Hi, TED Talks Daily listeners.

We have a special series coming up.

Every Friday for the next 10 weeks, we'll be sharing an episode of another podcast from the TED Audio Collective.

Did you know that TED has 17 podcasts with more to come?

This is an episode of The Design Matters with Debbie Millman podcast.

On this episode, a conversation with writer Cheryl Strait about her childhood, her career, and on the value of taking a very long hike.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to Design Matters wherever you're listening to this. This is Design Matters with Debbie Milman.

You could say that Cheryl Strait is very adaptable.

Her memoir, Wild, was adapted into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon.

Another book, Tiny Beautiful Things, was adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalas and Thomas

Kale. Tiny Beautiful Things itself was adapted from an advice column, she once wrote, called

Dear Sugar, and that advice column has ultimately been adapted into a New York Times podcast called

Sugar Calling. I'm joined by Cheryl Strayd, who is

recording herself in her home in Portland, Oregon. Cheryl Strayed, welcome to Design Matters.

Hi, Debbie. I am so thrilled to be here. I'm a fan of the podcast, and I've been dying to talk to

you for ages. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm so excited.

I listened to a recent podcast where you said that this pandemic has made it clear to you that the

first thing you are is a writer. Was that ever really in doubt? No, no. It was never in doubt inside

myself. But what I meant by that is one of the things that

happened after Wilde became a bestseller is suddenly I had so many opportunities that were not

writing. They were writing adjacent. For example, I now have a really active career as a paid public speaker. I never, I mean, I do unpaid

public talks too, but what I mean is I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would be, you know,

...