0:00

Hey, I'm Christina Wallace and I'm Kate Scott

0:02

Campbell, and you're listening to the limit does

0:04

not exist? A podcast for human ven

0:07

Diagram, coming at you every single Monday

0:09

and hosted by us. Exactly

0:15

two years ago, you embarked on a

0:17

very special summer, Christina, I

0:19

did, and if you go back to episode six,

0:22

the Struggle is Real, you can hear all about

0:24

my decision to name that summer the Summer

0:26

of Joy. Today we're talking about the remarkable

0:29

effects of that decision and

0:31

why we're both naming this summer the

0:34

Summer of Joy reprise. We

0:36

also discussed the magic of discovering

0:38

and leaning into your superpower and

0:40

revisit the phase of exploration that

0:43

is essential for any creative endeavor.

0:45

Yes, and in that spirit, we also have some

0:47

news to share. We know we're

0:49

going to have to just listen to find out.

0:52

Okay, oh my gosh, Okay, I'm so excited.

0:54

Let's just jump into the episode, shall we. Let's

0:56

do it? Hi,

1:01

Christina, Hey, Kate, I can see

1:03

you. I know. I'm in studio for

1:07

the second time in the history of this podcast.

1:09

Oh my gosh, the second time. The last time was episode

1:11

fifty I have to get used to making eye contact

1:14

with you. A little

1:16

distracting it is you also

1:18

have piercing blue eyes. Thank

1:20

you. It can be hazel, depends

1:22

on my moon time today, we're

1:25

nice. I might have decidedly hazel, depending

1:27

on what I'm wearing. Um, yes, this

1:29

is only have you counted? This is which number

1:32

that we are in the same place. I

1:34

don't think I have counted. We're still

1:36

in single digits easily.

1:39

Maybe onto the second hand, maybe just

1:41

one hand. Yeah, that's right. I

1:44

remember our very first episode in

1:47

Austin when we were so

1:49

crammed together and we're like still doing to

1:51

know each other, and we were like just we were sharing

1:53

a microphone where we were sharing we had like

1:55

the your phone splitter, yes, and like paranoid

1:57

about touching the table sound we

2:00

did have that, we had the headphone splitter.

2:02

I forgot about that. Oh

2:04

my gosh, let's give some shout outs,

2:07

shall we. I think it's time. I think it's time.

2:09

We want to shout out to Ireland.

2:13

We have a lot of listeners in Ireland.

2:16

In Dublin. Yes, we have discovered

2:18

this recently and we see you guys. We are

2:20

so excited that you're listening. I

2:22

mean, is it because we're both redheads and

2:24

I'm a Wallace senior Campbell? Yes,

2:27

please please? I mean Campbell

2:29

is technically Scottish, so is Wallace,

2:32

but I feel like they're connections.

2:34

I'm just saying I am I write. Part of me is I writ

2:38

We would love to know seven percent of our

2:40

listeners who are in Dublin. Why

2:42

do you like us? Please tell us? Well?

2:46

Okay. Also, we want to give you a shout out because

2:50

the Home to Vote just

2:54

movement a couple of weeks ago, where

2:56

so many of you flew home from

2:59

around the world in order to go

3:01

home and repeal the Eighth Amendment, which

3:03

bans abortion. Um. It was absolutely

3:05

moving to watch, It was moving to

3:08

follow on Twitter. It was a

3:10

a very engaging Twitter

3:12

hashtag for a while. I encourage you, when you're

3:14

feeling a little depressed to go and just check that out the

3:16

home devote hashtag. It'll it'll

3:18

give you good feelings. Yeah, you know, I

3:22

was so impressed by that. Continue to

3:24

be. It's inspiring for us

3:26

all, especially with so

3:28

many elections happening and popping up

3:30

by no minds in a week. I

3:33

think it's very inspiring, you

3:35

know, and I was asking my mom actually, I was like telling

3:37

her about our Irish listeners and I was like, why

3:39

do you think do you do you see a correlation?

3:41

Mother? Um? You know. She was

3:44

really just started talking about

3:46

the history of the country of Ireland and

3:48

all the sort of incredible uh

3:51

movements and things that have happened there.

3:53

And I'd like to think in

3:55

some way that there is an appreciation for

3:57

the spirit our of our show, which is

4:00

are at your own course, um, you

4:02

know, and figure out what makes you

4:04

you. Um. But anyway, that's

4:06

just one h random

4:08

theory. We'd love to hear it from you guys. So

4:11

we see you Irish stars and uh

4:13

we thank you for joining us. Yeah, thank you, and thank

4:15

you for you know, fighting the good fight

4:18

with hump to vote absolutely the other stuff. Yes.

4:21

Um. We also have one of our former guests

4:23

recently, you know, doing a really

4:25

cool artist residency at the Cohler

4:28

Art Center in Wisconsin. I've been following

4:30

her on Instagram since she

4:32

she headed out there a couple of weeks ago, and

4:35

it's absolutely fascinating. If you haven't been watching

4:37

her, um do it now. She

4:39

is doing metal work and like

4:42

foundry work.

4:44

I don't actually know how to turn that into a verb. Where

4:47

she's she's using cast iron and

4:49

wax molds and like you know,

4:52

resin bonded sand. It's absolutely

4:54

fascinating. And she takes pictures and video

4:57

of the math, the equations

5:00

physics that are going into making these

5:02

um sculptures and this installation

5:05

art. It's really exciting.

5:07

There's some fire involved. She

5:09

had to get a license to drive

5:11

a forklift. I mean, it's

5:13

riveting. So if you aren't following Resa

5:15

Puno on Instagram, check it out

5:18

and go check out her episode It's

5:20

uh, It's good time. Yes, episode

5:22

number nine the Art of Play

5:25

and truly truly recent

5:27

talks about how much play there is

5:30

in her work. It's really incredible. There also

5:32

are a lot of power tools and like really

5:35

really badass pieces of equipment. In

5:37

fact, I think that that she uh

5:39

talked with us from her studio. I think so

5:42

in Brooklyn say um. That is also

5:44

an episode where you can hear Christina Wallace singing

5:46

on capella very very

5:49

much a treat, very much a treat. I

5:52

think that was also the episode where it was seven

5:54

am my time and it was made

5:56

the morning even better to hear you guys

5:58

harmonizing. Well, it was fun.

6:01

So last night we were in your

6:03

house listening to our very first

6:05

episode as we were prepping for this episode

6:07

one on one, and um, you know,

6:09

we recorded that at like seven in the morning in Austin,

6:12

and like what the fourth day of south By Southwest

6:15

and our morning voices are

6:18

a little challenge, so intense and

6:21

like at one point, I think my voice breaks

6:24

like a pre pumuscent boy. It

6:26

does, it does, and I am just

6:28

embedded in my vocal fry. It's such

6:31

a real way. I think I had had about four

6:33

and a half hours of sleep, as

6:35

evidenced by that gold wrist watch tattoo.

6:38

There is a special brand

6:40

of a terror. Knowing

6:42

that that is for for most

6:45

of you listening your entry Point show,

6:48

that's our most listened to episode

6:51

by far, because you know, you discover

6:53

number one, check out number one.

6:55

Yeah, and thanks for steaking

6:57

with us. We might want to do a

6:59

trail or that like instructs people to

7:01

go to you know, episode two or

7:03

three. But

7:07

also, you know, it's so much fun.

7:09

I love that episode so much because

7:11

there's just so much newness and unknown

7:13

there. My goodness, we were making it up

7:15

as we went. We were we were We're

7:17

going to talk about that in in a little

7:20

bit. Um. But before we talk

7:22

about that, Christina, you have some news

7:24

I do. I do so

7:26

chas and I got engaged. Love

7:30

snaps happening area for long time

7:32

listeners. Um, you may recall when

7:35

this show started, I was very single.

