If as you read this post title, you’re envisioning Cady Heron winning at mathletics, touche. But this post, sadly, is not about Mean Girls; it’s about a Forbes podcast called The Limit Does Not Exist. This podcast has officially refreshed my morning commute, because my old go-tos just aren’t doing it for me lately.
The Limit Does Not Exist is hosted by Christina and Cate, self-described ‘Human Venn Diagrams‘. HVDs are people who are deeply passionate about multiple things, which may at first glance seem to be polar opposites. Physics and origami? Software coder and seamstress? In the podcast, Christina and Cate interview other HVDs, male or female, which I also really love for the sake of gender diversity (just because we’re about female empowerment, doesn’t mean we aren’t inspired by men and women!). The interviewees discuss the ways in which their many interests have developed over their lives, and have provided much-needed balance. But more importantly, they discuss how those seemingly different interests have complemented each other in the most unexpected ways.
I think I love this podcast because in my own life, I struggle with discussing certain passions around particular audiences for fear of them thinking that I’m not serious about my other interests. For example, I love learning software coding languages and think tech is awesome. But I worry that talking about it to my colleagues will make people think I’m not passionate about engineering, when that’s not true at all. I suppose it’s a bit of an old school mentality, that you can only be passionate about one type of thing, and I’m not sure if it’s all in my head or what. But this podcast gives me hope that it’ll become more widely accepted to have such varying hobbies and talents that you love equally, even if they seem to be like chalk and cheese.
So far I’ve listened to a handful of episodes. There’s Johnny Sun, the architect/engineer/playwright/comedian who’s doing a PhD at MIT. There’s Elettra Wiedemann, the fashion model/food blogger/restaurateur/triathlete who completed a masters degree in biomedicine. There are also a few episodes where Christina and Cate just chat about current events, articles, and things they’ve learned. These episodes are conversational but thought provoking, and they make my otherwise mind-numbing drive to work feel productive.
My absolute favourite episode so far though has to be Dona Sarkar‘s. She’s a published author/fashion designer/blogger who works at Microsoft in the Hololens team. Really, you have to listen to her episode and how she describes overcoming failure again and again, never giving up. Serious inspiration yo. What I also love? Her blog, Fibonacci Sequins. She puts the femininity and character back into the idea of women in tech, showing her colleagues as the colourful and diverse people they are. If you’re a woman considering a STEM career and you wonder if you’d fit in, check out all of the cool ladies profiled on Fibonacci Sequins. The next time I have an hour to kill on the internet, I’m back-reading her old posts for inspiration. Serious cool girl vibes in there.
So, add this to my list of podcast subscriptions, because it’s become a new and fast favourite. Luckily, the show is about 60 episodes in, so there’s heaps of content for me to binge-listen to for the next few weeks. And as per usual, if you’ve got any other awesome podcasts to share, please send me an email or share in the comments. That would be so fetch.
Image via Microsoft News
2 Comments
Thank you so much for this lovely post! We are *delighted* that you found us and the topic resonates so strongly. Welcome to the Human Venn Diagram tribe! xoxo, Christina (and Cate)
Thanks Christina! The podcast is helping turn my hour-long commute into inspiration-hour, I almost don’t want to get out of the car at the end. Loving binge-listening to all the past episodes, and getting new ones each week. Thanks again to you and Cate for such a great listen!