TED Talks Daily - The beautiful paradoxes of a multicultural identity | Farhad Mohit

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

How do you find yourself when you belong to two seemingly opposing cultures? Embracing the paradoxes of dual identity, creative disruptor Farhad Mohit explores how being both Iranian and American allows him to navigate the tension between independence and interdependence, progress and presence — and to live fully in the here and now.

TED Audio Collective. You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Entrepreneur Farhad Mowat, like so many of us in America, is multicultural. And that reality means something to our identities and our psyches. He reflects on being both Iranian and American, and ultimately the many dualities

that make us human in his 2024 talk after the break. Support for this show comes from Airbnb. If you know me, you know I love staying in Airbnbs when I travel. They make my family feel most at home when we're away from home. As we settled down at our Airbnb during a recent vacation to Palm Springs, I pictured my own home sitting empty. Wouldn't it be smart and better put to use welcoming a family like mine by hosting it on Airbnb? It feels like the practical thing to do. And with the extra income, I could save up for renovations to make the space even more inviting for ourselves and for future guests.

Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. AI keeping you up at night? Wondering what it means for your business? Don't miss the latest season of Disruptors, the podcast that takes a closer look at the innovations reshaping our economy. Join RBC's John Stackhouse and Sonia Sinek from Creative Destruction Lab

as they ask bold questions like, why is Canada lagging in AI adoption and how to catch up? Don't get left behind. I want to tell you about a podcast I love called Search Engine, hosted by PJ Vogt. Each week, he and his team answer these perfect questions, the kind of questions that, when you ask them at a dinner party, completely derail conversation. Questions about business, tech, and society, like, is everyone pretending to understand inflation? Why don't we have flying cars yet?

And what does it feel like to believe in God? If you find this world bewildering, but also sometimes enjoy being bewildered by it, check out Search Engine with PJ Vogt, available now wherever you get your podcasts. And now, our TED Talk of the day. I am so honored to be on stage representing TED's growing recognition

of the importance of its immigrant diaspora community. I am an Iranian American, a kind of free-range Iranian. Lucky to be here with all you and free to embrace all my native cultures, positive elements, the poetry, the music, philosophy and hospitality, every day in ways that many Iranians inside Iran cannot. But I also love having the bow of my identity

stretched between two seemingly opposed poles of Iranian and American, because that gives the arrow of my life a unique perspective on things. I want to share a couple of American ideals that explicate this multicultural dichotomy in me. The first is independence. In America, independence is foundational, the bedrock of our freedom that makes all us Americans feel exceptional.

Unlike my Iranian side, where everyone is in everyone's business, I'm free, maybe even driven, to pursue my own happiness, and that feels so liberating. The other is continuous improvement, the idea that you can always do better. America is a duocracy that is always reinventing herself. We make mistakes and keep on growing and growing. That's why it's so exciting to be an entrepreneur in America. We're free to try to build anything our hearts desire. For me, these days, it's taking on our corrupt political duopoly and working to democratize democracy itself. Isn't it amazing that as an American, I just get to do

that without fear or permission? But I'm Iranian too, and I have the ancient wisdom of Iranian mystics, Ferdowsi, Hafez, and Rumi, running through my veins. So each of these American traits give my Iranian psyche cause for pause and reflection. For instance, independence is great, but if I'm truly independent, then I don't need anything or anyone. That's kind of lonely. Iranians are congenitally hospitable and tribal. In fact, the word Iran itself is a portmanteau of the word ear and on, where ear comes from the word yar, literally friendship or love, and on comes from ostan or land of. Shout out to our cultural cousins from Irland, another land of love.

Anyway, where does this love and friendship fit into my Statue of Liberty-esque, freedom-loving American psyche? And love requires connection and interdependence, as we found out earlier. And interdependence is, well, kind of un-American. After all, Americans never had a declaration of interdependence. And now, back to the episode. So my Iranian side begs for me to differ here. As my beloved Sufi uncle, Bezat, used to say, love is the ether the universe swims in. So without love, we literally have nothing.

So to be independent or to be in love? That is the cross-cultural question for me. And what about the American ideal of continuous improvement? That seems downright productive if you ask my American side. But again, my Iranian side disagrees. I remember a magnet on my mom's fridge. If you're ever going to be happy, you must be happy now. Hinting at a tiny existential problem, it's always now. And of course, we have

the Iranian mystic poet Rumi imploring us in ode after ode to get drunk and out of our minds so we can become blissfully present in the wow of now. So should I work to create a better future or be drunk and happy now? Another multicultural paradox. Or is it? Maybe I've been setting up a false dichotomy all along. There's no real Iranian or American on the stage here in me. After all, I'm not some LLM trained in a lab on a discrete set of cultural memes. I am that still magical, mystical fractal of universal consciousness known as human being. I am a point at the center and circumference of the infinite sphere,

as my favorite author, the Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges, once wrote. And as a magical, mystical life, an MML, we humans are uniquely free to embody whatever useful paradoxes we find whenever it suits us we can choose to be culturally american or iranian or both no matter where we are from and can even have a favorite author who's neither and as an MML we can simultaneously be both independent and free while deeply connected by love to everyone and everything. Always striving for a better future while also happy together here, now, wow. There's a little slice of heaven in a mountain town escape.

A pace of life that's less hurried, more authentic. Where experiences feel down to earth, yet elevated. We'll be right back. designing historical museums and more. Plan your getaway now at wvtourism.com. Support for this show comes from Airbnb. If you know me, you know I love staying in Airbnbs when I travel. They make my family feel most at home when we're away from home. As we settled down at our Airbnb during a recent vacation to Palm Springs, I pictured my own home sitting empty. Wouldn't it be smart and better put to use welcoming a family like mine by hosting it on Airbnb? It feels like the practical thing to do, and with the extra income, I could save up for renovations to make the space even more inviting for ourselves and for future guests. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. That was Farhad Mowat at TED 2024. If you're curious about TED's curation,

find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Autumn Thompson, and Alejandra Salazar. It was mixed by Christopher Fazi-Bogan. Additional support from Emma Taubner, Daniela Balarezo, and Will Hennessey. I'm Elise Hugh.

I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening. Looking for a fun challenge to share with your friends and family? TED now has games designed to keep your mind sharp while having fun. Visit TED.com slash games to explore the joy and wonder of TED Games.