7:38

Yes, I believe I even hit up

7:40

one of our guests to have his wife, who's

7:42

a matchmaker, maybe make me a

7:44

match. Oh my gosh. Yes,

7:48

episode number five, which is such a fun

7:51

episode. Um, so yeah, very

7:53

very single at the beginning of this, uh,

7:56

this endeavor and um, if

7:58

you remember episodes Acces

8:00

Struggle is Real, we were talking

8:02

about our summers. We were we were naming

8:04

our summers, and that was when I first had decided

8:07

that it was going to be my summer of joy. Um

8:10

and I I mean that was

8:12

that episode was literally recorded a week before

8:14

our first date. Really, yes,

8:17

so I had was your date planned when

8:19

we recorded the episode? Think so?

8:21

I think so. But I had made a

8:23

choice. You know, I've been coming out of a

8:26

really tough like six months. I

8:28

had a number of deaths in my family. I

8:30

had had just some frustration on

8:32

professional side. I was just I was really

8:34

kind of unhappy, and my instinct

8:37

had always been, we'll just do more, like

8:40

pick up more things, try aum Ester's

8:42

in computer science, go start a podcast,

8:44

like do more things so that you can feel

8:46

accomplished and that will make you feel

8:49

happy or worthy or whatever those

8:51

things were. And that wasn't

8:53

really working. I

8:55

was I was still unhappy and also

8:58

stressed out and had no time

9:00

to just like to breathe. And so I

9:02

decided to do the opposite

9:05

of my instincts um and to

9:07

use the Marie Condo book The Life Changing

9:09

Magic of Tidying Up, but apply

9:11

it instead of to my apartment, apply it to my calendar.

9:14

And I made that choice of going after the summer of

9:16

joy and only doing the things that brought me joy.

9:19

And a direct result of that was

9:21

my first date with Chazz and

9:24

my decision to go to Bionic

9:26

and kind of a number of really big

9:28

changes that summer UM

9:31

and it worked out, y'all. I

9:35

just amazed the like out of the gate

9:37

date with Jazz well, but I

9:39

also would like to think that

9:42

you know, the way that you showed up to

9:45

meet Jazz, you know, like there

9:48

was so much going on inside of you, and

9:51

you had made this really powerful decision to

9:53

just be in this very out

9:55

of comfort zone space. Well, and

9:57

so it happened. I was specifically making

10:00

the affirmative choice of like, if this is great,

10:03

I'm going to go for it, and if it's not

10:05

great, I'm going to cut it off right,

10:07

and just like the point of like get

10:09

it to yes or no, faster,

10:11

right, just get to a decision and stop living in these

10:13

limbos of like, wow, it's not amazing, but it's

10:15

not terrible. How do you think you were able to

10:18

because I think part of that that a lot of people experience

10:20

is like not knowing if it's greater or if it's

10:22

like I feel like, you know right, you've got

10:25

a spidy sense. I think for many of

10:27

us it's certainly true. For me, there's always

10:29

a notion of like, well, it's not great, but I could

10:31

see how it could be better, So

10:33

maybe right exactly,

10:36

jobs, relationships, friendships, apartments,

10:40

You're like, I see if I put in enough

10:42

work, I could fix it, right, I could

10:44

figure out how to make it what I want it to be,

10:47

rather than seeing it for what it is.

10:50

And I think I just made the decision that

10:52

summerre of like I'm going to actually just see

10:54

things for what they are, and if what

10:56

they are isn't what works for me,

10:59

like no judgment on them.

11:02

I'm just going to not put in more

11:04

work to fix that. I'm

11:06

going to look for the things that actually fit.

11:09

And I think it is no coincidence that,

11:11

like my first date with Chaz and meeting

11:13

David Kedder at the CEO I want to happened

11:15

within weeks of each other, and like

11:18

both of them just fundamentally like took

11:20

my life on a very different course over the last

11:22

two years. So I

11:25

think, I mean, if you want a perfect

11:27

example of of why

11:29

my partnership with Chazz just works so well.

11:32

Other than listening to the episode where we had him

11:34

on dating a human mel Migraph, I had a

11:36

delightful time. Chas,

11:38

if you're listening, I hope you are future

11:41

husband. Um, I had a delightful

11:43

time. It's uh.

11:46

We we decided to get married um

11:49

a couple of weeks ago, months ago. I guess

11:51

at this point, Um, after having

11:53

talked about this for like six months, right,

11:55

we were actively like like is this something we

11:57

want? How do we go forward? What are the things

11:59

that we need to discuss or work through

12:02

or you know, talk about to feel like we're in a good place,

12:04

um to make this decision. And

12:06

Uh, this particular Saturday morning,

12:09

we had sat down to work through some

12:11

financial planning and we spent three

12:13

hours at the kitchen table. Uh. He had

12:15

made some breakfast, as he always does, and

12:18

then we started working through. I found a worksheet

12:21

online, a four stage worksheet. I

12:23

need this work that

12:26

starts with things like your debt and your

12:28

credit scores and like how much you have,

12:30

and then it leads you into questions of like

12:32

what are your earliest memories of money, and how

12:34

do you how what do you value? Like what

12:36

are you willing to splurge on? What do you just want

12:39

the good enough right to? You also have

12:41

mimosas while you're doing this. I feel like that might

12:43

have helped. No. Totally sober,

12:45

a little bit of confidence. Lecroix.

12:47

There was some celts um and we

12:49

were just we were walking through this and

12:52

kind of putting in the work of defining like what

12:54

what kind of life do we want? What are the choices and

12:56

the trade offs that we want to make when it comes

12:59

to money. Um, And you

13:01

know, we started building this financial model

13:04

that has like a month by month cash flow for for

13:06

the first three years and then an annual estimate

13:08

for another like seven years after that. So to

13:10

give us a sense of like, based on what we say

13:13

we want, do we have the resources to get there?

13:15

And like how much discipline or what kind

13:18

of trade offs will we have to make in order to

13:20

to go that direction? Right. It's not like

13:22

this is exactly what we're going to budget for the next

13:24

ten years. It was just like, do we have an understanding

13:26

of what it will take to build the life that

13:29

we we think we want to have? Um

13:31

And at the end of this he just turns to me and

13:34

says, so shall we pick a date? Oh

13:36

my god? And I said, well, I've been holding these two weekends

13:38

in October, do either of the more Creo and

13:41

I think you know, I have you been holding them

13:43

for potential wedding? Yeah, because I knew

13:45

it was on the horizon. We've been talking

13:47

about it, and my schedule fills up. There are

13:49

many things happening in Q four and so

13:52

I just I wanted to hold a couple of dates

13:54

that that worked for me. UM,

13:57

and it just it was a perfect I think

13:59

for me. I. I told the story to a couple of my mentees

14:01

were like twenty four, and they were absolutely a

14:03

guest like, that is the least romantic thing

14:05

I've ever heard. One of them even

14:07

cried a tear and she's like this, I just

14:10

wanted a knee and a ring. And I was like, that's

14:12

not what I want. Though, let's define romance.

14:16

That is a very subjective word, true,

14:18

but I was like, what's romantic for me is the partnership

14:21

and the work right, and the commitment

14:23

to both showing up and deciding

14:26

that like we we're proactively choosing

14:28

this partnership in this life and the work

14:30

that's going to be required to get there. Um,

14:32

and that's the most romantic thing of all to

14:34

me. Like, it's not that hard to get on a knee and like

14:37

buy a couple of flowers. I think it's a

14:39

lot harder to say, like, we're in this together

14:41

and we're going to show up and do the work every day.

14:43

Well. I think also something

14:46

just occurred to me, which is that there

14:48

is something that feels truly romantic to

14:50

me about that commitment.

14:53

You guys are really doing this real commitment.

