The Oprah Podcast - Oprah & Music Star Mike Posner on His 3000 Mile Walk to Happiness

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

A musical performance and in-depth conversation with Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, producer, speaker and adventurer Mike Posner who brought his guitar to perform for Oprah and our listeners. When Mike Posner’s hit songs “Cooler Than Me” and “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” shot him to stardom at a young age, he quickly learned fame and fortune did not provide the contentment and joy he says his late father always wanted for his son’s life. In 2019, Mike literally walked away from Hollywood to set out to find happiness by trekking across the entire United States of America on foot beginning on the New Jersey coast and ending in the ocean at Venice Beach, California. Mike’s “Walk Across America” took him six months, he crossed 13 states, traveled 2,851 miles and took 5.7 million steps. Mike talks to Oprah about the five lessons to finding happiness he learned during his walk that are relatable to us all (even the moment a poisonous rattlesnake bit his leg, threatening his life and delaying his cross-country adventure.) Mike tells Oprah not everyone has to walk thousands of miles to find happiness, but he hopes the lessons he learned can help you find your own sense of belonging and joy. https://www.mikeposner.com hellofresh.com/oprahpodcast10fm Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Oprah?sub_confirmation=1 Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: https://www.instagram.com/oprahpodcast/ https://www.instagram.com/oprah/ https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/ Listen to the full podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We did a cross-country trip from here to New York. Okay. And she was in charge of the radio. Yeah. When she drove. It was just the two of you? Just the two of us. I took a pill in the bees.

To show Avichy, I was cool. And when I finally got sober, fell ten years older, oh, screw it, it was something to do. There was this year of my life where I was only making music, and I got to this point where there was nothing to write about, My whole life was in the studio. Right. So you have to get from life.

You have to get out there and live. Yes. You don't want to be higher like me, never really knowing why like me. You don't never want to step off their roller coaster and be all alone. You want to pray? Yeah, let's have a prayer. Dear, life, love, God, or the universe. We ask that you give us the stories, the conversation, the jokes, whatever is needed to make a difference in.

someone's life today and we thank you for this opportunity and just this time together and that we're just in gratitude amen amen hi and welcome to the oprah podcast thank you for spending your valuable time here i'm really excited about this episode because as you just heard my guest is grammy nominated singer songwriter producer who literally stepped away from his larger than life life to spend six months walking across the entire United States to find happiness. What up, Doe? My name is Mike Posner, and I'm walking across America. Which is what we're going to be talking about today, how you can find it. And now I know not everyone can do that, but the lessons he learned along the way are

ones that I believe are going to spark your own pursuit of what everyone is ultimately looking for. And that is to feel like you belong, to feel a sense of joy and happiness. Of course, you know, it's hit songs, like cooler than me. And as we just heard, I took a pill and a Biza. Welcome to the Oprah podcast. Thanks for doing this coming all the way here, Mike. My pleasure.

I saw Mike speak a few weeks ago, and I had never heard your story. I'm sorry, I didn't hear your story. You don't need to apologize. So moved by your story, everyone sitting around me were all crying. They had tears in their eyes, and I wasn't crying. but I was so moved by your spirit. I just thought, here is a person who has become a whole human being, which is what we're all looking for,

is to become whole and to stop the search for perfection. And what you were able to share with the audience in that search was just so moving. I thought, you're one of the people that is obviously carrying the light. you're one of the light carriers on this planet. And I wanted to know you. And the best way to get to know you was to have a conversation.

And I thought, I know when I had that conversation, I'm going to wish that I had some microphones there. So I call my producers right away and said, there's this guy, Mike Poser. And they went, the Mike Poser! And so thank you for moving your schedule around to be here today. This is my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

So let's talk about, I took a pill in Abiza. When you wrote that, what was going to be? on in your life. It's just so everything about that song speaks to what it means to want to be famous, trying to be famous, wishing you were famous, all of that. Yeah, well, it was a lot of madness and you've been famous for a long time so you can identify with this. And I had attained a certain amount of success. Yeah. And I wasn't able against my ego's best wishes to sustain that. So I came out of the gate.

