Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / Find your side quest

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Find your side quest · Silver FM 100.6

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  Speaker 2: I tried skipping the other day. I was at the
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  Speaker 2: It was a rest stop, and I did some squats
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  Speaker 2: I didn't know if I would remember how to skip.
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  Speaker 2: Have y'all skipped recently? I see, I have me too,
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  Speaker 2: because I know how to do it. Yeah, we skip
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  Speaker 2: on here, really happy with how did you? Why? Why?
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  Speaker 2: Why have you all been skipping?
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  Speaker 3: Like okay something? And I'll be like, do I remember
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  Speaker 3: how that works?
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  Speaker 4: And I do skip because I am a big kit
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  Speaker 4: It's why I study play. My partner and I I
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  Speaker 4: have a little rubber ball and my backpack I take
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  Speaker 4: whenever I travel, and we were in the Poughkeepsie train
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  Speaker 4: station throwing it around like and people were like, you know,
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  Speaker 4: I love that.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm a play advocate across the board. So if
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  Speaker 5: it's asking folks like when's last time you skipped, like,
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  Speaker 5: why aren't we skipping more? And then usually we'll end
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  Speaker 5: up skipping, So I've definitely done it recently too.
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  Speaker 2: This is NPR's life, kid, I'm Mariel Sagara. When's the
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  Speaker 2: last time you skipped or even skipped out on your
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  Speaker 2: day to day routine to do something just for the
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  Speaker 2: fun of it. In other words, when's the last time
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: you took a side quest? The term side quest comes
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  Speaker 2: from video games. It's a mission that deviates from the
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  Speaker 2: main storyline. You don't absolutely need a side quest to
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  Speaker 2: finish the game, but they add flavor, they at depth,
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  Speaker 2: they build the world. It's things like go to this
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  Speaker 2: other realm and collect a bunch of yellow flowers, or
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  Speaker 2: have your player compete in a knife throwing game with
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of soldiers and wake up with a tattoo
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  Speaker 2: on his neck. This has been a trend on social
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  Speaker 2: media to share a side quest like I'm learning to crochet.
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  Speaker 2: One hundred different types of Granny Squares, or I will
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  Speaker 2: be walking the length of Manhattan this month, or I'm
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: going to be arranging flowers for myself every week. One
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  Speaker 2: of the people you heard earlier was Britney Loose, host
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  Speaker 2: of NPRS. It's been a minute and intermediate Spanish speaker.
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  Speaker 2: Britney's current side quest is learning Spanish.
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  Speaker 3: I'm almost intermediate. I'm so close to be one. Like
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  Speaker 3: we're literally we're just starting b one right now.
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  Speaker 2: We teamed up because we wanted to know what makes
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  Speaker 2: for a good side quest, so we got a couple
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  Speaker 2: of experts on the horn. Sahara Monet, curator of Let's
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  Speaker 2: Play NYC, a community group that prioritizes play.
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  Speaker 5: My side quest just going to the park more and
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  Speaker 5: being outside. I definitely say two minimum times a.
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  Speaker 2: Week I have to be at the park. And Kira Gaunt,
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  Speaker 2: Associate professor of Ethnomusicology at the University at Albany. One
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  Speaker 2: of her many side quests is writing poetry.
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  Speaker 4: Writing a poem without editing it and then recording it immediately.
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  Speaker 4: It's teaching me that it doesn't have to be overwrought, reworked,
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  Speaker 4: twenty times rewritten, you know, like we don't replay what
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  Speaker 4: we said to someone. No, I want to do that
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  Speaker 4: over take two.
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  Speaker 2: On this episode of Life Kit, I sit down with Brittany, Sahara,
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  Speaker 2: and Kira to talk about all things side quests, how
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  Speaker 2: to find the right one for you, and how a
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  Speaker 2: good side quest can help bring you back to life.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, so we live in such a goal oriented society
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  Speaker 3: gym goals, health goals, career goals, that it's really interesting
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  Speaker 3: that side quests are taking off right now, Kira, Why
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  Speaker 3: are side quests trending? What do they do for us
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  Speaker 3: as adults?
