5min chapter

Duncan Trussell Family Hour cover image

576: Emil Amos

Duncan Trussell Family Hour

CHAPTER

The Dangers of Aging

As an artist, I guess I am too. It's my job. Just stay in a kind of dreaming zone and not shut that down. A book by Stephen Kotler talks about how there are two parts of the brain. And one is the sort of explore, exploratory part of the brain going out in the world. The other is basically the defense part of your brain. So if your brain thinks you found all the shit you need, now it's like we got to protect the shit that we got. That's where you enter into the danger zone which is the hunter, gather part of yourBrain begins to atrophy.

00:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think that's probably how the Declaration of Independence started, you know, just hanging out laughing in the dorm room and then you're like, what if, what if we just do
Speaker 1
it, bro. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2
But I also think I was listening to podcasts and one of my label owners, and he was, he was talking about the beginning of starting a label and he was saying that like, basically like when you make huge life decisions that are incredibly risky. You really need to do those when you're really young and you have no sort of foreknowledge of like what could go wrong. And there's so much about life that is ruled by that dynamic it because as you get older. I feel like it's cliche that worry sort of sets in and starts to bottleneck your behavior. So you got to, I mean, maybe, maybe, maybe you feel like you're still in the risk zone. And as an artist, I guess I am too. It's my job. Just stay in a kind of dreaming zone and not shut that down. But I think about that, like how much worry is intelligent versus how much naivety. But, but I think that was a big part of that, that mind state that you can sentimentalize is this just like we had nothing in front of us. We didn't know where we're going. And that's a beautiful state of mind because it's a totally being in the moment.
Speaker 1
Yeah, you totally man. And that is the, I mean, that is the, the absolute danger that presents itself to any adult. And I, one of my recent guests wrote a whole book on aging. And one of the things he talks about was how, how, Kotler is his name, Stephen Kotler. One of the things he talks about is how there are two parts of the, I guess, I'm sorry, Stephen Kotler. I don't think you listen to my podcast or anyone who's a fan. I'm going to ruin it. I'm not a genius like he is. But basically like the, there's two parts of the brain. And one of them is the sort of explore, exploratory part of the brain going out in the world, finding your way, looking around, trying to gather resources, whatever it is, you're out there, you're exploring, you're like, this is the hunter, gather out, hunting or whatever. And then there's another part of your brain, which is basically the defense part of your brain. So if your brain thinks you found all the shit you need, now it's like we got to protect the shit that we got. That's where you enter into the danger zone that your friend talked about, which is the hunter, gather part of your brain. It begins to atrophy. And there's a lot of like bad things that happen that go along with that. And a lot of people associate that with aging. When really what it is is you've like gotten imbalanced, you've gone into a fully protected, you're not, you don't feel like you don't need to look anymore. Why would I look? There's risk. I don't need to go hunt more things. Or if we have all the meat we need for the winter, I'm not going back out there. And then that's when you, that's when like a lot of cognitive decline can start happening. And the way is recommendation in this book, one of them is get outside and do like risky shit, you know, like in a safe way and it opens that part of your brain up again. You know, the moment you push out, whatever it may be, man, the moment you push out, it doesn't have to be some starting a fucking label or going into deep credit card debt to make a movie. It could be like, I don't know, take boxing classes. You know what I mean? Do something that you're like, I'm too old for that. I would never do that. What the fuck is that? What he did is he was, he's a skier. And so what he did is for the book to experiment with this idea is he went and tried to learn like 10 of the most dangerous free skiing tricks. And like, to see how the changes are, but yeah, man, this is a, this is the classic sad self imprisonment that happens when you, and then it seems to be tied up with some form of like self perceived success.

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