39. Maria Popova (Writer, Editor of Brain Pickings) – The Absurdity of Not Writing Poems

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2016

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"I’m always pulled toward anything that helps me figure out how to live a meaningful and substantive life." – Maria Popova What does real friendship look like? How can something written a thousand years ago help us to navigate our lives in the 21st century? On this week's Think Again, host Jason Gots speaks with Maria Popova, the creator, writer, and editor of Brain Pickings, a labor of love that has grown into a massive web media presence -- a blog, newsletter, twitter feed and more that shares timeless wisdom from authors past and present about how to live a meaningful life. Maria reads the poem Possibilities by Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska, which, along with three surprise interview clips with William Shatner, Howard Gardner, and Jon Kabat-Zinn sparks a far-ranging and revealing conversation on friendship, modern anxiety, and so much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Huh, have you ever wondered what a sandwich sounds like?
0:03.0	Not much to it, is there?
0:06.0	Unless, of course, it's a Walker's sandwich.
0:10.0	Mmm, that is good.
0:13.0	Now that's what Asani should sound like.
0:16.0	Go all crisp in with walkers.
0:18.0	Delicious.
0:20.0	Hey there, I'm Jason Gatz and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.
0:29.6	Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas and little doses from some of the most creative
0:34.9	thinkers on earth.
0:36.4	The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone.
0:39.3	Big Thanks producers surprise our guests and me, your host,
0:42.3	with ideas that we're not prepared to discuss.
0:45.3	I'm so happy to be here today with Maria Popova,
0:48.3	writer and curator of brain pickings,
0:51.3	a labor of love that has grown into a massive web media presence.
0:55.0	It's a blog, it's a newsletter, a Twitter feed, and more.
0:58.0	Maria started Brain Pickings in 2006 as a weekly digest to send to her colleagues at work at an ad agency.
1:05.0	The idea was to inspire them and herself each week with ideas from outside their field.
1:10.0	Now it's followed by millions of people all over the world, but it remains a labor of love
1:15.6	in which Maria draws life lessons from bits of interestingness that she discovers and shares with us her readers.
1:21.6	Welcome to think again, Maria.
	...

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