Life Lessons from Taylor Swift, Conquering Anxiety, Coaching Teens, Career Reinvention, Supposedly Gay Bulls, Your Shadow Side, and More — Soman Chainani (#720)

“If I spent my life on Instagram and TikTok, I would die because it’s just the wrong inputs to make me find what I want to do.”
— Soman Chainani

Soman Chainani (@somanc) is the bestselling author of The School for Good & Evil book series, which has sold more than 4 million copies, been translated into 35 languages across six continents, and been adapted into a major motion picture from Netflix that debuted at #1 in more than 80 countries.

Soman’s book of retold fairy tales, Beasts and Beauty, debuted on The New York Times Best Sellers List—his seventh book in a row to do so—and is slated to be a limited television series from Sony’s 3000 Pictures, with Soman writing and executive producing. Together, his books have been on the New York Times Best Sellers List for more than 50 weeks.

Soman has an A.B. in English and American Literature from Harvard University and an MFA in Film from Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Sun Valley Writers Fellowship, and he has been nominated for the Waterstone Prize for Children’s Literature and been named to the Out100.

Soman has visited more than 800 schools around the world, sharing his message that reading is the path to a better life.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube here.

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The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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#720: Life Lessons from Taylor Swift, Conquering Anxiety, Coaching Teens, Career Reinvention, Supposedly Gay Bulls, Your Shadow Side, and More — Soman Chainani

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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Want to hear the last time Soman Chainani was on this show? Listen to our conversation here, in which we discussed failed filmmaking projects, tutoring for fun over profit, habits of high performance, coming out, advice for tennis novices, the city-building aspirations of Walt Disney, preserving artistic integrity across mediums, and much more.

#220: Soman Chainani — The School for Good and Evil

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Soman Chainani:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

SHOW NOTES

[04:54] Who is Soman Chainani?
[06:01] Follow the flow.
[14:52] Give stories away.
[23:34] Your bull might be gay.
[30:13] Indispensable assistance.
[36:36] Art appreciation: Christopher Marley.
[40:35] Coach Alpha.
[50:05] Mike Regula’s Course of Action.
[52:31] The catharsis of being an intermittent pop star.
[59:20] How ketamine changed Soman’s life.
[1:08:09] The Shadow Self vs. The Double (refereed by Kelly Clarkson).
[1:13:47] Thoughts on Netflix’s Quarterback.
[1:17:34] Career lessons from Taylor Swift.
[1:24:07] Recommended reading.
[1:29:55] Cross-collar dating.
[1:35:12] The language of couples.
[1:36:59] Hookups.
[1:38:28] St. Louis vs. everywhere else.
[1:42:48] Dodgy allergies.
[1:48:41] Babysitting the fully formed.
[1:52:07] Parting thoughts.

MORE SOMAN CHAINANI QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“What I realized is that your conscious mind can’t actually solve problems. It can execute, it can deliver on the promise of something, but what actually is going to be the next creative force in your life, the next big decision, has to come to you naturally.”
— Soman Chainani

“When you think you can’t find what the next thing is, it’s like, what’s the next zone of discomfort?”
— Soman Chainani

“I get a lot of big ideas, and I will not write a book until I’ve had the idea for at least three years. It has to stay with me for three years because it’s going to take me that long to write, promote, take it out, and I need to be sure that it’s not going to suddenly be a short-term relationship. And it feels also like it’s timeless then. If it lasts three years, it’s made it through most of a presidential administration. It’s made it through all the ups and downs. I feel like it’s going to last.”
— Soman Chainani

“On any given night, if you’re an alcoholic or you have a drug addiction or whatever, you can just go to an AA meeting and you can have that group experience. And I felt like, why isn’t there that for teenagers? This idea that you can just go to a space and meet other teenagers on a given night and have that kind of place to talk to or experience. And yes, you can do it online. But I just think the more you get into your phone, the further you often get away from actually who you are and real connection.”
— Soman Chainani

“If I spent my life on Instagram and TikTok, I would die because it’s just the wrong inputs to make me find what I want to do.”
— Soman Chainani

“It’s almost like you have to get your conscious brain out of the way because the double, the real version of yourself that knows how to do everything, is there somewhere. And the question is, over time, can you make it so they start to integrate?”
— Soman Chainani

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jess

2 months ago

Hi Tim, Soman mentioned Miranda July — she would be a fantastic interview. Her movies and writing are so weird and great, but her ability to engage her audience creatively and spontaneously in creating something together and with her is unparalleled. She is a master of prompt crafting. (Check out http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/, or her play Things We Don’t Understand and Definitely Are Not Going to Talk About.)

