YouSaid · the spoken record

Erling Kagge

lines on the record: 39
first: 2020-01-21
most recent: 2020-01-21
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Absolutely, she didn't get it. And of course, you know, if you're 15 years old, you don't necessarily get the value of silence. I didn't remember when I was 50th silence was about being let out, was about being lonely, was about being bored, it was about waiting for something. So it took me quite a few more years before I learned that silence can also be a very good friend.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that sense, it's nice not to have sons. Oh, just kidding. But at home, I have hardly ever ever talked about any expeditions or any martial stuff or extraordinary stuff because life goes on. But having said that, I remember when my book Silence came out a few years ago. Of course, I was very proud with the book and gave one copy to each of my daughters and the two elders at the time were 17 and 19. And I read the book and they were happy and some of the friends read the book. And yeah, and you know they still very much attach to their smartphone, but at least they saw their life in perspective. While my youngest daughter was 15 at the time, she started to read the book and stopped and felt it was absolutely bullshit.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So an also this kind of short range that kind of happy because you buy yourself a new pair of shoes and then you're unhappy when some new neighbor get an even nicer pair of shoes and blah blah blah. You know, these things are in one time, in one sense, of course they're important. But to kind of think about it as the meaning of life to gain this short-term happiness and not respect that also. Pain, you know, uncomfortable circumstances, both fiscal and fiscal sense and psychological sense also super important part of our lives. We're not able to feel any happiness if you're not also suffering in between. So that's certainly something you learn from doing expeditions that you appreciate that life has more than one goal.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's a very important issue because, as I said, politicians, media, always writing and talking about are people happy? Am I happy now? How happy are you on a scale from 1 to 7 of 1 to 10? And I think that's based upon partly on a deep misunderstanding in the sense that, first of all, I think the idea that you should be happy all the time is very naive because, you know, you can't be happy all the time. And also, I think it's very hard quite often to know if you're happy and if you're not happy. And so the movie the other day, someone said that my problem is that when I'm happy, I'm unhappy. And when I'm unhappy, I am happy. And I think that's quite often the case.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think it's not a revenge over some people. So it's not kind of a payback time. It's more like, you know, I had a hard time to learn how to both read and write. And also to talk in a proper language. So then my girlfriend got pregnant in 1995. I need a job and I start a book publishing company and also kept on writing books. So I think it's very much related to the hardship I had when I was a kid.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doing extreme matters. And as I said, later in life, I understood it was almost in one way as extreme to raise three daughters as doing an extreme expedition.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I was interested in the ideas I write about in my teenagers the first time. But for quite a few years as a teenager, I want to party and try to chase girls and live a different life. And then late in teenagers, you know, Sort of feel for turning back to nature again. And so I think most of these ideas have been with me the whole time, but then have developed because I experienced so much more in the meantime. And also think, you know, one thing is to be doing extreme expeditions and lots of traveling and lots of outdoors, but also think for me it was important to have a job as a publisher and also be a family man to kind of put it into perspective because I think my ideas 20 years ago, 30 years ago was too focused on”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, because it was a big mystery for a few decades who of the two guys came to the summit first and neither of them came with any details. But then late in life, Tenzin Norgai talked about how he was walking towards a peak ahead of Hillary and of course making those steps into the snow. big time help for Hillary. But then very close to the summit itself, Norgai stopped, had a break, and then he let Hilary go ahead of him. So Hilary got to the summit. And I really like that story because it just shows it was so much more important for a white man Western tradition to get to the summit in a fiscal sense. And I also like to believe that for Tensing Norgai, he kind of felt that his people had been to the summit. In the spiritual way so many times anyway, so then really a matter to come up there as a second person.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think quite often in life you do things despite of and not because of in the sense that my family didn't have any explorers. My father is a jazz critic and my mother worked in a publishing company quite ordinary lives, nice lives. I was very privileged in the sense in addition to being sent out into nature all the time. We also had great books in our bookshelves and we had great music. So I think I got many ideas from reading books when I overcame dyslexia. And also I think because I was lonely for quite a lot when I was a kid. And that was good for my fantasy, for my life and imagination.