Dogs Versus Cats, Green Teeth, and More with Izolda Trakhtenberg

Izolda: 00:00:00

I wasn't always, I'm vegan, and I'm, I, you know, ask me about

Izolda: 00:00:03

it, I'll talk about it forever.

Izolda: 00:00:05

But I wasn't always.

Izolda: 00:00:06

I was a serial, I will never make up for the number of

Izolda: 00:00:09

animals I ate when I was a kid.

Izolda: 00:00:11

But once I knew what I was doing, I, I made changes.

Izolda: 00:00:15

And I think we can all do that, and I think we can all become

Izolda: 00:00:18

more aware and, and, and sort of build our observation skills.

Izolda: 00:00:22

Is what you're seeing just?

Izolda: 00:00:24

Is what you're seeing the right thing?

Izolda: 00:00:26

And at some point, if what you're seeing is not the right thing,

Izolda: 00:00:30

you're going to make choices and you're going to take action.

Danny: 00:00:33

Hi, and welcome to 5 Random Questions, the show where

Danny: 00:00:36

every question is an adventure.

Danny: 00:00:38

I'm your host, Danny Brown, and each week I'll be asking my guests 5 questions

Danny: 00:00:42

created by a random question generator.

Danny: 00:00:44

The guest has no idea what the questions are, and neither do I.

Danny: 00:00:47

Which means this could go either way.

Danny: 00:00:49

So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode.

Danny: 00:00:54

Today's guest is IIzolda Trakhtenberg, a former master trainer for NASA, whose

Danny: 00:00:57

approach to training and education has made her a sought after speaker

Danny: 00:01:00

and coach for creatives and companies.

Danny: 00:01:03

She's also written five non fiction books, as well as three fiction novels,

Danny: 00:01:06

including the first book in the Cassie Belmont Tarot Reader mystery series.

Danny: 00:01:11

On top of that, she's recently completed her first play, Listen,

Danny: 00:01:14

and she's written two musicals.

Danny: 00:01:17

And I feel the need to take a break here just for that bio,

Danny: 00:01:19

but Just to round things up.

Danny: 00:01:22

She's also the host of the Creative Solutions podcast, where

Danny: 00:01:25

she interviews peak performers on creativity and innovation.

Danny: 00:01:28

So after all, that IIzolda, welcome to Five Random Questions.

Izolda: 00:01:33

Thank you so much.

Izolda: 00:01:34

I'm glad to be here.

Danny: 00:01:36

I'd be remiss if I don't ask you about some of that, because

Danny: 00:01:39

that's a really impressive mixture.

Danny: 00:01:43

First of all, NASA trainer, obviously, NASA.

Danny: 00:01:46

You mentioned that name.

Danny: 00:01:47

It sounds cool right away.

Danny: 00:01:48

How did that come about?

Izolda: 00:01:50

It came about strictly by accident.

Izolda: 00:01:52

I got out of college and ended up working for the National Geographic Society as

Izolda: 00:01:59

somebody who was doing tech support.

Izolda: 00:02:01

And I was sitting around with my housemates and lamenting the fact

Izolda: 00:02:05

that I needed to work at NASA.

Izolda: 00:02:06

And a friend of mine who was there said, NASA, what do you do

Izolda: 00:02:10

in National Geographic Society?

Izolda: 00:02:11

And I said, I do tech support.

Izolda: 00:02:13

And he went.

Izolda: 00:02:14

NASA needs a tech support person.

Izolda: 00:02:16

Want to come work at NASA?

Izolda: 00:02:17

So I went, sure.

Izolda: 00:02:18

And I ended up going to NASA and doing tech support for a while.

Izolda: 00:02:22

I'm a complete astronomy nerd and worked with a phenomenal

Izolda: 00:02:25

scientist fixing her computer.

Izolda: 00:02:26

And I said, Elisa, if there's ever anything you have that I could

Izolda: 00:02:30

work with you on, let me know.

Izolda: 00:02:32

And she said, well, actually, I just got this funding to

Izolda: 00:02:36

do this training worldwide.

Izolda: 00:02:37

How would you like to do that?

Izolda: 00:02:39

So it's my lesson in.

Izolda: 00:02:41

Always ask, just always, always ask for what you want.

Izolda: 00:02:45

And when you do, magical things happen.

Izolda: 00:02:47

I ended up traveling the world for NASA, teaching people all about how

Izolda: 00:02:51

to save the earth through science.

Izolda: 00:02:53

And I ended up teaching scientists how to tell their stories in such a way that

Izolda: 00:02:59

even kindergartners would love them.

Izolda: 00:03:02

And that kind of communication and science storytelling is one of my great loves.

Danny: 00:03:07

And I can imagine that'd be like, you mentioned kindergartners.

Danny: 00:03:09

I could imagine that'd be a rapt audience.

Danny: 00:03:11

We have a very well known, known astronaut in Canada where I'm,

Danny: 00:03:16

I'm not from, I'm from the UK, obviously, but I live in Canada.

Danny: 00:03:19

And one of our, one of our famous astronauts Chris Hadfield when he

Danny: 00:03:22

came back from doing a space mission He went around schools talking about

Danny: 00:03:26

what he did and the Canadian, you know, equivalent of NASA, et cetera.

Danny: 00:03:29

And the kids just loved it.

Danny: 00:03:31

He came to our kids school and they were just like sat out assembly

Danny: 00:03:34

going, wow, taking everything.

Danny: 00:03:36

And it's great to see, as you mentioned, a new generation.

Danny: 00:03:40

of people getting introduced to science and everything about that.

Danny: 00:03:43

So that's, that's pretty cool.

Danny: 00:03:44

And you don't do that anymore.

Danny: 00:03:45

Now you're stopped that.

Izolda: 00:03:47

I actually work with schools sometimes when they want me to come and

Izolda: 00:03:50

do assemblies and I work in soil science.

Izolda: 00:03:53

So my big job is to go.

Izolda: 00:03:56

From ew, dirt to ooh, soil.

Izolda: 00:03:59

And and that, that's a lot of what I do when I work with schools, but a lot of,

Izolda: 00:04:02

a lot of the work that I did, again, was storytelling and creative based.

Izolda: 00:04:06

And so now I work with companies and individuals who want to

Izolda: 00:04:10

become more innovative in their lives and in their work.

Izolda: 00:04:13

And NASA comes into play because I sometimes still do little contracts for

Izolda: 00:04:16

them, but most of the time I'm working with other people to become innovative

Izolda: 00:04:21

in ways that NASA's innovative because I worked there for 20 years and got.

Izolda: 00:04:25

Immersed and infused and suffused with all the cool innovative things that NASA does.

Izolda: 00:04:29

And now I want to bring that kind of world aware innovation to everybody.

Danny: 00:04:34

And obviously with NASA, I mean, it's, I would imagine it'd be a

Danny: 00:04:38

high pressure environment at times as well because of what they're doing,

Danny: 00:04:41

you know, who they're doing it with.

Danny: 00:04:42

And I know this, this wasn't in part of the introduction I did there, but

Danny: 00:04:46

I know you've spoken about your own childhood in a pressure environment

Danny: 00:04:49

there, as you mentioned you know, about being an immigrant while you, while we

Danny: 00:04:53

were in the green room, you were seven years old and you were helping people,

Danny: 00:04:57

you were in a war zone, helping people get to bomb shelters and stay safe.

Danny: 00:05:00

And that must have been.

Danny: 00:05:02

I don't even imagine how that must have been for you.

Izolda: 00:05:06

I think so many of us don't know what we're made of until we're tested.

Izolda: 00:05:10

And I didn't realize that I couldn't or I shouldn't do the things that I was

Izolda: 00:05:15

doing, but it became my job in my family.

