Philippe Lazaro
OCTOBER 2016

Turn Down For Who

Going into this year, my biggest intention was to open up some space. I have so many good things in my life, but it started to feel like the sheer volume of it was making it harder to appreciate them properly. Most especially, the time I get with my kids.

It’s one thing to have that as an intention, but it’s a whole other thing to make good on it. In this still-young year, it feels like every week I’ve either had to say no to an opportunity that feels too good to pass up or to let go of something I love- but that limits my time.

When it comes to my creative work, I’ve always had a hard time editing things back, even though I know deep down that the restraint makes things more meaningful. I’m willing to accept that the same is true for the rest of life.

But man, sometimes that means making some painful cuts and saying some difficult nos. I know it’s for the better, but wish this part was easier!

Stories Take Space

I used to think that the best way to have great stories to tell was to constantly be doing all kinds of stuff. We all know someone who seems to live seven lifetimes in one year.

That can’t be the whole recipe, though. Because

There are people who go all kinds of places, but when they talk about where they’ve been it feels more like showing off than storytelling.

Then there are people who seem to live really ordinary lives, but told through their eyes, a trip to get groceries can become the most incredible journey.

Having good stories is about more than having an eventful life. It’s about figuring out why something that happened was meaningful,
What did you discover about yourself or the world?
How are you different at the end than the beginning?
What expectations were subverted?
What is this story ultimately about?

To get to that heart, it takes more than just doing things. You also need to process them. To mine your own experiences. And if your life ends up a little too stuffed, you lose the space that’s necessary for stories to present themselves.

Our lives are full of stories, as long as our hands aren’t too full for us to notice them.

Global Groceries: Vienna

Here’s a new episode of me going grocery shopping in different places, this time it’s a supermarket in Vienna.

The bakery sections of supermarkets in Central Europe often give you a chance to find some really good-sized, tasty bites at a really good price. It’s a decent strategy for avoiding overspending in a place like Switzerland, or making new discoveries in a place like Austria or Hungary, where dessert menus can stretch deep.

Editing Alaska Photos

Honestly, I’m not as into photography as I used to be. My interest was always more inclined towards images that told stories. The specifics of the craft, around lighting, composition, and color… those only held my interest as much as they served that purpose.

But I think Alaska might nudge me back in the other direction, if I got to spend more time in that state. It was so gorgeous in every direction that the opportunity to go out and capture beauty with a lens felt infinite.

Here are some basic edits on the pictures I did take.

TEDx Announcement

Fun announcement: this summer, I’ll be able to unironically say “thanks for coming to my TED Talk,” along with, the actual TED Talk.

I’m excited to be a featured speaker at this year’s TEDxSanDiego event at the Conrad Performing Arts Center in La Jolla on June 11, 2023. The theme couldn't be a better fit: “Seeds of Change” I’ll be sharing on one of my favorite topics: "Storytelling Can Transform Our Climate Crisis." Check out the other speakers at @tedxsandiego

You’ll be able to book tickets in April. In the meantime, tell me your favorite TED Talks for inspo. Most of my faves are 10+ years old at this point, but Brene Brown, Jia Jiang, and Chinamanda Ngozi Adiche have put out some real bangers.

(📷s from my audition in December)

Grow What You Eat

This is the kind of life we used to all have, the life where we grow our own food, and use the market to buy and sell for income and to fill in the gaps.

This is still life for about a billion people, but these are also the people most afflicted by poverty and climate change. This may not be the life all of us live anymore, but our decisions still have a big impact on those who do.

Shyness with Storytelling

Right now, I’m working on being a better storyteller. Not just in writing or on video or on stage, but in casual conversations. Not over-rehearsed, canned anecdotes, but spontaneous stories over dinner that pull people into another moment.

While I love my role as a storyteller, the truth is, I am a lot more comfortable with preparing stories for stage or screen than these more organic settings.

I think I’ve always been a bit overly conscious about monopolizing a conversation or coming across like a showboat.

