Margaret Atwood — A Living Legend on Creative Process, The Handmaid’s Tale, and More

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

February 23, 2022

Duration

1h 41m

Channel

Tim Ferriss

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Margaret Atwood — A Living Legend on Creative Process, The Handmaid’s Tale, Being a Mercenary Child, Resisting Labels, the Poet Rug Exchange, Liminal Beings, Burning Questions, Practical Utopias, and More | Brought to you by 80,000 Hours free career advice for high impact and doing good in the world (http://80000hours.org/tim), Eight Sleep’s Pod Pro Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating (http://eightsleep.com/Tim), and LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 770M+ users (http://linkedin.com/tim). Show notes: https://tim.blog/2022/02/22/margaret-atwood/ SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1dSzTkW LINK TO ALL SHOW TRANSCRIPTS: https://tim.blog/2018/09/20/all-transcripts-from-the-tim-ferriss-show/ About Tim Ferriss: Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 500 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running. Connect with Tim Ferriss: Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-yt/ Visit the Tim Ferriss PODCAST: https://tim.blog/podcast/ Visit the Tim Ferriss BLOG: https://tim.blog/ Follow Tim Ferriss on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/tferriss/ Follow Tim Ferriss on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/timferriss/ Like Tim Ferriss on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/ 00:00 Start How Margaret jumps into a new writing project [00:14] How does Margaret maintain her vital life energy at 82 years young? [09:36] An interest in astrology [11:39] The Gift vs. Trickster Makes This World [17:42] What drives Margaret’s ability to craft engaging speculative fiction? [20:07] Margaret shares a glimpse into her own childhood [24:50] Writing poetry [29:46] How limited career options guided Margaret toward her current profession [36:23] The ROI on writing... before she ever got paid [37:45] What type of teaching has Margaret enjoyed most? [45:33] The Future of Life by E. O. Wilson—required reading for young adults [48:16] Nature abhors a box. [51:12] “Practical Utopias: An Exploration of the Possible,” Margaret's 8-week online learning experience [56:03] Major revolutions and political upheavals of recent centuries [1:02:04] More about “Practical Utopias: An Exploration of the Possible" [1:05:47] Burning Questions—her new collection of essays [1:08:47] Margaret’s writing process [1:12:17] A tangent about shows we binge [1:16:09] Tezos NFTs, illustrated utopias, and inventions fitting unexpected functions [1:18:46] SPOILER ALERT! Skip ahead to the next timestamp if you haven't read The Handmaid's Tale [1:26:45] Does Margaret do research for her characters? [1:28:32] Margaret asks me how I got into podcasting. [1:31:04] Dictation apps, the three Henry Jameses, and confessional stenographers [1:33:01] Undertaking winter adventures at high elevations and other parting thoughts [1:36:41]

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Tim Ferriss

  host

  Podcast host and author known for interviewing world-class performers on The Tim Ferriss Show.

• Margaret Atwood

  guest

  Novelist and poet, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, Alias Grace, and inventor of the LongPen (Syngrafii) remote-signing technology.

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Tim Ferriss, featuring Tim Ferriss and Margaret Atwood, Margaret Atwood — A Living Legend on Creative Process, The Handmaid’s Tale, and More explores Margaret Atwood on writing, curiosity, labels, and practical utopias Margaret Atwood describes her creative process as jumping into writing without outlining, treating novels as disciplined work and poetry as unpredictable inspiration.

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