Izolda: 00:05:18

I was a, I was an easy sleeper.

Izolda: 00:05:20

And when this air raid sirens would go off, I was the one who'd get up and make

Izolda: 00:05:24

sure everybody got up and got down into the shelter, and then knocking on doors as

Izolda: 00:05:28

we were going, because we all had to sort of file down the stairs into the, into

Izolda: 00:05:31

the sub basement to get into the shelters.

Izolda: 00:05:34

And then my mom is a singer and I'm a singer, and what we'd

Izolda: 00:05:37

do is we'd sing folk songs.

Izolda: 00:05:39

to sort of help everyone stay OK while we were in the shelters and then within

Izolda: 00:05:43

generally within a few hours we were allowed back up to our apartments

Izolda: 00:05:47

and things but in that moment it's very tense and again creativity,

Izolda: 00:05:52

doing something creative together is what helped everybody stay much more

Izolda: 00:05:56

calm than they otherwise would have.

Danny: 00:05:58

And I can imagine that must have helped you in your later life with some

Danny: 00:06:01

of the stuff you've been doing and what you do now obviously with clients it's

Danny: 00:06:04

taking that resilience and showing them.

Danny: 00:06:06

you know, how to overcome challenges, et cetera.

Izolda: 00:06:09

Oh, absolutely.

Izolda: 00:06:10

And one, again, one of the things that we learn about ourselves is when we're

Izolda: 00:06:16

tested, how can we think laterally?

Izolda: 00:06:18

How can we think what they call outside the box?

Izolda: 00:06:21

How can we act in a way that is responding rather than reacting?

Izolda: 00:06:26

Because reacting is immediate and responding is taking a little

Izolda: 00:06:29

bit of time to get inspired, to figure out what's going on.

Izolda: 00:06:32

What the answer might be that will be an even better solution than what

Izolda: 00:06:36

the immediate answer might have been.

Danny: 00:06:38

And speaking of responding and speaking of answers, I feel

Danny: 00:06:42

that's a nice little segue.

Danny: 00:06:43

I like the way you led up to that.

Danny: 00:06:45

Kudos to that.

Danny: 00:06:47

So I feel it's a nice little segue into the Five Random Questions that

Danny: 00:06:50

we're going to talk about today.

Danny: 00:06:51

So just a reminder to the listeners, these are completely random.

Danny: 00:06:55

I've never seen the questions before.

Danny: 00:06:56

Is all that hasn't seen the questions before.

Danny: 00:06:58

We'll see where they go.

Danny: 00:07:00

So let's bring up the random question generator.

Danny: 00:07:03

Ooh, this, I like this one.

Danny: 00:07:06

This ties in nicely to what we've just been speaking about.

Danny: 00:07:08

So IIzolda, question one.

Danny: 00:07:10

Who are you becoming?

Izolda: 00:07:12

Wow, what an excellent question.

Izolda: 00:07:14

If I had absolutely any.

Izolda: 00:07:18

thing I could become.

Izolda: 00:07:19

I would become more myself.

Izolda: 00:07:21

I am becoming someone who's directing shows on Broadway.

Izolda: 00:07:25

That's my, my goal, my manifestation.

Izolda: 00:07:28

And I'm becoming someone who wants to be more peaceful.

Izolda: 00:07:32

If you're asking about people, I would say I'm becoming everyone from Albert

Izolda: 00:07:38

Einstein to Steve Jobs to Meryl Streep, to Shayna Taub, who's younger than

Izolda: 00:07:44

I am, which is really fun to, to any number of people who use their voices to

Izolda: 00:07:51

help those who cannot help themselves.

Danny: 00:07:53

And I feel that ties in.

Danny: 00:07:54

I mentioned, obviously, you've written nonfiction books and also fiction

Danny: 00:07:58

books and you've got a, you know, the first part of the the Tarot Reader

Danny: 00:08:01

series, but you're also written a play.

Danny: 00:08:04

So does this who you're becoming?

Danny: 00:08:06

You mentioned, you know, you're a singer.

Danny: 00:08:08

You helped people with your voice when you were a child in the bomb shelters.

Danny: 00:08:13

Is this a sort of natural progression from all the stuff that you've done helping

Danny: 00:08:18

creatives to being your own creative person now as you move into the next

Danny: 00:08:22

stage of your career and life journey?

Izolda: 00:08:25

Sure.

Izolda: 00:08:26

Absolutely.

Izolda: 00:08:26

I think every experience adds to who we are and makes a beautiful

Izolda: 00:08:31

dessert out of it, hopefully.

Izolda: 00:08:33

Yet also one of the things that is really important to me is we

Izolda: 00:08:37

are, I think we're all creative.

Izolda: 00:08:39

We just lose it most of us as we're growing up.

Izolda: 00:08:41

So I'm getting back to some roots.

Izolda: 00:08:44

Somebody asked me the other day, when was the very happiest you've ever been?

Izolda: 00:08:48

And I thought about it and I went the very happiest I've ever been.

Izolda: 00:08:51

I was in college and I directed a full length play.

Izolda: 00:08:54

for a women's studies class.

Izolda: 00:08:56

That was my, we had to do some kind of an activist thing.

Izolda: 00:08:58

And I directed a full length play on a 50 budget with four actors.

Izolda: 00:09:03

And we, it was amazing to see that with 50, we directed, I directed a

Izolda: 00:09:08

two hour play and I didn't sleep.

Izolda: 00:09:11

I didn't eat.

Izolda: 00:09:12

I lost 15 pounds.

Izolda: 00:09:14

I lived that play for the two months that we prepared.

Izolda: 00:09:17

We showed it once we ran it once, and it was the best time of my life.

Izolda: 00:09:22

And I went and did other things because.

Izolda: 00:09:25

There are these other facets to me.

Izolda: 00:09:26

I want to help people.

Izolda: 00:09:27

I want to help the earth.

Izolda: 00:09:28

I want to help the animals, but that creative facet, the one that goes, I

Izolda: 00:09:32

love looking at a play or a musical and figuring out an amazing way to tell those

Izolda: 00:09:37

stories that lay dormant for a long time.

Izolda: 00:09:41

And now finally, all these years later, it's becoming much more a reality.

Izolda: 00:09:46

And I recently made my first few dollars doing musical theater in New York city.

Izolda: 00:09:53

And I'm going to hold on to that check and I'm going to.

Izolda: 00:09:55

Put it up on a wall because wow, it's what I've wanted to do for decades.

Izolda: 00:10:01

Other things came and went.

Izolda: 00:10:02

And now finally I'm getting to a place where I can laser focus on this

Izolda: 00:10:06

and that's the dream and the goal.

Danny: 00:10:08

Very cool.

Danny: 00:10:09

And I'm sure for that student that was doing the directorial debut at

Danny: 00:10:13

the play, that check, even though you mentioned it's a few dollars now,

Danny: 00:10:16

that would have been like a nice.

Danny: 00:10:17

A little amount, I feel, maybe back in the, the college days.

Izolda: 00:10:20

Oh,

Izolda: 00:10:20

yeah.

Danny: 00:10:22

That

Danny: 00:10:23

is awesome.

Danny: 00:10:23

And just to finish off this question, actually, just to tie it around

Danny: 00:10:26

obviously it's about who you're becoming.

Danny: 00:10:28

If there was just one person, maybe, That you could become for a day.

Danny: 00:10:32

Who do you think that would be and why?

Izolda: 00:10:34

I

Izolda: 00:10:34

would say Albert Einstein to finally maybe prove the theory that he

Izolda: 00:10:41

didn't get to prove before he passed.

Danny: 00:10:43

Hmm.

Danny: 00:10:44

I like that.

Danny: 00:10:44

That is a good one.

Danny: 00:10:46

We'll see.

