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Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

54. LIVE! Sarah Jones (actor/playwright) –

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6594 Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2016

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sarah Jones is a Tony and Obie award-winning playwright and performer. She's unlike any other artist in her uncanny ability to create, become,  and instantly switch between characters, convincingly inhabiting their physicality and their consciousness. Sarah's 2004 one woman show BRIDGE & TUNNEL channeled the symphony of voices that make up New York City's five boroughs. She returns this fall to the Manhattan Theatre Club with SELL/BUY/DATE, in which she plays all characters in a sex-ed class from the future that doubles as a brilliant, satirical commentary on life in 2016.  On May 20th, 2016, almost exactly a year after we launched, Think Again did an episode live with Sarah Jones as part of NYC Podfest, at CakeShop NYC. Host Jason Gots knew in advance that Sarah might be slipping into and out of character, but not which characters, or when. Over the course of the hour, Sarah became and responded to the surprise discussion clips as Rashid, an out-of-work rapper, Lorraine, a Jewish grandmother, Bella, a millennial, and many more. Far from stereotypes, these were fully-fleshed people with brilliant insights grounded in their radically different life experiences.  Above all, it was a hell of a lot of fun for the 100+ people present, and we're delighted to share it now with you.  Surprise clips in this episode: Douglas Rushkoff on collaboration in the digital economy, Angie MacArthur on types of attention, Parag Khanna on World War III Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi there, I'm Jason Gots and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

0:09.0

Today's episode is a very special one. This was our first ever live performance,

0:14.0

which we did back in June as part of NYC Podfest 2016.

0:20.0

And my guest was Sarah Jones, who is an incredibly talented performer.

0:25.1

She's an actress and a playwright who plays multiple characters,

0:29.2

becomes them, really.

0:31.1

And I give her a full introduction in a moment.

0:33.5

But what I want you to understand before you start listening

0:37.2

is that throughout the show, she puts on a pair of glasses

0:41.3

or puts on a baseball cap and becomes entirely different people.

0:47.3

And she responds as them to the surprise topics.

0:51.3

It's an amazing, amazing experience to be up there with her.

0:55.0

And I had no idea what she was going to do before she did it.

0:59.0

So I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

1:05.0

Hello. Welcome.

1:08.0

This journey to this stage began about a year ago, but I should go back before that. In 2008, Big Think was founded as a kind of a YouTube for big ideas. The idea was to gather some of the smartest, most creative, most interesting, emerging ideas from people in all fields, sciences,

1:28.3

arts, etc. and put them out there on the internet in extremely engaging form.

1:34.3

And it's grown into a kind of living encyclopedia, you could say, of emerging ideas.

1:42.3

And for me, the best ideas, the most creative moments,

1:46.0

the most interesting moments between human beings,

1:49.0

happen in kind of synaptic connections between surprises,

1:54.0

between disconnects, when you are kind of out of your comfort zone.

...

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