Adam Torres and Tiffany Shlain discuss Tiffany’s new book.
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Show Notes:
New book alert! In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Tiffany Shlain, Artist and Filmmaker. Explore Tiffany’s new book, Mission Matters: Mission-Based Leaders Share Inspiring Stories on Power and Purpose (Women Leaders Edition, Volume 1).
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About Tiffany Shlain
Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century, Tiffany Shlain is an interdis multidisciplinary artist, bestselling author, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and sought after public speaker. Ever since she founded the Webby Awards, her work has explored the relationship between humanity and technology, the future of work, digital wellbeing and happiness, gender and women’s rights, neuroscience, and creativity. Her book “24/6: Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection”, published by Simon & Schuster Gallery Books in 2019, was a national bestseller and won the Marshall McLuhan Outstanding Book Award. In 2020, The Museum of Modern Art in New York premiered her one woman spoken cinema show Dear Human.
In 2022, she also became the Artist-in-Residence at SHACK15 on the top of the San Francisco Ferry Building. In her residency, her new visual artwork recontextualizes images, sculpture, photography and collage to see new insights about perspective, scale, humans, nature and time. Her exhibition HUMAN NATURE is on display presented by The National Women’s History Museum and Women Connect4Good.
Tiffany has received over 80 awards and distinctions for her films and work, including selection by the Albert Einstein Foundation’s as one of the 100 visionaries who carry on Einstein’s legacy, inclusion on NPR’s list of Best Commencement Speeches, film premieres at the Sundance Film Festival and the US State Department selected Tiffany and her films to represent America at embassies around the world.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today is a very special episode. We’re bringing back onto the show.
Tiffany Shlain, who’s an artist, a filmmaker, and now an author in the most recently released Mission Matters. book that we did as a collaboration with Dr. Nancy and women connect for good. Tiffany, first off, welcome back to the show. I am happy to be back with you. All right. So we got a lot to cover because you are busy, busy ever since I’ve been on your newsletter for maybe the last year or so while we’ve been working on this book.
Book. I’m like, I can’t keep up with the, with the the art exhibitions, the films coming out, the, there’s a whole lot we got to cover. But before we do that we’ll start this episode the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute. So Tiffany mission matters. Our aim and our goal is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts.
That’s our mission. Tiffany, what mission matters to you? My mission, I guess the mission that matters to me is for equal rights for women and for everyone in our society and really making the world better for the next generation. There’s so many women before me who have paved the way for me and I want, you know, my daughters now have less rights in America than I had.
So we need to like, Pave that pathway wider and and hopefully make the world better and a much more just society. It’s great. Love bringing mission based individuals on the line to share, you know, why they do what they do, how they’re doing, and really what we can all learn from that so that we all grow together.
So amazing. First thing first, I gotta, I mean, we both went to we went to the power up conference in DC. See that Gloria felt another author in the book put on. And for those that maybe didn’t catch some of that content we put out yet or otherwise, like maybe just talk about the experience, because I mean, I’m already looking forward to next year’s conference.
Like it’s amazing. Well, I think it’s really nothing replaces being in person with our community. And Gloria Feltz been such an amazing leader. And she brought together so many amazing women leaders like Dr Nancy O’Reilly and so many people that are featured in the book. So it was really wonderful to launch the book there and for us all to be in person holding up our books and talking about the ideas during the panel.
And being in Washington DC and at the Kennedy center, which is such an historic venue. Yeah, the whole, the whole event was fantastic. And you know, I live in California, so I flew to DC for like a day and a half, which I’m always like, do you really need to go? And then once I was there, I’m like, I really needed to go.
Like, That is where relationships form and strengthen and you reunite with people and it was really important. Yeah. If there was like kind of like one takeaway from the conference, like, and I, there were so many favorite parts. I already know that. And what, what, what’d you get? Like, talk to me. Well, I mean, something struck me by Dr.
Sophia Yan, who’s a friend of mine. She said something about how the birth control pill should be renamed as like the hormone rebalancing pill, because people think birth control pill is that people are trying to not have babies and they’re trying, that’s why they’re trying to restrict it. But that really isn’t true.