Danny: 00:10:46

I can't make it happen.

Danny: 00:10:48

I don't have that power.

Danny: 00:10:49

But you never know with science the way it's going.

Danny: 00:10:51

Maybe.

Danny: 00:10:52

Maybe.

Danny: 00:10:53

Awesome.

Danny: 00:10:54

That's a great start.

Danny: 00:10:55

Alrighty.

Danny: 00:10:56

Let's move on to number two.

Danny: 00:10:58

Question number two.

Danny: 00:11:00

Hmm.

Danny: 00:11:00

Interesting.

Danny: 00:11:02

I feel I might know the answer to this, but let's go.

Danny: 00:11:04

If you had to work, but didn't need the money, what would you choose to do?

Izolda: 00:11:11

I direct plays on Broadway.

Izolda: 00:11:13

If I'd had, if I had to, yeah, I would, I would do that.

Izolda: 00:11:17

See, that's the problem.

Izolda: 00:11:18

I feel like I'm split in many different, Directions.

Izolda: 00:11:23

If I had to work and didn't need the money, I would also

Izolda: 00:11:26

be doing something that I do.

Izolda: 00:11:27

Now.

Izolda: 00:11:28

I helped do animal rescue.

Izolda: 00:11:31

So I'm a transporter.

Izolda: 00:11:32

I take injured animals from one place to another to get to

Izolda: 00:11:36

rehab or something like that.

Izolda: 00:11:38

So I'd probably do more of that, too.

Izolda: 00:11:40

So I would be split between the creative part and the helping animals part.

Danny: 00:11:44

And I wonder, would you create maybe like a foundation?

Danny: 00:11:46

Is it a foundation?

Danny: 00:11:47

Not a foundation.

Danny: 00:11:48

Maybe my words have got it.

Danny: 00:11:50

My words have left me.

Danny: 00:11:51

Would you be creating something where you would have people globally that we'd,

Danny: 00:11:55

you know, carry that on for you as well?

Danny: 00:11:57

So you would be the head nut trainer.

Danny: 00:12:01

That's the wrong word.

Izolda: 00:12:04

That's totally fine.

Izolda: 00:12:05

Yeah, some sort of a nonprofit like that would be great.

Izolda: 00:12:08

And I think that that's a slightly different question.

Izolda: 00:12:11

So if I if money were no object and I could do Anything having some, I, I've

Izolda: 00:12:17

often said that if I won a huge lottery, I would take many of the millions and

Izolda: 00:12:21

buy up a bunch of land and make that all into animal wildlife refuge so

Izolda: 00:12:27

that we could bring animals that were injured or animals that need that,

Izolda: 00:12:30

that are otherwise in danger and bring them in somewhere that's very safe.

Izolda: 00:12:36

So, absolutely, having some sort of a worldwide non profit that, that is

Izolda: 00:12:41

designed, like my friend Wendy Hapgood runs something called Wild Tomorrow, where

Izolda: 00:12:44

they are literally buying up land in South Africa and making that a wildlife habitat.

Izolda: 00:12:50

And so I would funnel money to them.

Izolda: 00:12:52

I would funnel money to my friend Lisa Robinson, who runs an animal, a farm

Izolda: 00:12:55

animal sanctuary in New York state.

Izolda: 00:12:57

Lots and lots of different ways to serve.

Izolda: 00:13:00

And maybe I wouldn't necessarily be the person.

Izolda: 00:13:03

Handling the money because that's don't ever let me handle the money.

Izolda: 00:13:06

I'm I'm rubbish at handling the money Like literally if you give me 55 to

Izolda: 00:13:12

count I will count 54 once and 57 the next time and 50 the ladies at the

Izolda: 00:13:17

bank when they would see me coming would be Like oh, no, it's her.

Izolda: 00:13:20

I was always wrong with the money.

Izolda: 00:13:22

I counted so don't let me handle the money But being the person who gets to

Izolda: 00:13:25

talk about why it's important, yeah, I'm right there to talk about why we need

Izolda: 00:13:29

to be helping animals, why we need to be preserving and conserving the environment.

Izolda: 00:13:34

I'm your gal.

Danny: 00:13:35

And I think that's like, obviously, it's such a noble cause.

Danny: 00:13:38

And we see more people doing this now as well and, you know, taking

Danny: 00:13:42

and taking the initiative to actually do something as opposed to saying,

Danny: 00:13:45

wouldn't it be great if we could do this and people actually doing it.

Danny: 00:13:47

There's a chap on, well, he's got his own website now, obviously,

Danny: 00:13:51

but I follow him on Twitter or X if you want to call it that.

Danny: 00:13:54

He's called.

Danny: 00:13:54

And he's over in Asia.

Danny: 00:13:57

He's got a program whose goal is to rescue 10, 000 dogs from abusive environments.

Danny: 00:14:04

And he documents what he's doing and what his team's doing.

Danny: 00:14:08

And you see the dogs at the start of the journey and it's horrible to see.

Danny: 00:14:11

And then you see them.

Danny: 00:14:12

They're in their happiest place, they're laughing, they've got the big

Danny: 00:14:15

smile, they're wagging their tails, they're running about, and it's amazing

Danny: 00:14:18

to see, and I feel there needs to be more, A, of that happening, and B, just

Danny: 00:14:22

making, you know, sharing awareness of people doing stuff like that.

Izolda: 00:14:25

Absolutely.

Izolda: 00:14:26

And the more we do that, the more we allow the opportunity to happen for other

Izolda: 00:14:32

people to become aware and do it too.

Izolda: 00:14:35

I wasn't always, I'm vegan and I'm, you know, ask me about it, I'll talk

Izolda: 00:14:38

about it forever, but I wasn't always.

Izolda: 00:14:41

I was a.

Izolda: 00:14:43

I will never make up for the number of animals I ate when I was a kid, but once I

Izolda: 00:14:46

knew what I was doing, I, I made changes.

Izolda: 00:14:50

And I think we can all do that.

Izolda: 00:14:51

And I think we can all become more aware and, and, and sort of

Izolda: 00:14:55

build our observation skills is what you're seeing just is what

Izolda: 00:14:59

you're seeing the right thing.

Izolda: 00:15:01

And at some point, if what you're seeing is not the right thing,

Izolda: 00:15:05

you're going to make choices and you're going to take action.

Izolda: 00:15:08

And so like the man that you follow on.

Izolda: 00:15:10

on Twitter or X.

Izolda: 00:15:12

There are people out there every single day.

Izolda: 00:15:14

My friend Jimmy, shout out to Jimmy, who's constantly, he's the one who's

Izolda: 00:15:18

aware of where there's an injured bird that needs to be taken to a wildlife

Izolda: 00:15:22

rehabber or somebody's found a kitten.

Izolda: 00:15:25

My husband and I this lady put out a note, Hey, I, I've rescued these three kittens.

Izolda: 00:15:31

Eyes are barely open.

Izolda: 00:15:32

I need kitten formulas.

Izolda: 00:15:33

So if you knew where Brooklyn in the Bronx is, you would go,

Izolda: 00:15:38

Oh, Yeah, that's a long way.

Izolda: 00:15:40

But I drove to a pet store, bought kitten formula, took it to the woman.

Izolda: 00:15:45

And then three days later, she said, I need you to come get these kittens.

Izolda: 00:15:48

I can't take care of them.

Izolda: 00:15:50

So I went and picked them up.

Izolda: 00:15:51

My husband and I went and picked them up from the Bronx and drove

Izolda: 00:15:53

them way out to Long Island, which is about an hour and a half.

Izolda: 00:15:56

But in the meantime, Between that, my husband got to play

Izolda: 00:15:59

mom, because I had to go work.

