Suleika Jaouad (on creative alchemy)

Episode overview

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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Short transcript highlights

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1. 0:00Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, experts on expert. I'm Dak Shepard and I'm joined by Monica
2. 1:06:49like the last thing you want to feel is infantalized. You're like, "I've got this." Even though you definitely don't got it. Like whether...
3. 2:12:10right. Well, that's it. Okay. I love you. Love you. [Music]"