Unabridged Interview: Annie F. Downs

Lee C. Camp (0:00)

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Now, on to the show.

Hello, friends, Lee C. Camp here. You're listening to No Small Endeavor. This is our Unabridged Interview with Annie F. Downs, talking about her most recent book, Don't Let That Hold You Back. Annie begins with this stat at the top of her book about the fact that what folks regret more than things they did, even things they did and failed at or did wrongly, is regret about the things they never did do, maybe things that they had dreamed about but never did get around to doing for whatever reason. Specifically, as you'll hear us talk about the stories that we tell ourselves about what might make something like that impossible for us. So, it's this beautiful engagement with this conversation around regret. It reminded me of a recent essay I had read by the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who talks about how the world considers it dangerous, he says, to venture. Because, of course, you might lose, you might fail, you might screw up. And not venturing, he says, looks shrewd. But playing it safe, refusing to venturesimly venture, that's his great phrase, refusing to venturesimly venture, says Kierkegaard, carries this even greater danger, that we might lose our very self. Which then brings us back around, as you'll see in the interview to Annie's insistence, that the privilege of being a person alive is the privilege of risk. That it's a privilege to be able to risk and to fail.

And so engaging in this possibility of what if we allowed to cause us to hold back and then to engage the possibilities of dreaming again, doing again, venturing again. I very much enjoyed this conversation. Annie and I both live in Nashville and we got to sit down together to have this conversation. It was delightful. Enjoy.

SPEAKER_2 (2:10)

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Lee C. Camp (3:56)

Annie Downs, welcome to No Small Endeavor.

Annie F. Downs (3:58)

Thank you for having me, Lee. It's such a joy to be here.

Lee C. Camp (4:00)

It's lovely to be with you here in Nashville. We get to be face to face here.

Annie F. Downs (4:04)

I mean, does everyone need to know that we started on the computer and then we're like, wait, we're both in Nashville.

SPEAKER_6 (4:09)

And 15 minutes later, you're here.

Lee C. Camp (4:11)

Yes.

Annie F. Downs (4:11)

That's real commitment to your craft, Lee.

Lee C. Camp (4:13)

And it still indicates the kind of relative small town that Nashville still is.

SPEAKER_6 (4:17)

Yeah, that's right. So it's great to be with you.

Annie F. Downs (4:19)

How long have you been here?