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm optimistic and one reason I'm optimistic is because I think the world needs more optimists today because so many people are negative. But it's also my impression from the history of the world is that optimists have been usually much more often right than the pessimists. And it's also much easier to be a pessimistic than optimistic. So I think I'm optimistic about the future. And yes, I think that human invention can do many good things also in terms of, if not saving the climate or not changing it, at least make it less bad than it has to be.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, I wish I was smart enough to give a really good answer, but I'm not. This is a question I'm struggling with. But obviously human invention has made it possible to live as we're doing. And I think it has many good sides. But now, of course, it can also destroy humanity. It's not possible to destroy the earth, but destroy the humanity. But, you know,”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You have to find your own silence in the sense that your silence will be different from my silence because your silence is very much about yourself. It's very much about discovering yourself. In that sense, your silence will be different from mine”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Noise in the sense so cars passing, radio running, all these expectations from different social media distractions, man-made light, pollution. All this to me is noise, the opposite of silence. And then again, is it possible to find silence in Manchester, London, or Birmingham, whatever? Yes, certainly it is. But you know you need to invent your own silence. You can't wait for silence to come to you. You have to look for it inside yourself. And they're waiting for you day and night.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but so lovely sort of sees more variations of white is to also start to see a bit bluish, reddish, yellowish appearing. And it's not absolutely flat either. And then, of course, you wonder, am I changing or is Antarctica changing? And of course, Antarctica remains the same, but you are changing. And that taught me a great lesson on silence and the importance of silence in life, not only having silence surrounded by silence because that's difficult in most places, but certainly to kind of search for your own inner silence. And I read that Wikipedia actually a few days ago that silence is the opposite of noise, opposite of sounds. But my silence is not the opposite of sounds. My silence, which I experienced Antarctica, but also experience when I'm visiting UK, is”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's like I walked alone to the South Pole for 50 days and nights. And what's interesting, what's happening then is that after a few days, you start to get more and more connected to nature. It's like your fingers, your body doesn't stop by your fingertips or by your skin, but you're kind of coming apart from nature. You're starting to have a conversation with the environment, kind of sending some ideas out and get all the thoughts back again. And also The nature is changing while the time pass by. Like when you walk to the south pole, it's like everything is flat and everything is white all the way up to the horizon. Different shape.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that's an idea that is thousands of years old. And I think it's important, like, you know, any idea, any advice that I lost it for more than one thousand years, we should take really seriously. And what's happening today is that we kind of, you know, we're making our joys very, very complicated. And it's very much about running away from ourselves. And it's deeply unhealthy.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I'm not fancy kind of this anti-technology and anti-capitalist ideas, but it has simply gone too far. And also, you know, the fact that thousands of the brightest people on Earth work in day and night to make us addicted to different apps and games, it's very bad. And today a kid will spend around four hours every day doing social media. And if you leave NCL84, which is kind of average age in over part of the world, you will spend 13 years day and night of your life on social media. And that again, you know, make people unhappy, make people lonely, make people sad and eventually also make people depressed. One of the lessons I have learned from spending much time in nature is that the importance of keeping your pleasures, keeping your joy simple.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It meant a lot and it still means a lot today that I was close to nature that early in life. And at that time I didn't think about it as a privileged. I was never asked by my parents if I want to spend time in the forest and in mountains and in the oceans they just send me out. But today, for instance, when I read about kids, when I wrote my book, I wrote about kids in England, how little time they actually spend doing offdoors. I fought in England that the people doing the least outdoors in England would be people in prison, but then I appeared at 20% of all kids in England are not doing any outdoors at all. And 40% are doing less than one hour every day. So when I think about my own childhood, I think I was super happy. And I think it's one of the reasons I wrote these books is because I really believe in the importance of reconnecting to nature.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because I think quite often people who are good at expressing themselves obviously, they are not afraid of their own greatness, like quite a lot of people in media, etc., or at the workplace wherever people who talk the most, they are not. It's easy to kind of get the impression that that's something general. But kind of talking about everybody else.