Izolda: 00:16:01

So he was mama cat to these three practically newborn kittens in our

Izolda: 00:16:05

bathroom, because we have cats.

Izolda: 00:16:06

And he took care of them all day and was feeding them with a

Izolda: 00:16:09

little, little plastic syringe.

Izolda: 00:16:11

And now these kittens are thriving, and we're going to adopt one of

Izolda: 00:16:14

them when they're of adoptable age.

Izolda: 00:16:16

But the point is, once you know, once you know what's going on,

Izolda: 00:16:19

once you know that these things are happening, You're going to want to do

Izolda: 00:16:23

something about it because we are a compassionate species on the whole.

Danny: 00:16:28

Yeah, no, I agree.

Danny: 00:16:29

And you see it with the younger generation now.

Danny: 00:16:31

I mean, I'm of an age where I'm way past, you know, not way past

Danny: 00:16:36

helping, but we didn't get, we didn't help when I was my kid's age.

Danny: 00:16:40

And, you know, for example, you see it now, kids are so much more

Danny: 00:16:43

involved and so much more aware of the world and environment.

Danny: 00:16:47

Living beings around them.

Danny: 00:16:48

And it's amazing to see compared to, you know, when I was a kid and using

Danny: 00:16:52

sprays for my hair and all that horrible stuff that you would do, you know,

Danny: 00:16:55

because you didn't know any better.

Danny: 00:16:56

So I agree.

Danny: 00:16:57

I was going to ask you about the kittens.

Danny: 00:16:59

Did you adopt them?

Danny: 00:16:59

Bet it sounds like you're going to have one anyway.

Izolda: 00:17:02

We, we have not adopted one yet, but we're going to.

Izolda: 00:17:04

I've talked my husband into it.

Izolda: 00:17:06

We adopted one of our current cats from this same rehabber, so we knew

Izolda: 00:17:10

exactly where to take these new kittens.

Izolda: 00:17:12

And and so Heather, shout out to RTR Rescue.

Izolda: 00:17:16

She she's, she's grooming them.

Izolda: 00:17:18

She's getting them ready to the point where she is willing to adopt,

Izolda: 00:17:21

but she's very specific and very particular about who she adopts out to.

Izolda: 00:17:25

She's already told me I can have one.

Izolda: 00:17:27

Yay.

Izolda: 00:17:27

But I, if I could have all three in our little in New York apartment, I would,

Izolda: 00:17:31

but that would mean we'd have five cats.

Izolda: 00:17:32

And my husband has said, no, too many, too many cats for him.

Danny: 00:17:38

That is awesome.

Danny: 00:17:38

And like I say, it's great to see.

Danny: 00:17:40

You know, this happened and more often and more awareness being brought to it.

Danny: 00:17:44

For sure.

Danny: 00:17:45

Speaking of awareness, I'm aware it must be question three.

Danny: 00:17:48

So let's have a little look what comes up here.

Danny: 00:17:52

Oh, I feel like these questions are really well suited to you, Izolda.

Danny: 00:17:58

Here's question three.

Danny: 00:18:00

Would you rather be able to breathe underwater or have the agility of a cat?

Izolda: 00:18:06

Okay, so I have my scuba certification.

Izolda: 00:18:10

And what's interesting about that is the very first time I entered a pool after

Izolda: 00:18:14

I'd gotten my scuba sea card, I tried to breathe and it did not work because

Izolda: 00:18:18

I did not have a regulator in my mouth.

Izolda: 00:18:20

I would much rather have the agility of a cat for sure.

Izolda: 00:18:24

They are, I saw a meme the other day that said, Living with a cat is

Izolda: 00:18:28

like living with a work of art that periodically throws up on the carpet.

Izolda: 00:18:31

And I just thought that was great because it's true.

Izolda: 00:18:35

They are, they are works of art.

Izolda: 00:18:36

They are incredibly self sufficient, but also incredibly loving

Izolda: 00:18:40

and are able to do Pretty much anything they set their minds to.

Izolda: 00:18:44

My, my younger cat plays fetch and we don't play fetch with him.

Izolda: 00:18:48

He plays fetch with us.

Izolda: 00:18:50

In other words, he will bring us, he loves zip ties.

Izolda: 00:18:53

They're her favorite.

Izolda: 00:18:54

He will bring you a zip tie.

Izolda: 00:18:55

You can throw it anywhere and he will find it and bring it back.

Izolda: 00:18:59

And you can throw it somewhere where essentially he can't get to it.

Izolda: 00:19:03

He doesn't give up.

Izolda: 00:19:03

45 minutes later, he has figured out a way to get back to where he needs

Izolda: 00:19:07

to get back to behind the dresser.

Izolda: 00:19:10

That you cannot get that.

Izolda: 00:19:10

I don't know how he does it, but he does it and he comes back 45.

Izolda: 00:19:14

He has to object permanence, which I've never seen before in a cat.

Izolda: 00:19:17

He brings it back to you and he hands it to you and he goes again.

Izolda: 00:19:22

And I just, yeah, agility of a cat without a doubt.

Danny: 00:19:25

Yeah, I remember we used to have cats.

Danny: 00:19:27

Before our kids were born, we lived in an apartment in Toronto, my wife and I

Danny: 00:19:31

and we had cats there and one of them.

Danny: 00:19:34

Well, you used to love playing soccer with us.

Danny: 00:19:36

So my wife would be one end of the hallway, I'd be the other end, and

Danny: 00:19:39

we'd have like a little soft bouncy squishy ball or whatever, and we'd

Danny: 00:19:42

kick it upwards about head height, so say about five, five and a half feet,

Danny: 00:19:46

and our cat from a sitting position would jump up, grab the ball, ball

Danny: 00:19:51

in the front paws, and then land with the ball, and then want to play again.

Danny: 00:19:56

It was crazy.

Danny: 00:19:56

So your ties in parallel there, and you like, so you don't sort

Danny: 00:20:00

of necessarily associate cats with wanting to do stuff like that, you

Danny: 00:20:05

know, but obviously they're up there.

Danny: 00:20:07

They're far more intelligent, far more different from a dog, for

Danny: 00:20:11

example, that most people you know, associated with a game like that.

Danny: 00:20:15

And I'm wondering, is it because, because I always think of cats and

Danny: 00:20:19

you see the ancient movies where like Cleopatra and the Romans,

Danny: 00:20:23

Egyptians, et cetera, and you've got the cats that were worshipped there.

Danny: 00:20:26

And yet the dogs are supposedly man's best friend.

Danny: 00:20:28

I'm wondering, what's your take on how that came about?

Danny: 00:20:31

How that sort of changed, you know, from cats being Around and doing the

Danny: 00:20:37

thing that they do to dogs being the right hand animal if you like to humans

Izolda: 00:20:42

I think that a lot of it is marketing truthfully And and we Wow,

Izolda: 00:20:49

you've opened up such a can so They say that dogs were domesticated somewhere

Izolda: 00:20:55

around 70, 000 years ago, and what were they good for, quote unquote?

Izolda: 00:20:59

They were guarding, you know, as, as agriculture came to be, they'd help guard

Izolda: 00:21:04

the crop or the livestock, whatever.

Izolda: 00:21:07

They were there to, to, because they have this incredible sense of smell, they

Izolda: 00:21:11

could sense danger, blah, blah, blah.

Izolda: 00:21:12

So they were helper creatures.

Izolda: 00:21:14

Cats.

Izolda: 00:21:15

weren't specifically helper creatures.

Izolda: 00:21:17

They were more as I said, self sufficient, independent and works of art.

Izolda: 00:21:23

So you see the one that's going to help you and the one that you kind of revere.

Izolda: 00:21:28

And so, so to me, as we become more of a society of people who need help,

Izolda: 00:21:35

because we've lost our own senses, you know, we probably had better

Izolda: 00:21:39

senses of smell 20, 000 years ago.

