Deviate

“Do not hold on to any one vision of what your life should look like.” – Rachel Friedman In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Rachel discuss perceptions of success (3:15); the upside of failure and non-linear paths to success (13:00); ordinariness and the influence of public validation (23:00); and the reconciling old and new goals and the art of quitting (36:00). Rachel Friedman ( @RachelFriedma...

“Treat Indonesia as a continent, not a country.” – Tim Hannigan In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Tim discuss why Indonesia is underrated (3:00); the role of Indonesia in the popular consciousness (15:00); the history or Bali and the geography of Indonesia (22:00); cultural differences and the influence of travel blogging (38:00); and strategies for first time travelers (55:00). Tim Hannigan (...

“Kicking and Screaming is a more arch and far more intelligent version of the TV show Friends. If you want to experience that feeling of being young and not really knowing yet what you’re doing in life, watch this movie instead.” –Michael Weinreb In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Michael discuss the plot of Noah Baumbach ‘s debut movie Kicking & Screaming , and how it explores life-transit...

“The Sears Christmas  Wish Book  was, for me, a kind of foundational text — a secular counterpoint to the Bible stories I learned around that time in Sunday School. I paged through the holiday catalog’s 620 glossy pages as if they amounted to an intoxicating graphic novel of desire, rich with abundance and possibility.” – Rolf Potts, from “Literature of Desire” In this episode Rolf reads an audio...

“Going the longer route through literature, rather than just reading self-help, will ultimately be more satisfying.” – Jeffrey Tayler In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Jeffrey discuss navigating life’s challenges through literature (3:00); Ecclesiastes and the great stories of history (12:00); and using literature to make sense of ones life (19:00). Jeffrey Tayler ( @JeffreyTayler1 ) is an Ame...

“So much of what is wrong with America today began with the Civil War and Reconstruction” – Jason Cochran In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Jason discuss the monuments at Gettysburg, and the concept of a Civil War “hero” (2:00); the revisionist post-war memorial efforts by Southern organizations (13:00); the concept of memorials, and how they shape memory (26:00); and our relationship with dec...

“You cannot change your reality until you see your reality.” – Alex Banayan In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Alex discuss mentorship (3:00); the genesis of Alex’s book T he Third Door (10:00); “opportunity hurdles” (30:00); structural storytelling, and the art of learning (54:00); and the importance of thinking differently (1:11:00). Alex Banayan ( @AlexBanayan ) is the bestselling business a...

“It’s good as you travel to take the time to do nothing, and have nothing planned.” –Tim Leffel In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Tim discuss the advantages of traveling to cheaper parts of the world (3:00); how living overseas can actually be cheaper than your life at home (13:00); strategies to save money on the road (23:00); setting a budget, and counterintuitive sightseeing (34:00); and br...

“The challenge is that we have to become philosophers ourselves, in a way. We have to learn to ask better questions and more questions than we had to before.” – Monica McCarthy Monica McCarthy ( @MissMMcCarthy ) is an actress, writer, and host of The Happier Hour podcast and live show, which aims to make philosophy useful and accessible. For more about Monica, you can check our her website or watc...

“The hashtag level of social media discourse can be really frustrating. It tends to bend narratives toward the hashtag slogan. But when we start sweeping everything into the same category, we begin to trivialize the core issue.” – Rolf Potts Ari Shaffir ( @AriShaffir ) is a comedian, writer, podcaster, and actor. He is the current host of the podcast Skeptic Tank . In the Season 1 Finale of Deviat...

“To me the term Beat was like, “Hey man I’m beat,” after all night on Benzedrine. I never considered myself a Beat. But my first book was published by Ferlinghetti and they all arrived at my doorstep when I lived at Gough Street, so I guess I became a Beat by osmosis.” —Charles Plymell Charles Plymell is a poet, novelist, and small press publisher. Plymell has collaborated with and published many...

“How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us.” – Pam Houston Pam Houston ( @pam_houston ) is an author and professor of English at the University of California, Davis. Her books include Cowboys Are My Weakness and Contents May Have Shifted , with her latest, Deep Creek , set for release in January 2019. In this episode of Deviate , Pam discusses her interactions with wri...