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're falling in love with a girl who would like her to be a girlfriend and eventually maybe almost there she'll kind of feel you have her acceptance and then you don't dare to go all the way because you know you want to stick to the known to the safe instead of entering into something which is kind of unknown and less predictable and a relationship so i think i see this in you know in in relationships in school work and expeditions that people somehow try to avoid to shove their own greatness. And that was kind of opposite what I thought when I started to write a book.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's something I've been seeing more and more in life that people are afraid of their own greatness. And also think about my own youth, my teenagers. I was also kind of didn't want to be different from other people, didn't want to do anything kind of extraordinary. And I was kind of afraid of, for instance, like, you know,”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I obviously traveled very remote areas, but I traveled more in urban areas and probably been to 100 different countries and met thousands of people. And my impression in general is that most people underestimate themselves and their possibilities they have in life. Obviously, some people are overestimating themselves, but most people are certainly underestimating themselves. So I think that's one reason why you never stop dreaming, of course, but you're kind of very much limiting your dreams. you do very little to try to achieve your dreams.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think when you're born, you have this 360 degrees horizon and kind of everything is possible. And then slowly you're becoming corrupted by your parents, friends, kindergarten, school, that you become more and more aware of everything which is impossible because, of course, at least, and I also was told as a kid, now this is impossible, you will never be able to do it. Blah, blah, blah. And then you're narrowing in your horizon. And obviously for gross national product, that's very good because you turn into a good healthy taxpayers. But I think for personal lives, I think we'd be better off if we kept some of those streams.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At least that's quite often the case. I still remember the first time I heard that comment and we had just sailed across the Atlantic with three friends and myself in 1983. The first guy I met, he said, you know, I've always been dreaming about doing the same thing as you were doing. And that's something I heard so many times. And I think quite often it's pretty inaccurate.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the first time I can remember he said he was impressed by me, what I've been doing was when I was 27 years, 30 years old, when I walked to the South Pole. I'm sure he was impressed before or happy, but he didn't really express it to me.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, we're happy I have daughters. I would be very happy, certainly happy to have boys too, but I'm very happy I have daughters. And I also been reflecting about, you know, My mother living in this March of family sons, and I think somehow the good thing with mothers, you know, they love you anyway. But you're never certain about your father's law as a mother.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As an upbringing. Yeah, he'd feed us in a loving, but really kind of rough way. And I was first into my 20s, I started to see really good sides with my father. Yeah, so I think that, you know, I think actually for most girls, wives, girlfriends, if you keep in mind that, you know, your boyfriend or your husband has been or he still is struggling with his father. I think that we've kind of explained quite a few things. That's very interesting.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was kind of, you know, he's still alive today. I love my father and whatever he did wrong, I have forgiving him a long time ago. But it was lower middle class family in Norway in the 60s and 70s. And my father and my mother, they were working hard to make it possible to have a nice place to live. And my father was, you know, it was, we didn't have a TV, we didn't have a car. We only listened to jazz music, pop music was a disease, according to my father. So it was quite a tough guy, rough guy.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I'm sure it's exceptions, but certainly almost every boy have a complicated relationship to their father. For maybe only for a few years or for a longer time or quite a few for their whole lives.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I didn't think about that the first 45 or 50 years of my life, but when I sat down to write this book, I started to see what you do for many things on one reason. And certainly one reason I've been doing all these expeditions is a little bit of revenge. Revenge is a strong word, but still I think it's about, you know, you being bullied at school, your brothers were not that nice to you. And, you know, you feel for revenge. And I think it's kind of undervalued motivator for most people that if you have too pleasant childhood, you don't have that much to fight for. And I also think to add to that, I think, you know, it's also about showing your father that you are an impressive guy because, of course, all boys, they have a problematic relationship to the father.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not at all today I'm proud about my expeditions. I'm not thinking about it that often, but I think it was a fantastic time. And I obviously did most of my expeditions because I had something within myself I needed to satisfy, strong desire to do extreme things. But then again, it's really nice afterwards that you can write about it, talk about it and inspire people because as I said, I didn't do it because I wanted to be kind to other people. But then it's a very nice and surprising consequence that people like to know about and learn from what you have been doing.