Izolda: 00:21:42

But we don't have that so much anymore, we've adapted

Izolda: 00:21:44

to a different way of living.

Izolda: 00:21:45

We need creatures in our lives who do have that really good sense of smell.

Izolda: 00:21:50

Cats aren't trainable for help this blind person, cat, a cat will

Izolda: 00:21:55

go, Oh, I want to go over there and the cat will go over there.

Izolda: 00:21:59

And and and the dog is the one that that's going to work to help you.

Izolda: 00:22:03

So I think that the temperament of the creatures has sort of

Izolda: 00:22:07

dictated how we interact with them.

Izolda: 00:22:10

Fundamentally, also domesticated dogs probably need us, and domesticated cats,

Izolda: 00:22:16

you look, I actually took a picture of one of my cats, I have two black cats,

Izolda: 00:22:21

and I took a picture of Ninja, who is the softest, squishiest, he loves my

Izolda: 00:22:25

husband so much that Rich can't sit down for longer than three seconds,

Izolda: 00:22:28

literally, before Ninja's lying on him, but I took a picture of him, and he

Izolda: 00:22:33

just looked wild, he looked, incredibly feral, and he's the smooshiest, cushiest.

Izolda: 00:22:40

And yet you look at him and you go, that is a wild creature, one step off.

Izolda: 00:22:44

Whereas my dog, who was a husky, you could tell he was right there.

Izolda: 00:22:49

I love you.

Izolda: 00:22:49

I love you.

Izolda: 00:22:50

I love you.

Izolda: 00:22:50

I love you.

Izolda: 00:22:51

And so the, the temperaments have been bred much more for dogs to be

Izolda: 00:22:56

helpers and much more for cats, not to be helpers for cats to be themselves.

Izolda: 00:23:01

So

Danny: 00:23:02

you feel like if there was a massive apocalypse.

Danny: 00:23:05

And for whatever reason, most of humanity is gone.

Danny: 00:23:09

Do you think it would be the cats that would be the survivors over

Danny: 00:23:11

the dogs when it comes to making it work, if that's the right question?

Izolda: 00:23:16

Domesticated cats versus domesticated dogs?

Izolda: 00:23:18

Yeah.

Izolda: 00:23:19

Absolutely.

Izolda: 00:23:20

I do.

Izolda: 00:23:21

I think, I think dogs would have to go.

Izolda: 00:23:24

a little bit back further or, or go back or go forward further to get

Izolda: 00:23:29

back to complete hunting instincts.

Izolda: 00:23:32

Whereas cats have them now, you know.

Izolda: 00:23:36

But one of the things that's interesting about that, dogs can survive on a

Izolda: 00:23:39

vegetarian diet and cats are carnivores.

Izolda: 00:23:42

They can't.

Izolda: 00:23:43

So if the, if the food sources were such that cats couldn't hunt because

Izolda: 00:23:48

there were no other animals, for example, that would be a problem.

Izolda: 00:23:52

Otherwise, I think cats have retained, they've been domesticated

Izolda: 00:23:56

something like 3, 000 years.

Izolda: 00:23:57

So cats have retained a lot more of their They're predatory instincts, I

Izolda: 00:24:02

would say, than dogs have, and I could be wrong, I'm not, I don't, I'm not

Izolda: 00:24:07

particular professional in this, but I've done some studying, because I had,

Izolda: 00:24:11

many years ago, my husband and I got a dog who was supposed to be a husky, but

Izolda: 00:24:15

turned out, our vet said, no, she's not a husky, she's an Alaskan Malamute with

Izolda: 00:24:20

a healthy dose of timberwolf in her, and when you looked at Athena, you got, you

Izolda: 00:24:24

kind of went, Oh, yeah, she could kill me.

Izolda: 00:24:27

She could.

Izolda: 00:24:28

And she and I, she fought me for alpha status.

Izolda: 00:24:31

And it was interesting.

Izolda: 00:24:32

I went away once for three days.

Izolda: 00:24:35

And the first night, she slept on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Izolda: 00:24:38

And the second night, she slept on the foot of the bed.

Izolda: 00:24:41

The third night, she slept next to my husband on my side of the bed.

Izolda: 00:24:45

And when I came home the next day, she growled at me.

Izolda: 00:24:48

So I literally had to, had to put her on her back and put my teeth to her throat.

Izolda: 00:24:55

In order for her to remember, I was the alpha.

Izolda: 00:24:58

And once she remembered that she was like, Oh yeah, that's right.

Izolda: 00:25:00

You're the alpha.

Izolda: 00:25:01

Gotcha.

Izolda: 00:25:02

And then we were fine, but she was not happy to see me because

Izolda: 00:25:06

Rich was her alpha male and I was the interloper when I came back.

Izolda: 00:25:10

So we had to reestablish that hierarchy.

Izolda: 00:25:13

And what's interesting, again, many moons ago, Athena was alpha

Izolda: 00:25:17

of all the dogs in our little town where we were living at the time.

Izolda: 00:25:20

And we, I started this drum circle in the woods.

Izolda: 00:25:22

We had these, these protected woods outside our house.

Izolda: 00:25:25

And I started a drum circle in the woods.

Izolda: 00:25:27

We're all drumming there, maybe 25 people drumming, maybe 10, 15 dogs.

Izolda: 00:25:31

And Athena's sitting, and all the dogs walked over to her and kind of.

Izolda: 00:25:35

Touched her shoulder with their heads and and then sort of walked

Izolda: 00:25:40

away and the next dog came and sort of paid obeisance, if you will.

Izolda: 00:25:44

And then she did something I didn't like and I went, Athena!

Izolda: 00:25:47

And she walked over to me and she put her head against me, and then one by

Izolda: 00:25:54

one, every single dog came over and put their head against me because they

Izolda: 00:25:59

realized, Oh, we thought she was the alpha, but it turns out you're the alpha.

Izolda: 00:26:04

So all 15 dogs came over and kind of touched their cheek to my, to my

Izolda: 00:26:08

leg to make sure that, that I knew that they knew that I was the alpha.

Izolda: 00:26:13

It was a fascinating thing to watch.

Danny: 00:26:16

That's amazing.

Danny: 00:26:17

And yeah, I couldn't see a cat doing that.

Danny: 00:26:19

Not ever , you know, the, the cat would be waiting for you to put

Danny: 00:26:21

your head on . That is amazing.

Danny: 00:26:26

Hey there, Danny here.

Danny: 00:26:27

I hope you're enjoying this episode of Five Random Questions.

Danny: 00:26:30

If you're loving the fun as much as I am, I've got something extra special for you.

Danny: 00:26:34

I.

Danny: 00:26:35

The Question Master Membership.

Danny: 00:26:37

As a premium member, you'll get ad free early access to every episode.

Danny: 00:26:41

But that's not all.

Danny: 00:26:42

You'll also be able to submit your own random question to be

Danny: 00:26:45

asked in an upcoming episode and spark the next great conversation.

Danny: 00:26:49

Plus, there are even more exclusive perks waiting for you as a Question Master.

Danny: 00:26:53

So, if you want to take your 5 Random Questions experience to the next level,

Danny: 00:26:58

head over to five random questions dot com forward slash support to

Danny: 00:27:01

sign up and become a Question Master.

Danny: 00:27:04

Thanks for supporting the show, and now, back to the questions.

Danny: 00:27:14

And speaking of leading I'm going to lead us in to question number four.

Danny: 00:27:18

Let's have a look.

Danny: 00:27:18

That was an amazing tale though.

Danny: 00:27:21

Oh, okay, here we go.

Danny: 00:27:23

Question four.

Danny: 00:27:25

Would you rather have a permanently clogged nose or a piece of green

Danny: 00:27:29

food always stuck in your teeth?

