Elizabeth Gilbert, Black Diamond Quitter (Part Two)

This is the second half of our two-part episode with bestselling author and extremely wise person Elizabeth Gilbert. (If you missed part one, we aired it last week.) Liz is known for quitting many things, and for having a strong inner compass. She is also a person who Emily and Holly look to for guidance in their own lives (WWLGD?), and this conversation is filled with insight, permission, and surprises. It felt like an exhale to record it; we hope it feels that way to hear it.

In this episode, we talk about a post Liz wrote many years ago about the difference between quitting and surrendering, and how her point of view has changed; the freedom and clarity that come from learning to have our own backs and take loving care of ourselves; the things Liz has quit that feel the most important to her (not the ones the general public knows about!); the liberation to be found in the idea that we don’t have to be special; what “purpose anxiety” is; and what happens when we let go of the idea of having to know our life’s purpose (or even having one!). 

The intro ends, and the interview begins, at 15:42. 

After polling our Patreon community, we’re experimenting with different lengths and styles of intros to our episodes. This one is long and chatty; Holly talks about being terrible at flirting and using Mandy Patinkin as a dating service; Emily talks about her love for punishing rain at the Oregon coast; if you just want to listen to Liz, she comes in at 15:42.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of City of Girls, Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love, as well as several other internationally bestselling books. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. She is (not) on Instagram at @elizabeth_gilbert_writer.

Music: Michael Blumenfeld, mikebloomstudio.com

Sound engineering + edits: Michael Blumenfeld, mikebloomstudio.com

Producer: Cathleen Kisich

Support us:

Quitted is listener supported, made possible by us and by you; you can support this podcast by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/quitted.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.