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  Speaker 4: I think of side quests like play as practice for adults.
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  Speaker 4: They're about not knowing hmm. And you're gonna ask me
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  Speaker 4: what is not knowing?
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  Speaker 7: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: I was gonna say not knowing what because I don't
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  Speaker 3: know either. What don't we know?
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  Speaker 4: Adults spend so much time in environments where they're trying
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  Speaker 4: to control the outcome. That play as a practice becomes
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  Speaker 4: about not knowing, not having an attachment to what the
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  Speaker 4: outcome is. Side quests release us from worrying about the outcome.
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  Speaker 4: Learning begins with inquiry. In fact, the word quest comes
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  Speaker 4: from the root question or inquiry, So it's not about answers,
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  Speaker 4: it's about the journey.
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  Speaker 3: That's very different than sort of like the goal oriented
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  Speaker 3: framework that we're discussing that a lot of us live within.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not if you know, you know, it's I
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  Speaker 4: don't know. It leaves me with yeah, and that's okay.
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  Speaker 4: In fact, that's what we're striving for. If you ask me,
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  Speaker 4: i'd say it's about exploring your curiosity, like really as
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  Speaker 4: a skill, exploring what curiosity is not just and I
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  Speaker 4: don't know, but I don't know what's over there.
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  Speaker 3: I hear you laughing, Sahara, Like, how does that line
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  Speaker 3: up with your attendees experiences when you have your Let's
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  Speaker 3: Play NYC events.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's interesting because I guess my interpretation of it
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  Speaker 5: is trying on different realities, and then the trending aspect
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  Speaker 5: of it is social media almost makes it so much
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  Speaker 5: easier to discover those new practices of play, or a
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  Speaker 5: hobby that maybe you didn't even thought of or knew that.
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  Speaker 2: You could try.
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  Speaker 5: So for a lot of the folks that come out
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  Speaker 5: to the play dates that we host, some people are
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  Speaker 5: more interested in trepees or ninja parks, and others are
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  Speaker 5: interested in salsa dancing. So kind of picking your own
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  Speaker 5: adventure is a part of the side questing experience too.
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  Speaker 2: I really want to go to the Ninja park one.
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  Speaker 2: It's a good one. Full disclosure. I've been to a
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  Speaker 2: couple of the events through Let's Play NYC. I went
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  Speaker 2: to the salsa one and I went to one at
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  Speaker 2: the Prastic spot Yeah, called Recess Grove, sort of a
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  Speaker 2: community art space, is how I would describe it, all right,
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  Speaker 2: take away one, side quests are a way of practicing play.
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  Speaker 2: They're a way of not knowing and being okay with that,
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  Speaker 2: embracing a beginner's mindset and sometimes seeing yourself slowly, steadily
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  Speaker 2: getting better at a thing you never thought you would do. Sarah,
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  Speaker 2: we had an episode on Life Kit about play and
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  Speaker 2: I actually interviewed Stuart Brown, who was the guy who
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  Speaker 2: came up with those eight play personalities. He walked me
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  Speaker 2: through them. I thought it was fascinating. You've talked about
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  Speaker 2: this too, like you think about play personalities.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the whole, like choose your own adventure
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  Speaker 5: aspect of it.
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  Speaker 2: I know, for me, at least in my own.