You know, all women at different ages are taking it 70%. She said, are taking it not for birth protection, but just for stabilizing your body and your hormones. I thought that was a really interesting point. And but I think the biggest takeaway was, you know, getting to parody the gender parody, which is what Gloria has been, we’ve all been pushing for, but, you know, we’re this close to getting a woman president and It just felt like a real galvanizing event to just, as always see where we’ve come, where we are today, where we want to go, I showed I previewed a new film that I just released today, this morning a new seven minute film.
I’ll give you a link so you can put it and show your listeners. A new film that I made called dendrofeminology, dendrofeminology of feminist history tree ring film. And it’s the story of this feminist history tree ring. I’ve made the thinking behind it and. And really where we are in this moment in history and and really a call to action to vote for everyone to engage with our beautiful democracy, our beautiful, messy experiment called democracy that we all need to engage with to make it stronger.
Yeah, and I think this is a good transition to let’s go further into what what fuels your art and I think this that you’re releasing the film today is very telling and I’m excited about that as well. I know I got to catch some of it at the conference. I know you did some previews there, which was amazing.
But maybe talk a little bit about what fuels your art and maybe even some of the medium and the side of things like that for those that aren’t aware. I’ve worked in a lot of different mediums. I’ve made a lot of films about feminist history and reproductive rights and technology. And I’ve written a book about, I think, what is the secret sauce that I’m able to be productive, which is I take a full day off every week without screens.
And I’ve done it for 15 years. And I wrote a book on that 24, six. And it’s based on an old Jewish practice called Shabbat that anyone can do just like meditation and yoga. So I have made films. I’ve. I’ve written books and, and now with the new book with my chapter in your book and Dr. Nancy’s book.
And then during COVID I started making physical art where I’m re imagining, re imagining the tree rings that you normally see at the entrance of Muir Woods or any national park that are usually very patriarchal and colonialist. And I’m rethinking that with different subjects. So I did a feminist history tree ring that was on the national mall last week.
it is currently in New York City where I have my solo exhibition at Nancy Hoffman gallery in Chelsea, and it’s up until October 19th. And then this Saturday, the reason I released the film today is my sculpture. So it was on the national mall in DC, and now it’s going to be in New York city in Madison.
Square Park. And I think of it as like a movable monument, bringing feminist history where it needs to be. It’s also an invitation. It shows you the push and pull of power. It started where women were goddesses and worshiped in almost ancient, every ancient civilization. So we didn’t always come from a position of behind, and that’s always good to think about.
And, and the, and the tree ring really shows the push and pull of progress. And at the end of it, At the sculpture, it says today dot dot dot. What are we going to do today will affect what’s on there next. So there’s going to be this big mobilization with Dr Nancy’s women connect for good and around so many amazing women’s organizations, including the Equal Rights Amendment Coalition and Vital Voices and take the lead.
So a lot of amazing women organizations and we’re inviting everyone to come wearing white. 10 a. m. Saturday, this Saturday, and we’re going to have be inspiring speakers. Then we’re all going to walk in New York and they’re going to go to the gallery. I’ll give an artist talk. There’s going to be workshops by our partners and it’s going to be amazing day of inspiration.
And some of these these ring sculptures are, I mean, they’re, they can be pretty large as well. Like, like how, how big are some of these just for those that haven’t seen them yet? They’re big. Some of them are five feet, some are nine feet. And I see it because, and I’m on your newsletter, which which so I see a kind of some of the behind the scenes that you provide and some of the pictures when you’re doing things.
And I’m like, wow, that’s a, that’s substantial. I like working in large scale because that’s what nature does. And that’s what those trees do. If you’ve ever been near a giant Sequoia tree, that’s been alive for thousands of years. They make you feel very small and they change your perspective and your place in history.