Izolda: 00:27:32

Piece of green food always stuck in my teeth, without a doubt.

Danny: 00:27:35

Not going for the clog.

Danny: 00:27:36

You don't care about the smile and everything or?

Izolda: 00:27:39

Oh, I right now I have a clogged nose and I'm miserable.

Izolda: 00:27:43

I'm a singer and I'm a professional speaker and I'm a podcaster.

Izolda: 00:27:46

I train people on how to communicate.

Izolda: 00:27:49

If I had a permanently clogged nose, I wouldn't be able to do my life's work.

Izolda: 00:27:53

So I have no problem with spinach in my teeth for the rest of my life as long

Izolda: 00:27:58

as I can keep speaking and singing.

Danny: 00:28:00

And that makes sense.

Danny: 00:28:01

And so with a clogged nose, obviously you mentioned you got

Danny: 00:28:03

one at the moment, what's your sort of remedy for clearing that?

Danny: 00:28:05

Is it just sort of Lots of like steamed water, stuff like that, or

Izolda: 00:28:09

there's an I'm I was born in the former Soviet Union.

Izolda: 00:28:12

And what my mother used to do, she used to boil potatoes and you would

Izolda: 00:28:16

sort of stick your face in the steam of the potatoes boiling weirdly.

Izolda: 00:28:21

That would help.

Izolda: 00:28:22

I also use the neti pot and I gargle like nobody's business every half hour.

Izolda: 00:28:27

And that's what I tell my singing students too, is if you have a

Izolda: 00:28:29

sore throat and you have to perform tomorrow, gargle every half hour.

Izolda: 00:28:33

religiously, and it's amazing.

Izolda: 00:28:36

And then hot water with ginger and lemon helps all.

Izolda: 00:28:39

There are lots of things that you can do.

Izolda: 00:28:42

The big thing is don't overuse your voice.

Danny: 00:28:45

And I was going to say, obviously you mentioned you're a singer, you're a

Danny: 00:28:47

podcaster, so you speak a lot as well.

Danny: 00:28:49

Has there ever been a time where it's just been so bad you couldn't sing?

Danny: 00:28:52

can't perform or you think, you know what, I can't do this show

Danny: 00:28:54

or just, just crack on through it.

Izolda: 00:28:56

Oh, I've canceled shows for sure because there are times when my

Izolda: 00:28:59

voice goes to this and there's nothing.

Izolda: 00:29:03

On the other hand, interestingly, I was auditioning for the

Izolda: 00:29:06

Michigan state honors choir.

Izolda: 00:29:07

I grew up in Michigan and I had lost my voice, but weirdly I lost my speaking

Izolda: 00:29:13

voice, but not my singing voice and not my, and I was auditioning as a

Izolda: 00:29:17

soprano singing high up and I was able to sing, but I couldn't speak.

Izolda: 00:29:21

So I walk into audition.

Izolda: 00:29:23

And we had to sing these two songs.

Izolda: 00:29:26

One was in Latin, one was a spiritual.

Izolda: 00:29:28

I sang, and after I was done singing, the, one of the judges asked me a question,

Izolda: 00:29:33

and I said, I'm sorry, I can't speak.

Izolda: 00:29:35

And they went, wait, what?

Izolda: 00:29:37

You just sang.

Izolda: 00:29:39

I know, I know, I just sang, but I can't speak.

Izolda: 00:29:42

And they said, wait a minute, you sing right now, but you can't say a word.

Izolda: 00:29:48

No, I cannot.

Izolda: 00:29:49

And they went, okay.

Izolda: 00:29:51

And I got in and I think they thought, wow, if she's saying like that when she

Izolda: 00:29:56

can't speak, she must be pretty good.

Izolda: 00:29:58

And so, so yeah, I, I've also in the middle of singing, performing.

Izolda: 00:30:03

I had turned out pneumonia when I was doing Kurt Weill's Down in

Izolda: 00:30:06

the Valley and couldn't, couldn't breathe in without coughing.

Izolda: 00:30:11

So we had, there's the end of Act One, there is there's a,

Izolda: 00:30:14

my character, Jenny Parsons, is supposed to let out a huge scream.

Izolda: 00:30:19

Well, to let out a huge scream, you have to take in a deep breath.

Izolda: 00:30:21

I couldn't take in a deep breath.

Izolda: 00:30:23

Then there was this young, young ninth grader named Mario Gardner, shout out to

Izolda: 00:30:27

Mario, who could scream like the Dickens.

Izolda: 00:30:29

And so what we did is he stood right next to me, and when I was ready to scream,

Izolda: 00:30:34

I would touch his arm, and I would mime screaming, but he would scream.

Izolda: 00:30:40

Because if I tried to breathe in enough to scream, I would just cough up a lung.

Izolda: 00:30:45

So everybody was like, Wow, Zold, you have a great scream.

Izolda: 00:30:47

And I'm like, Nope.

Izolda: 00:30:48

Mario has a great screen, so you have to do what you have to do.

Izolda: 00:30:52

And sometimes you just make modifications in order to have the show go on.

Danny: 00:30:57

And that's almost like I mean, it's not quite like it, but it's almost

Danny: 00:30:59

like having your early version A.

Danny: 00:31:01

I.

Danny: 00:31:02

replacement for voiceover.

Danny: 00:31:03

You've got Mario's at the side ready to come on there.

Danny: 00:31:06

Absolutely.

Danny: 00:31:08

We'll definitely keep the, the green food away from the teeth and we'll go

Danny: 00:31:11

with the, no, no, that's not right.

Danny: 00:31:13

We'll keep the clogged nose away and we'll keep the green food and the teeth.

Danny: 00:31:17

Let's get it right, daddy.

Danny: 00:31:18

Speaking of clogged and not being clogged up, we're going to move on to

Danny: 00:31:22

number five because we're not clogging up the four questions that came before.

Danny: 00:31:25

So we're, we're doing well here.

Danny: 00:31:26

We're coming up to the final hurdle here.

Danny: 00:31:29

Okay, Izolda, here we go.

Danny: 00:31:30

Question five.

Danny: 00:31:31

We're almost at the end here.

Danny: 00:31:33

What part of the human face is your favorite?

Danny: 00:31:37

The human face?

Danny: 00:31:38

The eyes, for

Izolda: 00:31:39

sure.

Danny: 00:31:40

Now, is that because you like the typical, we always speak of

Danny: 00:31:42

them being the windows to your soul?

Danny: 00:31:43

Or is it something just specific to you?

Danny: 00:31:45

They're there and you can't ignore them because you'd look

Danny: 00:31:47

weird if you didn't have eyes or?

Izolda: 00:31:49

Yeah, I, no, I mean, yes, windows to the soul.

Izolda: 00:31:52

They, first of all, I, I have always had a thing for what

Izolda: 00:31:57

someone's actual iris looks like.

Izolda: 00:32:01

You can get really in and they're never just brown or just blue.

Izolda: 00:32:05

There's, there's a cornucopia of colors and patterns and

Izolda: 00:32:09

things in every single iris.

Izolda: 00:32:10

None, no two are alike.

Izolda: 00:32:12

They're so beautiful.

Izolda: 00:32:13

And also around the eye, you know, how the eye is formed, how it's shaped,

Izolda: 00:32:20

the type of lashes, the type of brows, but also minute expressions.

Izolda: 00:32:24

You can see the smallest expressions on someone's face change, even

Izolda: 00:32:31

if the rest of their face stays identical to what it was before.

Izolda: 00:32:35

The tiniest, you can tell someone when someone becomes brilliantly happy or, or

Izolda: 00:32:41

very angry just by what their eyes do.

