👻 Same Old Story: Ghost Self, Part Two

On Talking to (and From) a Fossilized Self

“You come to this place, mid-life. You don’t know how you got here, but suddenly you’re staring fifty in the face. When you turn and look back down the years, you glimpse the ghosts of other lives you might have led; all houses are haunted.”
—Hilary Mantel, Giving Up the Ghost

“Is there anything you don’t want to talk about?”

I started answering the Podcast Host, thinking we were off-the-record, when suddenly she hit record—a guesting pet peeve of mine.

Before continuing, I also asked if we could record with video off. The Host scrunched her lips and tilted her head. She took a deep breath.

“I was hoping to get an Interesting Snippet on Video for Socials,” she said. “That really seems to Drive Engagement.”

To acquire this One-Minute Clip, we were thusly sentenced to one hour of staring—with unbroken attention—at the tiny pinhole atop the laptop screen, my second biggest podcast guesting pet peeve.

This interview wasn’t off to a great start.