2023-03-06
34 分钟Television writer Cord Jefferson has written for the kind of shows that crack hearts open. From The Good Place to Watchmen, Station Eleven to Master of None, Cord has spent his career wrangling human emotions in the writers’ room – but also in his own life. In this episode, Cord speaks about the connection between his personal life and his creative work, how he thinks about vulnerability in making art and why he thanked his therapist in his acceptance speech for his first Emmy. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
Ted audio collective.
You're listening to how to be a better human.
I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
When I think about the creative people who inspire me the most, besides them all being exceptionally talented at what they do, the other thing that unites them is that they're all kind of unpredictable.
I love when you never quite know what project they're going to take on next.
And when you look at the resume of todays guest, Cord Jefferson, that is exactly what you see.
Hes a journalist and an editor.
Hes worked in almost every medium, from radio to print to television and film.
Hes now a director and an Emmy award winning writer whos worked on network sitcoms like the Good Place, big prestige shows like succession, and superhero shows like Watchmen.
Im a huge fan of chords work because no matter how different the genres of his shows or the mediums that hes working in are, there's always this thread that ties them all together.
To me, the thread has always been that they are all ambitious in their own way, and they're all trying to do something new in their own way.
I think that the good place, for instance, is a sitcom about ethical philosophy.
Sounds crazy, but it worked.
And Mike Schur is brilliant, and he made it work, and I was excited to work on it.
Succession, in my mind, is the first successful british comedy in America.
And the way that you get Americans to like british comedy is to call it a drama, because Americans, if they see somebody that they kind of dislike, they're like, this isn't funny.
Why am I supposed to be watching this person every week?
You know, Watchmen is a superhero story on its face, but it's also a superhero story that feels unlike any other superhero story that you've seen.
As you're gonna hear behind all of court's successes were a lot of failures, a lot of blows to his self esteem, and that is something that Kord has been remarkably open about.
So after this break, we're going to hear more about how he deliberately cultivates and maintains that sense of vulnerability in his creative life and how you can do it, too.