. I got
(39:49):
happily sidetracked at Zion in Utah, which you are able
to drive through, which was really cool. And I also
just found points to hop out of my car on
I seventy enough to take photos of places like Devil's
Canyon and Spotted Wolf. If you're at all interested in
any kind of natural monuments and haven't heard of these places,
(40:10):
I highly recommend looking them up. And that was something
that I could also appreciate on a trip that had
a very on purpose, short itinerary and no human contact.
But I have to say that there's just something about
seeing these just huge stretches of land with these enormous
(40:31):
natural monuments on them that just puts everything in a perspective,
just really does. And I love Los Angeles. There's also
just this sense of kind of like you're the center
of the world there in a way, and you know,
not that everyone shares that, but it's hard to feel
that way when you're standing at the base of something
(40:53):
that is just so massive. And so I cannot wait
to plan a longer trip when we can all road
trip for real. I love it. Okay, question for Kate,
what is something that has brought you joy in this
past week? Oh? That's easy. That's something I'm going to
call my Minneapolis baptism, which was my first bike ry
(41:14):
around Lake of the Aisles here and I got completely drenched.
It's that kind of rain that I've only experienced in
this part of the country where your insides get soaked.
It was really great and intense, and it felt like
a nice, strong welcome. Christina, what's something that's brought you joy?
(41:35):
This past week. I went shopping for groceries this morning
and it's cherry season. Oh I got cherry is what
a good reminder. And of course it's rose a season,
so that brings me joy. I mean, I would argue
it might be rose a season all year long, but
it's definitely rose season. If only I could in vite
(42:00):
you over to a dinner party and just ask you
to bring those two things with you, that would be enough.
That's true. Okay, let's bring this home. Let's give a
shout out to a person or a group of people
who have just made your life better through all of this. Oh,
such a great question. Certainly I can shout out my
my family and friends, whom have become increasingly grateful for.
(42:23):
But a group of people that I'd love to shout
out is the one one, which is this group of
actors that I am so thrilled and grateful to be
a part of in l A. It's headed up by
my friend Christian Cordula. My friend James Kyson invited me
to join in about a year ago when I was
(42:43):
really looking for a community of actors. And I have
to say we meet every Friday, and COVID has kept
us going. We just moved over to Zoom so to
Christian and Hillary, Andrea, John, Katie, drown Aimes, Marie and all.
Got just to see those shining faces every week and
(43:05):
to be able to text some questions and just have
their support throughout the week has been huge. You know, Christina,
we can do things on our own, but the Beatles
song remains true that we get by with a little
help from our friends. So mine goes out to the
one one today, Christina, give a shout out please to
(43:27):
a person a group of people who have just made
your life better through all of this. I mean obviously
Chas and Arden. It is been amazing to see just
how much Arden has changed in the few months we've
been on lockdown. When you're only seven months old, every
month counsel a lot, So that's been amazing, and getting
(43:50):
to have this kind of time with her is something
I didn't expect to have, and I think most women
who go back to their jobs don't get the luxury
of having so um certainly the two of them, but
also my sister Stephanie, who I find myself calling a lot.
She had her third kid two months before Arden, and
(44:11):
so it's been fun to kind of stay in touch
and at a preview of what's up next developmentally and
ask her questions instead of going to Google because she's
got three of them. She knows how this thing works
and can prevent me from going down terrible internet rabbit
holes baby search terms, but also just having an excuse
(44:33):
to talk to her the long meandering phone calls that
we don't really do anymore, um like we as a society.
I mean, those have come back, So Stephanie, thanks. Oh
you know, I had exactly one of those with my
brother Scott last night and I've been able to have
those through this time and I feel the exact same
way truly, and Scott has been able to completely pivot
(44:57):
from a full time DJ career to whole other career
in this time. So cheers to our siblings, truly. So
we would love to know your answers to these Lightning
Round questions and what you're going to name your summer.
You can tell us on Twitter or Instagram at t
l d n E Pod or you can email us
(45:18):
at hello at t LDNY podcast dot com, or if
you want to leave us a voicemail, you can do
that at eight three three Hi t L d n E.
That's eight three three eight five three six three, then
dial eight oh three and we'll share the books. Hopefully
that linked to the rural and everything else we've mentioned
(45:43):
at t L d n E podcast dot com slash.
Thanks so much to our producer Maya Coole and to
you for tuning in. As always, please subscribe, rate, and
review on Apple Podcasts if you like what you heard.
(46:05):
It really helps us get the word out to fellow
human ven diagrams. Until next time, remember the limit does
not exist. The Limit does not Exist is a production
of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(46:26):
you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah
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