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  Speaker 5: Practice of play, it is all rooted in my upbringing,
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  Speaker 5: Like I studied musical theater when I was in high school,
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  Speaker 5: and then I also was a competitive athlete. So in
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  Speaker 5: different chapters of my life, play has come up in
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  Speaker 5: different ways and in the personalities. I know. Some of
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  Speaker 5: them are more movement modalities, or some are more spontaneous,
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  Speaker 5: and some of them honestly are more competitive. Like you
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  Speaker 5: like games, you like sports. So it's interesting how play
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  Speaker 5: as a practice shows up differently in different seasons. And
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  Speaker 5: then for adults I'm sure who are experimenting with side quests,
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  Speaker 5: sometimes they may want something a bit more rigid or
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  Speaker 5: routine based. In other capacities, they're like, hey, I just
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  Speaker 5: want to to your point earlier, Brittany, like go on
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  Speaker 5: a walk in a different neighborhood that I haven't been yet.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I took the quiz because I heard you know, I
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  Speaker 3: knew we're going to have this conversation, and I was like,
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  Speaker 3: oh my gosh, what play personality do I? I found
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  Speaker 3: out that I was a split between an explorer, oh lord,
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  Speaker 3: and I can't remember the other one.
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  Speaker 5: They're fancy names, they're very kid.
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  Speaker 2: There's like the Kennis the which is the athletic, movement
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  Speaker 2: oriented one the competitor. Are you a storyteller?
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  Speaker 3: I think storyteller was the second one. I had equal
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  Speaker 3: storyteller and explore, and then artist was after that one,
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  Speaker 3: and like anything having to do with being in charge
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  Speaker 3: of other people or organizing things was at the very bottom.
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  Speaker 2: That's interesting. On the practical side, that's something you can
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  Speaker 2: do if you're trying to figure out what kind of
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  Speaker 2: side quest might appeal to you, is you can think
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  Speaker 2: about the play personalities. And one piece of advice we
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  Speaker 2: gave in the play episode for Life Kid was to
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  Speaker 2: think back to how you played as a kid. If
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  Speaker 2: you're stuck and you're not sure what play personality really
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  Speaker 2: appeals to you, think like, what did I love doing
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  Speaker 2: as a kid. I loved playing with barbies and creating,
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  Speaker 2: like dressing them up in different fashions and making them
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  Speaker 2: fight and making them kiss, and you know, just like
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  Speaker 2: telling stories with them. So storyteller, for sure, you know
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  Speaker 2: and plenty of other one the director probably for me
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  Speaker 2: as well. But I think it's this whole tapping into
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  Speaker 2: your inner child thing, you know.
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  Speaker 4: I think a lot of people often think of what
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  Speaker 4: you loved when you were a kid, because we were
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  Speaker 4: naturally curious. And I like to encourage people to do
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  Speaker 4: things that you don't know to do. So this is mine.
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  Speaker 4: I can't draw, That's what I thought. And two summers
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  Speaker 4: ago I went to a drawing class, because here in
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: small Beney, New York, I call it sometimes there's not
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  Speaker 4: allowed to do. And I went to a drawing class
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  Speaker 4: and the instructor there was a figure, a human person
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  Speaker 4: standing there was supposed to draw, and I'm like, I
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  Speaker 4: can't draw, and he said, look at the figure, look
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  Speaker 4: at the woman standing there, and let your hand follow
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  Speaker 4: your vision. And one of the best things about not
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  Speaker 4: knowing is that you don't know what the impact of
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  Speaker 4: what you're doing may be on your life and on
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  Speaker 4: your character. So the next day my writing was easier,
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  Speaker 4: my writing was better. So I think side quests, just
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  Speaker 4: like in the gaming world, really makes the main quest stronger.
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  Speaker 4: It gives it more nuance, it gives it some new dimension,
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  Speaker 4: or it actually brings out a facet of you that
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  Speaker 4: you convinced yourself you couldn't do. It might turn into
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  Speaker 4: a hobby and it might not. That's the whole point
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  Speaker 4: of the side quest is it's about the moment.
