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- [00:00]
Hayden
Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan.
- [00:02]
Brene Brown
Fellas.
- [00:03]
Hayden
I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
- [00:08]
Stephen
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
- [00:12]
Hayden
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
- [00:21]
Stephen
That's right.
- [00:21]
Diana Nyad
Hey.
- [00:21]
Stephen
Hey. So each week, you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
- [00:26]
Hayden
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. So, spoiler alert, he'll be wrong.
- [00:33]
Stephen
News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy Fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:42]
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson
And, Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.
- [00:52]
Diana Nyad
Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?
- [00:55]
Hayden
Oh, no.
- [00:56]
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson
We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.
- [01:02]
Diana Nyad
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.
- [01:04]
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson
Anyways, only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty.
- [01:07]
Stephen
Liberty.
- [01:08]
Diana Nyad
Liberty.
- [01:09]
Stephen
Liberty.
- [01:13]
Oprah Winfrey
I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast.
- [01:19]
Brene Brown
I believe that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time.
- [01:24]
Oprah Winfrey
Take taking time to be more fully present. Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now. Welcome to part two of our conversation. Last time we talked, Diana Naya described how she defied all odds when she made that 53 hour landmark swim from Cuba to Florida.
- [01:48]
Brene Brown
For more than three decades, that span
- [01:50]
Oprah Winfrey
of water lingered in her imagination. The possibility of conquering it was remaining an unfinished dream. Diana's historic journey was chronicled in the documentary the Other Shore. Instead of breaking her will, the obstacles she faced on each attempt were met with a personal mantra that carried her along even as she continued to fall short of her goal. The mantra, Find a way by her side. Throughout the journey was a dedicated team led by Diana's business partner and best friend, Bonnie Stoll.
- [02:21]
Brene Brown
Now, almost as soon as you finish the swim from Cuba, I could not believe this in you walking up on the shore. That moment. In that moment, is that just surreal because you can't even believe it's happening.
- [02:32]
Diana Nyad
I have to tell you the truth. In all the Swimming practices, you have to go. The words are, until no more seawater lies beyond. So we're talking about, even if seawater's up to your ankles, you're not done yet. You gotta be. So that's why the team was saying, keep back, keep back.
- [02:47]
Brene Brown
So tell me this, when you. Now step back. When we started this, you were saying, very proud of yourself. Are you amazed? I mean, because when the rest of the world looks at you, I call you warrior woman, but it does seem like an impossible thing for a human being to do. Are you kind of amazed at yourself?
- [03:08]
Diana Nyad
I'm more proud of myself. Because, you know, when the question comes, can you quite believe it? Can you really grasp onto. Do you have to see the pictures?
- [03:17]
Brene Brown
Have you wrapped your brain around it?
- [03:18]
Diana Nyad
Yeah. Have you wrapped your brain around it? That's the best way to put it. I have, Oprah, because I always believed in it. I always saw that day of walking up on that shore just as a motivation to get through a 12 hour swim. I imagined what would. It was this ego thing. I imagined what would happen when I reached shore. I would just give this poor poignant speech, you know, it would be the, you know, my friend said to me, well, it'll be a tragedy if your throat swells up and you can't breathe anymore. Not because you can't breathe, because you won't be able to talk when you get to shore. And my friends know me, but the truth is, I always imagined, even in those other attempts when I didn't make it, what will I say when I get to shore? Well, this time there wasn't any of that. I was so in the moment. I never had that rehearsed. That wasn't any PR moment whatsoever. That was absolutely authentic to what I was feeling with those people giving me their eyes. Like, you know what? Those weren't people just having some fun, like, oh, this cool thing just happened on the beach. They were looking at me like, we just witnessed what we need to believe for our eyes. That you truly didn't give up, that you found a way after all these years and all these obstacles to get to this beach. And I need to feel that from my life. That's what those people were feeling. Absolutely. They were crying.
- [04:37]
Brene Brown
Absolutely.
- [04:37]
Diana Nyad
And so I was in a moment and I didn't rehearse any of that. But making it didn't surprise me at all because I believed it and never let go of it.
