137 | Josh Radnor on creativity, spirituality, & the in-between (HappyThankYouMorePlease, Liberal Arts)

Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother, HappyThankYouMorePlease, Liberal Arts) - on acting, spirituality, creativity & much more.

for full shownotes & links to everything mentioned look below...

I've been recording this podcast in my bedroom since 2013. I've recorded over 150 hours of conversation, connected with people all over the world, and made real life friends through my guests and listeners. I've gleaned an abundance of wisdom from the diverse group of guests I've had the opportunity to uninterruptedly speak with people I deeply admire and respect, getting to ask them anything I was curious about, an opportunity I don't take for granted. At 22 years old, freshly out of college I never would have imaged how much a purely creative passion project would mean to me almost four years later or how it would have grown.

I feel like a completely different person now at 26 to who I was back then when I started but one thing remains, my favorite movie is still a movie my college boyfriend showed me in 2010 called HappyThankYouMorePlease. This film reminded, me even if only for that hour and forty minutes, that with gratitude the universe is infinitely abundant. I told everyone about the film and I re-watched it so often that the dvd (remember those?) my boyfriend gave me wore out. Two years later, probably sick of rewatching the same movie on repeat he showed me a new movie called Liberal Arts he claimed I'd like equally as much since it had the same writer, director, and star as the first movie I loved. He was right. This film was timely since we'd just graduated from college and were wrestling with the concept of adulthood which Liberal Arts tackles.

These movies led me to explore their creator the man both in front and behind the camera: Josh Radnor. I realized Josh was was a really famous guy from starring in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, I also learned he was midwestern like me, a meditator like me, and a deeply self-aware, wise, and kind human being (like i hope to become). I became as fascinated with him as a person as I was by his work. He inspired me, he made me think about things like religion, creativity, and writing in a new way and above all his insight inspired me to want to be better at being myself and expressing myself creatively. Whenever anyone would ask who my dream podcast guest would be I would jokingly say Josh, not knowing the slightest how I could even get a hold of him. It seemed like a pipe dream, but long story short um it happened and today you're hearing my conversation with one of my favorite artists, someone whose work is super meaningful to me and above all someone from what I can tell is genuinely kind, generous, and wise. Enjoy my a conversation with Josh Radnor. We recorded this via skype while he was filming a tv show in Richmond.

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Notes from the show:
-Josh's Museletter | Twitter | Facebook
-Movies Josh has made that you need to checkout: HappyThankYouMorePlease & Liberal Arts
-Check out journaling exercise #21 "The HappyThankYouMorePlease Tool" in my book Let It Out: A Journey Through Journaling,
-I also mention journaling exercise #6, the "The Opposite Experiment" in my book, inspired by "The Opposite" episode of Seinfeld
-Lots of you also probably know Josh from the show How I Met Your Mother
-Brain Pickings by Maria Popovia and the reading from Erich Fromm
-Josh's Song of the Day Spotifiy playlist
-Josh's talk and reflection on fame.
-Great musical albums for writing Spheres, The Chopin Project, The Four Seasons, Flight
-The Inner Ring, essay by CS Lewis
-Books we mention in the show:
Falling Upwards by Richard Rohr,
Archetypes: Who Are You? by Caroline Myss,
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott,
On Writing by Stephen King,
Devotion by Dani Shapiro,
Barbarian Days by William Finnegan,
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander,
Miracles by CS Lewis
Mere Christianity by CS Lewis

I've been recording this podcast in my bedroom since 2013. I've recorded over 150 hours of conversation, connected with people all over the world, and made real life friends through my guests and listeners. I've gleaned an abundance of wisdom from the diverse group of guests I've had the opportunity to uninterruptedly speak with people I deeply admire and respect, getting to ask them anything I was curious about, an opportunity I don't take for granted. At 22 years old, freshly out of college I never would have imaged how much a purely creative passion project would mean to me almost four years later or how it would have grown.

I feel like a completely different person now at 26 to who I was back then when I started but one thing remains, my favorite movie is still an indie movie my college boyfriend showed me in 2010 called HappyThankYouMorePlease. This film reminded, me even if only for that hour and forty minutes, that with gratitude the universe is infinitely abundant. I told everyone about the movie and I re-watched it so often that the dvd (remember those?) my boyfriend gave me wore out. Two years later, probably sick of rewatching the same movie on repeat he showed me a new movie called Liberal Arts he claimed I'd like equally as much since it had the same writer, director, and star as the first movie I fell in love with. He was right. I fell hard for Liberal Arts too. This film was timely since we'd just graduated from college and were wrestling with the concept of adulthood which Liberal Arts directly and beautifully tackles.

These movies led me to explore their creator the man both in front and behind the camera: Josh Radnor. I realized Josh was was a really famous guy from starring in the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother, I also learned he was midwestern like me, a meditator like me, and a deeply self-aware, wise, and kind human being. I became as fascinated with him as a person as I was by his work. He inspired me, he made me think about things like religion, creativity, and writing in a new way and above all his insight inspired me to want to be better at being myself and expressing myself creatively. Whenever anyone would ask who my dream podcast guest would be I would say Josh, not knowing the slightest how I could get a hold of him or make that happen. It seemed like a pipe dream, but long story short it happened and today you're hearing my conversations with one of my favorite people, someone whose work is super meaningful to me and above all someone from what I can tell is genuinely kind, generous, wise and woke. Enjoy my dream come true of a conversation with Josh Radnor.