Philippe Lazaro
OCTOBER 2016

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.

Shorter Cycles

If you live a typical human lifespan, it’s easy to think that you have decades left. But even if we get to grow very old, life as we know it right now has a shorter shelf life. People, places, routines change like there are stagehands in all black sneaking away set pieces and rolling in others. Can’t take those for granted.

Several years ago, the internet went wild over a claim that your body’s cells replace themselves every seven years. The science on that isn’t quite precise, but it doesn’t need to be to make the point that a few years can change nearly everything. In my life, I’ve found it only takes two years for life to start looking really, really different. Two years for its plot lines to resolve and morph, for characters to enter and exit, for entire settings to shift.

In order to live every day like it’s your last, you don’t need to imagine all these scenarios of sudden death. Just accept the fact that life constantly rearranges.

This weekend, I’ve been watching my kids play, blown away by their curiosity and spirit. So much personality has emerged in the past year, and it’s kind of a sobering thought to think that at the end of this year, in many ways they’ll be different kids than the ones I have now. This version of my life will be replaced with something else. But it was also a fun weekend, just getting to play the way they play and put all other thoughts on the shelf.

If I make it to the end of this year and look back on a year that went slowly, where I was able to take it all in, that'll be good enough.

2022

What a ride, 2022! This past year was a really challenging one, but I’m glad I kept showing up for all the good.

Having three kids in two years is how you dive right into the deep end of fatherhood. Each day is full of nonstop problem solving, responding to needs, and adapting to curveballs. I’m still learning a lot on the fly, but I’m proud of the life I’ve been able to give these bambini, and I think they’re three incredible humans.

I also started learning how to integrate my priority: being a dad; with my passions: travel, adventures, climate, storytelling. Still so much to learn! But I managed a couple great international storytelling trips, saw my 50th State, and even brought the kids to Guatemala. Somehow I made my way to four continents, this year of all years! I’m far from done figuring out how to get this all work together, but I’m pretty lucky to be in this position.

One other thing I’m proud of this year: my @creativemorningssd talk! I still buzz thinking about that day. The opportunity invited me to think about my life’s journey and some recurring themes and messages. The one that most clearly emerged is that there’s always more to the story… a call to see people and places with depth and wonder, and your own life with a hopeful curiosity.

This was a year where I also got to live out so many dreams: a big family, travel, creative opportunities. I also got to face the challenge of making it all fit. Happy I’m here for it.

2022: Recap

2022 was the year of chaotic good.

The year that will forever be remembered by the phrase “three kids under three.”

The year where doing what I love and being with those I loved clashed the most.

The year I wandered the streets of Vienna at night, missing what it was like to have big, late night talks with friends more often.

The year I learned to simultaneously celebrate and mourn the fact that my life ain’t just mine, anymore.

The year a 59 year old Guatemalan mom taught me how to prepare pepian, then taught me from her own experience raising twins that you just gotta ask for help sometimes.

The year the Phillies and Argentina served up the best couple months of sports I could’ve imagined.

The year I actually started to recognize the early signs of burnout.

The year I rediscovered my love of biryani, Ethiopian coffee, and movies on planes.

The year I got to share my story on stage, and in the process of preparing that talk, gained a more robust appreciation for all the ‘impossible’ things I’ve managed to do in life.

The year of hospitality set to the sound of thundering drum beats in Burundi.

The year a Bengali man lit a betel leaf on fire and put it into my mouth; the most unique snack I’ve had in a long while.

The year I learned $30 worth of food in Toronto’s Chinatown is a lot in one evening.

The year I visited my 50th state.

This was the year where simply getting to leave the house was a tremendous obstacle, and yet we made our way to four continents and countless adventures.

It’s a beautiful year to build off of, and I have a pretty good feeling about 2023 as well.

Everything in Balance

I’ve had a decent understanding of soil health, built up over time by visiting farm after farm and talking to farmers. But seeing somebody actively maintain the balance needed for truly healthy soil by influencing shade and heat and moisture and sun exposure makes you realize that it’s just as much art as it is science. That it’s both a technical skill and one that benefits from intuitive wisdom.

I’ve never been a detail obsessed coffee connoisseur, but I’ve definitely grown a lot more interested in discerning flavor profiles. I respect how it’s always a reflection of the delicate balance of the land where it was grown.

Global Groceries: Alaska

Food
in Alaska
is expensiveeeeee.

I heard this claim so many times, that when I got to Alaska, one of the places I wanted to visit the most was an ordinary grocery store to see the sticker shock. Items were definitely marked up here and there, $6 for one of two options for milk. $9 for basically any condiment.

Still, I was anticipating a bit worse. I imagine I might’ve seen it if I started shopping in a more rural part of the state, rather than just outside Anchorage.

Among other things, I ended up taking home a very large slab of salmon for about $45, the salmon being large enough to feed four adults. And it was the richest, tastiest salmon I’ve eve had.

Tapping the Spacebar

I love working from home. I love not spending all that time in the car, and I like being around my kids more. It more than offsets the occasional week I might have to spend in Mexico or Africa. I can go hang out with them for five minutes as a transition, or help out if needed in a pinch. They’ve never known anything else.

But Rhys has been doing this thing lately where he goes up to me and says “I want to do your work.” Then he’ll sit on my lap and poke at the space bar or trackpad until I have to intervene and make sure he doesn’t send every coworker and client a folder of stupid selfies.

His impression is that I tap a spacebar for hours on end. He doesn’t even really understand money or know that I get paid for this. So apparently I sit at a desk and just tap a spacebar for hours just for kicks. He does a good job of not judging me for what it looks like, but it does make me think about what my life looks like from my kids’ POV.

Specifically, it makes me think about a couple parts of Brad Montague’s book: how most kids are under the impression that being grown up equates to being busy, tired, and in a hurry most of the time. I know my strategy will have to shift on an age-by-age basis, but one of my overarching goals as a parent is to avoid leaving my kids with the impression that I’m busy and tired all the time.

In the meantime, I might take my work to coffee shops a bit more often.

A Burundian Welcome

There’s nothing quite like being welcomed with unbridled East African enthusiasm.

I really mean that. I’ve experienced this a few times now: walking into a village only to be met with makeshift drumbeats, songs, claps, ululation, and palm fronds. It’s an unbelievably life-giving experience.

To show somebody ‘welcome’ or ‘karibu’ in Swahili isn’t just a formality. It’s fully celebrating their presence. Their existence.

I know so many people go through life feeling unseen. I think we should at least be open to trying to show people over-the-top enthusiasm over the fact that they exist.