- [04:47]
Brene Brown
Now, one of the things that Bonnie had said, your best friend and business partner and coach, and yes, she was Quoted in the New York Times as saying, I think that Diana thinks that it will change her life. And I think Diana will be disappointed that it doesn't change your life. Did this change your life?
- [05:02]
Diana Nyad
You know, of course not. You know, when I was done, you know, going home to be with my dog and being with my friends and having this satisfaction of knowing who I am in this life and not having any regrets about it and really sticking with something, you know, no matter how impossible it seemed, that's what's important to me. Not, you know, superficial things in my life. That's not what makes one happy.
- [05:24]
Brene Brown
Maybe not changed, but I would say, did it enhance you? Did it elevate?
- [05:29]
Diana Nyad
I think it just confirmed. It confirmed. You know, I knew who I was. And this just walking out on that beach, I was like, for the four years, no matter how deep the valleys were, of disappointments and uphill climbs to get it organized again. The training is grueling. People don't know what this sport is like.
- [05:49]
Brene Brown
I heard you say in the TED talk, which is funny because I remember when I was training for the marathon years ago with Bob Green, and he'd say, we're gonna go run 10 miles a day or 12 miles a day. And if I came within, you know, 1/10 of a mile was short, I'd be like, I gotta run back to finish it. And you were the same way with swimming.
- [06:08]
Diana Nyad
Yeah, yeah. The 15, 18, 20, 22, 24 hour swims, all of them which would be marathons unto themselves, just hundreds and hundreds of them. So to do this, I thought we were gonna do it in 2010, but there was weather, and then 2011, there was jellyfish. Then 2012, there was, you know, storms and jellyfish occurred. So four years of this training, not to mention the 35 years of the dreaming and training before I walked up on that beach, just filled with pride of myself that not once did the dream flounder. Not once did I say, do I really want to do this? This is just so darn hard. Or, you know, no. People are dropping off my team like flies. They just don't believe it anymore. I never, ever lost belief that it was going to happen. You know, you have to dare. You know you have to fail over and over again.
- [06:58]
Brene Brown
Sometimes Brene Brown says, you have to dare greatly.
- [07:00]
Diana Nyad
You have to dare greatly. I know, it's a great phrase.
- [07:02]
Oprah Winfrey
Dare greatly.
- [07:03]
Brene Brown
Getting in the ring, get in the ring, getting in the arena.
- [07:05]
Diana Nyad
Get bloody, get dirty and fail.
- [07:07]
Brene Brown
What did you feel like the next morning? Were you tired? Were you Sore. Were you able to get out of bed without.
- [07:13]
Diana Nyad
No. I'll tell you what happened.
- [07:14]
Brene Brown
What?
- [07:14]
Diana Nyad
The next morning, I'm lying in bed and, you know, I've been neurotic about the weather for four years. Will it happen? Where are the east winds? Where are the hurricanes? Will we ever get a chance to do it? It's so hard to get the conditions. So I'm lying in bed the next day. The mouth is awfully sore with the. And I turn on the television in the morning, and Sam Champion from Good Morning America comes on with the weather, and he says, there's a hurricane brewing in the Atlantic. And I said, I don't give a crap. For the first time in four years, I just don't. I don't give a crap. Wow.
- [07:47]
Brene Brown
Yeah.
- [07:48]
Diana Nyad
That's what I was feeling. Next day, it's over. I'm almost happier that it's over than I am that I did it. Just the push was so hard, so relentless, so difficult that just to have it over. I walk around my house saying, I'm not calling Cuba. I'm not calling Hillary Clinton to ask me to get Cuba's permissions. I'm not planning the training for the winter. It's done. It's finally done. This has been long. It's really been 35 years. Not many athletes have a story like this, you know, I love a story. And this is. I'm living a drama. You know, it's deeply satisfying. You know, like I said before, it's not this. It's not this superficial happiness, like, oh, I won. No, no. It's going to last me a long time not to not do anything else, but just that. I find. Finally stuck with it and finished it, you know, like, I deserve this and our team deserves it.
