Suleika Jaouad (on creative alchemy)

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Armchair Umbrella

Tv & Film, Music, Comedy

4.6 • 68.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 119 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Suleika Jaouad (The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life) is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and bestselling author. Suleika joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why in a memoir you should save the sharpest knives for yourself, being excited when something holds up a mirror to our ugliest parts, and moments of creative injury and the validation that can come from them. Suleika and Dax talk about finding her sense of belonging in books, choosing to play the double bass, and meeting the love of her life Jon Batiste at band camp. Sulieika explains how her leukemia was misdiagnosed as burnout syndrome, the experience of witnessing her worst day alchemize into one of her best, and why the only way for her not to be consumed by her fear during her illness was to collaborate with it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad free right now.
0:06.5	Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:10.0	Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.
0:13.8	Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, Experts on Expert.
0:17.3	I'm Dax Shepard and I'm joined by Monica Monsoon.
0:21.1	Hi there. Hi. Today we have Suleika Juad. Yes.
0:27.7	Who we've been dying to meet since. I mean, we met her in real life a couple times,
0:32.2	but ever since watching that incredible documentary about her and John Batiste. She's such a special, incredible person.
0:39.6	She's a bestselling author. She's an artist and advocate. Her books include between two kingdoms
0:45.5	and now the book of alchemy, a creative practice for an inspired life. She's insanely inspiring as a
0:53.1	person. Yeah, this was a beautiful conversation.
0:55.7	And even though Dax and I get into it at the beginning, we will revisit it in the fact check,
1:03.2	and you can stick around for that. I can't wait. This is also news to me.
1:08.8	Yep. All right. Please enjoy Sue Laker.
1:13.2	I hear you like a podcast and you like to be entertained.
1:16.3	I bet you also like to know what's going on in the world.
1:18.8	Especially when the news is so bonkers.
1:20.7	So can I suggest newscast?
1:22.6	It's a daily podcast with BBC journalists.
1:25.3	That's us talking about the news.
1:26.8	About what's going on and why it matters.
1:29.1	And it may well help you be better informed, but we don't mind if you take the credit.
	...

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