14:55

And I don't mean that just in the sense of,

14:57

you know, the commitment of marriage. I mean

15:00

in the active commitment of talking about

15:02

your future, building that future. What does that look

15:04

like? Um, it just occurred

15:07

to me that that really

15:09

feels deeply romantic to me, and I

15:11

think that there is something so powerful

15:13

about that coming from,

15:16

you know, my point of view as someone who

15:19

uh has stated a lot of people, has

15:22

tried a lot of things in my life. When

15:24

you really look at someone and look at

15:26

a thing and go, oh, there's really something here, and

15:28

I'm going to do the work for that, like

15:31

romance an action. I think in particular

15:33

as to human vend diagrams, who

15:36

you know, our lives could take a lot of zig zact exactly.

15:38

We have a lot of different places we could go. Building

15:42

a life with another human vend diagram

15:44

requires I think a lot more communication

15:47

around like how are we going to make

15:49

those zigs and zags together with

15:51

the acknowledgement that there will be

15:53

some sacrifices or trade offs or we're going to prioritize

15:56

your zig and not mine at this right

15:58

at this moment, because it's not just you

16:00

know, you have this very predictable life and we've

16:03

chosen this town and we're going to buy this house and

16:05

like I can see the next ten years clearly.

16:07

Like part of this decision started from

16:09

like, what's your vision of your career? Where

16:13

where does that geographically land

16:15

you and us? And like are we

16:17

both looking at the future in a

16:20

similar way knowing

16:22

that we have so many things in our lives

16:24

and so many things that we need and

16:26

want to be happy? Um,

16:29

I think it just requires more proactive

16:31

planning and conversation than

16:34

you know, a straightforward kind of career

16:37

path or a future and so um

16:40

so there you go, guys, Happy Endings or

16:42

something. Another

16:45

book title that could that you could

16:47

really use at some point, Happy Endings or something.

16:50

I mean, it's crazy. So you have some

16:52

news too, You've like just wrapped

16:55

up a big, a big

16:57

chunk of work. Yes, yes,

17:00

I have. I have just I just closed

17:02

my run um in the Sunday

17:05

Company at the Groundlings, which is very

17:07

exciting. Congratulation, Thank you

17:09

so much. You know, it really closed a

17:11

year of of writing

17:14

and performing and six solid

17:16

months of doing a

17:19

brand new show every week. So writing and

17:21

performing in a brand new show every week. Um,

17:23

I had my first weekend like two

17:25

weeks ago in a year, and

17:28

it was just like not leave your couch.

17:30

I mean, there was a lot of that

17:32

that when I did in shadow, just like climbed

17:34

on top of you, just

17:37

the best not not being not

17:39

weighing enough to be true gravity banquets,

17:42

but like there was an effect all the same. Um,

17:44

you know. Ross and I walked to

17:47

get coffee, but this is the

17:49

thing that people do on their weekends. And then we

17:51

looked across the street and I was reminded that there is a

17:53

farmer's market in our neighborhood.

17:55

And we got flowers

17:57

and apples and I was just having

17:59

the host weekend. I

18:01

was weekending the f out of my weekends.

18:05

Thank you so much. You know, it was really really uh,

18:08

it was really valuable. I was

18:10

so struck by. And this is really along

18:12

the theme of your summer of joy, giving yourself the

18:14

space that you needed. I

18:16

had been feeling that very

18:18

deeply really for a couple

18:21

of months, you know. And and

18:23

I feel like oftentimes in life it's like

18:25

if we close something, there seems to be

18:27

a tendency to say like, oh, I'm so glad

18:29

I'm done with that. And you know, I

18:31

think that there's a total both and at

18:34

play, Like, I feel so

18:36

grateful to have had this year really

18:38

of a sprint. I mean, it was so

18:41

growth giving in so

18:43

many ways that I'm still honestly

18:45

discovering and I think we'll

18:47

continue to and so it once.

18:50

I feel so grateful and

18:52

so grateful for being at this point. You

18:54

know, it really is this like win win situation.

18:57

That's how I've been explaining it to the

19:00

people who were close to me in my life. And

19:02

you know, I was really struck by Caesar

19:05

Kuryama's episode number

19:08

one Second every Day, which um

19:10

we had very recently, in

19:13

which he said, you know, I knew that

19:15

I wanted to figure out what I was going to

19:17

do next, but I knew that I didn't have the space to

19:19

do it. So I was just going to give myself the

19:21

space to be able to do the thinking,

19:24

the tinkering, whatever that

19:26

looks like. And honestly,

19:28

it sounds so silly, Christina, but that

19:30

is like the hardest thing, you know, Like,

19:33

I know, you get this, like just

19:35

to give myself the permission to futs

19:37

around my house for a day. My

19:40

soul has been really like

19:42

you said, we always know, right, Like my

19:44

soul has been powering me to do that, and

19:47

it's been so wonderful. Like I finally

19:49

watched the Great British Baking Show. I

19:52

mean, you know, I'm still which is a delight,

19:55

which is a total delight. It also

19:57

makes me realize how much I don't know about baking

20:00

my I know, and I literally

20:02

like, while I was watching it, I was like, I need

20:04

to go. I ran the Trader Joe's and got some lemon

20:06

tarts just to to eat with my

20:09

watching experience, like this is actually

20:11

this is even even more of a delight.

20:13

Um. But you know, I'm still like from the

20:15

outset, I'm still working,

20:18

and there's lots of other things always

20:20

right, but my version of

20:22

that is what feels really right

20:24

for me, And my version of that is just having some extra space

20:27

right now and being so grateful

20:29

for the blank canvas, which um

20:31

is not probably always going to be blank and that's

20:34

okay, but grateful for like

20:36

the blank corner of the canvas.

20:38

And I think having come from such a time

20:41

of so many deliverables and such

20:43

an intense time of production, it

20:45

makes me even more grateful for

20:47

the choice to open up some space

20:50

and to take the pressure off of

20:52

myself for a second, UM

20:54

to figure out what the next move is, because what I've

20:56

learned is is that when we are the

20:58

resource in our work. I know talked about this before,

21:01

we need those times of well filling,

21:04

otherwise the well is empty. It reminds

21:06

me of our one year anniversary episode UM

21:09

Explore Experiment Execute

21:12

episode thirty five, where we talked about like there

21:14

are these different modes of

21:16

doing work right and that

21:19

you know, you and I have both been in this period of

21:21

like execute right. You're in it. You know

21:23

what you're doing every week, You're putting up a new

21:25

show every like I'm finishing up a manuscript

21:27

for a book with David Ketner and my CEO, and

21:30

it's just like, okay, finish line, go.

21:33

And it can be easy

21:36

when you reach that finish line to look around

21:38

and say, oh, I have space, let's find another thing

21:40

to execute them. And I think

21:42

both of us are feeling this desire of right

21:44

now to say no, I'm going to protect that space and

21:47

instead I'm going to shift to explore

21:50

right, And and the dabble

21:52

and the fox saying and the I

21:54

don't know what the tinkering right, I don't

21:56

know what this is. Yeah,

21:59

and it's just it's a very different way

22:01

of being and working and creating. Uh,

22:04

And you kind of have to do that to

22:06

discover what the next thing is you want to go

22:09

execute on. And if you just say

22:11

an execution mode, um,

22:13

you're never going to kind of open that aperture

22:15

to see where else might I

22:18

want to go? What else might I want to learn

22:20

or you know, dabble in um.

22:22

And I think you know, we're both kind of looking

22:24

at a summer and saying we've been we've been executing

22:27

for a while. Yes, let's go explore this

22:29

summer totally. And I

22:31

had to kind of really look at myself

22:34

truthfully and admit that

22:36

I am someone who gets a lot of value

22:38

out of execution and to say

22:41

you are valuable as valuable

22:44

and you're adding to your own personal value during

22:46

these times of exploring and

22:49

experimenting in order to execute.