- [08:42]
Brene Brown
No sooner than you had come to shore.
- [08:44]
Diana Nyad
Yeah.
- [08:45]
Brene Brown
That people started questioning your integrity.
- [08:49]
Diana Nyad
Yeah, yeah.
- [08:49]
Brene Brown
That the haters came out and I'm like, people, my Lord, would you leave the woman alone? She just swam for 53 hours. What did that feel like, though, having people say, you know, it was a fraud. It was a fraud.
- [09:04]
Diana Nyad
Yeah, Yeah, I know. Can you imagine? I mean, first of all, we had 44 people out there, people of great scientific repute. They're not going to be involved with something that was shady by any means. But there are two factions of that. One is people have a right. You know, if somebody else did it, I would respectfully, you know, not in some rush to judgment statements to press, but I would go quietly to a swimmer in their team and say, you know, I'd like to look at the navigational logs because all of us have tried this too hard and it did seem impossible. So, you know, we need to have your observers logs and their data from the GPS machines. But I didn't mind. Those people got on a 3 hour and 22 minute call with the marathon swimmers. But all respectful and all the questions they should ask, how did you go about this? The navigator, brilliant man, John bartlett, went through three hours of. This is where we were. At hour 27, the current was facing this way, it was going at this speed. Diana's speed was this. We were at a vector going like this. And they said, oh, well, we get that. Why didn't someone just explain that before?
- [10:07]
Brene Brown
Were you on that call because they were challenging you?
- [10:10]
Diana Nyad
Most of them were very reasonable and respectful and they just said, you know, any big record needs to be vetted, you know, and I agree with that. And I said, I'm here for it. One guy, I mean, he had things like, I know you couldn't have done it because only a mere 17 hours after you finished the next morning you were at a press conference, even though you were still swollen, but you were laughing and orating and telling stories impossible to do 53 hours and get up. And I said, that is patently absurd. We could go out, you know, on the street and find people who are just genetically capable of staying up for days and have been through war stories. So what do you. That's crazy.
- [10:51]
Brene Brown
Yeah.
- [10:51]
Diana Nyad
The other people were reasonable and just wanted to know how many people were there. Was the observer's logs every minute. Was there somebody observing every minute who wasn't on my team, that I wasn't grabbing onto the boat, getting out on the boat using flippers. And they are, I believe I got many apology and respectful notes from that group of swimmers when it was over to say, please forgive us for doubting, but we needed to ask these questions. It's over. Congratulations. It's history.
- [11:16]
Brene Brown
Wow.
- [11:16]
Diana Nyad
Yeah. So I had to suffer through it, but I guess I had to.
- [11:19]
Brene Brown
You had to. But do you think we are in a culture where we put people on a pedestal, athletes on a pedestal, but also want to see them fall down?
- [11:28]
Diana Nyad
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Sure.
- [11:30]
Brene Brown
Yeah.
- [11:30]
Diana Nyad
The bigger you are, the harder they want you to fall.
- [11:32]
Brene Brown
Absolutely.
- [11:33]
Diana Nyad
Yeah.
- [11:34]
Brene Brown
So you've said that marathon swimming, though, is a microcosm of life itself. Let's talk about that.
- [11:40]
Diana Nyad
Yeah, the microcosm of it is. I like that you go through obstacles, you feel good and you don't feel so good. How do you find A way to get through the valleys. How do you keep believing? And then you see the other shore and you say, you know, I got through my marriage or I got through my cancer, whatever it is we're all going through every day. If you really want to get there, you can find a way. And that's what this sport is all about.
- [12:06]
Brene Brown
Yeah.
- [12:06]
Diana Nyad
Yeah.
- [12:07]
Brene Brown
Was 60 hard for you? Because I'm getting ready to turn 60. No, wasn't hard.
- [12:10]
Diana Nyad
You know, only in this way, as, you know, the older you get, the clock starts ticking faster. You know, you're 30 and say, oh, I got all the time in the world. I'll go that, and I'll be this.
- [12:19]
Brene Brown
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [12:20]
Diana Nyad
But no, you're 60, you start counting the years because, you know, are we going to be vibrant at 90? Maybe.
