Conversations of Inspiration - the podcast episode I urge you not to miss
If you’re a regular These Are The Heydays reader, you’ll know I’m a big fan of podcasts. In the past I’ve recommended series I think you’ll love and learn from, episodes I believe will hook you in to top notch podcasts, and genres you might not have thought of trying.
All in the hope that, if you haven’t already discovered this brilliant broadcast medium, you’ll come to love it as much as I do. And that if you’re already a fellow devotee, you’ll find new delights to entertain and inform you.
More than a recommendation
This time I’m recommending, no, actually, I’m urging, you not to miss out on one particular, and particularly compelling, podcast interview . One that I genuinely believe has the power to reset, or at the very least refocus, your thinking and your view of the world in profound ways.
The interviewer is Holly Tucker, founder of Not on the High Street and Holly & Co, who I wrote about in this blog post on the importance of shopping small, and it’s one of the many fascinating interviews she has done for her excellent podcast Conversations of Inspiration
Holly Tucker presents the podcast Conversations of Inspiration
The interviewee, is Sir Tim Smit, creator of The Eden Project (an astonishing visitor attraction in Cornwall, that has been called the 8th wonder of the world, where a series of massive Biomes house the world’s largest indoor rainforest , stunning plants from diverse climates around the world, exhibitions and striking contemporary gardens); renovator of The Lost Gardens of Helligan (a magnificent 200 acre garden, also in Cornwall, that had all but disappeared under a forest of brambles and weeds), and visionary champion of social enterprise and the power of people to change their world.
And the podcast episodes (there are two - you’ll see why further down) are called Building a Legacy Through Passion
Sir Tim Smit inside one of the Eden Project Biomes
If any of that makes him sound preachy or sanctimonious, nothing could be further from the reality. True this is a widely well-read, straight-talking man who doesn’t suffer anyone with uninformed opinions gladly (though he’s more than happy to engage with anybody whose views differ from his. Indeed he talks about how he actively looks to constantly challenge his prejudices by “taking them out for a walk”).
Politics and pot-bellied pigs
But what also illuminates his wide-ranging conversation with Holly - which covers everything from art and creativity, to politics and agriculture - is the joy he finds in moments and experiences as varied as the extraordinary taste of Eden’s organically grown heritage strawberries, to witnessing the “biblical’ birth of 11 piglets to Doris, the sow of his unintentionally adopted Vietnemese pot-bellied pig, Horace (one of the many marvellous twists and turns in his unpredictable life journey).
We all have the power
Tim’s powerfully passionate belief in the responsibility and potential we all have to make the changes we want to see in the world, is matched only by his masterful and marvellously entertaining storytelling skills and delightfully self-deprecating sense of humour.
Chance, change and catastrophe
Discover how, having trained as an archeologist, Tim broke into, and became wildly successful at, the music business. How, at the height of that success, he impetuously moved his family to Cornwall. How a mauling on a football pitch led to the opportunity that saved his finances. How a chance meeting introduced him to the derelict estate called Heligan, and how Eden was saved from a potentially catastrophic landslide.
There will be tears
And if you’re not in as many tears as Holly and me, listening to him reading out his letter to his future self at the end of the two-part interview (Holly explains that when it came to editing it down she and her team couldn’t bring themselves to cut a single word. Thank goodness) then you’re made of sterner stuff than I am.
I’ll leave you with a few sound-bite samples of Tim’s wit and wisdom. I’m more than a bit jealous that you’ve got a first-time listen of this remarkable interview to look forward to.
Frog kisser Sir Tim Smit
“I’m a frog-kisser”
“When people ask me what I am professionally, I say I’m a frog-kisser. I kiss frogs to make princes and princesses. I love putting land and things into good heart. I love putting people into good heart if I can. It’s the whole idea of repair and renewal that excites me.”
“The joyous explosion of enjoying now”
“We’ve become a culture that’s fallen in love with the anticipation of nice things in the future and the inability of appreciating the absolute joyous explosion of enjoying now. This moment. The coffee you’re drinking. The person you’re talking to. The flower you’re looking at.”
“You see people come alive”
“The amazing thing I’ve discovered through Heligan and Eden, is that if you take a person over the age of 50 and tell them the dreams they had when there were 19 could come alive, that’s the moment you see their shoulders go back a bit. You see them come alive.”
“The secret of a great adventure”
“The secret of a great adventure is that it mustn’t be your adventure alone. It must leave space for the spotlight to land on lots of lots of people.”