And that’s what I wanted to do with the art is that what’s the bigger context of our history. If you go back a hundred years on any major issue, whether it’s women’s rights, gay rights, disability rights, Jewish rights, African American rights, we are in a much better place today than we were a hundred years ago.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t have a lot more work to do in every one of those areas and more, but it’s good to have context. And then if you go really far back. No, really far back. We’re just like a speck of dust floating on a dot in the universe. That’s also a good perspective. So I, my art really tries to go back in space and time to give context to where we are in this moment and where we want to go.
And I look at it sometimes and that’s the feeling it gives me. Like sometimes people will look at something like that and maybe it makes them feel small or big or everybody has their own reaction, their own individual reaction to it. To me, I’m always like, when, after I’m done looking at your art and I’m, I’m kind of just taking it in and I’m like, then for some reason, like whatever, what like notification I get on my phone or this or that, that would normally be, or the email that I got in about you know, Interview or something.
Sometimes it feels like, okay, yeah, this is if, if I’m, if this is a spec, then what is this one email of a speck of a speck of a speck, but that’s good because you know, sometimes we get so in our heads and we get worrying about so many things and we’re just thinking about our own lives and you go into nature and it’s like, it gives you this much bigger context.
Reminds you of this much. I appreciate the skate. It’s almost like an escape, but it’s not. I don’t feel it practicing escapism. Like I feel like it does give that little bit of an escape for me, at least when I’m looking at the art and I’m looking at, and I’m thinking about the context of the timelines.
I’m like, Oh yeah. Okay. Like you can relax a little. Yeah. So I want to switch it up a bit here, Tiffany. I do want to spend some time talking about the book. Yes. For everybody that’s watching, this is a one of one right here. Nobody’s getting this one. This is like, so this is like my game ball for everybody that’s watching, just so you know, that’s my, that’s my game ball.
So that’s the one that was at, at the, at the book release at the power up conference first off, how fun was it to connect with some of the other authors to all be in person to like finally celebrate, you know, a year later of putting this together. It was so great. I mean, I always think like, you know, you spend so much time working on book by yourself.
And then there’s the editor and there was like all this back and forth, but I’m a big believer. You need to have these in person events to launch something into the world. So it was really beautiful. And I loved reading all of, all of your chapters and your intro. And I mean, I just felt like I learned so much and every story was so different and inspiring.
Yeah, I’ll say this book was very unique. So we’ve published over 400 authors and we’ve been doing this for now going on nine years, this this December, amazing to think time flies in terms of this company has been around for nine years now. And that’s when we published our first book nine years ago.
So what’s interesting to me though, about this particular one is that a lot of times we publish like heavy business content, that’s, that’s a P that’s one of our niches, but this one, it was just so much bigger, not saying that like it was. so much bigger. Like I remember when I did the final kind of like read through of everything and I was doing it like on a Saturday morning and I’m just sitting there with my coffee just thinking it’s gonna be a nice, relaxing, peaceful, you know, read.
And I’m like two chapters in three chapters in and it’s heavy. It’s like anything but like just nice, peaceful read. It’s heavy. It’s Like real issues. It’s real, but it’s also it’s inspiring. It’s heavy. It’s, it’s complex. And then the stories that were brought to the table, like all of the authors, I mean, just brought like their a game for, for lack of better words there, they just brought their a game.
They brought their true selves. And I was just so thrilled. with how much everybody invested in the telling their stories and otherwise. But I’m telling you, I was, you don’t know this, but I was like four chapters in, I call Hillary, who’s the, the the senior editor on the project and the primary editor, and I’m like, Hillary, you didn’t warn me like, cause I’m doing the final read through.
I’m like, you didn’t warn me that this is not a Saturday morning read. Like I’m over here. Feeling like an activist now. Like I want to go change the world. I’m so inspired. Like this, this has my blood boiling. Like when you didn’t tell me, don’t read this every day morning. Well, what was your first feel when you finally got to do kind of like the read through?
I think that everyone was coming at this idea of a more just society from women’s rights, animal rights, from like all these things. Like, you know, I think one thing. That struck me about VP Harris’s speech, the DNC, many things. But when she said her mother said, if she ever brought up a problem, she’d say, so what are you going to do about it?
