Episode 2: The Madame

What you're about to hear is an intimate search for humanity. In particular, it's a lot of me trying to understand the feminine part of humanity. This conversation took place at the very end of my almost decade run playing my role in building Reddit into the business that we know today.

 

On my very last day, I had taken a trip to London to speak at an event in Soho, and my last words as an employee of the company were, "my name is Will Cady, I'm from Reddit, we remember the human." Then I walked off the stage and basically hopped on a train from London down to Paris where I met this woman.

 

We spent the next few days just falling into each other in the potential of the question mark of whatever it is that comes next. Paris is an astounding city to do that in. It is a living museum of humanity. It in particular has this profound feminine undercurrent of love, eros, for humanity has this nurturing and sensuous perspective on the human story. That love for you humanity is captured in stone. It's captured in monuments all over the city.

 

Between lavish meals, we were running, we were walking, we were skipping, we were dancing, an we were riding bicycles all around the city. I have this one incredible memory of the two of us together, navigating through the rain, hiding under one umbrella. We had walked down the Champs Elysees towards this obelisk that we saw in the distance and it led us to this Atlantean looking fountain and this woman, she stepped out from the umbrella, she started twirling in the rain and as she was twirling we saw down an avenue from that strange Atlantean looking fountain, this Greek temple building. It was the church for Mary Magdalene. We walked up the steps to this to get out of the rain, which was getting heavier. When we stepped inside, there was a string quartet that was performing Vivaldi's Four Seasons. So we sat in the pews, we listened to this incredible musicianship and just absorbed the power of the architecture and the way that those sounds resonated within it.

 

When it was done, we stepped out of those front doors and there was a massive rainbow right in front of us. It was a moment that felt like synchronicity and blessing for being human. It felt very Mary-esque (for those that are familiar with that archetype) not just the mother Mary, but the Magdalene Mary. There are so many esoteric secrets and journeys to go into the meaning of human archetypes like those and they're all there for you when you walk the streets of Paris.

 

After that we settled in, got a bottle of Margaux, and we had this conversation for this podcast. For me, this conversation was one of openness and discovery of the experience that I don't know about...how it is to be a woman in this world.

 

Give it a listen. Hope you enjoy.