You were at Duke in college when you wrote Cooler Than Me. Correct. So I wrote this song in my dorm room and it became this worldwide hit. And it was my first single out. So I thought, oh, that's just what happens when I put songs out, you know. When your first song is a international hit, you think, oh, that's how you do it. Right. And so I'm parading around the world and, you know, taking my shirt off at shows

and making more money than any 23-year-old should be making. and people screaming your name and all those things right and right and what happened was this the next song i put out it wasn't as popular it's still pretty popular but comparison yeah we'll do a number on you yes uh so i thought oh gosh that's not good and then the one after that was even less popular by the numbers as if this is the only metric of art but this was the metric i was concerned with yes at you know 23 yeah and suddenly i found my my schedule had just kind of emptied and this trend continued to where my career was basically considered over and people would call me a one-hit wonder you know i guess which was true at the time

but it was it was challenging it challenged my identity because i was so wrapped up in being this young popular young man how long did that last before it started to fade a couple years yes A couple years. So you're riding high. Riding high. I thought this lasts forever. Now, in hindsight, it dwindling was the best thing that ever happened to me. But at the time, I thought, well, what do I do now?

You know, who am I? And when your sense of identity is challenged, you start to look for who you really are. Yes. And so I got to start this journey of, okay, if I can't rest, in being popular and if I'm really honest when I was at the top I wasn't all that happy anyways I grew up sort of like a shy and depressed kid and I thought you know if I got this record deal and I got this fame that I would just feel more secure in myself I thought this would be concrete evidence that I matter and of course you know that that's not an external job that's an

internal job and so like so many people now think if i get this many followers if i get this much attention if i only had this thing going for me everything would be okay right and it and you and i know it's never the outside correct and so this is like everybody has some thing that they put in front of them in the future yes that they tell themselves is going to make them feel better yes and so while the the specifics of my choice, which was fame, hey, you know, I get that, I'll feel better. Yeah, that's singular to me, not singular to me, but more specific to me, it's not universal.

But this action of placing our peace and happiness in the future is a pretty darn universal thing that we humans do. And why my story, I think, resonates with people is I was, I guess, blessed and privileged enough to actually get all the things. I got the fame. I got the attention from the opposite sex. I got nominated for a Grammy.

I got the money. And I still felt empty. I thought, like, well, like, what's wrong? Do I need to get more of it? And I can tell you that achieving fame or success in the music industry, while not an inherently bad thing did not change my moment-to-moment experience of life

one iota like not one iota and that was disillusioning it was because when you haven't gotten the thing you can still look forward to getting it yeah and because you think that thing is going to fill you up yeah it's somewhere in the future if i get it i have this thing called hope yeah now it's hoping probably the wrong thing but you still have the hope

when you get it that hope is replaced you're going to by disillusionment. Yeah. So that's where I found myself writing that song. And you were disillusioned because you saw your friend up on stage and you realized, what, number one,

you didn't have that anymore? Or where were you in the process of your own fame then? Sure. You were looking at Avichy. I was in the VIP section with Avichie's manager and I said, I'm going to go on the main crowd because I want to experience this show up front. I lied to him.

And I was experiencing envy. And at the time, I still drank alcohol. So alcohol and envy are a heck of a mix. What I wanted to do was, I wanted to go in the crowd and see if someone would recognize me because I was so empty. Someone that just, even if it was a stranger, someone to say, are you Mike Posner? Are you that guy who's saying cooler than me? To just give me a sense of, I matter.

A hit. It's like a dopamine hit. Yeah. Yeah, but you're right. Give me a sense of I matter. So you're looking for the I matter from external forces, yeah? Correct. That's the thing about fame, I must say, if you believe it and you rely on it for the definition of who you are, it will eventually let you down.

