50 Days Alone In Antarctica: "How Solitude Revealed Life’s True Meaning & Purpose" | Erling Kagge

1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

   You have said that silence is where the world's secrets are hidden. So how can someone who's just stumbled across this conversation, who is constantly surrounded by noise, start to cultivate that inner silence, and what are the benefits of them doing so?

2. EKErling Kagge0:19

   Uh, um, the benefits are so many, but one of course is to get to know yourself, uh, better and to be, um, satisfied in your own company. And I think one of the ways to, uh, discover a silence is, this inner silence, is to be aware that noise, and not only sounds, but also distractions from your phone or distractions for whatever in your life, could also be a light, it could be sounds, it could be smells, it could be of course your telephone buzzing, et cetera, et cetera. All this noise is about other people. All this noise is about running away from yourself, running away from who you are, forgetting yourself, living through other people, other devices, while silence, inner silence, is about you. It's about who you are. And if you're going to be able to live a rich life, a fairly happy life, you get to know yourself.

3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:21

   Yeah.

4. EKErling Kagge1:21

   And of course, the easiest solution in life is to go for noise and relate to noise, and the more difficult option is to listen to yourself, listen to your own inner silence. And that's of course why people quite often choose noise.

5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:41

   Now, when I hear you talk about silence and the benefits of silence, I think it has an extra resonance for me because you are this world-famous explorer, okay? You've been to the top of Mount Everest, you've been to the North Pole, you've been to the South Pole, and I wanna talk about a lot of these adventures and what you learnt about the world, about time, about yourself through those explorations and those expeditions. But relating this to silence, when you went to the South Pole, my understanding is that you did that with no radio, with no one surrounding you, so you had an entire 50 days in silence. First of all, is that correct?

6. EKErling Kagge2:33

   [laughs] That's very correct.

7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:33

   And if it is, can you paint a picture for us? What is that like? Because I think today some people struggle to get even five minutes of silence, yet you had 50 full days.

8. EKErling Kagge2:45

   [laughs] It was a superb experience because, um, for the first couple days you get restless. Uh, you're missing the noise, you're missing people. Uh, you're a bit worried because it's, um, 1,300 kilometers to go, uh, just by yourself. And, um, uh, but then you calm down and you adapt to the circumstances. You're starting to look into nature. You're starting to listen to yourself and fairly soon you don't miss other people's company that much. Kind of the only thing I missed walking to the South Pole was skin contact with kind of hugging another person and, um, I think that was about it. And, uh, for me, of course, it was a journey and expedition towards the South Pole, but it ended up being a more important journey into myself, into my own soul, and I learned a great lesson on silence. And, um, but then later in life I got three daughters and eventually they became teenage daughters and my life was very much about noise. And [laughs] I understood my kids, they didn't really know what silence is and they said silence is nothing. Like also most philosophers say that silence is nothing and nothing comes from nothing. And then I understood I have to sit down and write a book about silence, what silence is, where it is, and why it's important. And it was my expedition to the South Pole who really taught me the importance of silence and being able to be silent and to be... Silence is not about turning your back to the world. It's not about living a more egocentric life. It's about the opposite. It's about seeing the Earth from a different perspective. It's about respecting other people, uh, to a greater degree. It's about appreciating yourself and your own company more, and it's about loving life even more.

9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee4:52

   It's interesting that you went on this individual journey, yet you're saying that the silence that you managed to experience and I guess cultivate within yourself through that journey has helped you appreciate the world around you more. It's helped you appreciate other people more.

10. EKErling Kagge5:13

    Exactly.

11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:13

    And I wanna ask you then, is there a contradiction in some ways where we say that humans are social beings, right? You know, there's parts of our physiology and our brains that are, we think, about connecting with others.

12. EKErling Kagge5:28

    Mm-hmm.

13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:29

    Yet at the same time, you said something really, really fascinating for me that when you are... or when you were going to the South Pole, after a few days you, you, you didn't want other people around you. I- is that a contradiction?

14. EKErling Kagge5:43

    No, it's not a contradiction I think because I think, you know, a good start to be able to appreciate other people and also respect other people is to be content with yourself and be able to be, uh, enjoying your own company and, uh, I, I think that's one of the reasons why you have so much-unhappiness in society because people have, you know, to a great degree forgotten themselves and forgotten how to be in their own company and always living through other people, always living through other devices. And then it's, I-- in my experience, it's getting difficult to appreciate other people in that way.

15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:22

    Hmm. How old were you when you went to the South Pole?

16. EKErling Kagge6:25

    Oh, 29. Uh [laughs] .

17. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:29

    What year was that?

18. EKErling Kagge6:30

    '92, '93. Yeah. Mm.

19. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:32

    Okay. A different world back then.

20. EKErling Kagge6:34

    Yeah.

21. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:34

    Pre-internet.

22. EKErling Kagge6:35

    Yeah.

23. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:36

    Pre-smartphone.

24. EKErling Kagge6:37

    Yeah.

25. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:37

    Pre-social media.

26. EKErling Kagge6:38

    Yeah.

27. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:39

    It's easy for someone like me, or frankly anyone these days, to look back on the '90s or the '80s with rose-tinted glasses-

28. EKErling Kagge6:49

    Yeah

29. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:49

    ... and go, "Oh, you know, we all had solitude then."

30. EKErling Kagge6:51

    [laughs]

Episode duration: 1:51:57