22:51

One of the gifts of doing this show has

22:54

been the discovery of the power

22:56

of seasons and when

22:59

we really just to embrace, oh, this

23:01

is the season, and also I'm choosing that this

23:03

is what the season is going to mean to me, or

23:06

sometimes it chooses us. Sometimes we look at our

23:08

life and go Oh, a lot of chapters are

23:10

kind of closing or pressing pause right

23:12

now, that is a gift, that's not something

23:14

to run from, that's something to revel in, exactly.

23:17

So one of the things that I've been getting to do

23:20

more of right now, being in this exploration

23:22

period is really it's

23:25

no secret that we love reading on the show. Based on

23:28

our number one Lightning Round question

23:31

hashtag book stack um

23:33

And the book that I mentioned in our last

23:35

Lightning Round that I've been reading is called Your Dream

23:38

by game Wolf, who is a professor at the Art

23:40

Center College of Design in Pasadena, where

23:42

you guys, if you listened to our last episode,

23:45

episode one hundred, we discovered

23:47

how many amusing creative talents

23:49

come out of four out of five visual strategists.

23:53

Yeah, exactly. All came

23:55

from art Center. So I've been

23:57

loving reading this book. It's sort of all about the creative

24:00

process. And one of the things

24:02

that I was recently reading is

24:04

this idea of what is your superpower?

24:06

And I mentioned this to you last night

24:08

because I'm so struck by

24:11

the idea that your superpower

24:13

is likely a thing that comes so

24:15

easily to you that you

24:18

may not even notice what it is. But everyone

24:20

else is looking at you going, oh

24:22

my gosh, you do yes exactly

24:24

how does she do it? And you're like, do

24:26

what this thing? That is easy?

24:30

And I think when we are able

24:32

to have people mirror that for us,

24:34

it's so helpful. Right, And

24:36

so this reminded you of something that you have read so

24:38

literally just a few days ago in HBr,

24:41

Whitney Johnson wrote an article that

24:44

says why talented people don't

24:46

use their strengths and it was about

24:48

how, you know, experts have long

24:50

said, you know, you should play to your strengths, um,

24:53

and uh, she was saying,

24:55

based on her observations, that's easier said

24:57

than done. Not because it's

25:00

are necessarily to identify what we're good at,

25:02

but it's because we undervalue what

25:04

we do inherently well and

25:07

that you know, you think about superpowers,

25:09

which she uses that term as things

25:11

that we do effortlessly, almost

25:13

reflexively, right, like breathing. And

25:16

when someone identifies that like a

25:18

boss and says, hey, I want you to do more of that,

25:20

often, you know overachievers

25:23

like us, um, the instinct is like, well, that's

25:25

not hard, give me a challenge, right,

25:27

Like I want to I want to growth challenge.

25:29

I want give me a stretch project,

25:31

right, and UM, it feels

25:34

too easy, and so it must not be

25:36

valuable. And instead,

25:39

uh, you know, be able to not

25:42

just identify, but actually acknowledge

25:44

how your superpowers are valuable

25:47

and you know, revel in the fact that it's not

25:49

that hard for you to do right, give yourself

25:51

a little space to not always be struggling

25:54

UM, and you know, find find

25:57

that UM value for yourself

25:59

and saying like, huh, I am good at that.

26:01

Awesome, Let's do more of that, which

26:03

is a really I think

26:06

important thing and also a challenging

26:08

thing for people who are always kind of like I

26:10

want to grow and stretch um.

26:13

And it reminds me of UM. I think

26:15

I wrote about this for Forbes. Uh that

26:17

that period after my startup failed and I was trying

26:19

to figure out what to do next, UM,

26:22

and I just couldn't see

26:24

for myself what I what

26:27

I was good at, or what I should be doing, or where

26:29

I would fit in the world. And so instead

26:31

of you know, wandering around

26:33

and writing journal entries and trying to soul

26:35

search, I just got out of the apartment

26:38

and took people to coffee and asked

26:40

them to tell me what my superpower was,

26:42

right, I was like, what do you come to me for? What am

26:45

I better at than my peers? Because

26:47

I can't see it right now? And I think that's

26:49

certainly one way if you don't know your

26:51

superpower, um, to have

26:54

people reflect it back to you. Um,

26:57

And probably what they say back

26:59

to you is going to resonate really

27:01

clearly. You're like, oh, yeah, I do do that really well?

27:03

Huh yeah, that's valuable. Well

27:06

totally. I mean, I'm so struck today

27:10

how much of you know, what we talked

27:12

about and think about on our show

27:14

really involves. It's just like shift in

27:16

framing, the shift in thinking right

27:19

to be able to say, like, it

27:21

is not a sign of weakness to maximize

27:24

and use something that I'm sort

27:27

of naturally inclined to do. Like

27:29

there is such a tendency to shine the light on

27:32

the thing that feels

27:34

more of a stretch, And I think

27:36

that there's so much value in that.

27:39

Oftentimes, you know, stretching

27:42

in those ways can also help round

27:45

out what your natural superpowers are.

27:47

That's great, and

27:50

and you know those things that we are

27:53

really good at are also just these gifts that

27:55

we have to give the world. Well, it's like I

27:57

I remember being at a job right

28:00

out of business school where you know,

28:02

there was like this set of capabilities

28:05

that you know you needed to check the box across

28:07

all these things. And um, in my first

28:09

six months, I had checked the box very

28:12

clearly on kind of client communications,

28:14

public speaking, presentation

28:17

skills. And they're like, great, you don't

28:19

have to do that. We're gonna make you learn all these other

28:21

things for the next five years. Um.

28:23

And I was like, oh, okay,

28:26

I mean, I'm happy to learn all those other things, but

28:28

like, I'm really good at this one thing right here. And

28:31

and I remember that one of the professional

28:33

development coaches they brought in specifically

28:36

pulled me aside and said, look, you are exceptional

28:39

at this. You need to find

28:41

a job that lets you do that

28:44

instead of spending the next however many

28:46

years rounding out right and there

28:48

there's absolutely value in being a T shaped

28:51

person where you have that kind of breadth

28:53

of skill at a minimum level across

28:55

many different fields, but you also

28:57

have that depth that that specialist

29:00

nation, or that ability to really kind of home

29:02

in on those one or two things that you have

29:04

as a superpower. And I

29:06

am so grateful that he made

29:09

that explicit, that he gave me that permission

29:11

to say, yeah, it'd be great to learn all

29:14

these other things, but if this

29:16

is what I'm great at, yeah, let's find

29:18

a chance to do more of that. I

29:20

think, why does it feel scary

29:22

to be told our superpower sometimes or to embrace

29:25

our superpower? I mean, when you look at the superhero

29:27

movie narrative of right, most

29:30

superheroes are at first terrified of

29:32

their own power, you know, And there's

29:34

something that's interesting about that. I mean, I

29:36

remember the first time a director

29:38

when I was a kid, I was like twelve, talk

29:40

to me about one of my superpowers. I went into

29:42

the bathroom and cried a

29:45

spot. I mean, it was just

29:47

this aspect I have as a performer, where

29:49

he I remember said to me, you know, he

29:52

was like, what what do you love doing? And

29:54

I lied for some reason,

29:57

and I was like, well, I really see

29:59

myself doing this, and He's like, I really

30:01

think this is something that you you know, you just

30:04

have this natural gift at And

30:06

I went into the bathroom and cried. And

30:09

I was talking actually about this with

30:11

a teacher I had in grad school recently, and

30:13

I was like, I don't know why I cried and he said

30:16

he saw you because he saw you.