I’ve been on some pretty incredible trips, meeting people and having my mind blown by some encounters, only to return home to say very little about the experience to friends and family. I’ll anticipate how to tell these stories on screen or stage but in person? I’ve often just said, ‘yeah, it was a really good trip,’ and leaving it there.

But all the reasons I think storytelling is important apply just as much to the casual conversation as they do to the big stage. And I love hearing people talk about things that light them up.

So I’m hoping to get more comfy with telling stories from one person to another.

Tell stories from the ego, and you shut people off.
Tell stories from the heart, and people connect.

Family Photoshoot in Antigua


I’ve dabbled in photography for almost fifteen years, so I often don’t think of hiring another photographer. I wanted to get some family photos on our Antigua trip, though, and it’s hard enough to get all five of us in frame while we’re at home so I figured we could use the extra photographer.

Here are some reasons why I’m really glad we hired a local:

+ Supporting a local creative is always great

+ Abi knew the locations best and could steer us in the right direction. Time is extremely valuable when three of your subjects have short attention spans, so the less time we could spend on these the better.

+ These work as both travel photos and family photos

+ We’ve gotten a LOT of mileage out of the photos she took. Mother’s Day gifts, Christmas gifts, a huge wall hanging we’ve gotten in our house…

+ While I enjoy photography, I’m still very much an amateur. Hiring someone else was a big boost in skill and gear.

Cities for Kids


If you make a city great for kids, you’ll make a city great for everyone.

Working in climate has made me really conscious of the effects infrastructure has on our lives… and having kids drives that home even further.

“Consider what it takes for a child to develop into a grown-up. We enter our lives in a state of utter dependence on adults. Eventually, God willing, we become adults ourselves, capable of navigating daily life on our own. The journey from the former to the latter, Gill told me, ought to be one of gradually expanding independence. Parents shouldn’t just provide experiences for their kids, shepherding them between school and playdates and soccer practice; they should let their kids explore, and discover experiences for themselves.”

–Stephanie H. Murray

Before Sunrise Locations

I first saw Before Sunrise when I was the perfect age to revel in the idea of a spontaneous, romantic romp through Europe while backpacking. It’s a film that ages really well, partly because it dives much deeper than the level of a weekend fling and goes on to launch a really honest trilogy about how love evolves over time.

While in Vienna, I wanted to see how much of the couple’s weekend adventure I could retrace. Like most movies with this kind of plot (Ferris Bueller, you’re the worst!), their chronological route is inefficient and borderline impossible, but still takes you through quite a bit that’s worth seeing in Vienna.

Leave a Mark

Words like purpose and legacy used to weigh so much.

The biggest bucket list items that you got to cross off.
The causes you committed your life to.
The mountaintop moments.

As of the past couple years, this time of year wrecks me. I lost a great friend unexpectedly. But when I think of her legacy, I think of all the things that feel light and little.

The handwritten notes she left people everywhere, turning papers we once thought were important to ones that will always have meaning.

Her amusement over the stupid ways I manage to hurt myself, like rubbing eyes a bit too soon after crushing peppers for salsa. A funny detail for someone so remembered for kindness.

But maybe stupid injury stories make for a better legacy than an extravagant bucket list.

A sign you put your body to use.
A sign you didn’t take yourself too seriously.

A sign you spent time outside. Explored. Found people you love being around and told stories.

You can live with lightness and it’ll still leave a mark.

Has Adventure Lost Its Meaning?


I was in a rental house, in a really cozy kitchen with all kinds of homely decorations. Big spoon and fork on the wall. A cookie jar in the shape of a rooster. And a wooden sign in modern calligraphy declaring “oh darling, let’s be adventurers.”

Something about that seemed like a clash to me. It was like seeing a children’s book with a heavy metal cover. Or a copyright written in gold calligraphy. The aesthetic just didn’t mesh.

To me, the kitchen, and nearly everything else in it, looked like comfort and homeliness. But the call to adventure… adventure is all about taking on discomfort. Going where safety isn’t guaranteed.

