Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky
Host: Monica Lewinsky (produced by Wondery)
Guest: Richard Christiansen (Founder, Flamingo Estate)
Date: October 28, 2025
Theme:
Monica Lewinsky sits down with Richard Christiansen, founder of the celebrated Flamingo Estate, for a heartfelt and candid conversation about reclaiming pleasure, creativity, and self-alignment. The episode explores how adversity—including the COVID pandemic and childhood bullying—can catalyze transformation, the importance of indulgence, creativity as an act of healing, and the meaning of “acting small” in life and business. The dialogue is rich with stories, metaphors, and insights relevant to anyone seeking connection, meaning, and joy.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Richard’s Origin Story: Flamingo Estate and Unexpected Beginnings

• Meeting Monica & Founding Story
  • Monica recounts her first meeting with Richard during a retreat in 2021 (02:01), sharing warm anecdotes of his kindness and gifts, and introduces Flamingo Estate—describing it as more than a brand, but a sensory, healing lifestyle.
  • Richard outlines how Flamingo Estate began at the onset of COVID:

    "The genesis of the... very wild, improbable story was that the very first week of COVID... I met a farmer who was going to lose her farm... So we started selling her vegetables in the car park... that first Friday we sold 300, the next Friday 600 and 1200. And just overnight... we had 50 trucks at some point." (04:34)

  • What started as an act of rescue organically expanded into a popular farm-box business supporting nearly 150 farms (06:10).

The Crisis of Imagination & Return to the Senses

• Information Overload & Disconnection

  • Richard discusses modern society’s “crisis of imagination”:

    “90% of the world's data was created in the last two years... We’re just drunk on our telephones... But we’re more unhappy than ever.” (07:41)

  • Emphasizes that true wonder and wisdom today are found in the garden and the natural world—not on screens.

• Mother Nature as True Luxury

  • On the sensory richness of Flamingo Estate:

    “Mother Nature’s the last great luxury house... That is now my life’s work.” (08:58)

Creative Energy, Loss, and Healing

• Creativity as Reclamation

  • Monica reflects on childlessness and healing as expressions of creative energy and self-reinvention (11:22):

    “Healing was a creative energy because I was creating a newer version of myself... it's that mother nature moving force.” (15:18)

  • Richard shares how the collapse of his prior career and relationship at the start of COVID led him to reclaim pleasure, indulgence, and creativity through Flamingo Estate (17:02).

    “From a different place, a different vibrational energy... just this power of creating things... it woke me up. It completely changed my life.” (18:16)

• Indulgence as Forgiveness

  • Richard reframes “indulgence”:

    “The word indulgence comes from the word to forgive. To forgive yourself.” (17:40)

  • Monica: “We have such a complicated relationship with that word—guilt.”

From Adversity to Leadership: On Bullying and Soft Power

• Childhood Bullying & Lasting Effects

  • Richard describes growing up as a gentle boy in rural Australia, realizing he was “different” (gay), and being harshly bullied:

    “We were just bullied endlessly there, just ferociously... a real sense of hopelessness... because no matter what I could do…would never be able to do that [have children].” (13:39)

  • He connects unresolved bullying to adult work patterns—overachievement, seeking validation, and recruiting “bullies” as colleagues:

    “As a kid, I think the bullies were the strong people and I was the weak person... I think as an adult, I’ve recruited the bully... because it felt like strength to me.” (41:17)

• Soft Power

  • He discusses his evolving philosophy of leadership:

    “Now that I'm on the front of this business, I'm like, oh, I gotta step into those shoes and not camouflage myself... It was a massive unlock for how we can run a happy business... with soft power.” (40:39)

Building a Business with Intention (“Acting Small”)

• Business Lessons & Staying Nimble
  • Richard on how companies can lose their way:

    “All the stores want the same thing every season. And I’m like, if it’s going to truly be made seasonally, it shouldn’t be the same. Let’s lean into radical inconsistency.” (56:43)

  • He speaks to preserving vulnerability, agility, smallness, and direct connection in work systems (31:18).

Radical Inconsistency and Ceremony

• Radical Inconsistency

  • Richard champions the idea that surprise and variety (in products and life) keep people present and awake:

    “If something’s made really well... it shouldn’t be the same every season... Why aren’t we leaning into radical inconsistency?” (56:43)

    • Connects technology, convenience, and automation to a loss of joy and meaningful experience.

