It's been two years here together on Substack...
ANNOUNCING: I'm offering one-on-one coffee date bookings, scroll down
Happy Something (Anniversary??) to… all of us!
It’s been exactly two years (and two days) since I launched this Substack newsletter, which actually has a name - this is precious1 - although you’d be forgiven for missing this detail. Substack was extremely new when I started out. Few had heard of it; I was one of the first Australians to become a ‘stacker. I was initially attracted to the fact it was so clearly a place for considered, discerning writing and for writers to earn a living beyond the vested imperatives of the Musk/Murdoch/Meta et al overlords. I stayed for the authentic commitment from the founders to keep it free from algorithmic interference and for the genuine, intelligent community I was able to build here.
From the outset, I committed to writing about philosophy, art, pop culture, science, politics, existential collapse and a bunch more stuff that emboldens us to maximise - and save - the one wild and precious life we have been granted on this planet 🌏. And to creating a place for like-minded souls to meet and wrestle with such themes. It seems to have worked…
We are now a community of 50,000 subscribers!
Many thousands of you have subscribed very recently and from different parts of the world (120 countries and counting!).
Welcome! It’s a delight to have you here!
Almost 1200 of you pay a monthly or annual subscription to “keep me, keeping on” here. It’s greatly appreciated. It means I can set aside more and more time for my posts, particularly the more intimate ones that I write for the paid membership community, which includes the series I started last month where I share my book writing journey with everyone.
I’m LOVING the deep conversations we have after each one. It’s the highlight of my week (and some of the feedback is making it into the book!).
OK. So given that many of you are so new here, today I thought I’d take a quick moment to (re)introduce myself. And then I’ll share some a new “thing” I’m starting - one-on-one mentoring sessions. (NB: You might have to open this post in the app or on your browser to read the whole thing.)
Hi, I’m Sarah. I choose wild.
Some of you might have landed here a bit blind. Let me (re)introduce myself.
If you’re after my professional bio, you can check it out on my website or Linkedin. There you’ll learn that I’m “a multi-New York Times and Amazon best-selling author, social philosopher, international keynote speaker, minimalist and philanthropist”.
The above is a chaotic montage of my career. Clockwise from top left: I was once a guest on Russell Brands’ Under the Skin podcast (he, memorably, told me I was “f*cking mad”2); I am in the Guinness World Records for staging the world’s biggest bikini shoot (the US and Russia tried to pip me; they failed); I hosted some TV shows for a bit and they did my hair BIG; as editor of Cosmopolitan magazine I interviewed a few PMs and an airline baron; I was ambassador to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for several years; I started the I Quit Sugar movement, and hosted the first series of Masterchef Australia (the one with Poh and Julie).
Nope. It makes no sense to me either.
The more conversational version of things is this: I grew up outside Canberra on a subsistence living property, the eldest of six kids. We had goats for milk and meat, my parents made and built much of what they owned from scraps. It was the middle of a drought and things were tight. You could say my anti-consumption and minimalist values stem from this upbringing.
I went to university and studied half a law degree before switching to politics and philosophy. I did a political internship (researching paternity leave provisions around the world) and a stint at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying under AI and consciousness guru David Chalmers (do not believe my Wikipedia entry that says I was born in Santa Cruz, nor, for that matter that I am an anti-vaxer).3
Throughout, I did a lot of BMXing and mountain biking. And hiking.
My first gig as a newspaper journalist was as a restaurant reviewer at News Corp’s Sunday Magazine (on account of having a stupidly sensitive sense of smell that led me to an interest in wine tasting competitions). I became the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine at 29 (on account of I don’t know what; I’d never read the magazine before I got the job) and flopped my way around MSM for a number of years, including hosting the first series of Masterchef Australia, before…
(this is getting long, sorry)
… Starting a wellness movement called I Quit Sugar, which I eventually sold (and gave all the money to charity). You can read how and why here.
I wrote a New York Times bestseller about anxiety and my most recent book is called This One Wild and Precious Life. It’s about the existential climate clusters*ck and poet Mary Oliver4 gave me permission to use her line in the title…
…all the while flopping my way around the world, living out of one bag of belongings. You can see how I did it in the post here:
I chose/choose to live this way. It mostly has a lot to do with my belief that we should be living at our edge.
I tend to be rather open about a bunch of things:
I have bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
I’m an insomniac and have hyperacusis, as well as a bunch of other tedious sensitivities (both gifts and curses as per my stupidly sensitive sense of smell, above).
I am not married. I don’t have kids. I fostered 12 indigenous kids for four years.
I’m almost 50.
I speak out on a lot of things, such as the cult of capitalism, the rule of tech bros, conspiracy theories and national identity. I feel speaking out is a responsibility that we should rise to in middle age, and in this current age.
Here are some examples of what I’ve spoken out on here on Substack:
All of which lands me here, today
I now host a weekly podcast, Wild with Sarah Wilson.
I make coin doing keynote talks on big topics. You can learn more here.
And I live between Sydney and Paris. I have a (renewable) “artists visa” and I am (meant to be) writing a book. It’s going slowly, thanks.
NEW THING: I’m now offering: Mentoring sessions
As of today, I’ll be offering limited one-on-one, 45-minute mentoring and coaching sessions over Zoom. It will go like this:
If you’re interested, click below. You’ll be able to access my calendar and book a 45-minute appointment. I will only be offering a couple of slots per month so, I dunno, get in fast (?).
You can use the time as you see fit. Maybe you’re working on a creative project and you’d like feedback. You might want to talk through an existential quandary. Or get advice on quitting sugar, living with auto-immune disease,
livingthriving with bi-polar. I’m open to the challenge of whatever you put to me.I’m also happy if you want to have 1-2 friends (max) join you on the session (but I’d ask that you be in the same room so that we can keep things intimate).
It costs $AU400 and is for paid members only.
I’m aware this might be out of the $$ range for some of you here. Of course, I will continue to run AMAs both here and on my podcast. And will always read all comments posted in the threads and endeavour to attend to common issues raised in subsequent posts.
Speaking of which, next week I will indeed answer a bunch of questions that have banked up, as part of this anniversary (re)introduction vibe. If there’s something you’ve been busting to ask me or have been prompted to ask after reading this post, hit me up in the comments.
Onwards shall we?
Sarah xx
My podcast is called Wild and both platforms feed off the journey I started in my book This One Wild and Precious Life.
Pot. Kettle. Black. Oh, and yes, I’m acutely aware of the sexual assault allegations…I may write more on this next week.
There is a particularly vigilant Wiki vigilante in the north of England who commits much of his life to corrupting my Wikipedia page with such falsities. It took a team of PhD students at Sydney University nine months to get the information corrected and his misinformation efforts blocked. He really wanted me to be an anti-vax campaigner. It annoyed him that I just…wasn’t. Sigh.
Well, her estate did.
Congratulations and thanks for all you do and the questions you ask. I do not share all your views and it was good to hear how you were questioning your own views on climate change . I have been doing that recently after 20 years of making life style changes and being a climate activist. I have just listened to your podcast with Nate Hagen which is brilliant. Nate is so clear and informed I felt at last someone who has the same take on the Meta Crisis as me. We need to use this liminal time to prepare ourselves to adapt and create opportunities for a simpler life now.
Wait, you're NOT an anti Vax campaigner? What am I doing here 🤣