- [12:25]
Brene Brown
And maybe not.
- [12:26]
Diana Nyad
Yeah.
- [12:27]
Brene Brown
When you were 10 years old.
- [12:28]
Diana Nyad
Yeah.
- [12:29]
Brene Brown
And in the fifth grade, in your 1978 memoir, you wrote about an essay that you'd written.
- [12:37]
Diana Nyad
A fifth grade teacher. She's one of these wonderful teachers of my era of kids who saved all their favorite kids. She had a big cabinet of all the. So I was getting a little bit of notoriety in my 20s, swimming around Manhattan. And she wrote me and she said, I saved your essay in fifth grade about when we said the title is what I Will do for the Rest of My Life. So most fifth graders write, I'm gonna be a fireman. I'm gonna be a nurse.
- [13:00]
Brene Brown
Yes.
- [13:01]
Diana Nyad
And so this is what I wrote. My mother says that her father lived to be 79. Her mother's still living, and my father's parents are still living. It would probably be a good guess that I will live to 80 years, which means I have 70 years left to go. I want to see all the countries of the world and learn all the languages. I want to have thousands of friends, and I want all my friends to be different. I want to play six instruments. I want to be the best in the world at two things. I want to be a great athlete and I want to be a great surgeon. I need to practice very hard every day. I need to sleep as little as possible. Oh, Lord. Just to coin a phrase, I need to read at least one major book every week. I need to remember that my 70 years are going to go by too quickly. And that's the only really important phrase of this, I guess. But how many 10 year olds? Honestly, it's not to make myself special. That's just my particular little eccentricity. When you're 10, you can't imagine being 11.
- [13:59]
Brene Brown
No.
- [13:59]
Diana Nyad
You can't. You're like 10 in three months. And when is my birthday?
- [14:02]
Brene Brown
Yes.
- [14:03]
Diana Nyad
So I'm saying I need to remember that my 70 years are going by too quickly. And I must say I have felt that all my life. Yes, as we get older, the clock ticks, but the clock is ticking.
- [14:13]
Brene Brown
This is what's so interesting. And as you're reading this, I hear it differently than when I read it, but that when you turned 60, you started thinking about your mother dying at 82 and said, I have 22 more years. When you were 10. 10, you say I got 70 more years based on, you know, your mother's father dying. So you're a person who's always been consciously aware of the time and the time passing.
- [14:39]
Diana Nyad
Except that the difference between now, I guess the evolution for me now at this age is that I used to spend a lot of time beating myself up and regretting the past. I used to spend a lot of time in fantasizing the future, too, and worrying about the future. Things I can't control. What if this happens? What if that happens? But I now am more in the power of now, and that's how to reckon with if there really are only 18 years left, if I am going to die at 82, then what more can I do about it than be in this chair looking your eyes and being in this moment. I'm just right here, right now, and that's the best I can do. What more can I do? And I think that's the best. All we can do is be now and do everything in your potential to be the best of yourself in this moment.
- [15:25]
Brene Brown
Yeah, you've reached that wonderful point in life in the Derek Walcott poem where he says, their time will arrive when you will greet yourself arriving at your own front door. Give wine, give bread to the person who you've ignored all these years, and you will sit and feast on your life.
- [15:44]
Diana Nyad
I've never heard that before.
- [15:45]
Brene Brown
Oh, it's an amazing poem. But that's what you have the opportunity to do now.
- [15:50]
Diana Nyad
I'm feeling that it wells up deep, and it doesn't have anything to do with the, you know, this has changed your life overnight. I'm the same person I was as I was before Labor Day weekend. I want to Oprah, a lot of people say to me now, well, now we need to swim the Pacific Ocean. I mean, what could be bigger than this? I say, it's not about the ocean. It's not about the swimming. I discovered at 60 that I wanted to get these values straight in my life so that when the end comes, I can say, I don't know about those early years. I was kind of just rolling through, dancing as fast as I can, like all of us do. But you get to a point where it doesn't matter what's happened to you. It doesn't matter what you've been through. You can't blame anything anymore. You are your own person and you take charge of your life and you decide who you want to be and how you want to live this one. What does Mary Oliver say?
