yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

It Was Med School or the Circus | StarTalk


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

It just so happens we have on our video call. I think we've brought them in. We have someone who's a tight RPP instructor, Sonia Harpstead. She teaches at the Circus Warehouse here in New York.

Uh, Sonia, do we have you on the line?

Yeah, I'm here.

Oh Sonia, hello! Thanks for being on Star Talk.

Hi, it's great to be here.

Yeah, so I guess we know intellectually that people such as yourself exist, but to really see you, you teach people high wire stunts?

Yes, that's a correct statement.

Okay, so what kind of mindset does it take to do this? Who comes to you to do this? That's really what I should be asking here.

Well, you know, the funny thing is that a whole range of people come to us, and it's really interesting to see who's interested in the challenge. We teach the wire's not that high, so it's not a fear thing. It's really more about finding a way to get your body to do something that's really challenging.

So are you saying you can actually teach this skill? It's not just some psychological state of the person who finds you well?

A little bit, you also teach the psychological state, but you can absolutely teach tight wire walking. Anyone can walk a tight wire.

And when did this begin in your life?

When I was in high school, I went on vacation and they had a flying trapeze there. When I jumped off, I just knew I was going to do this for the rest of my life. So I found some classes and I worked on it through college, and at the end of undergrad, it was med school or the circus, and I chose the circus.

So you're telling me, by probably age 17, you were in a position to tell your parents you wanted to run away and join the circus? That's what you're telling me here?

Yeah, very cool.

Well Sonia, thanks for sharing some time with us on Star Talk.

Thanks for having me. I'll come watch you one day and we'll take physics notes and we'll compare notes.

Absolutely! We'll tell what law of physics kept you alive and what would have killed you had you messed up.

Okay, all right, thanks Sonia.

All right, no F, thank you.

More Articles

View All
How To Be A Millionaire In 10 Years (Starting With $0)
What’s up, Graham? It’s guys here. So here’s the deal: it was recently found that real wages have barely budged in decades. More than half of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and the poorest 70% of U.S. households don’t even have a savings accou…
The 8 Greatest Philosophical Theories You Need to Know
You are a chicken. Yes, you. You look around and sometimes wonder why your owner takes such good care of you. At first, you’re not sure; you’re skeptical. What if he sends you to the slaughterhouse? You’ve never been there, but you know very well none of …
Predicting the Apocalypse? | The Story of God
But is it possible to predict the end? A few years back, many people thought they had. According to popular legend, the ancient Maya thought the apocalypse would arrive on a specific date: December 21st, 2012. I want to know if this is really true, so I’v…
Price elasticity of supply determinants | APⓇ Microeconomics | Khan Academy
In several videos, we have talked already about the price elasticity of supply. In this video, we’re going to dig a little bit deeper, and we’re going to think about what factors might make a supply curve, or supply schedule, or portions of it to be more …
Paul Graham: What are some common mistakes founders make?
What you will get wrong is that you will not pay enough attention to users. You will make up some idea in your own head that you will call your vision, and then you will spend a lot of time thinking about your vision in a café by yourself. You will build …
Standard normal table for proportion above | AP Statistics | Khan Academy
A set of philosophy exam scores are normally distributed with a mean of 40 points and a standard deviation of 3 points. Ludwig got a score of 47.5 points on the exam. What proportion of exam scores are higher than Ludwig’s score? Give your answer correct …