Podbit · The Rest Is Politics
Rory Stewart is heading into an 11-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat with no phone, no books, no writing materials and no conversation — rising at 4:30am and meditating for up to 14 hours a day. He admits he gets a different answer every time he's asked why he does it.
Where this was said
At 41:49 · chapter starts 40:55
George's question — does Alastair still keep a diary and has he ever missed a day? — opens a candid reflection. Campbell admits he rarely misses a day but has become 'much, much less disciplined' since making the mistake about ten years ago of switching from pen and ink to typing. He estimates he has several million words covering British politics up to the Ed Miliband era — a rich archive publishers regularly ask about — but acknowledges he's not ready to publish yet. [1] — Rory Stewart "Rory Stewart is heading into an 11-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat with no phone, no books, no writing materials and no conversatio…" 41:49 He teases that he has begun work on a new book, but won't say what it's about. Rory Stewart then announces he is heading into an 11-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat: rising at 4:30am, going to bed at 10pm, no phone, no books, no writing, no speech — meditating for up to 14 hours a day almost entirely surrounded by Burmese nationals. He admits he gets a different answer every time he's asked why he does it. Alastair's response to the meaning of life — 'You have to live it' — closes the exchange with wry simplicity.
Alastair Campbell has kept a near-daily diary for decades and estimates he has several million words written up to the Ed Miliband era in British politics.
Rory Stewart is about to begin an 11-day silent meditation retreat, rising at 4:30am with no phone, books or speech, meditating alongside Burmese nationals.
AI nailed Andrew Huberman's vertigo-vs-low-blood-pressure diagnosis because that pattern has been reported millions of times. But every patient's liver is different and data on liver surgeries is scarce worldwide — making solo robot surgery dangerous. The rule is simple: data abundance means AI can help; data scarcity means keep the human in the loop.
Fei-Fei Li's father had liver surgery performed by a da Vinci robot guided by a surgeon. The result: 10 times less blood loss than a typical procedure. This isn't replacement — it's the gold standard of human-machine collaboration, where the human's judgment and the robot's precision combine.
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Kessler thought his grief expertise would protect him. It didn't. When his son David died unexpectedly, he found himself on the floor — and eventually realized that acceptance alone wasn't enough. That unmet need became the sixth stage: finding meaning.
Grief isn't just death — it's any unwanted change. Kessler lectured at Coca-Cola and General Mills not because they had lots of funerals, but because change management is grief management. People who grieve well live well.
Witnessing someone's grief isn't just emotional support — it's an essential act of healing. Kessler argues grief is a severance and connection heals it. But real witnessing has two steps: seeing the pain AND affirming the person's capacity to recover.
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