This episode is exceptional for me in a few ways. Not only because of the topics it touches on, but also because of who I recorded it with. My guest is Lilia Khousnoutdinova, a historian and political scientist, a guide in rites of passage, and the founder of the Propolis 33 foundation fund. She is also my wife and someone who has long been opening up conversations about subjects that are often barely discussed, if at all.

At an altitude of eight thousand metres, everything suddenly changes.You stop thinking about emails, missed calls, or dozens of notifications. Instead, you think about whether you have enough food, whether you’ll sleep at all, and whether you’ll even be able to crawl out of the tent the next day. Things we take for granted in everyday life become luxuries up there.

We often associate Christmas with calm, silence, and slowing down. Reality, however, is often quite different. Instead of peace, we deal with gifts, cleaning, family visits, and the pressure to meet everyone’s expectations. We focus more on what should be than on what we actually need in that moment.