Pete Holmes and Ali Waller talking about being "our best selves"

Comedian Pete Holmes talks to writer Ali Waller about our Adventurous selves vs our Cautious selves

'You Made it Weird' with Pete Holmes: Episode 268 - Ali Waller
ALI WALLER: (19m 20s) I think its always better to have the experience, have the relationship, make the weird mistake than to not. Even though I suffer for that. "Why did I ask that person out, he wasn't into me"...
PETE HOLMES: You're looking like, there's two us-es. There are so many us-es I feel like. There's that guy who's like "I'm gonna talk to strangers on a plane!"
WALLER: That guy.
HOLMES: I can't be that guy. Very, very rarely. Every once in a while I'm in that place where I feel like talking to people. I feel like meeting people. I feel like being my best self. I feel like helping people be their best self and what I try to do is make plans when I'm him and hope that he shows up again when the plan is happening but sometimes its not him and its the other guy...

and further on - 'will'

PETE HOLMES: (35m 05s) I'm fascinated with manufacturing will, like if you could sell a will pill. A pill that could give you the will to do things. I think that's what we're really after...  and that's one of the big struggles of life...
Notebooks, books. Certainly for me books. The potential to do something, we love these investments in this pretend future

As always when this line of thinking gets brought up on YMIW, Woody Allen's 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' (2008) gets a mention. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) as our reserved self and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) representing our impulsive alter ego.

VIDEO: Let's fly to Oviedo

"By doing interesting things" excerpt from 'How to be single' by Liz Tuccillo

Found this interesting excerpt on a bookshelf at a Backpacker's in Rosario, Argentina. You can almost imagine the type of solo traveler that would have brought this book for their journey. I've definitely felt pangs of this in my solo adventures abroad and at home.

'How to Be Single: A Novel' by Liz Tuccillo

Excerpt from 'How to Be Single' (USA Today)
"By staying busy. By doing interesting things. I kayak in the Hudson, rock climb at Chelsea Piers, take carpentry classes at Home Depot, which you should totally do with me, by the way, I made an amazing cabinet, and I'm also thinking about taking this sailing course at the South Street Seaport. I'm keeping busy doing things I find interesting, so that I can trick myself into forgetting that I'm really just trying to look for guys. Because you can't look desperate. That's the worst."

As she is telling people this, she often comes across as a little deranged, particularly because she's usually chain-popping Tums as she says all this. Her indigestion problems stem, I believe, from a little acid reflux condition called "I'm terrified of being alone."

The book was written by Liz Tuccillo who co-authored the runaway phenomenon 'He's Just Not That Into You' with comedian Greg Behrendt.

Duncan Trussell and Natasha Leggero talk about "Knowing" and "feeling what others feel"

Episode 68: Natasha Leggero with Duncan Trussell

Former Romantic and Podcast partners Natasha Leggero and Duncan Trussell discuss empathy. Duncan has been through some trying times with a Cancer diagnosis and the passing of his mother in recent months.

Duncan Trussell Family Hour - Episode 68: Natasha Leggero
DUNCAN TRUSSELL: It makes you feel human that's for sure. Yeah it makes you feel like you're a part of something. Like it makes you feel real. That feels good. Feeling real feels good and then it makes you feel like everything you've said before it was stupid. Like ugghh what was I even talking about? You don't even know and then you feel all judgmental because now you're saying that anyone who's parents haven't died "They don't know". But in a way you don't. Its kinda the same thing people say about having a baby. They're like "You just don't know".
NATASHA LEGGERO: I would just like to know that feeling for two seconds. Is it really that great?
TRUSSELL: Having a baby?
LEGGERO: Yeah you know like when everyone's saying "You don't know". We'll I'd like to feel what you feel cuz I probably already feel that from doing my thing

Other posts on empathy and knowing
- Traveling, living the dream and remembering it - The nostalgia for Wonderland and Muscle memory
- Actor, Writer and Traveler Mike White speaks to Marc Maron about Adventure

Transcript: Daft Punk Collaborator Pharrell Williams on connections and multiverses

VIDEO: Daft Punk | Random Access Memories | The Collaborators: Pharrell Williams

On Connections

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: When I heard 'Get Lucky' it just reminded me of some kind of exotic island. I don't know if it was on this planet or not. It just felt like this place where it was forever 4 in the morning...
It's like being in that world, the only thing that matters is that you've met this girl at this party. Getting lucky is not just sleeping with her but meeting someone for the first time and it just clicking. There's no better fortune than this existence to me...