- [16:38]
Brene Brown
What are you doing with this one wild and precious life?
- [16:41]
Diana Nyad
What are you doing with it? And it's a one way street, and we're not kidding ourselves. When you get to 60 and 70 and 80, you're about at the end of the road. Yeah. So of course I feel vital. I feel I'm in the prime of my life. And maybe I'll sit here with you 10 years from now and feel even more so at 74, maybe. But I'm definitely, definitely getting toward the end of that road more than I'm at the beginning.
- [17:03]
Brene Brown
And.
- [17:03]
Diana Nyad
And I feel that whatever I set out to do, you know, forget about the world records and the first time in history, that's all wonderful. I don't negate that. I don't deny that it, that it feels like a real ego pleasure to do something even young people have never done before. But really, what I walk around smiling about right now is that I can be proud of this person. I am. And I hope that, you know, people are going with me to find their own way, find a way in their own lives. And they seem to be telling me
- [17:32]
Brene Brown
that find a way, find a way.
- [17:35]
Diana Nyad
Yeah.
- [17:38]
Hayden
Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan, fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
- [17:45]
Stephen
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
- [17:50]
Hayden
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
- [17:58]
Stephen
That's right. Hey. Hey. So each week, you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
- [18:03]
Hayden
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.
- [18:10]
Stephen
News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy Fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
- [18:20]
Brene Brown
You told our Producers. That you're not a God person, that you're a person who's deeply in awe?
- [18:25]
Diana Nyad
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not a God person. And do I argue against my friends who are, you know, religious, Buddhists, Jews, Christians.
- [18:36]
Brene Brown
Do you consider yourself an atheist?
- [18:37]
Diana Nyad
I'm an atheist.
- [18:39]
Brene Brown
But you're in the awe.
- [18:41]
Diana Nyad
Yeah, but, you know, I don't understand why anybody would find, you know, a contradiction in that. I can stand at the beach's edge with the most devout Christian, Jew, Buddhist, go on down the line and weep with the beauty of this universe and be moved by all of humanity, all the billions of people who have lived before us, who have loved and hurt and suffered. So to me, my definition of God is humanity and is the love of humanity. And as we return to, you know.
- [19:13]
Brene Brown
Well, I don't call you an atheist, then I think if you believe in the awe and the wonder and the mystery, okay, that that is what God is. Okay, that is what God is. Not the bearded guy in the sky.
- [19:25]
Diana Nyad
It's not bearded. But I guess there is an inference with God that there is a presence. There is either a creator or an overseer. I don't criticize anybody because you know what the definition of life is? We will never know. We will never know, you know, until that last breath. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [19:41]
Brene Brown
And maybe it's an oh, wow. One for you as it was Steve Jobs.
- [19:45]
Diana Nyad
Whoa. I should have been praying all these years. I'm going the wrong way. But for now, I don't criticize anybody. People tell me they see ghosts, they see ghosts. People tell me that they remember past lives back to the Middle Ages. They remember them. People see God and feel God and that's their faith. And I have nothing to say about it. Just for me, I'm an atheist who's in awe.
- [20:06]
Brene Brown
An atheist in awe. So do you consider yourself a spiritual person, even as an atheist?
- [20:12]
Diana Nyad
I do. I don't think there's any contradiction in those terms. I think you can be an atheist who doesn't believe in an overarching being who created all of this and sees over it. But there's spirituality because we human beings and we animals and maybe even we plants, but certainly the ocean and the moon and the stars, we all live with something that is cherished and we feel the treasure of it.
- [20:40]
Brene Brown
Oh, I believe that and feel that so deeply. It's why every time I enter my yard or leave, I say, hello, trees.
- [20:46]
Diana Nyad
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just. The older I am, I walk around every day with, you know, flowers and buildings that people created, but certainly, certainly beings. You know, just every pair of eyes I look into, I see the souls.
- [21:03]
Brene Brown
Okay, and how do you define that? The soul?
