All lives contain the shadows of the lives we nearly lived: moments where we turned left instead of right, where we closed one door and opened another. The paths we choose create the story of who we are, but the unlived life – the wish unfulfilled, the need unmet, the question unanswered – has much to teach us, if we let it.
Whether we regret our decisions or rejoice in them, we rarely allow ourselves to explore the possibility of what might have been. We don't want to get lost in the past, stranded without a map back to the here and now.
This podcast is the map.
Each episode, host Miriam Robinson interviews an author about a path their life might have taken. They return to the moment their paths diverged and together, step by step, write the story of their unlived lives.
Most interview podcasts explore the story of our lives.
This podcast explores the story of our unlived lives
#MyUnlivedLife
Please send pitches to myunlivedlifepod@gmail.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
All lives contain the shadows of the lives we nearly lived: moments where we turned left instead of right, where we closed one door and opened another. The paths we choose create the story of who we are, but the unlived life – the wish unfulfilled, the need unmet, the question unanswered – has much to teach us, if we let it.
Whether we regret our decisions or rejoice in them, we rarely allow ourselves to explore the possibility of what might have been. We don't want to get lost in the past, stranded without a map back to the here and now.
This podcast is the map.
Each episode, host Miriam Robinson interviews an author about a path their life might have taken. They return to the moment their paths diverged and together, step by step, write the story of their unlived lives.
Most interview podcasts explore the story of our lives.
This podcast explores the story of our unlived lives
#MyUnlivedLife
Please send pitches to myunlivedlifepod@gmail.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Joanna and Miriam discuss what her life might have looked like if she’d studied and then pursued a career in dance, as opposed to following what she considered to be a more traditional, intellectual route for her education. Along the way they talk about the intelligence of the body, gendered attitudes to both success and competition, and the romantic dalliances of Sylvia Plath and Simone de Beauvoir.
Joanna Biggs is an editor at Harper's Magazine, and previously was associate editor at the London Review of Books. She has also written for the New Yorker, the FT and the Guardian, as well as appearing on BBC Radio 4. Her first book, All Day Long: A Portrait of Britain at Work, was published in 2015, and was one of the Observer's books of the year. Her new book, A Life of One’s Own, is a piercing blend of memoir, criticism and biography, interspersing her own life story with an examination of how women writers across the centuries carved out intellectual freedom for themselves. It’s out now and available in your local bookshop and on Bookshop.org.
Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.
Produced by Neil Mason
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.