This week's interview, one of the longest I've done to date, is with the wonderful Liu Batchelor! Yes, an hour and six minutes is a bit indulgent, but Liu is a fascinating person, and her creativity, resilience and will to find answers to our most fundamental questions, make her worth listening to!
You know, it's really been a privilege, during this project, to sit in the presence of people as they tell the stories of their lives. That is, the stories, the versions of stories, the fragments and interpretations of events; the ideas, beliefs, reactions, struggles, successes, and the countless individual experiences that go to make each one of us unique. This is Stories of Our Lives, and there's no better example of it than my conversation with Liu Batchelor.
Liu has a drive and intensity about her. It's easy to see why she tends to be successful wherever she applies herself. But to me, this intensity goes deeper than ego and self gratification; it's more an attempt to reconcile personal excellence with the wider social context - how to excel personally AND, at the same time, do good for society?
This is a complex question, and one we all grapple with at some point in our lives.
Enjoy the interview!