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. It's about 8,750 meters. So you have about 400 meters left to climb on a hike. And it's about 100 meters of altitude. And at that stage, at least for me, I was so tired I fell asleep actually, sitting in my backpack. And you walk in this last meters and you have this kind of cliff you walking, traversing and you have two kilometers down on one side and 3000 meters or three kilometers down on the other side. But at that time, you kind of very much a part of nature. So if you don't feel you're not super scared, but you're always very concerned and also kind of one-dimensional in your head, almost like an animal. All you want to do is to get to the summit. Although you know it's not rational, it's just one way. It doesn't make sense. You should make the turnaround. But at that stage, it is an absurd thing to climb air risks.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But interestingly, so that's kind of as hard plus minus as climbing, maybe not Everest, but kind of at a very high mountain. But then, you know, you're responsible for these kids for years to come. But today, when I look back to those nights which I felt very tiring and also kind of unhappy nights, when I think about those nights today, I think about them as rich, warm, and important and also very happy nights because I think about the closeness to the kids, doing the right thing, feeling meanings in the daily life. So that's also interesting, I think, to, you know, it's something that you think about as absolutely unhappy circumstances at one time a few years pass by and you think about the same circumstances, very happy.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, you can say on one hand the last part of getting up to the submit of Everest from 8000, 8500 meters up to 8850. Extremely hard. And it's risky. It's dangerous. You have pain all the way. But it only lasts for a few days. And of course it's a long time of preparations beforehand. Quite a few people are watching you. So kind of you'll even consider to be a very courageous.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I was a bit surprising for me because for many years I did extreme expeditions and I found great meaning in doing these expeditions. And I also thought it was the most challenging thing I could do. But then I got one daughter, two daughters, three daughters, and eventually they were teenagers. And I have to say it's much more complicated and much more hardship to raise three daughters than climbing a wrist.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, thank you. That's what I tried to do. And I don't look at it as a self-help book. But I'm sure others do, and I'm happy with that. But I wanted to write something. philosophical, personal on subjects I find deeply important and also to use my experiences from the eyes and the mountains and the oceans and the forests but also as a family father with three daughters to kind of reflect on what's a meaningful life and how can you make your life much better than it is.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. I think that's a very valid point because it's quite a few billion people on Earth that certainly don't have any need for making their lives more difficult than they already are. But as a Norwegian, you are pretty privileged. And also, of course, not all Brits are privileged, but many are. And then, you know, in one way, you don't need to do anything throughout the day. I mean, if you live with your mother and she's happy to cook for you, you can just stay in bed all day. So, you know, that's why I think that's why you actually have to get up early in the morning to do something that makes sense.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, you know, I think as a Norwegian, I also think from English people, not everybody, but most people, you need to make your life more difficult and necessary. Quite often, you know, we learn that we should also always choose the easiest option and kind of happiness from moment to moment throughout the day is a goal in itself. But my experience is the opposite. I think, you know, you really have to choose the most difficult options quite often in life to have a free life and also to have a meaningful life. And I think when Mallory, George Mallory, was asked in the early 2020s, why do you climb Everest and famously replied, because it's there? I think what he actually meant was to say that it's very few things in life you have to do. You certainly don't have to climb Everest and you hardly have to do anything else either. So it's just a matter about degrees of”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, certainly not a proper loser, but I was bottom tree in class in almost any field for 12 years in a row. I was heavily dyslectic, so I couldn't pronounce my name before I was 10 years old. And I couldn't even say dyslexia before I was 20. So socially, I did not do that well. But however, I kept that spirit of exploration in my mind and I think we all born explorers and I look at my kids. Soon as you learn how to walk, they walked out of the house, after the house and start to wonder what was hidden behind the horizon. So we all have that spirit and that spirit never goes away. And somehow I kept it. And I think one reason I kept it more than others was because life was not only easy because I think if life is too easy, you don't have that much to fight for.”
2020-01-21 · Intelligence Squared · The Philosophy of Polar Exploration, with Erling Kagge and Razia Iqbal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source