25 for 25

Episode 9: Facing Uncertainty with Author Margaret Heffernan (Election Special)

Voting Information: https://www.ballotready.org/

Philadelphia Bail Fund https://www.phillybailfund.org/

Transcription: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zuf0XOelJWYSf_gpJsu1g1ARrjQ0Oe2a3MAfUjVNocE/edit?usp=sharing

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Amidst all of the uncertainty throughout 2020, Margaret Heffernan shares soothing advice for the future: don’t predict it.

Margaret Heffernan has worked in radio and television, run businesses for venture capitalist and production moguls, and published six books. She’s a businesswoman, and she writes about business. But she also writes about life.

Margaret explains that people are constantly changing, so we should constantly experiment. She believes that there is no master plan for life or life’s big problems! Margaret also apologizes for the world that her generation has created for today’s young people. She raised her children during 9/11, Brexit, economic crisis, climate change, and now a pandemic. And that sucks for young adults now who have to work to save the world.

Margaret’s interview left me feeling strangely comforted. The world is a mess. There are no magic solutions. So it’s totally fine if I don’t know exactly where I am heading in life. I’ll find out along the way.

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Welcome to episode 8/25 of 25 for 25, where we interview 25 people about what their lives were like at age 25.

Ophira Eisenberg is a comedian and storyteller, and she hosts the ever popular NPR word game show, Ask Me Another.

We spoke about how difficult it is to not get too caught up in the future, and how it’s all the worse when you have no choice but to adapt to a tumultuous present.

We also talked about storytelling, comedy, and being vulnerable on stage without worrying too much about what people will think. Wee all worry about judgement, but I think grappling with that fear is the best way to find your voice.

When Ophira was 25, she was living in Vancouver and planting seeds for the future, including performing stand-up for the first time.

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If you want to talk about feeling humbled, let’s talk about my guest. Faylita Hicks has become a new inspiration to me. From their activism to their writing, Faylita’s work ethic and passion is something I wish to emulate.

Despite taking some time off from writing in their early 30s, it feels like they were never gone. Faylita has had pieces in long reads, poetry mag, Slate, the American Poetry review, and more. Their book of poetry, HoodWitch, was a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, 2019 Julie Suk Award, and the 2019 Balcones Poetry Prize.

Quick content warning, we’re going to talk about incarceration, the death of loved ones, racism, and unplanned pregnancy.

Tragedy and trauma has fueled Faylita’s work and their activism. Faylita says they know extreme joy because they’ve experienced extreme pain. Here’s Faylita Hicks on twenty-five.

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The Reverend Dr. Shelley Best wears a million different hats.

Best likes to call herself a soulpreneur, and welcomes anyone interested in becoming one too. We recorded our interview during the beforetimes, at the 224, a communal ecospace in Hartford that she founded as part of the conference of churches. When she was 25, Best was A young professional, an active church member, coming into her faith after the struggles she faced growing up. One valuable takeaway from this interview is that Best found her lifeline through a community that she showed up for. In that community she was able to find healing and make connections which inspired her to pursue her soulpreneurial vision.

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Cheryl Corely is a national correspondent for NPR based in Chicago.

When she was 25, Cheryl was working hard and playing hard in Peoria, IL. she was reporting for Peoria Public Radio by day, and by night she was a director for a Peoria local TV news station. After getting out of work at 10 pm, she’d spend time with her friends at bars and clubs. That kind of balance is impressive for me, who needs a minimum of eight hours of sleep in order to function.

Cheryl and I talked about the importance of not getting too anxious about the future, and finding the right mentors to as for guidance from.

Here’s Cheryl Corley on 25.

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If you live in Connecticut, chances are pretty high that you know Chion Wolf’s voice.

In addition to being the sound engineer and daytime announcer for Connecticut Public Radio, she hosts two podcasts of her own- a storytelling show called The Mouth Off, and an advice show called What’s Your Problem, both recorded live in Hartford, CT.

She has a million other projects that I could mention, but it would probably take up the entirety of the podcast to describe all of them.

By far my favorite thing she does, though, is a weekly live stream on facebook and instagram every sunday afternoon called “it’s chopped salad time!” in which she makes salads for the week and talks about life and is her charming self. It’s delightful.

When Chion was 25, long before she was a familiar voice in CT, Chion was working at T-Mobile at Westfarms Mall in Farmington, CT.

We talked about young people slang, how people treat you when you’re precocious, and we spent a lot of time talking about death. It was hilarious.

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Doctor Gina Barreca has been teaching at the University of Connecticut for over 25 years. When she was 25, she was just beginning her career studying women’s humor in literature.

Since then she’s written over fifteen books, has a weekly column in the Hartford Courant, has been on Oprah, Dr. Phill, the Today Show, and was in the first class to include women at Dartmouth College. Currently she’s writing a book about loneliness and humor.

Gina and I met in her office, filled with books and posters and trinkets, including a Barbie doll dressed as Tippi Hedren in The Birds.

In our interview we discussed anxiety and ambition. She says that If you’re ambitious, you never get to relax. On the one hand that drive never goes away, but on the other hand the insecurity does.

Here’s Gina Barreca on 25.

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Peter Sagal is best known for hosting the wildly popular news game show on NPR, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.

But Peter didn’t always want to be a gameshow host. When he was 25, he was living in Los Angeles, had just quit his job and was pursuing a career as a playwright.

Since then, he’s written many plays and has gone on to be one of the funniest voices in radio.

In our interview we talked about artistic process, developing your voice, and comparing yourself to your peers.

Here’s Peter Sagal on 25.

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