The Brilliance of Boredom with creative polymath Elle Cordova

A Bit of Optimism

The Optimism Company from Simon Sinek

Self-improvement, Careers, Business, Management, Education

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	True Classic is sponsoring today's episode.
0:03.0	Fun story, I met Ryan, their CEO, over lunch.
0:07.0	And I was like, I really like this guy.
0:09.0	That's why we're proud to work with them and have them as our sponsor.
0:13.0	I've been backed off and banned from probably close to like six, seven casinos now in Vegas.
0:20.0	And unfortunately, they're all my mom's favorite casino, so we can't go there anymore. She's told me to stop. So I love this. All you wanted to do was be a good daughter, celebrate your mom's birthday, and now you're banned from half a dozen casinos in Las Vegas. I know. It's a funny turn of events. But, yeah, I blame my mom. She brought me there. I mean, it's always childhood trauma.
0:38.4	Exactly. I just wanted to sit with her longer and have more drinks. Two introverts walk into a bar.
0:45.4	Let's be honest, that's not happening. But here's what did happen. Two introverts sat down for a
0:51.1	conversation about creativity and the importance of boredom. Yes, boredom.
0:58.0	It turns out boredom is underrated. It can actually be a remarkable source of calm and creativity,
1:06.4	which a lot of introverts may already know. That was definitely the case for El Cordova.
1:11.8	She's a singer-songwriter, a poet, and a certified nerd who in the isolation of lockdown
1:17.8	discovered a creativity she didn't know she had. The result? Well, I'm sure a lot of you have
1:25.5	seen her sketch about fonts at a party or her poem about
1:29.4	the Big Bang, both of which went very viral.
1:33.3	Before the Big Bang, there was no up, there was no down, there was no side to side.
1:38.1	There was no up, there was no down, there was no side to side.
1:41.0	There was no light, there was no dark, nor shape of any kind.
1:43.9	There were no stars or planet Mars or protons to collide. There was no light, there was no dark, nor shape of any kind. There were no stars or
1:44.8	planet Mars or protons to collide. There was no up, there was no down, there was no side to side.
1:49.8	And furthermore, to underscore this total lacking state, there was no here, there was no there
1:54.2	because there was no space. And in this endless void, which can't be thought of as a place,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

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

Generated transcripts are the property of The Optimism Company from Simon Sinek and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.