Ravi Patel's Pursuit Of Happiness

The Rich Roll Podcast

Rich Roll

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Society & Culture

4.8 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2020

⏱️ 133 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What’s the best way to grow old? Are we over-parenting our kids? And how can I strike the right work-life balance? These are just a few of the questions Ravi Patel was struggling with. So the actor, filmmaker, husband and dad decided to explore how foreign cultures grapple with them. The result is Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness, a docu-series in which Ravi enlists his friends and family in overseas adventures in search of answers to life’s questions. Perhaps you caught Ravi’s 2014 hit documentary Meet The Patels, a funny and touching first-person family adventure in which Ravi enlists his traditional Indian parents in his search for love, leading him down a rabbit hole into the world of arranged marriages. Streaming on HBO Max, the new show digs even deeper — a poignant and timely deconstruction of American exceptionalism that ventures beyond buddy travelogue tropes. Today Ravi shares his story — and the many lessons learned along the way. Hardly your ordinary actor, this conversation begins with an exploration of Ravi’s unique path. His past life in investment banking. His current interest in health and wellness. His grapple with identity and indoctrination. And his sundry adventures navigating the vicissitudes of Hollywood. We then pivot to the many nuggets of wisdom Ravi has gleaned from his personal journey. And we tug on the questions explored in his Pursuit of Happiness travels to Japan, Denmark, South Korea and Mexico: Why are Americans so unhappy? How can you be a good parent? How do you find work life balance? And how can we responsibly promote inclusion for all? Recorded pre-election, this conversation is equal parts light-hearted and profound — a mix of laughs and uppercase Truths on all things love, partnership, parenting, purpose, and passion. It’s also a friendship origin story. The first of what I anticipate will be more conversations to come. The visually inclined can watch our exchange on YouTube. And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I love this guy and everything he’s about. And I hope you find this conversation as refreshing and uplifting as I did. Peace + Plants, Rich Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You know, wanting to be closer to your family is not uniquely
0:05.1	petal. I mean, it's all of us. And I think it's at the core of a big struggle
0:10.6	that we're having as Americans right now, which is individualism, privacy,
0:16.8	while also wanting to be a part of something that's bigger. And I would argue,
0:21.6	like, that's the American crisis that's happening right now is trying to figure
0:25.2	out a way, like, what are our communities? Is our community our family? Is our
0:29.5	communities of the bigger the family? Obviously as a country, we're having an
0:32.6	existential moment. I don't know that there's anything more American than the
0:40.1	constant need to optimize. It's the need that we all have for more. And it's
0:46.8	exhausting. There's never been a more important time in history for people to
0:51.6	understand the tenets of essentialism than right now, because there's so
0:57.0	much noise. If I can keep finding ways to make the pursuit of my own joy and
1:05.0	the pursuit of improving my relationships with the people I love, if somehow I can
1:09.8	keep making that my work, talk about the greatest privilege in life. It's just
1:15.8	so fun trying to figure out ways to do better and if you can laugh and smile
1:20.3	along the way. I mean, that's just the real juice in life. That's Ravi Patel.
1:24.8	And this is episode 560 of the Retro Podcast.
1:39.8	The Retro Podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome to the show. Quick reminder, my
1:45.1	brand new book, Voicing Change is now in the wild. A gorgeous Trojan horse that
1:50.6	sneaks up on you with its coffee table book aesthetic and photography, but it
1:55.6	keeps you hooked with the timeless wisdom inspired from the last eight years. I've
1:59.6	spent hosting this podcast. I'm really proud of it. It's available exclusively
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Rich Roll, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Rich Roll and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.