Izolda: 00:32:44

And I actually was talking about the movie, The Devil Wears Prada the other

Izolda: 00:32:47

day in that Meryl Streep in the last, in her last 10 seconds of that movie gives a

Izolda: 00:32:52

masterclass in acting with just her eyes.

Izolda: 00:32:56

You can watch her think of all the different choices she made in her life.

Izolda: 00:33:01

How proud she is of Andy and Hathaway's character, how happy she is that

Izolda: 00:33:08

Andy made the choices she did, and the realization that she is in a car

Izolda: 00:33:13

about to be driven to a very important meeting, and her driver isn't driving.

Izolda: 00:33:18

And she flows from this happy, nostalgic, wistful moment.

Izolda: 00:33:23

To go with just her eyes, and it is just watching Meryl Streep

Izolda: 00:33:29

do what she does is brilliant.

Izolda: 00:33:32

Plus, the eyes do something so incredible.

Izolda: 00:33:35

Being able to take in, even though I know our sense of smell is the

Izolda: 00:33:39

closest to memory, being able to take in the vast amounts of data our eyes

Izolda: 00:33:44

take in and help our brain function.

Izolda: 00:33:46

Interpret is mind boggling to me.

Izolda: 00:33:49

Plus the rods and the cones.

Izolda: 00:33:50

Come on, cones see color and rods see black and white.

Izolda: 00:33:54

And why you don't see well in Twilight is because the eye doesn't

Izolda: 00:33:57

know whether or not the rods or the cones should be the ones it uses.

Izolda: 00:34:00

Brilliant and mind boggling and so complex.

Izolda: 00:34:03

I love it.

Danny: 00:34:04

It's like they always say, like the something that seems so

Danny: 00:34:07

simple, not simple because it's an eye, but on the surface it's a ball.

Danny: 00:34:13

And it's got an iris and a global, but it's fairly simple.

Danny: 00:34:15

When you look at it, you see that's an eye, but it's like, see all the stuff

Danny: 00:34:19

that's going on behind it to make this work and to recognize and to separate and

Danny: 00:34:23

diffuse colors and spheres and everything.

Danny: 00:34:25

It's just crazy.

Danny: 00:34:26

And your point about Meryl Streep, who I think is a phenomenal actress,

Danny: 00:34:30

probably one of the best ever.

Danny: 00:34:32

If you look back, I think that's why I really enjoy the old movies from

Danny: 00:34:36

the thirties and forties, because a lot of that was down to the actors

Danny: 00:34:40

and actresses and their Yeah.

Danny: 00:34:41

Their eyes and what they portray, you know, with the music behind them,

Danny: 00:34:45

because there wasn't a lot of effects and you couldn't do a lot of, you

Danny: 00:34:47

know, special AI generation, et cetera.

Danny: 00:34:49

And it was all on their face and their eyes.

Danny: 00:34:51

And it just told you so much more of a story about them and what

Danny: 00:34:55

they were acting about at the time.

Izolda: 00:34:58

Oh, for sure.

Izolda: 00:34:59

I mean, you watch Rosalind Russell and his girl Friday, she does such an amazing job.

Izolda: 00:35:04

I mean, that movie moves so fast.

Izolda: 00:35:06

So many words.

Izolda: 00:35:07

I think a typical movie.

Izolda: 00:35:09

will have 120 script screenplay pages.

Izolda: 00:35:12

That had 192.

Izolda: 00:35:14

There were so many words packed in, but at the same time in the, in the

Izolda: 00:35:17

very few quiet moments, you see her and Cary Grant exchange these looks and you

Izolda: 00:35:21

go, yeah, that's what it's all about.

Izolda: 00:35:24

And Cary Grant was phenomenal at that too.

Izolda: 00:35:26

Watching him into Catch a Thief when you're not sure who he is and

Izolda: 00:35:31

in Notorious, watching him be so in love, but be unable to declare

Izolda: 00:35:37

himself to the woman he loves because he's got this job to protect.

Izolda: 00:35:40

everything and how you, his agony and the Philadelphia story, the same thing.

Izolda: 00:35:45

He did the exact same thing there as Dext.

Izolda: 00:35:47

He was in agony.

Izolda: 00:35:49

And the only way you saw it was by looking at his eyes because the

Izolda: 00:35:52

rest of the time his character was very devil may care, but he wasn't.

Izolda: 00:35:57

And it was brilliant bits of acting from, you know, these incredible superstars.

Danny: 00:36:03

And as you mentioned, it all comes from the eyes, which, and I guess

Danny: 00:36:05

that's why they always say, you know, you mentioned about, you can keep your

Danny: 00:36:08

face like a really good poker face.

Danny: 00:36:10

But your eyes may just give you away because you've got that little tinkle

Danny: 00:36:14

there that someone can pick up on.

Izolda: 00:36:16

Absolutely.

Danny: 00:36:17

So, that's awesome.

Danny: 00:36:18

I really, you know, I've enjoyed hearing your answers to these

Danny: 00:36:21

five very random questions.

Danny: 00:36:24

To be fair, because I put you on the spot over the last half hour or so, to be fair,

Danny: 00:36:29

it's only fair that I offer you the chance to ask me a random question of your own.

Danny: 00:36:33

So, I'll fire away with you if you wish.

Izolda: 00:36:37

What is your favorite memory from fourth grade?

Izolda: 00:36:40

And why

Danny: 00:36:41

Fourth grade?

Danny: 00:36:42

So I was in the UK then.

Danny: 00:36:43

So that would be fourth grade is nine years old.

Danny: 00:36:45

I think in North America.

Danny: 00:36:46

Yep.

Danny: 00:36:47

So nine.

Danny: 00:36:47

Okay, so nine.

Danny: 00:36:48

I'd be still in primary school.

Danny: 00:36:50

Who?

Danny: 00:36:50

I think nine years old.

Danny: 00:36:52

Okay, so this is Yeah, that ties in actually.

Danny: 00:36:55

So when I was nine, it was a pretty bad summer because both my grandad's died

Danny: 00:37:00

within about a month of each other.

Danny: 00:37:02

And my School friend, Corinne she died from an asthma attack in the

Danny: 00:37:08

summer, during the summer holidays.

Danny: 00:37:10

I know this sounds really weird because it's not a favourite memory of a grade

Danny: 00:37:14

9, but I'm getting there, I promise.

Danny: 00:37:16

So, I always remember that summer because obviously it was a very destructive

Danny: 00:37:19

summer from a personal point of view.

Danny: 00:37:22

I knew my grandad's, they were old and both of them were suffering from cancer.

Danny: 00:37:25

So we kind of knew they were coming to the end of their lives.

Danny: 00:37:29

But Corinne, same age as me just out of the blue, she had an asthma attack.

Danny: 00:37:32

Nobody could get to her in time because it was very different then.

Danny: 00:37:35

You're talking like the 78, 77 time.

Danny: 00:37:39

Very different, you know, emergency services and medications, et cetera.

Danny: 00:37:43

And unfortunately she went.

Danny: 00:37:45

Now, about that time Star Wars, the original Star Wars

Danny: 00:37:48

movie had come out in the U.

Danny: 00:37:49

S.

Danny: 00:37:49

and it was a huge amount of Huge amount of excitement and

Danny: 00:37:54

expectation about this movie.

Danny: 00:37:55

It was like breaking records all over the place in the US, but we had

Danny: 00:37:58

to wait because we were in the UK.

Danny: 00:37:59

We always got stuff six months to a year later in the US.

Danny: 00:38:03

So that came out in I think it was the summer of 78.

Danny: 00:38:07

It was like winter 77, summer of 78 maybe in the UK.

Danny: 00:38:11

So my uncle Because my, my stepdad was also going through his own cancer battle

Danny: 00:38:16

at the time, just to add to the joy.

