That dichotomy I think is really important, and it’s informed a lot of the way I lived and what I’ve written about. There wasn’t a lot of religion, and there was a lot of faith. Godin: I grew up with two incredible parents and learned a lot about faith. Was there a spiritual background to your childhood? And actually in all that I’ve seen you write across the years, I haven’t heard you talk about this too much. Tippett: I want to start with where I usually start my interviews, whoever I’m talking to. I spoke with him in 2012 - and now he has a new podcast, Akimbo and a new book coming out. Seth Godin has also written many books, all of which rise to the top of the Amazon best-seller list without reviews or book tours. His blog - which I get by email - is indispensable daily reading for me and many. He was inducted in 2018 into The Marketing Hall of Fame. But with his internet company Yoyodyne, he created a new form of ethically-motivated marketing that rejected the usual tactics of interrupting people with phone calls or pop up ads. Seth Godin has founded dozens of companies - most of which, he is quick to add, failed. Tippett: I’m Krista Tippett and this is On Being. And if people can offer us connection and meaning and a place where we can be our best selves - yes, we will seek that out. There’s a different view not based on scarcity but based on abundance, that the thing we don’t have enough is connection, we’re lonely, and we don’t have enough time.

Seth Godin: There’s one view of the world that says that what all people want is as much stuff as possible for as cheap a price as possible. Instead, he reminds us of its potential for transforming how we understand ourselves - in everything we do. But Seth says this was never the whole picture or the only possibility for the digital age.

He was one of the early internet entrepreneurs and foresaw the importance of “tribes” before its association with echo chambers and ideological silos. Seth Godin is one of the most original and helpful voices I know on the highest human potential of this landscape. Krista Tippett, host: We live in a world that is recreating itself one life and one digital connection at a time.

Beautiful Machines by Seth Chambers