30:19

And I think that's really rare, and sometimes

30:21

it's scary because sometimes

30:24

I think the thing that's our superpower is

30:26

something that there might be a

30:28

sense of vulnerability around too,

30:30

or sometimes it's just there's

30:33

also I think, just a cathartic experience

30:35

and owning it's something that you're good at. I

30:38

don't really know. I think it's like a fascinating

30:40

line of questioning, and i'd i'd love to hear

30:43

other people's reactions to being told, So,

30:45

what do you think your superpower

30:48

is? Kate? I have one of my idea, what

30:52

that can't possibly be true? I

30:54

I don't know. I mean, no, it

30:57

can't possibly be true. See,

30:59

like I get so like

31:02

visibly uncomtable. Now I'm sweating.

31:05

I am sweating, like holding my arms close to my side

31:08

so I don't reveal the pit stays to Christina.

31:10

Um. I mean, you know,

31:13

I don't know that I can articulate. I think

31:15

I have a sense of it, and I think that people have articulated,

31:17

you know, my super power different ways, But I don't think that I've really

31:20

asked lately what my superpower.

31:22

I mean, I feel like you've got a

31:24

bit of a project for your summer.

31:27

Okay, to go and take everyone

31:29

you know out to coffee and ask them what's my super

31:31

Oh my gosh, should I start right now? Should

31:33

I ask you what you think my superpower? Well,

31:36

I mean you very well could. Um.

31:38

The thing is, you have this ability.

31:40

And you know, we've done a hundred and one episodes

31:43

and of them, probably nine of them have been interviews,

31:45

right so that we've had some CNC episodes, but most

31:48

of them have been interview based. And you

31:50

have this ability to kind

31:53

of have a conversation with someone in a field

31:55

you know literally nothing about, and

31:59

to not only just have a really

32:01

interesting conversation with them, but to ask the

32:03

questions that kind

32:05

of uncover the next layer of

32:08

meaning or of insight in many

32:10

ways for these people who who are interviewed

32:12

all the time and they say, no

32:14

one's ever asked me that question, right

32:17

like, or I've never I've never had to think of it

32:19

that way. And in doing so,

32:21

you know, I think many times you're asking the question

32:23

that people who know a little bit about the field would

32:25

feel embarrassed to ask, because they should.

32:28

They should know that. Um, so

32:30

it's not the dumb question, so to say,

32:32

but it's the question that everyone's like, well, obviously,

32:34

of course it goes to see and you're like, but

32:36

is there a be right?

32:39

And I feel like that ability to

32:42

not just have a conversation, but to follow

32:45

the logic and to dig under

32:47

some of the unstated assumptions

32:49

or or skips um in completely

32:52

unrelated fields that don't scare you

32:54

at all is an incredible gift. Thank

32:57

you so much, Christina, welcome. I

33:00

do have to say that I am obsessed

33:02

with people's stories. I mean, I'm obsessed

33:04

with funding it out and discovering

33:06

more about way. And I think that's part

33:08

of this, right, because you're looking at these stories

33:11

not just from my I'm interested in you know

33:13

what you have to say as a listener, which you are, but

33:15

you have your your storyteller,

33:18

your writer, your producer, hat on

33:20

where you're like, walk me through

33:22

that arc, because there's a step you're

33:24

skipping over, and if I were

33:27

writing this movie or whatever, this is

33:29

like you're missing a piece of

33:31

the motivation and I want to learn more about that.

33:33

And I think that that particular lens

33:36

gives you that ability to be an incredible storyteller,

33:38

um and you know, just an incredible

33:40

communicator. And I think it's served

33:43

you very well in this format and obviously

33:45

in other formats as well. Thank you so much.

33:48

I you know, I really now that you are

33:50

saying this to me. I can look at moments

33:52

in my life where, for example, one time I

33:54

was at this dinner party and my friend

33:56

Felina turned to me and she goes that, how did

33:58

you just do that? What?

34:00

What do what? She's like, someone asked

34:03

you about yourself and you just like

34:05

seamlessly threw the focus

34:07

back onto them. And

34:09

I was like, well, you know, I'd rather hear about their story.

34:12

That's so interesting. I mean, you also are a master

34:14

of the segue. So don't

34:17

let anyone tell you that is

34:20

compliment that I've ever received. Christina.

34:23

I know that you have talked with a lot of people about

34:25

what your superpower are. I

34:29

really want mirror back a superpower.

34:31

Tell me that I see that I

34:34

am so inspired by.

34:36

And the word that comes to mind is connector

34:40

that you not only and

34:43

what I mean by that is you are a connector of

34:45

people. You are a connector of

34:47

ideas, You're a connector

34:50

of concepts in the sense that you

34:52

can look at somebody and go, I know exactly who

34:54

you should talk to and exactly who you should

34:56

meet, and you do it with such a generosity

34:58

enjoy that. I feel like

35:01

you just just being around you is to

35:03

have your world expanded. It's

35:05

really really exciting. Thank you.

35:07

And I see you also do that with ideas. I

35:09

mean you were able to in our

35:11

conversation. I think I might have touched

35:14

on this a little bit in episode

35:16

thirty eight with Brian Cooper, writer Improvising

35:19

by Design, where we talked about are you

35:21

a pirate a robot? When we

35:23

were talking about but you just

35:25

have this ability to fuse

35:29

concepts that would otherwise seem

35:31

unrelated or take something

35:33

and tie it to a bigger hole. You do

35:35

that with people, and you do that with thoughts, and

35:37

it's just a really beautiful holistic quality

35:40

that you have. Thank you. It's

35:42

very sweet. Well it's true.

35:45

Oh my goodness. Um, we have

35:47

we have much more to talk about this episode we

35:50

do. Before we do, we want to give

35:52

a shout out to one of our fantastic sponsors.

35:56

You're listening to the limit does not exist

35:58

with Christina Wallace and Kate Scott

36:00

camp So, speaking

36:03

of looking for space and time

36:05

for exploration execution,

36:07

we have some news that

36:10

we want to share. Um. So we are

36:12

taking a break after this episode

36:14

of the Limit does not exist. Um. Longtime

36:17

listeners might recall season one was

36:19

twelve episodes long. Um, it turns

36:21

out season two became eighty nine episodes.

36:25

There and after

36:28

two years of weekly shows,

36:31

we need a bit of a breather. Guys. We

36:34

we want to just take a step back and find kind

36:37

of new ways to evolve this thing that we

36:39

love and that we believe in and this community

36:41

that's come around it. So. Um,

36:43

so what does this mean for you, dear listeners?

36:45

Well, great question. Um.

36:48

First, it is the perfect time for you to catch

36:50

up on all one episodes

36:53

or any fraction that you might have missed. If you if

36:55

you started an episode one and then skipped to like

36:57

eight two, understandable,

37:00

but go back and take a listen. There's a

37:02

lot of great stuff in there. Um. And if you don't

37:04

know where to get your your fix all of our episodes,

37:06

all of our show notes, they're at human

37:09

and diagram dot com. Um. Of course,

37:11

you can also follow both of us on

37:13

social media. I'm at cm

37:15

wala on Instagram and Twitter. Kate is

37:18

at Campbell Kate on both platforms.

37:20

We will probably put a pause

37:22

on our Admiral Hopper Twitter for

37:24

a while. We'll still keep an eye on it, We're just not gonna be

37:26

tweeting that often. So um so find

37:29

us on the socials while we take a breather. Uh

37:31

and you know we're gonna we're gonna come

37:34

back in. I don't know, at

37:36

some point you have something different and it's gonna

37:38

be awesome, exactly exactly.

37:40

I mean, what's so incredible, Christina is that

37:42

you know, the limit does not exist really started

37:45

as an experiment. It totally did. So

37:47

this is the experiment part of

37:49

that Execute Explore experiment,

37:52

Explore Experiment Execute.

37:55

That makes sense based on everything that we've

37:57

been talking about, but I mean it really did.