Danny: 00:38:18

So my uncle took me to see Star Wars and we waited in line for about two hours, but

Danny: 00:38:23

we got in there and it's always been my favourite movie scene and will remain so.

Danny: 00:38:28

At nine years old, you're sat in a darkened theatre, you're a little kid

Danny: 00:38:31

and this huge spaceship comes over with the noise and the rumbling and

Danny: 00:38:36

everything that seemed to go on forever.

Danny: 00:38:38

And then the next two hours made me completely forget about

Danny: 00:38:40

what was happening in my life.

Danny: 00:38:42

But also introduced me to the spectacle of what a massive summer

Danny: 00:38:45

movie was going to look like.

Danny: 00:38:47

So that's probably my favourite memory, even though it's tied in because it sort

Danny: 00:38:51

of countered all the bad stuff that was going on with this positive, good memory.

Izolda: 00:38:56

Wow, that is incredible.

Izolda: 00:39:00

First of all, that's a lot of losses for your very young life then, and

Izolda: 00:39:04

wow, and it's it's amazing to listen to you talk about it because on the

Izolda: 00:39:10

one hand you're very matter of fact, but on the other hand, obviously you,

Izolda: 00:39:13

you love these people so very much.

Izolda: 00:39:16

So thank you for sharing that, unbelievable.

Izolda: 00:39:18

And I noticed the Boba Fett actually behind you, the baby Boba Fett.

Izolda: 00:39:23

I am.

Izolda: 00:39:24

a ginormous Star Wars nerd, completely ginormous.

Izolda: 00:39:28

And yes, I did celebrate, you know, May the 4th be with you, of

Izolda: 00:39:32

course, but Towel Day and Star Wars Day, May 25th, 1977, that whole

Izolda: 00:39:37

summer of 1977, I saw Star Wars.

Izolda: 00:39:42

I've seen Star Wars 72 times and counting because I used to I used to

Izolda: 00:39:48

take my little sister and we would go to the first show and then we would

Izolda: 00:39:52

hide when they emptied the theater and then we would stay for like three

Izolda: 00:39:55

showings a day every single day.

Izolda: 00:39:58

That's I just as often as possible watch that movie.

Izolda: 00:40:02

And then the people I babysat for had two movies on Betamax.

Izolda: 00:40:06

They had Jaws.

Izolda: 00:40:08

And they had Star Wars.

Izolda: 00:40:09

And so what did I do every Saturday night?

Izolda: 00:40:11

I watched Star Wars.

Izolda: 00:40:14

I, yeah, so I share that with you.

Izolda: 00:40:16

I had a, in a different way, I had a very challenging childhood.

Izolda: 00:40:20

And so, that notion of being able to see something like, I know they

Izolda: 00:40:26

call it a new hope, like Star Wars.

Izolda: 00:40:29

And, and see what was possible.

Izolda: 00:40:31

It changed so many lives.

Izolda: 00:40:33

I mean, say what you will about Lucas and the first three movies

Izolda: 00:40:35

and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Izolda: 00:40:37

He changed billions of lives with that story.

Izolda: 00:40:41

And and I know it's the hero's journey, and I know he studied

Izolda: 00:40:45

Kurosawa, and I don't care.

Izolda: 00:40:47

It's still brilliant.

Danny: 00:40:49

No, for sure.

Danny: 00:40:50

And I'm sure Kurosawa was inspired by someone before him.

Danny: 00:40:54

So it's just a journey, like you mentioned, you know,

Danny: 00:40:57

the hero's journey book.

Danny: 00:40:59

It's just, it's part of that, right?

Danny: 00:41:00

Everybody has someone to inspire and take it to the next generation if you

Izolda: 00:41:04

like.

Izolda: 00:41:04

It's okay to stand on the shoulders of giants as long as you thank the giants.

Izolda: 00:41:08

I think that's the, that's the way to, if you honor the

Izolda: 00:41:12

giants and shoulders, you stay.

Izolda: 00:41:13

I mean, he talked, you know, Lucas talks about how much he appreciates the work

Izolda: 00:41:17

of Joseph Campbell because Campbell He, you know, he wrote The Hero Within.

Izolda: 00:41:23

He wrote Myths of Magic.

Izolda: 00:41:25

He wrote all of that.

Izolda: 00:41:26

And he got his research and his inspiration from

Izolda: 00:41:30

people who came before him.

Izolda: 00:41:31

So, I am okay with standing on the shoulders of giants, again, as

Izolda: 00:41:35

long as you honor and thank them.

Danny: 00:41:37

And speaking of thanking, I'm going to thank you now for appearing on today's

Danny: 00:41:41

episode, because it has been a real joy to chat with you, Zelda, and learn more.

Danny: 00:41:46

About your own experiences and the things that we talked about with the

Danny: 00:41:49

Five Random Questions for anyone that wants to connect with you directly.

Danny: 00:41:54

Whether that's through your coaching, for your education, for your podcast,

Danny: 00:41:57

come see your play, anything like that at all, where is the best place to

Danny: 00:42:01

connect and then catch up with you?

Izolda: 00:42:03

Oh, thank you so much for asking that.

Izolda: 00:42:05

I appreciate it.

Izolda: 00:42:06

So if you want to find out more about me, the best places is Izoldaspeaks.

Izolda: 00:42:12

com I Z O L D A.

Izolda: 00:42:13

Speaks.

Izolda: 00:42:14

com.

Izolda: 00:42:15

If you want to know more about the speaking, which is interesting,

Izolda: 00:42:18

or the singing that's voice mastery studio or voice mastery

Izolda: 00:42:22

dot studio, it's all confusing.

Izolda: 00:42:24

A lot of what I do.

Izolda: 00:42:25

You can find me on the creative solutions podcast on Instagram.

Izolda: 00:42:29

And at IIzolda T, pretty much every social media channel, if you look for at

Izolda: 00:42:36

IIzolda T, except for Facebook, because at IIzolda T on Facebook is a porn star.

Izolda: 00:42:42

So don't go there.

Izolda: 00:42:43

But everywhere else.

Izolda: 00:42:44

Yeah, I, I got, I was there too late.

Izolda: 00:42:47

Most things at IIzolda T, I've been able to grab.

Izolda: 00:42:50

That one I did not get to.

Izolda: 00:42:51

And if you go there.

Izolda: 00:42:53

Use at your own risk.

Izolda: 00:42:55

It turns out a lot of IIzoldas are Eastern European porn stars.

Izolda: 00:42:59

And let me tell you, I have gotten some really bizarre spam.

Izolda: 00:43:02

So, ew.

Danny: 00:43:04

I can imagine.

Danny: 00:43:05

And to make sure you get to the right IIzolda tea, I'll be sure to leave

Danny: 00:43:09

all these links in the show notes.

Danny: 00:43:10

So whichever app you're listening on, Be sure to check them out and that

Danny: 00:43:13

will take you to the right person.

Danny: 00:43:15

with the right experience, . So again, is Oda.

Danny: 00:43:18

Thanks for appearing on this week's Five Random Questions.

Danny: 00:43:21

Thanks Danny.

Danny: 00:43:22

Thanks for listening to Five Random Questions.

Danny: 00:43:24

If you enjoy this week's episode, be sure to follow for three on the

Danny: 00:43:27

app you're currently listening on or online@fiverandomquestions.com.

Danny: 00:43:31

And if you feel like leaving a review, well that would make me happier than

Danny: 00:43:35

that time I played the Fairy Godmother.

Danny: 00:43:36

and got to sing alongside my crush at the time who plays Cinderella.

Danny: 00:43:42

But seriously, leaving a review or recommending it to your

Danny: 00:43:44

friends would make my day.

Danny: 00:43:46

Until the next time, keep asking those questions.