“The act of creating is a way of stopping time.” – Major Jackson Major Jackson ( @Poet_Major ) is an American poet, professor, and author of four collections of poetry: Roll Deep , Holding Company , Hoops , and Leaving Saturn . He currently serves as the Poetry Editor of the Harvard Review . In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Major discuss the changing perception of time and how creation leads...

“ Travel feels like a generational signifier the way rock music was when I was a kid. The whole idea of having experiences as opposed to accumulating stuff feels like this planetary alignment, the way rock was in the ’70s .” – Jay Yuenger Jay Yuenger (@JYuenger ) is a rock guitarist best known for his work with the Grammy-nominated heavy metal band White Zombie . In this episode of Deviate , Rolf...

“I can’t imagine what the Trans-Siberian train would be like if you knew what time it was. That was the ongoing fun of the experience — never really having any clue what time it was.” – Jonathan Arlan Jonathan Arlan ( @JonathanArlan ) is the author of the book Mountain Lines: A Journey through the French Alps and a recent Tablet  essay titled Off the Rails in Birobidzhan . In this episode of Devia...

“If there is any revelation to be gleaned from spending several days on a single train, it will come from the bizarre details that lurk beneath the mundanity of the trip itself.” – Rolf Potts In this episode of Deviate , Rolf reads his essay On the Trans-Siberian Express (2:00) and then recounts, with Jonathan Arlan, the story behind the story, discussing his approach to writing about his experien...

“It’s better for characters if their arc isn’t a straight line. You get to see how far they will go for something. You get to test them.” – Latoya Morgan LaToya Morgan ( @MorganicInk ) is screenwriter who currently serves an executive producer on AMC’s Into the Badlands . Previously, she has worked on the shows Shameless and Turn . She is currently developing a drama for AMC based on Wesley Lowery...

“Punk is not a sound for me. It’s not a style of music. It’s not a look. It’s not even an attitude. For me punk is the free space: It’s the place where new ideas can be presented without having to hew to profit motives.”   — Ian MacKaye Ian MacKaye is the co-founder of Dischord Records and former front man for Fugazi and Minor Threat . He currently performs in the two-piece indie band The Evens wi...

“Social capital is as important as formal training when it comes to disaster response. We see in every event people who have never had emergency training playing critical roles.” – Daniel Neely Daniel Neely is the Manager of Community Resilience and Regional Recovery Manager at the Wellington (New Zealand) Region Emergency Management Office. In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Daniel discuss the...

“There’s nothing that will stop white people from trying to do some black shit. It’s fundamentally baked into every aspect of American popular culture. It is the first thing that we invented that was entirely ours — white people dressing as black people and entertaining other people.” — Wesley Morris Wesley Morris ( @Wesley_Morris ) the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic at large for the New York Times...

“There are the actual facts of what was happening in popular culture in the 1980s — and then there was this tantalizing notion that music played backwards was going to seed our minds with evil. Which was scary, but also kind of cool to a certain kid-like way of thinking. You can almost see a book like Backward Masking Unmasked as young-adult literature.” — Rolf Potts In this episode of  Deviate  R...

“We all have different priorities in life, and there is a place for each of us where we can live according to what those priorities are.” – Winona Dimeo Winona Dimeo ( @winona_rose ) is the managing editor of Livability.com , a website that ranks America’s most livable small and mid-sized cities. In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Winona discuss what people are looking for in a place to live (2...

“The traditional black experience is not the traditional white experience, so until we recognize that I don’t think it’s going change. But I think that is the first hurdle—compassion and consciousness.” – Candacy Taylor Candacy Taylor ( @candacytaylor ) is a writer, photographer and cultural critic. She is the founder of Taylor Made Culture . In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Candacy discuss t...

“Once again road trips are becoming more about the journey rather than the destination and I see that as a very encouraging sign that maybe people are realizing the merit of enjoying the journey.” – Richard Ratay Richard Ratay ( @RichRatay ) is the author of Don’t Make Me Pull Over! , an informal history of the family road trip. In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Richard discuss the history of...

“Travel should not be a checklist; it should be about having new experiences” – Catherine Price Catherine Price ( @Catherine_Price ) is a journalist and author of How to Break Up with Your Phone and 101 Places Not to See Before You Die . In this episode of Deviate , Rolf and Catherine discuss digital distractions and their effects on our brains (2:00); reframing the way we think about our smartpho...