Episode Overview

Theme:
In this inspiring "Quick Cut" episode of It's a Good Life, host Brian Buffini interviews Ben Nemtin—author, MTV star, and co-founder of The Buried Life movement—on the art of making the impossible possible. Nemtin shares personal stories, the genesis of The Buried Life project, and transformative lessons on pursuing buried dreams, overcoming adversity, and motivating others.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ben’s Upbringing: A Life Less Ordinary

• Early Life in Victoria, B.C.
  • Raised by creative, self-employed parents—a theatrical clown father and a business-coaching mother.
  • Family life was adventurous, musical, and traveled extensively from a young age—“I traveled to Greece because my parents loved Greece. My dad plays music... and they played music for room and board above the bar…” (Ben Nemtin, 01:43)
• Influence of Upbringing:
  • Ben’s childhood normalised taking bold risks and pursuing passions (“What was cool about it was because I saw the way that they lived you kind of just by osmosis...I felt okay to take liberties when I was growing up...” (Ben, 02:51)).

2. Behind the Success: Ben’s Mental Health Struggles

• High Achiever’s Breaking Point
  • During his first year at university, Ben was on a rugby scholarship and the U19 national team, yet “slid into a depression” under the pressure to succeed.
  • “I just practice my field goals every day. But this thought would keep coming back to me, which is, what if I miss an easy field goal at the World Cup?...this anxiety...around my rugby...it all contributed to me sliding into a depression.” (Ben, 04:13)
• Manifestation & Recovery:
  • Suffered anxiety about public outings, decision-making, and became a “shut-in” at home.
  • Turning point came when friends intervened, encouraging work, open conversation, and inspirational company—“...talking about what I was going through for the first time, which was huge because suddenly, I realized I wasn’t alone...” (Ben, 05:44)

3. The Birth of The Buried Life

• Spark of Creativity from Shared Experience
  • Personal struggles inspired Ben to align himself with inspiring friends, notably Johnny (“...the only way I know you is because you took my sister to prom.” (Ben, 06:38))
  • Four friends connected over the feeling that life’s biggest dreams are often left undone—“It’s like they were buried.”
• The Poem That Changed Everything
  • Johnny’s professor assigned the 1852 poem “The Buried Life”.
  • Notable lines resonated deeply:
    • “...but often in the world's most crowded streets, but often in the din of strife, there rises an unspeakable desire after the knowledge of our buried life.” (Ben quoting Matthew Arnold, 07:39)
  • Decided to make this theme their project, naming it after the poem.

4. The Bucket List: Rules and Approach

• Defining "Impossible" Goals

  • The group wrote their dream bucket list using two rules:
    1. Pretend to have $10 million in the bank.
    2. Assume you can do anything.
  • Dreams ranged from “make a TV show, go to space, pay off our parents’ mortgage, tell a judge ‘You can’t handle the truth’—anything we could think of.” (Ben, 09:23)

• Helping Others Along the Way

  • For each of their own accomplished goals, they vowed to help a stranger achieve one of theirs.
  • Opened a website, invited dream submissions, and were soon flooded by hundreds of requests as the project went viral:
    • "Strangers started to hear about our mission and they started to send us emails...We got inundated with hundreds of dreams. First in BC, then in Canada. It was national news, then it was international news." (Ben, 09:46)

5. The Road Trip: From Two Weeks to Ten Years

• Unexpected, Exponential Impact
  • A planned two-week road trip grew into a decade-long journey birthing a global movement.
  • Initial “impossible” list items slowly fell away as each was conquered—proving the value of aiming high and collaborating.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Early Inspiration and Pursuing Passions

• “...what was cool about it was because I saw the way they lived you kind of just by osmosis...I felt okay to take liberties when I was growing up to go after certain passions.”
  —Ben Nemtin, 02:51

On the Weight of Anxiety and Depression

• “...I just practice my field goals every day. But this thought would keep coming back to me, which is, what if I miss an easy field goal at the World Cup?...and these thoughts would especially come at night and they caused me to have trouble sleeping. And so this lack of sleep, this constant pressure that I put on myself to succeed, this anxiety...it all contributed to me sliding into a depression.”
  —Ben Nemtin, 04:14

• “Talking about what I was going through for the first time...suddenly, I realized I wasn’t alone and that some of my friends had been through something like this before.”
  —Ben Nemtin, 05:44

The Epiphany from “The Buried Life” Poem

• “...this poet in 1852...articulating the exact same feeling that we’re feeling, that we have all these things that we want to do, but we haven’t done them because they’re buried...”
  —Ben Nemtin, 08:05

On Authentic Dream-Chasing

• “There's two rules. First rule, you have $10 million in your bank. Second rule, you can do anything. So you have to pretend that those two were truths."
  —Ben Nemtin, 09:18

On the Ripple Effects of Action

• “We come back after the two week road trip and we thought, holy crap, we got to keep doing this. And so that two week road trip ended up lasting over ten years.”
  —Ben Nemtin, 10:41

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:43 – Ben’s upbringing in a musical, free-spirited, entrepreneurial family
• 03:56 – The onset of mental health challenges during his university years
• 05:44 – The turning point: friends’ intervention and the path to recovery
• 06:38 – Reaching out to Johnny and the genesis of The Buried Life collaboration
• 07:39 – Discovery and impact of the 1852 poem “The Buried Life”
• 09:18 – How the bucket list was constructed and rules for dreaming big
• 09:46 – Movement’s viral growth, with strangers seeking connection and help
• 10:41 – The road trip that became a decade-long mission

Episode Essence

This episode distills the journey from hidden personal struggle to worldwide inspiration. By unearthing and pursuing what’s “buried” inside, Ben Nemtin demonstrates—through humor, vulnerability, and practical steps—how everyone can make the impossible possible, for themselves and each other.