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  Speaker 2: I love that takeaway too. When brainstorming side quests, think
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  Speaker 2: about how you liked to play as a kid. You
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  Speaker 2: could look to the eight play personalities, a framework developed
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  Speaker 2: by psychiatrist Stuart Brown based on decades of talking to
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  Speaker 2: his patients about their early experiences with play. A few examples,
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  Speaker 2: there's the joker who loves to laugh and make other
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: people laugh. There's the artist creator. Point for them is
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  Speaker 2: to make something. Look at this list, see what resonates.
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  Speaker 2: Also tap into that sense of curiosity that you had
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  Speaker 2: as a kid but may have tamped down since then.
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  Speaker 2: What sounds exciting or makes you want to learn more?
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  Speaker 3: I wonder, like, how do you know when it's time
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  Speaker 3: to take a side quest? Like what does it feel
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  Speaker 3: like in your body when it's time to go on
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  Speaker 3: that ride?
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  Speaker 5: I know for a lot of folks it can come
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: out of conflict. It can come out of a really
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: hard breakup or some stress and maybe some positive transitions
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  Speaker 5: in your life, but that catalyst can also be like
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  Speaker 5: the birthplace for really exciting character development and side questing.
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  Speaker 5: You know, a lot of folks are running marathons and
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  Speaker 5: trying pottery classes and different things like that. So the
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  Speaker 5: timing of it can be from a life experience or again,
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  Speaker 5: maybe social media you see someone doing an activity that
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  Speaker 5: you didn't think about yourself. Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: I think if you feel like work has become your life,
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  Speaker 4: it's a perfect time for a side quest. If you
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  Speaker 4: are venting a lot about your boss or your family,
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  Speaker 4: you need to get to move from your biological family
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  Speaker 4: to your logical go meet new people. Like side quests
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  Speaker 4: in my mind are not new, but we always need
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: a new frame for it. These are like excursions. If
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: you're on a cruise, you'd go on an excursion on
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  Speaker 4: the island and you'd do things you've never done before.
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  Speaker 4: If you think you know everything, you need a side quest.
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  Speaker 4: You need to do something you've not done before because
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  Speaker 4: it will open up the brain's different neural networks and
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  Speaker 4: you'll get this sense of wonder and awe.
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  Speaker 2: For me and my body, when I really need a
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  Speaker 2: side quest, it feels like tension, tightness, stiffness, that kind
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  Speaker 2: of feeling like when I know that I've been sitting
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  Speaker 2: down for too long and I just need to get up,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: my legs feel restless. That's when I need the excursion.
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  Speaker 2: Take Away three. Some anecdotal signs that it might be
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  Speaker 2: time for a side quest. If you feel like work
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  Speaker 2: has become your life, if you're venting a lot about
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: your boss or your family, if you think you know everything,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: if you're feeling stuck, tense, restless, and you may feel
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: those as sensations in your body.
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: I feel like a lot of us get urges or
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: like that nudge, but we just ignore it, like time
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: and time again, and so like for me, like I
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: haven't done theaters since high school. I want to take
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: an acting class so bad, and I've been saying that
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: since I graduated college, and this year is the year
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: that I'm saying I'm going to do it, and it's July.
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  Speaker 5: So that's a nudge.
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  Speaker 2: I feel it's very loud.
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  Speaker 5: I'm starting to verbalize it to make it more of
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  Speaker 5: a reality. But I think a lot of us experience
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  Speaker 5: those nudges and we ignore them. So the more we
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: can kind of close that gap of like that nudge,
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  Speaker 5: and then I'm going to actually be very and courageous
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  Speaker 5: and like do the thing and try try to side quest.
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  Speaker 5: I think we'd all be having more fun.
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  Speaker 2: Honestly, I'm curious about what gets in our way, you know,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: like when we have something that comes to mind and
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: keeps coming up. I want to do this. For me,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: it's been trying to learn how to swim better, but
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: bools they gross me out and I get water up
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: my nose, and it's just I don't like being around
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: other people's naked feet. Like just there are things that
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: I can't get on board with. But I do like
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: being in the ocean in Puerto Rico and I'm trying
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: not to get wiped out by a wave. But every
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: summer it comes and goes, and I'm like, this year,
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do this.