J Gordon

Hey Tim, I’d like to be a guest on the show sometime!

Emily

Enjoyed this episode and guest. Felt laid back and it has me encouraged with creative projects. Thank you!

Scott Winterroth

I know you have an allergy to politics, but we posted something that I think you might find interesting. It’s an exclusive interview with law professor William Baude of the University of Chicago on our Big Brains podcast. In this episode, Baude discusses the 14th Amendment argument for disqualification and its potential implications. He also outlines the possible outcomes of the pending Supreme Court case and the potential for a constitutional crisis after the 2024 election.

Baude is an engaging and thoughtful speaker, and he breaks down complex legal topics in a way that’s accessible to everyone – right from the source.

t https://news.uchicago.edu/can-trump-legally-be-president-2024-supreme-court-14th-amendment

Megan

The discussion around the gay bull was embarrassingly relatable. The whole description had me chortling as I nodded my head in agreement, recalling times where my counterpart had similar concerns.

Jessica Maier

Great interview! I’m sad to say that I wasn’t familiar with Mr. Chainani’s work before this episode aired… And now I want to be his best friend! Now, I read everyday and have for decades, usually fiction, but I’m slow. So, I was floored when he recommended three books from my top ten all time favorite books! If I were you, I would read Secret History first. You’re in for a treat.

Content on creativity is always fascinating –more please! Would love to hear more of your creative process, too.

Amy B.

If Soman Chainani starts a cult, I will join it! I loved this episode

Umpitumili

Hi Tim,

great Episode as always.
If you like the Art of Marley and supposed you havent yet, you might want to check out Wolfgang Laib who works with Pollen, Milk, Wachs etc and creates incredibly pure Images.
All the best!

Yoma Cohen

Hey Tim Ferriss,
I know you don’t have a lot of time so I’ll keep it as short as possible.
I’m Yoma (13yo), currently on page 182 in The 4-hour workweek and I would love it if I could work for you for free, I don’t want anything in return. Let me know if you have any work ideas I can do for you.
Would love to hear a response from you,
Yoma

southbluebestbuy

I have an interesting name and I have had to live up to my name for many years, but it gave me a 3 point shot that sounds like a heron flaping their wings,swish swish. Anytime you want to do a fundraiser, and challenege yourself to most 3 pointers you can make I am in. I love your writings and podcasts, and most of all I love this I found on one of your pages.” Tim enjoys bear claws, chocolate croissants, writing “About” pages in third person, and neglecting italics.” So good, made me smile, it was great. The idea of a place where people, teenagers, whoever can share freely to help process is a great idea.If it helps save one, that snowballs into so many lives being helped. Heck even some of the psychological treatments with psycilosciban, or combination of counseling, diet, sports. I am not a good speller, I should be using autocorrect, I mean we are living in 2024 with AR Apple Glasses, but I refuse for some reason. Writing comes natural, I wrote a story once in Georgia, in 4th or 5th grade,it won some state young authors award, and I still think to this day they made a movie about it a couple years later, about a dirtbike that came to life. In the 90s some time You might even know that one. I wrote that it never ran out of gas too. Let the teenagers write, encourage them to brain dump, write it all down, communicate, and remove all fear, create healthy clean spaces for them.. Have a radically amazing year, every day being better than the day before and keep up the great work encouraging, helping others irradicate all fear, your writings,interviews, philosophy, philathropy, and more to be continued… No italics, and I love bear claws, apple fritter. My Papa always asked when I was going to settle down and write a book, and this comes from a man that said you could be a millionaire if you could sell water and tv years ago. Its time to settle down and write and your work has been inspirational over the years. And the recommendations on the 4 sigmatic coffee, need to reup, its been a while,but its a great coffee and really helps creativity and writing. We should both have a cup and share some more stories, you got to have a few that you still havent shared yet.