That's right. It will. That's right. So tell us about growing up your childhood in Michigan, because the story that you told this conference and also you tell in your TED Talk about, about your dad wishing for you health and happiness. Tell us that story. Yeah, it was like this strange mantra. He was always beating into my head.

I grew up in Southfield, Michigan, which borders Detroit. My parents are both from Detroit. My father, like, he would always wait to her alone, too. Like, my mom would leave the room. I said to leave her, and he'd poke his head back in. He go, remember, there's two ages in life, health and happiness, health and happiness.

He's always saying this, like my whole life, He wanted me to be healthy and happy. And the healthy part more or less came naturally or easy to me, but the happiness I struggled from a very young age. I remember feeling really shy and feel like I didn't belong. I feel like I didn't belong. I remember feeling accepted everywhere, meaning I had friends. friends. I was in social groups. But I never felt like I was really, like I really belonged there.

And something was missing. There was an emptiness. There was an emptiness. Yes. From a young age. And I don't know if we all have a version of that emptiness, because I only have my experience to compare it to. But this emptiness for sure has a giant part in me creating this story that if I get this fame, The emptiness will go away. It brings me such joy, dear listener, that you're choosing to spend your valuable time here with us. Coming up, what was behind Mike Posner's decision to walk across the entire United States of America? From sea to shining sea, nearly 3,000 miles, on foot.

Plus, he's going to share the five lessons to finding happiness he learned along the way. Even after getting bit by a poisonous rattlesnake, stay with us. This episode of the Oprah podcast is brought to you in part by Hello Fresh. You may have heard of Hello Fresh. They send chef-crafted recipes and fresh ingredients to your home. But this summer, they made their biggest menu upgrade yet. It's bigger. Hello Fresh has doubled its menu. Now you can choose from 100 options each week, including new seasonal recipes from new seasonal recipes, including new seasonal recipes, including new seasonal recipes. From snap peas to stone fruit, they've got options. I tried the seared salmon and lemony cuscus and loved it. If you're looking for healthy, delicious meals that are quick and easy to prepare, you've got to try HelloFresh. The best way to cook just got better. Go to hellofresh.com slash Oprah Podcast 10 FM now to get 10 free meals and a free item for life.

One per box with active subscription, free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only varies by plan. That's Hellofresh.com slash Oprah Podcast 10 FM to get 10 free meals and a free item for life. Welcome back to the Oprah podcast. I thank you for joining me. I love this inspiring conversation. I'm having with Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and hit producer Mike Posner, who left his life in Hollywood to walk across America on foot,

trekking through 13 states over six months. And he's here to share the five lessons on finding happiness. He learned on his journey. Let's get back to it. What made you decide you wanted to walk across America? I know you made that decision after you'd written the Abiza song and that song went I mean it's been downloaded I don't know how many billions of times yeah and so that song writing that song returned you to the whole

world that you thought was the world that you wanted to be a part of right correct this is very ironic move you know you write a song about your career ending yes I'm just a singer who already blew his shot and then it reinvigorates your career yes so yes I I had this second wave. You don't want to be high like me, never really know why like me. You don't never want to step off that roller coaster and be all alone. So were you different with the second wave? Were you more?

I was a little better. Were you a little better? I was a little better. Because at that point I realized, hey, this, like, this success, it comes and goes. So I had my first rise to success. I thought, oh, this is, this last forever. I'm the man. This is definitely going to go forever.

The first time it disappeared, I thought, oh, my gosh, I blew it. It's over. And then the second wave, I realized, oh, this is my job. I'm supposed to make art. And this thing called popularity, it just does whatever it wants. And my job is to tell the truth in my music and my art and kind of not pay attention to that. Right. So that was a little better.

