What I Learned From Interviewing My Mom

Seven life lessons from my 69-year old immigrant mother.

I’ve interviewed over 150 high performers across myriad domains in the past four and half years for the Future Squared podcast. From arena-packing comedians, championship-winning coaches and big-wave surfers, through to world-renowned entrepreneurs, economists and authors.

It had never occurred to me that my mom might make an awesome guest until I heard Lex Fridman interview his dad on the Artificial Intelligence podcast.

While she didn’t come to the show with the same kinds of credentials or pedigree of most of my guests, she came to the show with something that most don’t have — almost three-quarters of a century of life experience, and a unique story to tell.

We unpacked her childhood in socialist Yugoslavia, being raised by deaf parents, leaving her family behind to start a new life in Australia, being a non-English speaking migrant in Australia in the 70s, the pain of losing a child, overcoming lifelong adversity, and so much more.

It’s funny how I have been on this Earth for over 36 years now, but it took the podcast medium to get both my mom and I to open up, and explore topics that had long lied dormant beneath the surface.