• Ceremony & Community

  • Monica and Richard discuss the healing, connective value of everyday ceremony—like shared meals, setting the table, lighting a candle:

    “The enemy of intimacy is speed... the enemy of ceremony is speed... Ceremony is under threat, and it has to stay because it's a binding glue that keeps us together.” (51:36–52:46)

The Camellia Candle: Collaborative Activism

• Bullying Prevention Collaboration
  • Monica and Richard describe the rapid creation of a camellia-scented candle for Bullying Prevention Month, with all proceeds benefitting anti-bullying organizations:

    “As soon as you said it, I was like, hell yes, we're gonna do it right away.” (35:14)

  • The camellia flower becomes a layered metaphor—for gentleness, for outsiders, and as a symbol of Asian-American agricultural history (especially Japanese farmers in LA before WWII) (35:34–36:57).

Broader Themes: From Bhutan to “Victory Gardens” and Reclaiming Joy

• Travel & New Inspiration

  • Richard previews his upcoming trip to Bhutan (54:22) as research for Flamingo Estate’s next collection—drawn to the country’s commitment to happiness and gentle living.

• Victory Garden (Upcoming Book)

  • Richard’s forthcoming book is inspired by the “Victory Garden” movements of WWI/WWII, reframed for our time:

    “I think convenience is the enemy. I think there’s a war against pleasure. And so this book is around... real, tangible tools for how we can slow down and have the time to just really… get into our best self. And so that’s through the garden, right?” (46:03)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the privilege of being alive:

  “What a crime not to run after all [the pleasures] and just inhale all of it. We're the only species that does this for joy.”
  —Richard Christiansen (61:33)

• On crisis and transformation:

  “Now my barn has burned down, I can see the moon.” (On losing his old business at COVID)
  —Richard Christiansen (28:01)

• On “acting small” in business and life:

  “People... would come with different problems... But at the end of the day, I always knew they were asking the same question: ‘Help us act small again.’... We're too big to be vulnerable.”
  —Richard Christiansen (31:18)

• On indulgence:

  “The word indulgence comes from the word to forgive. To forgive yourself. Yes. To be indulgent is to forgive yourself.”
  —Richard Christiansen (17:40)

• On healing & connection:

  “When we tend to our inner gardens, healing blooms all around us.”
  —(Reading from Richard’s book, 60:39)

Timestamped Segment Highlights

• [04:34–06:10] – Flamingo Estate’s founding and early “accidental” pandemic success
• [07:41–09:15] – The “crisis of imagination” and data overload vs. natural wonder
• [11:22–15:18] – Monica & Richard discuss creative energy, childlessness, and making meaning
• [17:02–19:15] – Richard on collapse and rebirth during COVID; redefining “indulgence”
• [28:01] – Discovering new perspective after business collapse: “Now my barn has burned down, I can see the moon.”
• [31:18] – Insights into business, “acting small,” and staying nimble
• [33:49–36:07] – Collaboration on anti-bullying candle; symbolism of camellias
• [40:39–41:27] – Richard on bullying, leadership, “bringing the bully in,” and soft power
• [46:03–47:37] – The new “Victory Garden” book and the “enemy of convenience”
• [51:36–52:46] – Ceremony, community, and resisting speed for intimacy
• [54:22–56:13] – Upcoming Bhutan project and the pursuit of radical inconsistency
• [60:00–61:56] – On resisting convenience, not owning a microwave or TV
• [62:16] – Richard on reclaiming “the softer part” of himself

Tone & Atmosphere

• The conversation is warm, funny, and vulnerable, balancing Monica’s self-deprecating humor with Richard’s poetic, imaginative insights.
• The tone invites curiosity, reflection, and a gentle challenge to re-examine our relationship to pleasure, nature, technology, and self-forgiveness.

For Listeners

If you’re seeking inspiration to reclaim joy, creativity, or connection after upheaval, this episode offers soulful stories and actionable wisdom. Whether you’re a creative, a leader, someone healing from bullying, or simply in need of a reminder to slow down and indulge your senses, Monica and Richard’s dialogue is full of practical philosophy, memorable metaphors, and life-affirming energy.

Further Information

• Flamingo Estate: flamingoestate.com
• Bullying Prevention Candle Collaboration: Proceeds benefit Tyler Clementi Foundation, Hedrick Martin Institute (U.S.), The Diana Award (UK), and Project Rocket (Australia).
• Upcoming Book: “The Victory Garden” by Richard Christiansen