149 Sessions

We all know intellectually that we can't predict the future and that any plans we make should be taken with a grain of salt given that uncertainty - that was true pre-pandemic and is all the more dramatic now. And yet deciding not to plan anything is impractical and often not helpful. So how does one find a healthy balance around making plans, especially in inherently uncertain times? Jen and Noah sure as heck don't know, but they have some thoughts on the subject, which they explore in this conversation. 

Jen and Noah have their first socially distanced podcast discussion, an appropriate time to explore the idea of "letting go," including their own paths to loosening the impulse to cling to expectations. 

Authenticity is complicated. What does it mean? How do you measure it? Is the conventional true that being authentic automatically makes your life better? Jen and Noah sure as heck don't know, but they do have some thoughts and you can hear them dig into those thoughts and some reflections on formative experiences at the basis of those thoughts. 

Avoidance gets a bum rap. Kind of. In this episode Jen and Noah talk about the types of avoidance that are actually beneficial, the things that drive us to avoid (or postpone) things we really should be dealing with now, all the thorny gray area in between, and the perspectives and strategies they employ as they attempt to own and exercise agency over their avoidance rather than being passively at its mercy. 

While this episode was recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak, this seems like a particularly opportune moment to think about what drives us to make music (hint: it's not the massive financial rewards). Though certainly not able to speak for all musicians, Jen and Noah contemplate and discuss their own core motivations. 

The idea of "target audience" brings up visions of algorithm-driven marketing campaigns and whatnot, which we suppose is part of the world we now inhabit. As artists, though, it speaks to something more elemental: the question of who we are hoping to reach with our work and how that perception can trickle back down to the making of the work itself. 

Legacy is a complicated idea, whether we're talking about the lasting body of work an artist produces or referring more holistically to what we've done as humans and/or how we're remembered for it. As artists, we need to grapple with that both with our own work/lives and with how we choose to engage and propagate the legacies of those who have inspired this. Jen and Noah do their best here to unpack some of this. 

Stereotypically, comparing ourselves to others is a self-defeating mental exercise that we should avoid to the degree possible. And yet, a) we all do it to some extent and b) not all of this comparison is inherently negative (how, for example, can an aspiring artist or craftsperson assess their ability level without using others they admire as a point of reference). We dig into all of this and more, discussing how each of us seeks a healthy balance between rugged iconoclasm and acknowledging the potential good of looking at what those around us are doing. 

In some ways the craving to be accepted is an indulgence of the ego that can hold us back from our most sincere pursuits, while in other ways it is a natural mechanism for social and professional survival in the world. In this episode Jen and Noah look at various angles of this phenomenon and Noah even shares his vision of the moment of reckoning when the late Phoebe Snow encountered St. Peter. 

Jen and Noah have a winding discussion of fear, talking about the subject broadly, about their own biggest fears and relationships with fear, and about the helpful and not-so-helpful ways that fear impacts and motivates each of them.