Show Notes
Nick Sweetman is one of Toronto's most prominent graffiti artists. Last February I was walking down Lansdowne Avenue in Toronto with my friend Michael Bungay Stanier, who was our guest back in Chapter 48, and as we strolled under a giant bridge I saw a giant ... well, it looked like a photo! But it wasn't a photo. It was a massive spray-painted image of a Hooded Merganser, and at the very bottom corner was a signature that said "Nick Sweetman." Looks like a photo, right? Look at that eye! That bill! But I discovered there's this Toronto mural artist named Nick Sweetman and turns out I've seen the guy's stuff all over the place. He paints pollinators, birds, insects, and animals of all kinds... He painted a whale shark I've ridden by on my bike for years without knowing it was him! Squint and you'll see the 'Sweetman' underneath its cavernous mouth. So I decided to reach out to Nick Sweetman and ask him about doing a unique partnership with me and 3 Books. He was game! We found a 750 square foot brutalist bare concrete wall behind a subway station in Toronto begging to be beautified. And now 11 months later I am very proud to present... After I spent six months getting approvals from the Toronto Transit Commission (shoutout to Cameron Penman, David Nagler, Kerry-Ann Campbell, and Councillor Dianne Saxxe!), Nick started painting the wall behind Dupont Station on September 17th, 2024 (my birthday!) and finished it up on November 1st. What resulted is honestly the most beautiful piece of public art I have ever seen. I know I'm birdy biased but Nick's beauty, his eye, his senses—they just know no bounds. He doesn't use stencils! He's not tracing anything! The guy is literally just looking at a dirty, bare, curved 750-square-foot wall and, NO BIGGIE painting 16 HYPERREALISTIC LOCAL BIRDS ON IT! Over the six weeks of painting I pulled out my recorder many times, Nick's friend and fellow graffiti artist Blaze Wiradharma (@blazeworks) pulled up with his video gear, and then genius editor Scott Baker (@adjacentp) rolled in to edit our first-ever 3 Books audio-video documentary experience. Listen! Watch! Be amazed by the wonder of Nick Sweetman! We explore questions like: Why did Nick leave the wine drinking art gallery world for dirty street corners? What do people who have owe to people who don't? How do we see the crustaceans in our parking lot? And ... do we still have a shared reality? We talk about mural painting, graffiti, street art, what it means to live in a world where humans overtake everything and, of course, Nick's 3 most formative books. We even get a live splice of Leslie teasing out his third book in real-time which is pretty special! I highly recommend you WATCH this chapter if you can as we put so much heart and soul into making Nick's masterpiece come to breathtaking visual life. But, of course, as we flip the page to Chapter 144, you can always just listen in on Apple or Spotify, too.
More from 3 Books With Neil Pasricha
Happy full moon, everybody! It is the harvest moon and our leaves are falling here in Toronto. Time for change! Unavoidable, right? Sure, but maybe ... we can control how we react to it. My guest today has spent nearly six decades (!) studying learned optimism, authentic happiness, human flourishing, and (his latest pursuit!) agency and his work is cited by thousands and taught in psychology courses worldwide. I am thrilled to come to 3 Books the co-founder of positive psychology Dr. Martin Seligman! In 1998, Marty was elected President of the American Psychological Association by the largest vote in its history. He launched positive psychology—he created it!—with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who gave us 'Flow,' and his work helped shape and influence so much of what we think about our minds and including past 3 Books guests Sonja Lyubomirsky and Shawn Achor. Working at the University of Pennsylvania and founding the Positive Psychology Center, where he's the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology, Martin's lab has run everything from the Penn Resilience Program, which has trained teachers and students around the world, to large-scale resilience programs for the U.S. Army, to more recent work on human progress and agency. Which brings us to his new book! 'Agency: The Psychological History of Human Progress' just came out a few weeks ago and it's an ambitious project analyzing millennia of history—from Periclean Athens and the Hebrew Torah through the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Civil Rights Movement—with Martin arguing that the hidden engine of human progress isn't geography or money or war ... but agency itself. Tune in as we discuss what agency is, how humans have progressed over centuries, techniques to overcome overthinking, how to use AI to positively impact our lives, whether AI is a new species, positive psychology tips to building strong marriages, abundant living, sexual desire, the definition of a good leader, and of course ... Martin Seligman's 3 most formative books. Let's flip the page to Chapter 165 now ...
A few years ago I was lucky enough to cross paths with Wagner Moura. He was on the eve of releasing his film 'Sergio' after a long run playing Pablo Escobar in the hit series 'Narcos.' Since then I've watched as his acting career has channeled upwards and onwards into feature roles in 'Civil War', 'Dope Thief', and his star turn in 'The Secret Agent' where he won 'Best Actor' at both the Golden Globes and Cannes and was nominated for 'Best Actor' at the Oscars. Over the years Wag ("Vag") has become a dear friend. He's a massive heart, a fellow "boy dad", and he and his wife San live life with such a deep passion for humanity, always fighting for causes, and endlessly following their dreams. I have been inspired watching him and learning from him and in this chat I think you'll get a taste for the massive beauty that lies inside. In this chat we discuss the hinterlands of Brazil, how we stand up for what we believe in, creating art in times of crisis, and, of course, the incredible Wagner Moura's 3 most formative books. Let's flip back to Chapter 52 now....
Happy full moon, everybody!