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: I have an offer to consider that you still please
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: that you say this year that's too big. I think
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: you should turn your smart goal of into a micro goal.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: This week, I'm going to go to the pool. I'm
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: not going to go in. I'm just gonna go to
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: the pool. I'm going to go see other people learning
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  Speaker 4: how to swim. I'm going to go to the y
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  Speaker 4: w c A and see what's going or wherever there's
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  Speaker 4: a pool. And so sometimes a side quest is about
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  Speaker 4: like you don't begin because you'll know what you'll find.
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  Speaker 4: You begin because you're willing to find out.
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  Speaker 3: But you don't have to build rome this year. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: exactly happened over time.
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  Speaker 8: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Kara's suggestion to me to make my side quest tiny
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: is part of an acronym she came up with artisan
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  Speaker 2: A R, T, S N. It's a spin on the
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: acronym smart, as it make a smart goal. Kara wanted
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  Speaker 2: to focus more on the art part, So.
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  Speaker 4: A achievable it's got to be small enough to begin.
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  Speaker 2: R is for revealing.
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  Speaker 4: Maybe the revelation is delayed, maybe it's two weeks later
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  Speaker 4: you're like, oh my god, this really helped me at work, right.
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  Speaker 2: T is for tiny or time bound.
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  Speaker 4: One small adventure, like drawing a self portrait of yourself
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: with one pencil with your eyes closed.
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  Speaker 2: S is for specific, and N is for notice.
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  Speaker 4: Notice how you feel after you participate, and not focus
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  Speaker 4: on it as a performance, like what surprised me? What
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: delighted me? Did I stop surveilling myself like I'm a
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: parent or a teacher, And that.
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  Speaker 2: That's an artisan after the break.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: People say to me, why would you jump out of
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: a perfectly good plane? And I'm like, a lot of
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: people are living in perfectly bad planes and won't jump out.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: That's coming up on life Kid.
• 18:24
  Speaker 10: On this season of Planet Money Summer School, we followed
• 18:26
  Speaker 10: the money, and not just the dollars. We're following the Yuan,
• 18:29
  Speaker 10: the Naira, the Krona, and more. Every Wednesday this summer,
• 18:32
  Speaker 10: we're taking you on a world tour to meet the people,
• 18:35
  Speaker 10: try new solutions to old economic problems. Planet Money Summer School.
• 18:39
  Speaker 10: Drop some friends, pack your bags, and don't forget the sunscreen.
• 18:42
  Speaker 10: Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: I'd love to talk about the relationship between our jobs
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: and our side quests. I feel like I can speak
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: for myself here that that work used to occupy a
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: different in my life. Before the pandemic, my identity was
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: more tied to my job and my career. So was
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: my ambition, and so was my social life. And then
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: in the pandemic, there's no workplace anymore, and all the
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: people I would see every day, well that's no longer
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: really happening. It's only happening over zoom, and work had
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: less of a hold on me. Suddenly I was no
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: longer like my entire identity is baked up in this,
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: and I feel like that opened me to more side quests.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: I think I'm not the only one who's experienced that
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: shift who's like, I don't want to give it all
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: to my company anymore.
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: I mean, when do you sit and tell a joke
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: at work. I'm in academia. We only take our head
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: to different meetings. There is no play involved, generally, and
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: there's a list of things, and it's all about serious
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: and earnestness, and you go home and then you vent
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: about it and you're like, then you get up and
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: do it again. So side quests are really important given
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: that we're living in a time where a lot of
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: stress comes from social media. People aren't trying to have
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: good social skills social hygiene at work. I feel like
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: that's why I listen to NPR because it makes me laugh.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: But at work it's not like my experience of listening
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: to my favorite shows on radio. It's a burden.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: What I'm hearing is that side quest or a way
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: to remind yourself you're not a machine. Absolutely yes to that.