- [21:05]
Diana Nyad
A soul is your spirit. It's your love of humanity. It's your belief that there are, you know, there's more than you. There are people before us that you could weep to. Look at the discovery of an ancient city and realize that those people lived and they loved and they danced and they ate and they suffered and they, you know, they lived just as we are. So there have been so many 40 and 60 and 80 year lives, billions of them. And we all have souls and I feel their collective souls.
- [21:41]
Oprah Winfrey
Wow.
- [21:42]
Brene Brown
What do you think happens when we die?
- [21:45]
Diana Nyad
I think that the soul lives on because we have created so much energy. And when we display courage and hope, it lives on. But I do believe the body goes back to ash and it is nevermore.
- [22:00]
Brene Brown
How do you define spirituality versus religion?
- [22:03]
Diana Nyad
Is religion as a construction? It's a man made construct which back when was very important to keep people behaving and keep people believing so that they had a community that they could be together on something with. And I can still respect that. You know, I have been in places of worship where I can feel that community and understand it. I just don't believe in the being that sits over it. Where spirituality has no construct at all. It's feeling and it's faith and it's being in touch with this magical world we live in.
- [22:42]
Brene Brown
What do you think is the purpose of the human experience? That's a big one.
- [22:46]
Diana Nyad
Part of it is to remain in mystery. And I don't believe we will ever know why we're really here, but we just are here. So feel it, do something about it. Leave it in some little better state than you could have. There are some people I know who just touched their neighborhoods. In my neighborhood, a man down the street lost his wife last year. He's got four kids on his own. One woman in our neighborhood, she's busy. She works two jobs, she's raising three kids on her own. So why should she be the one to take this up? But she did. She went around and left us all a schedule. Diana, you've got to deliver dinner to that guy every other Wednesday night. If you can't do it, get somebody else to do. You've got. We've got to help. And she, you know, she took it upon herself to leave our street in a more soulful, spiritual place than it had been. So I'm one for, you know, for believing that you change and you make the whole world a better place just by within your household, living by the values you believe so that your brothers and sisters do too. And then maybe that goes down the street and maybe that goes to the whole neighborhood. And for someone like you, that goes out to a whole big bunch of our humanity on this planet today.
- [24:01]
Brene Brown
So your swim, as we were discussing, has been called a triumph of the human spirit. How do you define that? The human spirit?
- [24:09]
Diana Nyad
The human spirit is filled with courage and hope. And I don't think you ever consciously decide to live those things out. You just are those things. If you're a courageous person, if you're a person filled with hope, it beams out of your eyes when action's required, you all of a sudden jump to it. And I personally feel after being lucky and traveling this whole wide world that almost all of us have that in us and are dying to live it out.
- [24:41]
Brene Brown
Were you able to accomplish what you said as a fifth grader? I know you're not a surgeon, but do you have friends from all different backgrounds? Do you have, have you seen most of the world? Were you able to fulfill that 10 year old's dream?
- [24:56]
Diana Nyad
I have. I would say that, you know, it's people, it's people, you know, from. I've, I've hung out with Maasai tribesmen, I've been with the, you know, presidents and the greatest athletes alive and all. And to me, every individual on this planet has a story. If I can tap just a few of those, that's my mission in life, I think. It's just not even a mission. It's just maybe what I was meant to do. Even though I don't usually use phrases like that.
- [25:28]
Brene Brown
What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?
- [25:32]
Diana Nyad
Just be yourself. You know, I think when you're younger you've got that outside, you know, vision of yourself looking in. Am I looking good? Am I sounding good? I know when I used to work on television, instead of really being in that moment looking in that lens and saying, you know, I see someone sitting on their living room couch right now and I'm just with her, talking to her, which you're so good at, I used to look in and I'd have this glassed over feeling. I'd say, you know, am I looking good? You know, how's my jawline looking? You know, how's that, how my, you know, am I sounding intelligent? And someone said to me young at one time, just, you are a magnificent being, as we all are. Just be yourself. Just be your authentic self. And I think I have become largely and more and more my authentic self.