A little better. But you asked what preceded me making this wild decision to walk across the U.S. Why did the idea intrigue you, though? One is I was drawn to it because it was so hard. I knew that for me to have the growth, to make this shift of filling up this emptiness, to go from external validation to insurmess, to go from external validation to, internal validation, I'm not going to achieve that by doing something easier, doing something I already know, going to the studio, getting another, like, I, I need to do something that

challenges me. Did you think you were too soft? Oh, yeah. I mean, inherently, and then on the trip, I realized how soft I was, right, before I left. So tell me, let's explore that a little bit. Okay. You thought you were too soft. What about you, your life, your upbringing, all of it?

made you think i'm too soft i need to toughen up a few things okay so one the external part of my life like if you just looked at it on paper yeah everything went perfect i'm talking like i'm a kid who grew up getting straight a's went to duke university got a record deal before i even graduated my first song is a hit even though the second was a big still had another hit making millions of dollars, nominate, like, it was going pretty good on the outside. From the outside, you look like who everybody else is trying to be, or wants to be. Right. And so I'm Jewish, right?

My father that we talk about, he's Jewish. Well, we have a tradition in the Jewish lineage to have a bar mitzvah when you're 13. Yeah. That's when you're supposed to become a man. Now, I went from 13, then I was 31. I didn't feel like a man, even though I had a bar mitzvah, you know. So I think that we in our culture now lack some rights of passage, especially for our young men.

Even though I had attained all these things, I didn't feel like an adult. I realized, I think, even though I didn't want to admit it at that time, my life was really about making it one, making myself more relevant, more popular, getting other people to like me more and more, almost maniacally being obsessed with how many people love me. How many followers do I have on Instagram? How many comments do I have under this

Instagram post? You know, just when you really look at it's pretty unhealthy, pretty sick. Yes, if your life is depending on how many people like you out there and how many comments you get on posts, when you don't get them, then it means your life can't be good. Right. If you're depending on that to make your life okay, then that means your life is never in your own hands. Right. 100%. Now, ironically, my experience has always been, whenever I'm aligned, that's from the biggest numbers. That's the way it works. Yes. That's the way it works. So we talked about why I felt soft, but there's another thing. The person we told the story about Tim Avici, who I went was in the audience, and I mentioned in the song, I took a pill in Ibiza. He killed himself. And I remember I was on the way to the studio one day

And my sister said, Tim is dead Now here was this guy who had everything I've wanted And it clearly didn't fill him up Because he chose, his life was so painful that he chose to end it And I got in my assistant Nick's car that day And we were driving in the studio And there's just one thought looping in my head It was just, I have to walk across America

I have to walk across him. I have to. There was this feeling like my life at some point is going to end. And this dream of yours that called to you, that's either going to happen in your life or it's not. And there's no more next year. Like, he's gone. One day you'll be gone too.

So you want to do it or not? It's funny how death can illuminate life. That's what it's here to do. I feel that with every passing, particularly of someone that I know, I know that it's happening in our lives to remind us how valuable living really is and to get on with it. That's what it's there for. That's what it's there for.

Get on with it. Get on with it. So you decided to walk across America. You put it off. You put it off. And finally, at 31, you did it. And it was scary. Right away, the people I worked with in the music industry said,

you can't do this. You cannot do this. I said, why? You can't just stop making albums. You can't just stop touring, like this career that you've spent all this time building. It will not be here when you get back. This is a career-ending decision. But this is one of these obstacles that happens on everyone's spiritual journey, which is you start on the path, and a bunch of people tell you don't go on that path. even though the little voice in your heart is going, this is the path, this is the only one. I have to go. Yes, I need to go. But everyone in the external word is saying, don't do that.

For me, that was moving to Chicago, moving to Chicago and actually starting the Oprah Winfrey show there. But everybody had said to me when I was in Baltimore, you will fail, you're walking into landmines, you'll never succeed, you're already a big fish in a little pond, you need to stay here. It's too big for you, it's too big for you. So I understand this.

