Get Busy Livin'!
Death clock, your life in months and the latest podcast episodes
So it’s been an enormous amount of time since I’ve sent a newsletter out. Forgive me, but also - Covid. It’s crazy how quickly time has gone by and how much everything has changed since the last time you received one of these. I’m committing to doing it more and have scheduled time to do so (if you don’t schedule it, it doesn’t happen, right?). Like a good person in their 30’s these are things I’m working on, failing at, and continuing to try.
It’s been a wild few months. I’ve made a few awesome podcasts but even those have been sporadic. Working on picking up the pace with that as well, so stay tuned. Some of the recent episodes have started to touch on death and I talk with two people who have also lost their fathers. See below for the links to the episodes.
In general this time has gotten me thinking a lot about death and the fragility of life. I’ve been reading a lot of Marcus Aurelius and his stoic philosophy lately. Something he continually visits is the idea that everything around us is dying and we are on a river that continues to flow and does not cease. One line I really like is the idea that our lives are as brief as the “turn of a corkscrew”, or that humans are like leaves and every year we fall to the ground and more leaves grow in our place. Sounds bleak but it’s also very optimistic and freeing. Once you accept all of these things you can start to live a more focused and meaningful life.
I recently installed a Google chrome extension called the “Death Clock”. Every time I open a tab it is counting down, based on my life expectancy, from how many days I have left. Again, sounds bleak. But it really encourages me to think twice about opening the news or Facebook.
This all reminds me of this awesome post on the Wait But Why blog called “Your Life in Weeks”. I highly encourage you all to read it. Tim Urban is awesome at visualizing and presenting big ideas in a digestible way. Here is a 90 year human life in months. Doesn’t look like that much, does it?
So when I let 6 of those circles pass by without a newsletter, or more generally when I don’t feel alive or like I’m creating anything for the world for an extended period of time, due to internal or external circumstances, I get antsy and need a little perspective. Talking to other people in their 30’s about it, or reading philosophy and awesome blog posts can help.
If you have any tools or tips that you use to gain perspective please please please let me know by replying to this email or hit me up on social. Would love to share a collection of some other ideas that we get over the next few weeks.
Thanks for reading, and get busy living!
New Podcast Episodes
You can get any of these episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen.
Death/Career Related
I interviewed Mackenzie (Macky) Donaldson, a Toronto and Los Angeles based director, producer and writer. She recently finished producing her first feature documentary, Citizen Bio (see the trailer), about biohackers aka citizen-driven biomedical research. It premiered on Showtime October 30th. She is actively involved in The Producer Pledge and Impact. Macky and I talk about the importance of getting more minorities and people of color telling their stories in the film industry, the microchip that's been inserted in her hand, emulating her father and being aware of death in everyday life, her daily routines and work as a producer, what to do when at a crossroads, the importance of saying yes to everything early in your career, how she's now trying to focus in her 30's, the pressure and balance of biological clocks and wanting children, and how to ask for what you want.
Heavy, REAL and life-affirming interview with Benjamin Hackman, frontman for the Holy Gasp and composer-in-residence at the Historic Kiever Synagogue in Toronto. We talk about our father's deaths, the grieving/mourning process, grief in today's culture, losing a parent, choosing life and much more. Ben recently did a performance with an ensemble of 10 vocalists, 2 pianists, and percussion. It was called Grief, and he collected “names of the dead” from anyone that wanted to enter them and proceeded to spend 6 hours reading all of them until sunrise. You can see the entire live stream at https://theholygasp.com/.
Covid Related
I interviewed Ariel Lefkowitz, a friend and young doctor, who was recently the attending physician on the Covid ward at one of Toronto's major hospitals where he quickly realized that the situation required a more significant and evolving level of compassion and humanity than he and any of his co-workers had ever experienced. It's a fascinating look at what it's like to be a doctor and a leader during these tumultuous times. We talk about his experiences on the ward, worrying about colleagues, staff and infecting family at home, and more generally about love, family, mentors, and knowing and committing at a young age to spend a decade becoming a doctor.
I interviewed Remi Dion who is friend and fellow engineer who studied at McGill University. He is currently doing a masters in artificial intelligence, and was on a semester abroad at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in the South province of Tamil Nadu when all of the Covid-19 stuff began. His story is pretty insane and he was at the time of this interview still trapped in South India with no visible way to return to his home country of Canada.
If you find this newsletter valuable, consider sharing with your friends!
And if you want to subscribe to get this email directly to your inbox, click the link below.
If you like Living30 click here to help me keep making this stuff.
That’s all for now. Thank you so much for reading.
Lots of love,
Max