Begin Again: Lifelong Learning with Author Tom Vanderbilt

author Tom Vanderbilt

https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/va3min/Tom_Vanderbiltfinal_-_3_29_21_1157_AMbdfur.mp3

EPISODE SUMMARY:

Trying new things, especially in midlife, can seem dauting at times. Our guest today, author Tom Vanderbilt, is a man whose drive to learn has not only made him more adventurous but whose story also inspires others to always learn no matter how old or inexperienced they may feel. In today’s episode, we sat down with Tom to discuss his book and his experience with learning new skills as an adult. First, we asked Tom about the inspiration behind his book, and he told us that for him, everything started with his daughter. Becoming a parent was already a new challenge, but as his daughter grew up and started wanting to learn, Tom realized that he could still learn beside her. The two of them took chess lessons together, and after enjoying the process, Tom sought to learn other skills as well.

When asked about being a beginner in midlife, Tom spoke of how, for a lot of people, the idea of starting from the beginning can be terrifying. However, fear can make learning difficult, and he emphasized how being a beginner can actually expand your sense of self and help you discover new skills and passions. Beginning again isn’t easy, and Tom pointed out that in adulthood, learning skills that require physicality are harder. As we age, we are more prone to injury, and even Tom himself had a surfing accident. When asked about the new challenges he chose to learn about, Tom said that he picked activities he’d always wanted to try but never got around to, such as singing, drawing, surfing, and even making a wedding ring. He then spoke to us about the importance of learning without fear in infants. When kids have too much sense of risk, they become afraid, and it impacts their learning process. The same can be said for adults; when we feel like we are being watched or are too aware of our actions, we struggle to do them.

Trying is the hardest part, so it is important to overcome the fear or insecurity and to do the best that you can. Tom has had many teachers as an adult, and when asked about them, he told us he’s grateful to have had a variety of various teaching styles. Some teachers were much stricter than others, but he thought that was important. A teacher should not be cruel, but they should not sugar coat the material. Out of all of the new activities he’s learned, Tom told us that he enjoys singing the most, since it’s the one he enjoys and can practice frequently. After mentioning singing, Tom also told us about a time where he ended up singing the Spice Girls in a choir. Though the idea of doing it felt uncomfortable, he really enjoyed the experience and it allowed him to step out of his comfort zone. When asked about the best ways to overcome nerves, Tom spoke about how nerves are normal, especially when trying new things. As people, we often feel as if everyone is watching us, so it can be difficult to let go and actually learn. He suggested that, for any new challenges, to go into the experience knowing you won’t get everything right but to try your absolute best. Finally, we asked Tom how his wife and daughter reacted to him trying so many new things at once, and he told us that at first, his wife was hesitant about him being away so much. However, the experiences ended up working out well, and he got to spend more time with his daughter while also learning new things in the process.

Tom Vanderbilt

From Tom’s Website:

Tom Vanderbilt has written for many publications and is a contributing editor of Wired (U.K.), Outside, and Artforum. He is the author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) and Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America. He has been a visiting scholar at NYU’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management, a research fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, a fellow at the Design Trust for Public Space, and a winner of the Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, among other honors. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Tom Vanderbilt writes on design, technology, science, and culture, among other subjects, for many publications, including Wired, Outside, The London Review of Books, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Wilson Quarterly, Artforum, The Wilson Quarterly, Travel and Leisure, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Cabinet, Metropolis, and Popular Science. He is contributing editor to Artforum and the design magazine Print and I.D., contributing writer of the popular blog Design Observer, and columnist for Slate magazine.

His most recent book is the New York Times bestseller Traffic:Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K. and territories, and by publishers in 18 other countries. He is also the author of two previous books: Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002; published in PB by the University of Chicago Press in 2010), an offbeat architectural travelogue of the nation’s secret Cold War past; and The Sneaker Book (The New Press, 1998), a cultural history of the athletic shoe (published in Italian and Swedish editions). His early writings for The Baffler have been collected in two anthologies, Commodify Your Dissent and Boob Jubilee (W.W. Norton, eds. Thomas Frank and Matthew Weiland), and he has also contributed essays to a number of books, including New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times (New York University Press); Supercade: The Visual History of the Video Game Age (The MIT Press), Else/Where: Mapping (The University of Minnesota Press, 2006),Quonset Hut: Metal Living for a Modern Age (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), The World and the Wild (The University of Arizona Press), and The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the World Cup (Harper Perennial, 2006).

He has consulted for a variety of companies, from ad agencies to Fortune 500 corporations, and has given lectures at a variety of institutions around the world, from the Eero Saarinen Lecture at Yale University’s School of Architecture to the Australasian Road Safety Conference in Canberra. He has appeared on a wide variety of radio and television programs around the world, including NBC’s Today Show, ABC News’ Nightline, NPR’s Morning Edition, Fresh Air with Teri Gross, the BBC’s World Service and The One Show, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Fox Business, and CNN’s Business Today, among many others. He is a Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management and has received fellowships from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visiting Arts, the Design Trust for Public Space, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. He is also a member of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Cold War Advisory Committee, a group studying the identification of sites and resources significant to the Cold War.