37:59

And I know that we were, you know,

38:01

rausing ourselves about episode one earlier,

38:04

but I love that episode so much because

38:07

there is such a purity of experimentation.

38:09

I mean, recently, Christina, I was cleaning

38:11

out my desk. You you hopefully didn't

38:14

see that last night, but you know, it's like the worst before

38:16

it gets better. Things. It's just piles of things.

38:19

Um. But in in those

38:21

piles I found our original uh

38:24

notes for that first episode, which

38:26

we hand dresses on

38:28

like a little little bar party.

38:32

Yeah. It was like it wasn't a cocktail napkin.

38:34

But the next closest thing this little note

38:36

path um yeah, with

38:38

the from the Driscal Hotel in in Austin,

38:41

UM. And it was just so great to see because

38:44

you know, it's this kind of thing where if we

38:46

had um, you know, kind

38:48

of treated the limit does not exist

38:51

at first as trying to find this

38:54

perfect right as we know that word

38:56

is pretty useless in creative

38:58

endeavors for the most part, but trying

39:00

to find this shiny finished product from

39:03

the get go, I

39:05

don't think we would have had as much fun or

39:07

had the evolution that we can now look

39:09

back and go, oh my gosh. This

39:11

experiment showed us that there is really

39:14

something here and that's so exciting.

39:16

And what that means is we have some

39:19

really exciting exploration

39:21

to do again. Exactly, I think, Um,

39:24

to your point, I mean every everyone who works

39:26

in technos that if you're not embarrassed by the first version

39:28

of what you put out, that you waited too late to put

39:31

it. I love that that's a very common

39:34

just get it out there and you know you're

39:36

going to like blush at it later

39:38

and you're like, oh my god, didn't really put that out there? Um,

39:40

And you know, I felt that a little bit listening to episode

39:42

one last night. I think our tagline was for people who

39:44

don't fit in boxes because we hadn't

39:46

come up with you uh

39:49

And you know, you're like, oh my god, I can't believe that's the

39:51

first episode everyone listens to. But

39:53

there's something to you, you know, to

39:55

your point that was so joyous and kind

39:57

of honest about it. And you know,

40:00

we made a ton of assumptions from

40:02

the very beginning, right We we did,

40:05

let's do an hour long show, Let's do

40:07

an interview based show that we're going to sprinkle

40:09

in some CNC episodes along the way, right,

40:11

and we we kind of set some parameters

40:14

for what this experiment would look like. And we

40:16

have executed on that for a hundred

40:18

and one episode. And I think part

40:20

of what we are looking to do with the show

40:23

is to go back and re examine some of those assumptions.

40:25

Does it have to be an hour does it have to be a

40:27

new guest every week. Does it have to be like

40:29

this interview based format or

40:32

are there other kind of parameters so

40:34

we can put in place that would kind of take it to the

40:36

next level in terms of our creativity. So

40:38

I think there's so much about you know, these

40:40

two years that have been incredible to

40:43

experiment with. And um,

40:45

one of my favorite parts about the whole thing was

40:47

having you along for the ride.

40:50

Right. We we joked about this in the last episode

40:52

that when invited to JPL, always bring a

40:54

friend. And I feel like that's true in any

40:56

experiment. Right when when Forbes

40:58

reached out and said, you know, Chris, you know, do you want to do a podcast?

41:01

I said, yes, but can I bring a friend? Right? Can

41:03

we make this Christina and Kate? Um,

41:05

And I think so much of this has

41:07

succeeded based on having a partner

41:10

in in this whole thing. I think that's the crux

41:12

of why we've made it too plus year.

41:14

So um, so yeah, let's

41:17

let's go run more experiments. Totally.

41:20

Totally. I think that you know, a

41:22

big question that we've kind of taken

41:24

down in a lot of ways on our show is

41:27

you know, what is it that I that I want

41:29

to do. What is it that I want? Who?

41:31

Who am I? What I mean by taking

41:34

it down is taking down that question in

41:36

the traditional sense, which to me for many

41:38

years look like sitting around and think

41:41

thinking, just sitting around and thinking

41:43

about some mysterious end product

41:46

and trying to visualize

41:48

or craft what that would be without

41:50

being on the road that would

41:53

reveal what that is. Right.

41:55

And so what's so powerful about

41:58

the idea of experiment unting is

42:00

there's a looseness to it, and there's a joy

42:02

to it. And like you said, it's

42:04

even better when you bring along a friend, right,

42:07

and you grow together, and to have

42:09

someone to to mesh with, right and

42:11

to bounce ideas off of. You can only have

42:14

so much inspiration between you a table and a

42:16

wall, right, And to

42:18

have a partner with you like it just sparks

42:21

so many, so many more you know, opportunities

42:23

and diagonals than you would ever come

42:25

up with on your own. Yeah, yeah, no. And that

42:27

has been one of the greatest discoveries

42:30

of doing this with you, is to just discover

42:34

how lucky I feel, how

42:36

great our partnership is. It's very very exciting.

42:40

Um something else that you know

42:42

will really help us, and that I would love to

42:45

hear from you guys listening during this

42:47

time of exploration is

42:50

feedback, feel free please

42:53

send us an email at human ven

42:55

diagram dot com. There's a little

42:57

contact form there, tweet at

42:59

us UM. We will

43:01

definitely go into Admiral Hopper periodically

43:04

if we're not actively posting and

43:06

and see messages and mentions

43:09

and mentions that you've sent to us, because

43:11

we'd love to hear from you. What do you love? What do you want

43:13

to see more of our conversations

43:15

raised in your mind? It

43:17

would be really really fun for us to hear and

43:20

what decisions, actions, projects

43:22

have you taken up because of

43:24

this. We would love to hear what kind of impact this

43:26

has had. Yes, but I can't

43:29

help but look back on this whole

43:31

experiment and think about what

43:33

are some of the things that we put in place to make it even

43:35

possible to do this as a weekly show. Right,

43:37

we live on opposite coasts, We are very

43:40

busy people with lots of other things in our

43:42

lives, and we've both gone through a ton

43:44

of changes in those two years.

43:47

UM and realizing that some of the

43:49

design choices UM

43:51

like this is a podcast not

43:54

web series, right, so we don't have to be in the

43:56

same geographic location. Um, we

43:58

have been able to record through Skype with

44:01

tiny little you know, podcast microphone, so

44:03

I've been able to take it with me on all of my business trips.

44:05

And we were we were just thinking back of like

44:08

literally all the places that we have recorded

44:10

from. God, I mean, we need to

44:12

do a role Callum, I

44:15

think Milwaukee, Traverse City,

44:17

St. Louis, Turks and Caicos. I totally

44:20

forgot about. That was the Mr Nangis

44:22

episode Oh My God, Vancouver

44:25

from Ted Providence, our live

44:27

show at Brown I've called in

44:29

from business trips Washington, d C in Atlanta

44:31

and Miami, San Antonio where

44:33

I was giving a talk, Nashville, where

44:36

my family lives. You've called in from San Francisco.

44:38

I've called in from San Francisco, Chicago,

44:42

obviously Austin, and you

44:44

know, You've called in from various locations

44:46

around l A, which effectively

44:49

different different cities. Yes,

44:51

based on l A geography and the l

44:53

A mindset, definitely lows

44:56

Fiela is Beverly Hill, Century City, our KPCC

44:58

live show. These are all very French geographical

45:01

locations. But because of

45:03

this, because of that flexibility, we've

45:05

been able to keep this going in a

45:07

way that I think other you

45:09

know, projects would have been really hard to sustain.

45:12

Um. So part of as we think

45:14

about great experiments are like, what are

45:16

the what are the design choices you can

45:18

put in to make it possible to

45:20

keep running it right and to keep iterating

45:23

on it. And uh, you know, I'm a big

45:25

fan of podcasts for for making this possible

45:27

that we could have this conversation on a weekly basis.

