Mike Warwick, my co-presenter on the show, has been recording episodes when I’m taking a break and then he hands back to me and so on and on we go. We also do some episodes together like the one I will share next week. Today I’m thrilled to share Mike’s conversation with the Founder of Soul Biographies Nic Askew. Nic Askew is a filmmaker, educator and explorer whose work asks what becomes possible when a camera is used not to capture a performance, but to witness someone as they truly are. Before he picked up a camera he spent years as an itinerant explorer and a Managing Director in business, leading expeditions into the Congo, the Amazon and the Sahara - an unlikely apprenticeship that taught him as much about stillness under pressure as anything that followed. In 2005, a lucid daydream told him, with the force of certainty rather than desire, to pick up a film camera and use it “in a profound fashion.” That moment set him on the path to developing the Inner View Method - a way of filming built on patient, agenda-less attention rather than the usual choreography of question and answer - and, from it, the acclaimed Soul Biographies film series, now viewed by millions worldwide. His work has taken him into rooms with Georgetown University, Harvard Business School, Apple, the MacArthur Foundation and MIT, and he now leads Inner View immersions and expeditions that teach others to see - and be seen - in the same way. Nic’s conviction, arrived at over two decades behind the lens, is that unconditional attention is a revolutionary act capable of changing the world. Two decades ago he set out to capture the Soul of the Human Race on film, so that we might see ourselves reflected in each other, remember that we belong to each other, and act accordingly - so that, in his words, we might wake up. It’s a mission he now shares as a demonstrable, lived experience among people as much as through film that will outlast the moment it was made. In conversation with Mike, Nic walks him through his process live - the radio version of one of his own soul biographies - in a conversation about what happens when we stop, become still, and let what’s already there come through. https://nicaskew.com I hope you enjoy the episode. Much love, Dan This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dankieran.substack.com/subscribe