Yeah. That was mine. This was yours. Everybody has the thing. I loved one of the things you said, and you said in the talk that I heard, not all crazy ideas are great, but all great ideas seem crazy. All great ideas are great, but all great ideas are crazy. All the great ideas are crazy.

Or seem crazy to somebody else. They're like, well, that's the craziest thing I ever heard. You're going to walk across America? When you decide to change your life for the better, don't expect a whole bunch of people roll out a red carpet for you or, you know, cheer for you. Often it's the opposite. And I think life is perhaps rigged in the way that we make a decision.

And sometimes it tests how serious we are. Yes, exactly. That's what it's there for. And that's actually lesson number one. So you made the decision to walk across America in search of happiness. Yes. And that was the first lesson of happiness? Yes.

is that they're crazy the crazy ideas yeah not all crazy ideas are great but all great ideas are crazy okay and so you decided to begin your journey on the coast of new jersey that's right and you say you learned a second lesson on finding happiness right at the start what was the start first of all you had to drive to new jersey to get there right right then you realize that's a long that's a long way yeah so i had fears and doubt to my own like am i going to permanently damage my body because how many years did you put it off before you actually did five years five years okay five years now you actually going to do it now I'm going I to announce to my friends my family my audience I'm going to do this yeah and we're driving across the country and it's like I'm looking

out the window and it's like this thing just keeps going you know it's like it's a long drive I'm like it's a day just in Kansas and we're going 70 miles per hour and I have all the fears and doubts that I always had, which were, I'm not going to damage my body, and then the fears and doubts about of my agents and managers, I let come inside my brains. Is it true that I won't have a career when this is done?

So I have a lyric in one of my songs, I say, don't think other people's thoughts. I was thinking other people's thoughts, too. Like, I'm going to ruin my career. And then lastly, the biggest fear of all is, what if I fail? like what if I risk it all I hurt my body and I don't even make it so it's like I'm not even leaving to walk across America I'm leaving with a chance to walk across America so the

I'm driving across and the gravity starts what I'm going to attempt to do starts to set in but on April 15th 2019 I stood off the coast in New Jersey it was really important I started in the water I wanted to walk coast to coast the salt waterways are crashing on my back I had my father's swimming trunks on and I took a step and right when I took that step all these fears and doubts about what might happen if I chose to do this they disappeared because I was doing it and that's lesson number two that's number two lesson number two is step one is take one step oh I love that so much yeah step one is take one step because these fears and doubts,

they're not a signal that you're on the wrong path. They're a signal that you're on the right path. If you didn't have them, you'd be playing it too safe. Yeah. You'd be in the sandbox of your life. You'd be in your comfort zone. And so now some fear, like, you know, if a tiger came behind us, that's good fear, right? Listen to that.

Yeah. But just psychological fear, like our friend Eckhart-Tolson. It's psychological fear. about a made-up version of the future that doesn't exist anywhere but your own head. In my case, you know, what if I hurt myself? What if I fail? These are all made-up scenarios. Day two complete.

I broke my camera. How do you think we walk today? 11. This is another obstacle that life puts in front of you to test you. How serious are you? Finished with the first week of the walk. And part of the sweetness of the joy you're going to find is, on the other side of that fear.

It's going to be cold again. Yeah, it's going to feel great. That's the dunk. Now we're in Ohio. Feeling it, not pretending it's not there. More great memories, more great people, more great experiences. And then getting on with it anyways. Indiana state line.