45:29

Oh my gosh, me too. It really

45:32

is nothing short of miraculous. And

45:34

um, I think you know, the takeaway for this

45:37

sort of experimental mentality

45:40

is, like you said, Christina, that you

45:43

can set controls and parameters

45:45

and then you totally have the freedom

45:47

to re examine, reshape, redesign,

45:50

rebuild. And that's so exciting.

45:52

And the only way to get

45:55

the information you need to do those things

45:57

is to just do something exactly

45:59

and you know, enjoy the ride.

46:02

So you know, I'm declaring this the Summer

46:04

of joy reprise. I am

46:06

too. I'm just gonna get

46:08

on that boat with you apparently it's

46:10

a boat and get somewhere. So

46:16

with that in mind, Kate, I think it

46:18

might be time for our

46:20

last Lightning Round, at least for round.

46:27

I'm going to just lean into that for now. I

46:30

like it. I mean, the thing I love about lightning

46:32

Around. We just created this in

46:34

episode two, and we really mistitled

46:37

it. We did. That's true. The branding

46:39

has not been on point. I

46:41

think we've done it every episode. I think we've done it

46:44

lightning Around. That's incredible. Oh

46:47

my gosh, that's really incredible. And

46:49

you know, I like that. We've just been very

46:51

loose with our definition of the word lightning.

46:54

Yeah, so here

46:57

we go. First question, Kate, what

46:59

are you reading or listening to right

47:01

now? Oh my gosh, I am

47:03

continuing to read the book that I mentioned

47:06

by giom Wolf You Are a Dream. That's been wonderful.

47:08

And Christina, for the first time in a

47:11

year, I have started to read fiction

47:13

again, just like a great cozy

47:17

novel. What do you read? This particular

47:19

novel is called The Little Paris Bookshop.

47:21

It's by Nina George and

47:23

it's really the story of this

47:26

bookshop owner who runs

47:29

this bookshop that is

47:31

also speaking of boats, like a little

47:33

barge in the Seine in Paris,

47:36

and it's just like delicious

47:39

and delightful and an ode to books

47:41

and only the kind of thing I would ever read

47:43

if I had decided that I would give myself space

47:45

to read its summer

47:48

reading list. Yes, it's a perfect summer

47:50

read. It's a great little like late night before

47:52

you fall asleep read. You know what, Christina,

47:56

what are you reading right now? So I am thrilled

47:59

that this is my This is my last

48:01

Lightning Round book. Answer. Um, it's called No

48:04

One Tells You This. It's a memoir by

48:06

my dear friend Glennis mcnicholl. It

48:09

doesn't come out until July ten, so I got

48:11

an early access to it, but UM

48:13

pre order on Amazon. This is an

48:16

incredible memoir of her forty year.

48:18

Sort of spans the one year where she

48:20

turned forty and was basically

48:23

looking ahead, you know, unmarried, no kids,

48:26

Um has you know, family responsibilities

48:28

with her mom and her her sister, and just

48:30

was sort of looking at this future that doesn't

48:33

look like what all of the other

48:35

stories tell us women's

48:37

adulthood looks like. And

48:40

Um decided that she

48:42

was going to write a

48:44

version of her life that worked for her. And

48:47

you know that this year takes her to a

48:49

dude ranch in Wyoming. It takes

48:51

her up to Canada, where she's from, and she's

48:54

you know, with her sister and dealing with her

48:56

mom and some illness there, and

48:58

just she is this boldlessly

49:01

rewriting what, um,

49:04

what stories can look like for women

49:06

who don't choose marriage and children. Um

49:08

it is a beautiful memoir. You will laugh,

49:11

you will cry, You will read it in one sitting,

49:13

and you should add it to your your

49:15

book list. July tent Oh my gosh, I remember

49:17

meeting Glenny's in Austin before

49:20

we recorded our first episode. I cannot

49:23

wait to check it out. It sounds

49:25

fantastic. Um Kate

49:27

question too, what's the last thing that made you

49:29

cry? Tears of joy? While

49:31

I mentioned this earlier and I'm

49:34

going to mention it again. The finale

49:36

of season one of the Great British Baking

49:39

Show, Christina I was

49:41

like, have I gone soft? I have?

49:44

Who? How many lemon tarts were

49:46

you in this point? All of them? All of them

49:49

could be I

49:52

think it definitely was. But

49:54

it was the thing that really got

49:56

me is that I don't think this is a spoiler

49:59

alert, but in the finale there's

50:01

you know, only a few amateur bakers

50:03

these are amateur quote unquote amateur bakers

50:05

who are incredible what they do, who

50:08

are competing on this show, but

50:10

they just, you know, without telling

50:12

me, the editors did

50:14

this entire montage sort of other lives

50:17

of each of them. And as we talked about

50:19

earlier, I just am so moved by

50:21

by stories and seeing

50:24

the kind of choices that these people

50:26

had made in the sacrifices. Uh

50:28

and and honestly, the time that they

50:30

had given themselves to do this passion

50:32

of theirs, in addition to everything

50:34

else, just made the tears.

50:38

So anyway, highly recommended

50:41

marvelous Christina. What was the last thing to make

50:43

you cry tears of joy? Oh? I mean so

50:45

Stacey Abrams winning the Democratic

50:47

primary for governor in Georgia, right,

50:50

I mean between that and home

50:53

to vote, I've had a very

50:55

like emotional couple of weeks on the front

50:57

um. She is the first black

51:00

woman to be nominated by a major party for

51:02

governor ever un

51:04

and she's also a human and diagram.

51:07

I've met her. I donated to her campaign.

51:09

She wrote romance novels.

51:11

She's like the successful romance novelist while

51:13

being a state senator in Georgia.

51:16

UM, and she's this amazing,

51:18

multitalented woman who

51:21

has decided to answer the call for public

51:23

service and and you know, go after the governorship.

51:26

And you know, it's a long shot for a

51:28

Democrat to win in Georgia. I get it, but

51:30

I have hopes because she is amazing.

51:33

That's so exciting. Ye, I'm

51:36

a huge fan. Which

51:38

was also fun because the Democratic primary

51:40

was the battle of two Stacy's literally two

51:42

women named Yes. I was like,

51:45

yes, mid term bringing

51:50

me life Stacy

51:52

versus Stacy. I am so on

51:54

board. Right, that's

51:56

a novel too, right, So,

52:00

oh my god, Kate. Question three, who is

52:02

one guest you wish we had had on our

52:04

show? Slash we're gonna try to book

52:06

when we come back. Oh my gosh. Well,

52:08

I'm going to just start this answer with a schmaltzy

52:11

answer, which is, I mean, we are so

52:13

lucky to have had the guests that we've had amazing.

52:16

You know, It's it's one thing, you know,

52:18

for people to say, oh my gosh, you guys have had such great

52:20

guests. These are guests have all said yes to

52:23

coming on our show. And not only have they

52:25

said yes, they have really

52:27

just like honestly told their

52:29

stories and their paths, and so

52:31

many of them were like cold emails

52:33

exactly like you don't know us, but

52:36

do you want to be on our Exactly. It's like, here's

52:38

who we are, and here are some links

52:40

if you have time to look at them. Um.

52:43

And so I just want to shout out all of our

52:45

guests we've had so far. They're all incredible.