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: We host walks on a monthly basis through the summer,
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: and so the last one we had, we asked that
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: question of, like what do you miss from your childhood?
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: And so some of the answers are so fun of
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: like playing all day and having to like change your
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: clith was midday because you just had like swept through
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: your clothes, or I had noted like when it gets
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: really hot, the fire hoses are open, and when's the
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: last time you ran through one of those, like realistically,
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: And so it was just funny because after we reflected
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: on like what people's like answers were, we were walking
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: back to our home base and our coffee shop that
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: we end up at, and there was a fire hose
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: open and a rainbow and we a few of us
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: skipped through it and it was just like we had
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: manifested it.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: But it was just so fun.
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: It couldn't have been more perfect, that whimsy of it all.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Like it's good.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean you're talking kind of like about rediscovery, right,
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: and I think that feels very much like part of
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: a side quest. Actually, my career in podcasting started as
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: a side quest. I just started a podcast outside of
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: work with a friend twelve, congrats and yeah, thank you.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: But then once that became like more than a hobby,
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: I had to pick a side quests, which it took
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: some years of trying some things. But for me now
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: that's learning a second language, is learning Spanish. I want
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: to be able to communicate more with some of my
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: family and also too, I mean, like, oh my gosh,
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: like a lot of my personality naturally is like I
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: know the answer, and so like when I'm learning a
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: new language, I don't, as you said, I can't be
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: a node all. I don't know what I'm saying. You know,
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: I was not really a great student from like basically
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: sixth grade through through college.
• 22:31
  Speaker 8: I got terrible.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Grades for a lot of my education. But now I'm
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: like a pretty great student with my tutor that I
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: have been with for a few years now, and I
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: am finally enjoyed to have in class. And that reframe.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: There's a lot from childhood, from school, from those formative
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: years that maybe doesn't feel so good to continue to
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: hold on to, and a side quest for me has
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: been a way to like kind of get out of
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: that and be like, oh, actually no, there is this
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: this side of me that like is a great student
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: and like loves learning. It is like asking for more homework.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: That's not something that I knew about myself. It's like
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: literally a new self that I have discovered through this.
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: You mentioned something though about like I guess almost like
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: reclaiming it for yourself. I've had to reclaim my own
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: side quest journey and hobby experience by doing some of
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: those alone or doing some of those out of a
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: larger group, just to also preserve that practice and have
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: that solitude to.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Have some self discovery as well.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: It's a little different if you're maybe with a friend
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: doing it or doing it in a really large group too.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Take Away four This is a good reminder you don't
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: need someone to join you on a side quest. Side
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Questing solo can be a beautiful experience and bring you
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: back to yourself. Also, if you're interested in a side
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: quest that does require a group, like if you want
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: to play soccer or volleyball, some sort of team sport,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: you don't have to limit yourself to the people you
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: already know. There are spaces where other people go to
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: do just that thing, and they're obsessed with it.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: We're talking about all these wonderful, beautiful things that exist
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: on the other side of taking that leap, or even
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: just dipping that first toe into beginning a side quest.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: But also I imagine there are probably a lot of
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: people listening who are like, oh my gosh, I'm so tired,
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: are I'm so busy, or I have so many people
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: I've taken care of, or so many things that people
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: need from me. Do you have any advice for those
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: who might not know where to start, or who might
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: feel too tired to try to take a side quest?
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I mean the side quest in general.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: It sounds daunting. It does like a quest of sorts,
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: feels like a commitment to something. So I think we've
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: been kind of talking about keeping it simple, like looking
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: around your environment, looking around your commute, and taking moments
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: to pause. And I think to Kara's point, to notice
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: is the best way to start. But I think listening
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: to what those urges have been, like what those nudgets
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: have been, is a really good place to start.