Get a Zoom. You know, those concerns about your body are actually real. I mean, I walked 25 miles. I walked a marathon once when I was much. younger 26 miles and it you are aching and you are sore and you are you know the balls of your feet are you know yeah burning and it took you three months to get from new jersey to Colorado you could see the rocky mountains when lesson number three showed up that's right and it's right you're it got real it got real it hurt horribly and and the hurt doesn't go away no and that's

why I want to share the lessons with your audience to go do this because I'm laughing now, but when I had walked across Indiana, Illinois, and I'm into Missouri during a heat wave, sunrise, and I'm into Kansas, and I could barely stand up in the morning. And for me, you know, the spider web that I had got myself tangled up in in my old life, I had to go through, through this metamorphosis in a painful way. It was just my path, but it's not needed. Physical pain is not a requirement for spiritual growth. For sure not.

But in my case, it was my path. And I was in this place where my body every day would speak very clearly. Usually you should listen to your body, but it would speak to me very clearly. Stop. What you're doing is hurting me, Mike. but spirit was speaking to me even more clearly and it was saying keep going keep going

and that became your mantra keep going keep going keep going still this keep going what up though just made it across the state line across Missouri I am now in Kansas woo let's go I walked across this you know state Missouri during a heat wave

and I walked across Kansas I walked into Colorado I walked 1,077 197 miles since that first step when ah you know this pain shot up my left leg and that's when i heard a sound i didn't want to hear i knew what the pain was i i realized i'd just been bitten by a poisonous rattlesnake time to take a quick break when we come back mike posner's walk across America comes to a life-threatening halt the moment a poisonous rattlesnake bit his leg. Can you imagine? Stick around because you'll want to hear the inspiring life lesson he learned in that harrowing moment. That's next. Welcome. This episode is brought to you in part by 365 by Whole Foods Market.

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the store to help you save. With such great prices, we keep our freezers stocked with their thin-cut frozen pizzas for those extra busy weeknights. Shop in-store or order online for pickup or delivery. Explore so many ways to save with back-to-school specials at Whole Foods Market. Back to this episode of the Oprah podcast, I'm joined by Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and producer Mike Posner, whose hits, like, Cooler Than Me and I took a pill in Ibiza, shot him straight to start him right out of college. And I must say he's a joy to talk to. A joy. We're going to hear what Mike learned about himself when he became famous. He was actually unhappy.

So in an unconventional way of searching for happiness and inspiration, he decided to walk across America, coast to coast. Let's get back to Mike's fascinating story. Now, at first, I'm kind of playing it off, you know. And it's just you walking? No. I had invited my audience. I said, hey, if you feel.

find me you can walk with me yeah so people would come from all over the u.s and sometimes they just wanted a picture with me yeah no problem sometimes it was like a scavenger hunt for them you know like it would be college kids on a weekend let's go see if we could find posner yeah and but sometimes it would just be people that didn't have anyone else to talk to and i didn't really have anyone else to talk to either so we would we would join um i think each attempting to alchemize our pain into beauty so that particular day there were two men with me and then i have my walk manager who would go ahead of me each day and so there were three people there and they're all freaking out i'm making jokes i'm like don't worry man i'm thinking this is like a bee sting you know and

Did you actually see the rattlesnake? I didn't see it. Never saw it. I never saw it. There's two ways to get bit by a snake, Oprah. One is if you're messing around with antagonizing it, which I didn't do. The others to surprise it. Yeah.

And so it was the latter for me. Now, they're saying, we got to call 911. I said, okay. And then they're like, we have no service. We have no service. Uh-oh. Now at this point, the darkness, is starting to creep in from the edges of my awareness.

It was just dark, and then it was black. I was gone. I was just gone. And then I'd wake up, and I'd see, oh, my gosh, I'm here. I got a ral snake bite. And one of the gentlemen said, I ran up the road. I got a bar, so I called 911, and he was able to keep connection with her, and he had the phone.

I said, let me speak to them. So he hands me his cell phone, and I said to the voice on the other than the phone. and I said to dispatch, am I going to die? Because at this point, now I'm realizing this isn't a beasting. The voice on the other end of the phone said, I don't know, sir. I end up spending three nights in the ICU, and they have this thing called anti-venin.

