DeepSummary
In this episode, David Duchovny is interviewed by Samantha Bee about his perspective on failure and how it shapes people's lives. They discuss his thoughts on admitting defeat, not having heroes, and the importance of embracing imperfections. Duchovny shares anecdotes about parenting and teaching his children life lessons.
The conversation touches on topics like the culture in America around never admitting failure, the melancholic nature of human existence, and how Duchovny tries to instill these values in his children. He talks about his background, including his father's career as a writer and his own accidental path into acting.
Duchovny and Bee have a lighthearted exchange, joking about various subjects like Elizabethan smells, ordering food habits, and Duchovny's lazy vegetarianism stemming from a book he read in college about animal suffering. They also touch on Duchovny's approach to directing films and his upcoming movie based on his book.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Admitting and embracing failures is an important part of the human experience.
- Heroes and role models should be viewed as imperfect humans, not idealized figures.
- Shame around perceived shortcomings can be limiting and unproductive.
- Parenting involves letting children experience failures as learning opportunities.
- Creative pursuits inevitably involve a cycle of inspiration and failure in execution.
- Having a lighthearted, self-aware perspective about one's flaws is valuable.
- Making decisions based on instinct rather than overanalysis can be liberating.
- Conveying interior emotional landscapes through art is an imperfect translation.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “But shame is more like, you are bad.“ by David Duchovny
- “I think it's a good trait in somebody. It's a very strong trait. I don't know if I have it, but I fantasize that I have it.“ by David Duchovny
- “I wish that they didn't, as well, but I think that, I mean, a character that I'm always fascinated by in whatever I'm doing, I always seem to come back to the same kind of an archetype, which is like the bad priest, you know, he's a great priest, but he's a bad man, you know?“ by David Duchovny
Entities
Person
Company
Product
Book
Film
Episode Information
Fail Better with David Duchovny
Lemonada Media
7/2/24
This week I wanted to share this interview I did with my friend Samantha Bee on her show Choice Words. Read more about our discussion below, and happy listening. We’ll be back next week.
When actor David Duchovny was teaching his daughter to ride a bike, he made the questionable choice of taking her to the top of a grassy hill at Pepperdine University in Malibu and pointing her straight downhill toward Highway 1. Luckily she learned (quickly) how to brake, but he realized not all of his ideas are good ones. In fact, some are failures. Sam asks David how to view failure through a positive lens, why it’s so hard for Americans to admit defeat, and why Yale is still waiting for him to teach a Kierkegaard graduate class.
Follow David Duchovny @davidduchovny on Instagram.
Keep up with Samantha Bee @realsambee on Instagram and X. And stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X, Facebook, and Instagram.
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