Pharrell Williams: Exotic island forever 4 am

On multiverses

Somewhere outside the ether we exist in is a multitude of realms of possibility and alternate directions and I think they went into those libraries and dusted off those things. Its kinda like mid 70s, early 80s of a different universe and dimension. Not of this one. It couldn't have come in a better year. Its 2013 where everything is completely different.

Things are not in a box in the way that they used to be and if they are its kinda like the corniest thing ever "Please don't talk to me. I don't want to catch your mentality". That's what this music is to me. This music represents the freedom of all human beings

Let's Get Real - Episode 6 preview: Be like water

Its been a while. In my 6th conversation I speak to a Yoga Instructor about finding peace in spite the noise of life. It was my first real conversation with her after reconnecting through a random encounter.

It was great chatting to someone with such a wealth of experience and a great vigour for life. A person who celebrates the full spectrum of experience. Someone who appreciates the light and the shade and finds the gems in each state. Its the overarching theme of the Superhero genre, how our moments of weakness become our greatest strengths. Its what forms our Origin story.

VIDEO: The Joker Needs Batman

In the excerpt I mention an "Underground beach Party". As someone who is inclined to accepting both sides of the coin, my dilemma is trying to involve myself in stories so I can relate to people from a place of experience. Its a theme we touched on several times in our chat, empathy and true understanding through a shared journey. But even that leads to another set of issues:

Man returning from waters with Tales of Adventure
'Beaches Ain't shit II'. Underground party near the Mosman Bunkers

Actor, Writer and Traveler Mike White speaks to Marc Maron about Adventure
WHITE: (36m 20s mark) I've gone through this period where when I'm invited to do something random I just do it because I feel "I should do that". And after a while -- I recently read a book about fetishising, this thing we feel where we need to have experiences. It a Buddhist-- at some point you can let go of "missing out on things". A healthy place. You don't need to have sex with every new person, you don't need to visit every corner of the universe
MARON: To be happy or feel like you've done something
WHITE: Which for many people, that doesn't even [register] but for some reason that's my [dilemma]...

- Find the 'Manifesting Bliss' free seminar at the Sydney 'Mind Body Spirit' Festival (Noon, Thurs May 16, 2013)

Comedians Pete Holmes and Eddie Pepitone on the phone as a "Life Companion"

Real truth in advertising: Samsung Galaxy S4 - Life Companion

'You Made it Weird' with Pete Holmes: Episode 143 - Eddie Pepitone
(1h 46m) EDDIE PEPITONE: Yesterday I found an hour to just go to the park at sunset. F*cking walk around the park leisurely for 45 minutes and sit under a tree and I meditated. Not the greatest meditation cuz I haven't meditated in a while. But after 15 minutes I open my eyes and just the gorgeous f*cking sunset in that park surrounded by green. That's spirituality for me. But it has to be sought after. I have to pull myself away. This might sound trite but the pull of Twitter and Facebook and emails
PETE HOLMES: I've stopped medititating because I'm like "I should check my @replies"
PEPITONE: One of the things I did after meditating, of course I had my phone in my pocket. What a great meditation, what a great sunset and I'm walking back to my house and I'm going for the phone (this is the constant struggle) "Eddie don't go for the phone right now". You really just got into a nice space You're probably feeling the best you've felt in a month. You know the sunset, the green...
HOLMES: Cuz Its taking you out of the moment
...
Its the sugar bowl. Its nutritionless, addictive, sweetness and the truth that you just touched on... The thing that breaks my heart is that wonder is everywhere. The park is wonderful. This room is wonderful. If you could have a waking dream appreciation of this existence, we would walk around and not be interested in our phones
...
I had this dream last night and I have it often, is that I fall into a body of water and I try to frantically turn it off which is what you're suppose to do [to preserve electronics]
...
But what's so sad is that its actually in my dream. I don't have children. The idea of losing my phone. This is a recurring dream
PEPITONE: That just gave me an idea for a guy who never has kids and his photo album are just different phones throughout his life and he's showing them to people. "This is my Samsung S2, it had some problems but we loved him anyway... We had to put him to sleep in a Sprint store"
HOLMES: We put him in a drawer here. You want to visit his grave

Watch Samsung's S4 phone trailer which includes these themes:

Convenience: Daily life is more convenient
Fun: Life becomes more fun
Relationship: Relationships grow closer
Care: Wellbeing is cared for 

VIDEO: Samsung Galaxy S4 - Life Companion Trailer HD

Find more Pete Holmes here:
- Comedian Pete Holmes on adjacent experiences: Conversations relating to Travel, dreams and life
- Comedian Louis C.K. on what Smartphones are taking away