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it doesn't have to be an activity or an event.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: A side quest can be a mindfulness practice of I
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: had a student once I taught a political sociology class,
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: and I said, you have to change one habit one
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: habit and she had a four year old daughter, and
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: she worked overnight. And I consider this a side quest,
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: so other people might not, but I think it has
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: the same impact that a side quest is. She said,
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: I just want to be present in the morning when
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: my daughter wakes me up at eight am. And she
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: said it changed her life that semester.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: I think whether you start small or you do something
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: really grand, like jumping out of a plane or something,
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: it's like, what's the best that can happen.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: That's a bad example because.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: I also do not recommend the jumping.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Out of a plane piece, but yeah, I did it.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: I think we should not underestimate the story that comes
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: from whatever happened. People say to me, why would you
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: jump out of a perfectly good plane, And I'm like,
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: a lot of people are living in perfectly bad planes
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: and won't jump out. It's doing things you're not familiar
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: with that gives you a bigger brain, it gives you
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: more empathy for who you are. You're not an object.
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: You are changing being from the cradle to the grave.
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: So it's really important to do things so you're not
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: familiar with about yourself. And I think side quests give
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: people that permission.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: It's reminding me about the definition of a side quest
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: and where that came from. It came from the video
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: game world. Part of the reason to go on a
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: side quest in the video game world is just to
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: build the lore. Yes, And it's like, so it's this
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: idea of building your own lore, your lore, you.
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: Know, which, like why wouldn't anyone want to Yeah, like
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: more lore, like enricher story.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: All right, well, thank y'all so much. This is a
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: really fun thank.
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: You, thank you, thank you, yes, thank you.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, time for a recap. Take Away one. Side quests
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: are a way of practicing play, their way of not
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: knowing and being okay with that. And sometimes they're a
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: way of seeing yourself getting better at a thing you
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: never thought you would do. Take Away two. When brainstorming
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: side quests, think about how you liked to play as
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: a kid. You could look at the eight play personalities
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: and see what resonates. Take Away three. Some signs that
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: it might be time for a side quest if you
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: feel like work has become your life, if you're venting
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: a lot about your boss or your family, if you
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: think you know everything, or if you're feeling stuck, tense,
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: restless take Away four, try a solo side quest and
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: if your side quest requires a grew g don't limit
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: yourself to your current circle of friends, especially if they
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: are not as interested in softball as you are. All Right,
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: that's our show. Before we go? Would you rate and
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: review Life Kit in your podcast app? Tell us a
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: favorite tip you've learned, or what kind of episodes you
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: like the most. We love hearing from you. This episode
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: of Life Kit was produced by Corey Antonio Rose and
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Claire Marie Schneider. Our digital editor is Malica garib and
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: our visuals editor is c. J. Riklon. Megan Kane is
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: our senior supervising editor, and Lauren Gonzalez is our executive producer.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Our production team also includes Andy Tagle, Margaret Sereno, and
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Sina Lefredo Special thanks
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: to Shri Vincent. I'm Mariel Sagara.
• 28:49
  Speaker 11: The fatal shooting of a teenager at a protest in
• 28:52
  Speaker 11: Seattle has gone unsolved for six years.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: This is open in your faith? How are there no ans?
• 28:58
  Speaker 11: Our investigation has a covered new evidence and witnesses who
• 29:02
  Speaker 11: say they've never talked to police.
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: Did police ever call you?
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Not once?
• 29:06
  Speaker 11: Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new true crime
• 29:09
  Speaker 11: series on the embedded podcast from NPR.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you're driving to work, or you're on a walk,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: or you're at the gym or whatever, and you just
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: need to clear your head. That's the perfect time to
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: hit the play button on NPR's All Songs Considered. It's
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: not the news, it's not work, or whatever else is
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: weighing you down. It's just a good time with good
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: friends and great tunes.
• 29:31
  Speaker 10: Listen to All Songs Considered every Tuesday in the NPR
• 29:35
  Speaker 10: Music Podcast