David Whyte - On Forgiveness, Fear, And Being Fully Human
ManTalks Podcast
Connor Beaton
4.8 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2025
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Talking points: masculinity, culture, gratitude, anger, poetry
I don’t typically get starstruck or awed in interviews, even though I’ve talked to many incredible people. But David? Well, he’s had an immense impact on my life, and so much of my work and way of thinking lives inspired by him. He joined me in Seattle and shared so much wisdom, beauty, and of course, poetry. Dig into this one.
(00:00:00) - What is the “conversational nature of reality”, why the unknown is so uncomfortable, and the fear of “descent”
(00:18:44) - How the need for control kills off meaning and purpose, and how real poetry and philosophy come from NOT knowing what to say
(00:25:53) - David reads “Blessing of the Morning Light”
(00:32:42) - How does a man start building a relationship to the unknown parts of himself, and David’s relationship with his father
(00:44:24) - The role of anger and the power of poetry
(00:56:16) - On forgiveness and male friendship
(01:31:57) - How do you properly thank someone who’s had a profound impact on you?
David Whyte is an internationally renowned poet and author, and a scintillating and moving speaker. Behind these talents lies a very physical attempt to give voice to the wellsprings of human identity, human striving and, most difficult of all, the possibilities for human happiness. He draws from hundreds of memorized poems, his own and those of other beloved poets such as Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Keats, Pablo Neruda, Fleur Adcock and the sonnets of Shakespeare. He is the author of ten books of poetry, three books of prose on the transformative nature of work; a widely-acclaimed, best-selling book of essays, and an extensive audio collection.
Connect with David
-Website: https://davidwhyte.com/
-Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidjwhyte/
-Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PoetDavidWhyte/
-YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@poetdavidwhyte
-SubStack: https://davidwhyte.substack.com/
***
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Mentioned in this episode:
Self Worth
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today I will be interviewing somebody that I've wanted to have on the show for a very long |
| 0:04.7 | time, Mr. David White, and we are live in Seattle. |
| 0:09.1 | So you might hear some of Seattle in the background. |
| 0:12.8 | So enjoy the conversation. |
| 0:15.7 | Don't mind the buses and the biker gangs that maybe roll by throughout the conversation. |
| 0:29.7 | All right, Mr. David White, welcome to The Man Talk Show. |
| 0:31.1 | Thank you so much for being here. |
| 0:33.8 | I am very excited to be speaking with you. |
| 0:38.3 | I want to start off with the question that I think will frame the rest of our conversation, which is what is the conversational nature of reality? |
| 0:43.3 | Conversatio, you know, in Latin, it's a beautiful word, converse. |
| 0:48.3 | It means inside out, actually. |
| 0:51.3 | So when you're conversing, you're bringing the inside to the outside and the outside |
| 0:57.8 | to the inside. And it's where they meet that you have a real possibility of feeling completely |
| 1:04.8 | alive, vibrant, even joy, that very, very rare quality. |
| 1:11.6 | And so we often wonder why can't I sustain joy and happiness inside myself? |
| 1:17.6 | Well, you can't, because it's actually at a meeting place. |
| 1:24.6 | It's where you meet the world that you have the possibility of a certain, certain qualities |
| 1:30.3 | of radiance, presence, joy and what looks like from the outside charisma. |
| 1:38.3 | Which is really, charisma is really the, what we call a powerful invitation from what a powerful invitation looks like from |
| 1:49.0 | the outside. You're being invited into something and you don't know what, yeah, but you know |
| 1:57.0 | it's going to call on you being larger. It's going to make you larger. |
| 2:02.4 | And it's going to, in a way, kill you in the process. |
... |
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