Fail Better with David Duchovny
To be human is to fail – period. And not just to fail once, but to fail a lot. As the author Samuel Beckett said: “Fail again. Fail better.” This saying means a lot to me and my family – so much so that my daughter got a tattoo of it. Why are we, and so many others, so deeply concerned by failure? And if it’s something we all do so often, why are we so afraid of it – especially those of us here in win-at-all-costs America? In this podcast, I sit down with successful, thoughtful people like Ben Stiller, Bette Midler, Sean Penn and more to talk about failure – or what they labeled “failure,” but what was really an unparalleled opportunity for growth and revelation. I even want to delve into my own hardest moments, when I wrestled with setbacks, shame, and fear. We’ll still fail again. And again. But maybe if we fail better, we’ll feel better -- and maybe if we can all laugh together in failure, that's a start.
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In his aimless youth, the author James Frey yearned to be the Sex Pistols of literature. Then he learned to be careful what you wish for. His memoir, A Million Little Pieces, shot to the top of bestseller lists, thanks in part to Oprah's endorsement. Then fact-checkers unmasked its fabrications, and James found himself
Dr. Jason Giles is an addiction specialist and a helper and friend to many, including me. When the rigors of life in the ER became too much to cope with, Jason turned to the very narcotics he was trained to supply to patients as a trauma anesthesiologist. As his successful life disintegrated, he was forced to face his
I’ve known for years that the actor and filmmaker Justine Bateman had prescient thoughts about art and society. But now, we need her (and her complementary background in computer science) more than ever. Far-removed from her teen stardom on Family Ties, Justine and I talk about how artificial intelligence threatens the
The X-Files was always about turning something mysterious and untraceable into something known — so what better time to capture the elusive podcast interview on camera? That’s right: Fail Better is now on video, and we’re kicking off this new chapter with the one and only Chris Carter, the creator of The X-Files. And h
Hey, everyone. Today I wanted to share a special conversation from another Lemonada show: Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso. For those who aren’t already familiar with this great podcast, the show started all the way back in 2016 and airs every Sunday. The episode you’re about to hear is a recent one. It’s a great talk betwee
The journalist Maureen Dowd has many notches in her belt, from feats like winning a Pulitzer Prize and writing pivotal profiles on some of the world’s most powerful people. She shone light on Elon Musk before DOGE and Uma Thurman’s emotional struggle with Quentin Tarantino, all of which is captured in her latest book,