And I think that’s such a, I want to make an art piece that just says, so what are you going to do about it? Cause I felt like that’s what the chapter illustrated is a lot of people seeing an injustice and doing something about it. Yeah, it was it was, it was a lot I’ll say, but, and I don’t, I’m not going to, we’re not going to give all the, all the giveaways or spoiler alerts here because I do want the audience to go pick some, to pick up the books.
So we definitely want that, but I do want to go hard on it. So it’s always like. You know, it’s one of those things shows people listening where, I mean, I must’ve done like 30 to 40 revisions on my chapter called you are here. And really that chapter was so, I loved, it felt like a gift to be asked to write this because what I love about writing because I love all my different mediums, but for me, writing is very much where like.
I am helping myself understand how I feel about something because I get really deep into it. I’m not with anyone else I’m, like I always write very early in the morning before the whole world’s come at me And it’s allows me to think, and it allows me to articulate what I’m thinking and in this really deep way.
And I think if you read all the chapters, everyone spent that kind of time and attention. So in a world where there’s just so much coming at you, I think if you imagine that each of the authors in each chapter spent like hundreds and hundreds of hours working on their chapter, and then you can sit in an experience and it’s like this intimate relationship between the author and your brain, and then you’re going to bring all your experiences to that chapter, like.
Definitely get the book. So, so going a little bit, I do want to go further into your, your particular chapter. So you are here a lot of things with your background, with your experience, with, you know, the different projects that you bring into the world, a lot of the different things you could write about and you could, you know, different angles you could take with your, with your portion.
What fueled or what, what inspired you are here? Well, you know, Dr. Nancy, who’s been a really important figure to me. I feel like so lucky I’ve had, I’ve had all these incredible mentors women and men, I feel really lucky about that. But Dr. Nancy has been this incredible gift in my life. And she’s been a partner in a lot of these art activations.
And when I thought about what I was going to write about, I think when we brought the feminist history to DC, that that was such an interesting story. And I used that as like. Catalyst to explain my thinking behind the sculpture and what I was Trying to do with a movable monument and why I wanted in DC and where I wanted to be next and thinking about trees and monuments and male and female energy.
So it really felt like it was wonderful. I spent so much time writing it that when I started working on the film that I just released today about it, the seven minute film, I actually sent to the editor and the producer. I’m like, let’s look at this chapter. I just spent four months writing and let’s pull lines from it because they’re very distilled.
So of that whole chapter. We pulled like key lines in that, that are the armature for this film I just released. So I also love that when you’re like, Sculpture inspired the chapter. The chapter led the structure for the film. I love like having things go through different mediums. That’s too much for me to take all at one time, Tiffany.
I’m not on that level of wavelength, but I’m getting it slowly. And my mind is blown just so you know, continue.
You know, people’s like, what they’re like, what do you do? And I was, I’m like, okay, what should I say to them? Like, what do I think would speak to them? Because I’m, I’m wrestling with. The same set of ideas, whether it’s feminism or technology and humanity, I do a lot of stuff about AI and robotics and technology or like technology and humanity.
Cause I unplug one day a week and I think everyone should do it. There are all these ideas and they either come out, they come out in many different mediums. So is it, is it a film? Is it a thing in DC? Is it a, A sculpture. It’s just like this. If you looked at my whole body of work for 25 years there are these themes, whether it’s feminism, technology, nature and they just have different outputs.
And I’m able to do all of them because I disconnect from technology one day a week. And I go into nature and that gives me the necessary perspective to check in with myself and to, like, not lose sight of the bigger picture. It’s great because I don’t know, like where your viewers are watching from, but if you’re in New York this Saturday, well, there’s going to be a link that Adam’s going to put in there so you can find out.
And that’s where I was going next, by the way, Tiffany, I want to talk about things. It’s like you’re on Saturday, September. You got a whole lot. Let’s do a whole segment here. So what, what project? So let’s start with the film today. I know. Let’s start with the film today. So we want people to go check that out.