Okay, so I just did a show about near-death experiences and had Jeremy Renner on talking about when, he experienced, you know, the other side. To me, it is this collective divinity of love. Love is the only thing that you take with you when you die. Wow. That's so powerful, Jeremy. It cannot exist.

It rides in the coattails of love like everything else does in life. Nothing else freaking matters outside what you love and love unequivocally. It is in perpetuity. Does not change. Wow. Love is the only thing you take with you when you die. Did you experience the other side? Did you have a near-death experience?

I wish I did. Yeah. And maybe I didn't get near enough. I don't know. All I know is it went black. Yeah. And there was nothing. There was no light.

I didn't have guardian angels. I've experienced some of those things in other ways. Yeah. Breath work, psychedelics. But this one, it was black, Oprah. It was black. I wish I had that experience, you know? Yeah.

I wish Avichy was there saying, hey, Mike. It was all good. Yeah. It wasn't that. It was, it just went black. And I'm in the ICU and my legs to swell the size of an elephant trunk. Yeah. And I go from walking 24 miles a day to now I can like barely, I have a walker to go to the bathroom.

And someone's got to help me and make sure I can stay up. I can barely walk. So I'm like, now, like, now I'm like, you. right and they send me home after several days and so they use the anti-venom and you know you're going to live now yeah but your leg is in your leg is swollen the size of an elephant and you're still in pain yeah yeah and i thought you know this word antivenin i'm like oh this is a nice word i'm thinking it's like a cure yeah you know like tomorrow i'm back on the they're like no this just makes it so you get to stay alive and hopefully keep your foot so i got both of the

those things. But the doctor said, you're going to be messed up for a while. I said, how long? He's like, months. I'm like, it can't be months. I'm walking across America. He goes, I don't know what to tell you. It's months. You got bit by a rattlesnake. So I go home

and I start to experience some conflicting feelings. I get sent home with a walker and sort of an uncertain future. And there's part of me that loved this part. one because it was nice to be not in all that heat Oprah it was nice to be not be walking 24 it was nice to be in air conditioning

it was nice to be around other humans most of this time I'm alone out there and I really like that and even though my left leg was in bad shape the rest of my body was really enjoying the rest to I got more famous than ever by getting bit by this dog on rattlesnake now like my last decade of my life I've been like clawing desperately like you know crawling around west Hollywood trying to find whatever morsel of fame I can find and put in my veins then I walk away from it I get bit by the snake and I started to get more fame than ever yeah yeah and And so there's a part of me. It didn't disappear, Oprah. The part of me is still there. Like, you did your intro, and you said, Mike seems like a whole human being.

I don't know if that's true. I know I'm more whole than I used to be. But all of these little things, they're all still there. I just know not to give them the steering wheel in my life anymore. Got it. Got it. So this part of me is like having a ball. It's going, dude, you're getting all the attention.

All the, everything I ever wanted. And also, if you stopped right then, people would absolutely understand you wouldn't be considered a quitter. You'd be considered, you got bit by a rattlesnake. What are you supposed to do? Right. Yeah.

This is like such a good reason to quit that most people wouldn't consider you a quitter. Yes. And then you learned the lesson number three. Yeah, but this is like, you know, for once in my life, I'm not doing this for most people or other people. Yeah.

This is about me. Yeah. And even though they wouldn't consider me a quirk, I would know that I had a thousand more miles to walk. What up, though. My name is Mike Posner. And three weeks ago, I was bit right here by a fucking rattlesnake. And there was no way for me to become who I knew I was supposed to be. And to maybe have a chance to taste that second age that dad wanted, the happiness. than to walk that remaining thousand miles. I mean, this was straight from, you would call it life,

God, spirit, your higher self-intuition was like, I'm supposed to finish this. And even though on the outside, it looks like I'm not. Yeah. You know, and. So you have a chance to be the person that you could be most proud of. Correct. Correct.

