How free solo climber Alex Honnold faces fear

Worklife with Adam Grant

TED

Management, Worklife Podcast, Worklife With Adam Grant, Work Life Balance, Ted Talks, Podcast About Work Life, Ted Adam Grant, Adam Grant Podcasts, Ted Podcasts, Adam Grant, Organizational Psychologist, Business

4.8 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2017, Alex Honnold did what even the world’s best rock climbers thought was impossible. He climbed to the top of El Capitan– a granite rock mountain more than 3,000 feet high– without a rope, harness, or net. His audacious feat was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo,” and it left Adam with some burning questions about what we can learn from his unique approach to managing fear. Alex opens up about how he regulates his emotions when he’s hanging on by just a few fingers, what still scares him, and how he stays motivated to pursue ambitious goals. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/RWAG2

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks to Hilton for sponsoring this episode.
0:03.2	Hey everyone, it's Adam Grant.
0:08.2	Welcome back to Rethinking, my podcast on the Science of What Makes Us Tick.
0:13.3	I'm an organizational psychologist, and I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating
0:17.7	people to explore how they think and what we should all rethink.
0:22.8	Today's guest is Alex Honult.
0:26.0	You probably recognize him from the Oscar-winning documentary, Free Solo.
0:30.2	He's that climber who did the unthinkable in 2018.
0:33.6	When he climbed El Capitan, a 3,000-foot rock wall in Yosemite National Park without
0:40.0	any ropes.
0:41.8	However insane it looks and sounds, extremely insane.
0:46.2	Someone who does something that dangerous, with such excellence, has allowed to teach
0:50.0	us about rethinking our own fears and goals.
0:56.6	I want to go back to the very beginning and just start with asking you about the story
1:02.2	of when you first discovered a love of climbing.
1:05.3	Oh, it's so far back at this point that it's hard to really remember because I've always
1:09.7	loved climbing.
1:11.0	Even before it was technically rock climbing, I climbed on buildings and trees and play
1:15.3	structures and walked on handrails and basically played and then I discovered rock climbing
1:20.6	at a climbing gym when I was maybe 10 and then have been climbing full-time since then
1:25.0	basically.
1:26.0	It's like I just love the movement of climbing.
	...

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