So talk about that and then let’s build what the rest of your year looks like. Cause I can’t keep up with you today. And then big event in New York and Madison square park and mobilization for women’s rights on the planet. We’re inviting everyone to our white and solidary. Solidarity for women’s rights.
Then there’ll be an artist talk at the gallery. It’s going to be an amazing day of art in action. That’s Saturday. Then my solo exhibition. So dendrofeminology of feminist history is part of my solo exhibition at the Nancy Hoffman gallery in Chelsea. That is up until it’s on view until October 19th.
That’s in New York. Then. On the other coast, the other side of the country, my husband and I collaborate often, and our biggest collaboration is going to be this October. For the last three years, we’ve been working on a museum exhibition called Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology, Trees, Time, and Technology, and it’s part of the Getty Museum’s Pacific Standard Time Museum.
Art and Science Collide initiative. It will be at the Skirball Cultural Center. It opens October 17th. And we not only co wrote Tree Rings together, but we also have some AI and time based media. And he’s a brilliant professor of robotics at UC Berkeley. We have a lot of interesting conversations about lots of things and the artwork is the result of that.
And then if you’re in the Bay Area, like where I live, I have a whole bunch of artists talks talking about this new work. So you can find all of that at Tiffany’s plan. com about anything I said. And, and then I’m going to take a really nice break. Cause you’re probably listening to me as I’m even listening to myself going, Oh my God, that’s so much stuff.
And it is. And because of that, I am literally taking three months off afterwards because I’ve never worked so hard in my life, but it does feel like. You know, I’ve definitely had moments in my career when I was running the Webby awards or when my book came out I’ve had moments that have been like these big moments and take a lot of energy from me and give me a lot of energy.
It’s a lot of output. I would say this is the most I’ve ever had and it all kind of culminated, culminated and there’s the election and I’m so excited by the response to the work. And then I will take a really nice break because I will need to refill the cup. I will need to plant my own. Water my own plant and just lay fallow.
So I don’t do this. I, I, and I, one day a week, every week I could take completely off. So I’m not like, go, go, go all the time. So it’s a lot. I’m super excited to share the work. Anyone that’s interested in art or film, super excited for you to check it out. Obviously the book, but there’s a lot going on this fall.
And then I will take a nice deep break. Fantastic. Wow. Yeah. I’m, I’m tired. Just listening to you right now. I like how much stuff you have going do. I mean, come on now. So one quick thing I want to make sure everybody got though, it’s just tiffanyslane. com and we’ll put that in the show notes so that you can so that everybody can click on the link.
They can head right on over and that’s it. The best hub, if you will, or the website to where they can all the things and I, and I, and I’ll plug the newsletter because I’m on the newsletter and that’s the way I get, I get my information and they’re very well done by the way. I’m like, dang, I’ve been telling that newsletter for like 27 years and it’s, it’s both what I’m working on, but also what other people are working on.
Yeah. That’s the other thing. You’re showcasing other people too, which is amazing. Like you’re giving, you’re, you’re using your newsletter as a platform to, for the movement in general, like a lot of different people. Yeah. I’m a big believer in that. Well, Tiffany, first off man, really appreciate having you back on the show.
I’m thrilled about the book, about the book release. I’m thrilled about all the things you have coming. And I’m happy to hear that you got a little bit of a unplugged time coming up after you’re done with this next bit of of travel and show and a lot of other things and congrats on the, I’m going to come out definitely to the one, October.
October 17th. I’ll be at that one for sure. I already have it on my calendar. I think it’s an evening event. You mentioned six to nine. So I definitely want fantastic. So I’ll be heading out to that one and for the audience, for everybody tuning in and listening. If this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t hit the subscribe or the follow button yet, hey, we welcome you to do so.
This is This is a daily show each and every day we’re putting out new content, new ideas, new thought leaders, and hopefully new inspiration that’ll help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Tiffany really appreciate you. Thank you so much for coming back on the show.
Great to see you as always have a great rest of your day.