Of course, it’s just a piece of wall decor, so no big deal. But I do wish the word adventure weren’t so cheapened. I really appreciate those who realize that life is better when you go beyond comfort. I appreciate adventurers who hear the word impossible and take it as an invitation. A willingness to take on things that others might think impossible has led to the very best parts of my life.

It’s nice to have a word that captures all that.

Cooking Class in Guatemala

Pepián is Guatemalan comfort food with Mayan roots. It’s a hearty meat stew made with veggies, tomatillo, gourds, and spices. You’ll find all kinds of variations on it… some using hen or chicken or beef, some include chocolate, some grind up different peppers and seeds to alter the nutty flavor. That allows every abuela to really make it their own, and we loved learning Francesca’s take on the dish.

Francesca

Francesca’s tips on raising twins:

You have to be patient with the children.

You need to ask for help. You need other people.

I don’t know what it is about being a parent to twins, but you manage to find the other moms and dads of multiples. Even when you’re in a village in Guatemala, taking a cooking class.

Our class was hosted by Francesca. Her twins are now fully grown, but her memories of raising them at a time when her village lacked electricity and was much more impoverished were sharp. She talked about how hard it was to get up several times in the night to feed them by candlelight, or perhaps just by feel. She talked about asking her sister for help, and how things improved gradually. For her. For her village.

I asked her what her tips were on raising twins, and the two bits of advice were perfect. Patience and being willing to ask for help are not things that come naturally to me, but so many encounters in Guatemala drove home the same message: go ahead and face those challenges, you’re not alone.

Making Pepian

One thing I’m going to seek out a lot more often when I travel are cooking classes taught by locals… Here’s why.

It’s not so much that I want to become an incredible chef, though that’d be cool. But people really open up while preparing food. And it’s a great way to meet somebody in a place I’m visiting and learn about their life.

When I tried doing this in Guatemala, I learned how to make pepian. We brought two five-month-old babies with us, though, so it wasn’t so much a cooking lesson as a demonstration. But as we watched Francesca pound peppers into mole and chop vegetables for the stew, she opened up about raising her own twins in Guatemala during the 1970s. Rough, without electricity in her village, but over time things have gotten steadily better… to the point where we could prepare this feast.

It’s wild how many times I’ve gone to remote parts of the world only to find bits of my own story reflected back at me. This has happened so many times.

2022 Favorites


I have a lot of fun making these lists and reading other people’s.

Some random observations:

▶️ A few of these stories included very similar scenes of people living on a spaceship on a multi-generational journey to populate some distant planet: Cloud Cuckoo Land, How High We Go In The Dark, Station Eleven (which made it on to the very end of last year’s roundup).

▶️ Swan Song and After Yang had such similar themes around memory, loss, and what bits of life make us who we are.

▶️ Some really good eats this year, mostly thanks to being able to travel a bit more than the previous two.

▶️ I read so few books this year, for obvious reasons. I typically read in the neighborhood of 40 and books need their own post. Next year’s looking like a much better year to get back into it.

▶️ It felt like I watched more shows this year than I actually did, but White Lotus and Severance strike me as the most memorable, and the ones I look forward to seeing more of.

Home is Home

I’ve met so many other American travelers who tried to pass themselves off as Canadian. Or who introduce themselves as Californian, Washingtonian, etc… trying to disavow the baggage that comes with the national identity. Travel enough, and you’ll see it too.

I’ve always had a mixed reaction to seeing this, and I’ve never been able to explain why. Like, I get it. The U.S. does plenty to invite valid criticism, and you get tired of having all the other nationalities staying in your hostel explaining this to you as if you personally authorized the coup.

Meeting people from other countries, especially countries that have had particularly bad and oppressive regimes, have kind of changed how I see this. I’ve met people speak proudly of being Zimbabwean, speak critically of the dictatorship, then share their hopes, worries, and what they were doing to create change. Their commitment to action didn’t come from distancing themselves from their national identity, but from refusing to surrender it to those who used it to harm others.

I know it’s a complicated thing, but I do think having a sense of belonging to a place and people is a good starting ground for positive change.