52:48

Um. If I'm just gonna go ahead and throw

52:50

it out, I'm going to just say Ava Diverning

52:54

because she is such

52:56

a fabulous example of someone who had a whole

52:58

career before, you know, picking

53:00

up a camera and making her her first film

53:02

when she was in her mid thirties. Um, you

53:04

know, she worked in journalism. She covered

53:06

the O. J. Simpson trial, Yes,

53:09

and then she had this whole career as

53:11

a publicist before she became

53:13

a filmmaker. And I just love

53:15

hearing conversations with her. As

53:18

of late, obviously A Wrinkle in Time came out

53:20

recently, so she's been kind of doing the press

53:22

rounds. But she has just been

53:24

such a voice of um,

53:27

taking down this notion that if you don't do

53:29

something by a certain time of your life, you're not going to do

53:31

right. And I just love that she's doing

53:33

that. I'm looking forward to seeing

53:36

more of that and doing our

53:38

part in continuing to support that. Right,

53:41

um so yeah, hey, but come hang out?

53:45

What about you, Christina? I mean, I

53:48

think this should be no surprise to anyone.

53:50

Vanessa and all scientist,

53:54

lawyer, brilliant human

53:56

ven diagram uh and you

53:58

know the wife of Lynn Manuel, Miranda. She

54:01

just is a baller

54:03

and so many levels and I think

54:06

she would be a great addition to this show.

54:08

So Vanessa, if you're listening, Vanessa,

54:11

call us Vannett. We would

54:13

love to have you on. I think

54:15

that Vanessa inspired Lynn to turn

54:17

scientists into a verb and you were just scientist?

54:20

Did I think he said at one point? Yes?

54:24

Please? Um So, Kate, what

54:26

is something that you're looking forward

54:28

to doing with your Monday nights this

54:31

summer? Since Monday is usually when

54:33

we record, you know, I was thinking about that recently,

54:35

and I was sort

54:37

of at first like doing what

54:39

I've been doing lately, which is like, oh my gosh,

54:41

allowing myself to just think about

54:43

having space there, you know, like

54:46

I could really do anything. I

54:48

mean, The BACHELORATA is back on

54:50

Monday nights, and honestly,

54:53

as much as I have a sort of love hate

54:56

relationship with that show and that

54:58

franchise. Um, it's such a

55:00

fun way to hang out with.

55:02

Um my dear friend Mel who who has

55:04

this amazing Instagram account called not So

55:07

Guilty TV where she just

55:09

like live instagrams the show and throw

55:11

so much shade at it, And she

55:13

always invites me to come along, and I'm never available.

55:16

But I'm looking forward to just some couch time

55:19

and doing some maybe fun commentary

55:21

on the show because because

55:23

we can, why not? Why not? Um?

55:27

But I'm sure that in the next few weeks

55:29

I will also come up with something, you know, far

55:31

more substantial. Sure maybe

55:34

baking. Yes, Oh

55:36

my gosh, the possibilities are endless. All

55:39

of these possibilities are are very

55:41

valuable in and of themselves. Christina,

55:44

what about you? So I think

55:46

we've talked about the Wing on the show before. Yeah,

55:48

so I have been a member of the Wing now for

55:50

I don't even The women club started are

55:53

now is expanding to many cities exactly.

55:55

So this has been really fun. They have three locations in New York.

55:57

They're adding a fourth soon. They're just open

56:00

d C. They're adding l A. I'm so excited

56:02

for you to get San Francisco Chicago.

56:04

I mean, they're They're taking over the world. And

56:06

um, you know, during the day it's this fabulous

56:09

kind of coworking space equivalent,

56:11

but also has showers and like blow dryers

56:13

in case you need to do your hair, which I love. Um.

56:16

But at night they do this incredible

56:18

programming and they've had everyone

56:20

from like Hillary Clinton to

56:23

guests that have movies or

56:25

television shows that are debuting. They did a big thing for

56:28

Handmaid's Tale debut with Lue.

56:31

They have fantastic conversations

56:33

and really just wonderful programming

56:35

that I don't get to go too much because

56:39

I'm on the road and doing the show. And so

56:41

I've decided that Monday nights summer,

56:43

I'm going to go to the Wing. I'm gonna go see

56:45

some good programming and learn about like the

56:48

female spies during the Civil War, because

56:50

that's the thing they do that is incredible,

56:53

right, that is incredible. So

56:56

I'm looking forward to that. Oh my gosh,

56:58

I am so looking for to that on your

57:00

behalf. Um, and I

57:03

think we all know what our next question is,

57:05

which is one last shout out for a woman

57:07

doing awesome things. So, Kate,

57:10

who are we shouting out as women

57:12

doing awesome things? Oh my gosh, Well

57:14

we have a couple of women to shout out. Of

57:16

course, we have so many women to shame. But

57:19

we want to give a special shout out to Christina

57:21

Voletta at Forbes and

57:23

specifically Women at Forbes, which

57:26

is such an incredible space

57:28

of programming. Christina has kind of been

57:30

our fairy godmother. She has, she's

57:33

she's the one that came to us two

57:35

and a half years ago, specifically came to you said,

57:38

well, she said, we're trying this thing called

57:40

podcasts. Do you want to be part of

57:42

it? And uh, it was just perfect

57:44

timing and a perfect opportunity that

57:47

became this, this amazing

57:50

project, and so just huge

57:52

thanks to Christina and to the Women at Forbes

57:55

team for taking a chance on us

57:57

and kind of letting us build this thing,

58:00

oh my gosh, and not blinking an eye

58:02

when we said we were going to name our show after

58:04

a mean Girls reference and a calculus

58:06

term exactly. Yeah, So

58:09

thank you Christina Valletta. Um,

58:11

you're a goddess and we are so grateful

58:13

to have you in our corner. Absolutely, we

58:16

also have to give a shout out to New

58:18

Mama and our matchmaker

58:21

Rachel ax Axler,

58:23

who is the first person

58:25

to kind of say, hey, you're

58:27

both weird math theater people.

58:30

You should know each other totally

58:33

A thousand percent. Rachel is

58:35

an incredible human Vin Diagram and her own

58:37

right. She's an amazing musician, and of

58:39

course she's an incredible comedy

58:41

writer. Um. She most

58:44

recently has written on Veep. She

58:46

just Rachel's the kind of person that anything she touches

58:49

or creates I want to read here your watch

58:52

all of the above. Yes, she is

58:54

also our Yenta and

58:57

on that on your first trip

58:59

out to l A, which I have now learned was your

59:01

first time in l A two

59:04

plus years ago, when you and Rachel

59:06

and I all got juices, it was really the start of something

59:08

special. It was. It really

59:10

was. It really was. And

59:13

you know, because it's our last episode

59:15

for now, we want to give a bonus shout out

59:17

to Tina fe for making

59:20

Mean Girls because without

59:24

this entire limit

59:26

does not exist, Riff

59:29

with Katie Herron and the Math team

59:31

would not be And you know what, I

59:33

am thrilled that Mean Girls has been turned

59:35

into a musical. Yes, on Broadway.

59:38

I am going to see it two days after this

59:40

episode airs. Oh my gosh, my Dragon

59:42

Chairs. Oh I

59:45

am probably going to weep

59:47

some tears of joy during the Limit does Not Exist

59:50

seen on Broadway.

59:53

My head is exploding with just

59:55

the convergence of all of it, of all the things.

59:58

Yeah, I really don't think that I embraced

1:00:01

the fact that Tina Fey did pull such an incredible

1:00:03

Calculus phrase and put

1:00:06

it right into a movie. And had

1:00:08

she not done that, You're right, we might have glossed

1:00:10

over in Calculus textbooks

1:00:13

as we were searching for the title of his show True

1:00:15

Story.

1:00:19

I know it is hard to end

1:00:21

this, I know, I

1:00:24

know. So you know what, I think we should just keep talking

1:00:26

and Steve, do you just want to do a slow fade

1:00:28

out. I

1:00:33

mean, it's probably the most appropriate

1:00:35

way for us to go huge thanks to podcast

1:00:37

one and Steve are amazing

1:00:40

producer for Stick and Bias episodes.

1:00:43

And with that, I'll catch you next time sounds

1:00:46

good

1:00:48

Bye.