- [26:19]
Brene Brown
Well, that's the best advice. Anytime anybody asks me about doing anything, I say, find a way to be yourself. And if you can't be yourself, then don't do it. Yeah, yeah, finish this sentence. I believe.
- [26:32]
Diana Nyad
I believe in love. Like the Beatles said, love is all there is.
- [26:35]
Brene Brown
Never give up on your dream because.
- [26:40]
Diana Nyad
Because you'll get there if you find a way.
- [26:43]
Brene Brown
I feel inspired by
- [26:48]
Diana Nyad
my. My fellow human beings, all of them. My greatest joy is body, soul and heart coming together.
- [26:58]
Brene Brown
My definition of a champion is a champion does.
- [27:02]
Diana Nyad
Right. A champion has ethics and morals, and it's not just about winning. There's so many people in sport who have won and we can't remember their names. But Billie Jean King, it doesn't matter how many titles she won. It is that human being who led, who refused to let human rights be second and women's rights be second to the money and the Wimbledon trophies held above. A champion is Muhammad Ali, who thought beyond just his immediate winnings and the belt he was going to wear. It's someone who embraces humanity and carries humanity with their spirit.
- [27:43]
Brene Brown
Do you see yourself as a champion?
- [27:45]
Diana Nyad
I do. I do. I don't want it to sound like hyperbole. I don't want to be some huge ego, but I feel a champion.
- [27:54]
Brene Brown
Where do you feel most at home or at peace?
- [27:56]
Diana Nyad
With my friends. With your friends? With my friends, sure. When you're someone who's. When I'm with the people who you go a lifetime with, you know, and I know you know this, so there's nothing like it. There's the love of, you know, mates, and there's the love of animals, and there's a love of children, and we're lucky to have as much love as we can get it. But for me, the love of friendship is just.
- [28:18]
Brene Brown
It's above all, what do you know for sure?
- [28:24]
Diana Nyad
I know for sure that it goes by like lightning, and you can't. You can barely screech and grab onto it. I feel like that character grabbing onto the hands of the clock, like, please slow down. But I've learned for sure that all there is is now. There's no past and there's no future. Really, all there is is now. That's all you've got.
- [28:43]
Brene Brown
That was great.
- [28:44]
Diana Nyad
Thank you, Oprah.
- [28:45]
Brene Brown
Thank you so much.
- [28:46]
Diana Nyad
Thank you so much. What a privilege for me.
- [28:49]
Oprah Winfrey
I'm Oprah Winfrey, and you've been listening to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast you can follow Super Soul on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you haven't yet, go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. Rate and review this podcast. Join me next week for another Super Soul conversation.
- [29:09]
Brene Brown
Thank you for listening, Foreign.
- [29:15]
Hayden
Howdy Ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
- [29:22]
Stephen
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.
- [29:27]
Hayden
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Stephen here has not read Mistborn before.
- [29:35]
Stephen
That's right.
- [29:36]
Diana Nyad
Hey hey.
- [29:36]
Stephen
So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
- [29:40]
Hayden
And along the way we'll do Character, Deep Div, Magic Explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.
- [29:47]
Stephen
Newsflash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
- [29:57]
Diana Nyad
ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's the show that we recommend.
- [30:04]
Pace Case
Hi, I'm Pace Case.
- [30:06]
Bachelor Clues
And I'm Bachelor Clues.
- [30:07]
Pace Case
We host Game of Roses, the world's best reality TV podcast. We're covering every show on reality TV at the highest level possible. We analyze the Bachelor, Love is Blind, Perfect Match, Vanderpump, and anything else you find yourself watching with wine and popcorn.
- [30:22]
Bachelor Clues
We break down errors, highlight plays, MVPs, and all the competitive elements that make reality TV a sport. And we interview superstar players like bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristow and Big Brother champion Taylor Hale.
- [30:33]
Pace Case
If you want to know so much about reality TV, you can turn any casual conversation into a PhD level dissertation. You definitely want to check out Game of Roses.
- [30:44]
Diana Nyad
ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcast everywhere.
- [30:49]
Stephen
Acast.
- [30:50]
Brene Brown
Com.