Pushkin. This is really hard psychologically on people.

This is this extraordinary opportunity to experience solitude.

And I keep hearing people say this is really hard psychologically on people.

Humans are social animals. We're meant to be together and that's inarguably true

but that's not the only thing we are. We're also spiritual animals and every

spiritual tradition in the history of the world advises at some point or another

going and being alone for a long period of time and being in

retreat and being in stillness and being in isolation. If you're asking me how I'm experiencing it, this is a country I've never

been to and I don't mean America under lockdown, I mean living complete solitude for a long

extended period of time.

That was Elizabeth Gilbert.

I'm Sam Fricoso and this is Talk Easy.

Welcome to the show. Oh, Hey everyone. Today's guest is Elizabeth Gilbert. She's the author of many

wonderful books including Eat Pray Love, The Signature of All Things, and most recently,

City of Girls.

On a personal note, I wanted to give some context before we jumped in here. Four years ago I started

this show with my friend Correa Tad. He was helping me edit the podcast at the

time and I remember we started putting together a short list as one does

of some of our dream guests.

These were people that we wanted to sit with for an hour, all of whom were probably out of our reach for a

podcast with about a hundred people listening, half of them my family, but in

the interviewing four years some of those folks on that list have come on.

...