It's not about whether other people are people saying, well, weren't you already proud of yourself? You'd already accomplished so much. it wasn't about the stat sheet the highlight it was this calling that I knew was there and it's you're going to take the call or not and there's no book you can read about it okay so let me read this off after six months three days 13 states 2,851 miles 5.7 million steps 5.7 million steps those of us who are just trying to get 10,000 every day yeah you were able to to dive face first into the Pacific Ocean near Venice Beach.

And you described that moment as an unfamiliar emotion. What was that unfamiliar emotion? Yeah, so after I learned a lesson before, which is your reasons to quit our excuses in disguise. So I decided, I'm going to walk these thousand more miles. And I walked across Colorado and Arizona and California. I get in that ocean, like you said, and this strange feeling washes over.

me. I expected accomplishment. It was an accomplishment. Yeah. You would think after walking the 2,800, whatever that. 51. 51 miles. I was counting them. Don't worry. Two thousand eight hundred. Two thousand eight hundred fifty one. I know. I'll never forget that number. Two thousand eight hundred and fifty one. Over when you're on mile nineteen hundred and oh one, you know exactly how many more you have to go. So you at In 2851, you realized you think you're going to feel a sense of accomplishment. You did feel some of that, right? It was a little different.

Like, I'm in the water, and I felt this strange feeling that I never, like, maybe ever felt before. And the closest word I could come to it is happiness. But I think it's the happiness that dad was talking. about not the happiness of like eating the chocolate chip cookie all this tastes good the happiness that comes from playing a part in the evolution of your own soul wow so that's when i learned this fourth lesson i say true happiness comes from growth true happiness comes from growth it doesn't come from getting other people like you it doesn't come from accomplishing anything on the

outside it comes from playing a part in the evolution of your own soul and knowing Hey, I played a part in becoming who I am now. And who I am now, I'm proud of because it's not who I used to be. A goal is a funny thing, right? A goal is like this thing we place in the future, and we think we get there, things are going to be different. Of course, the goal actually means nothing is who you become on the way. And so I had become someone different. I'm not saying I'm perfect because I'm not.

I'm far from it. But I'm not who I used to be. And that's where this true happiness comes from growth. This self-respect, it comes from growth. What was lesson number five? So now I'm stepping out of the water. And I got the health. and i got the happiness but i didn't have my dad anymore in this form two years before i started this

wild journey my dad got glioblastoma his brain cancer and he passed away before i started i started and so he you had told him you were going to do the walk though right i had not because i hadn't decided oh okay but i had the idea and i knew i wanted to do it yeah years before he ever got sick yeah so i had the idea and the inspiration so i was what i was really asking was had had you shared the idea with him i don't think i ever had okay i don't think i ever had so he didn't know that this was a goal of yours to do this info work okay coming up after a short break Mike Posner's fifth and final lesson on finding happiness. He learned this lesson while walking across America.

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Welcome back to the Oprah podcast. I'm with Grammy nominee Mike Posner, who's sharing how after rocketing to fame he hit rock bottom and literally began to walk toward happiness one step at a time. I think these are lessons we can all apply to our lives, so let's get back. to it. Lesson number five is don't wait because he never got to see me step onto this path, both metaphorical and literal, and witness me being truly happy in the way I'm describing it now. And so... As the participant in the evolution of your own soul. That's right. Yes. That's right. We are not little flakes of dust getting blown around by macro-accomers.

or our own emotions or whatever happens in our life, we are, we are creators. We're not just here to deal with what's happening to us. We're here to create our own reality. You know, I love you saying that you're not the same person. I can't imagine the experiences and the encounters that you would have, but I know that there was one that you were walking across like an Indian yet to share that. I was on the Wall of Pie Reservation. It's a post-snake bike in the Arizona.

And I'm actually on Route 66. So is every day more painful than it was before because you're still healing? Yeah. Well, every day is more painful than before just from doing it, just from the steps. Just from the steps. But this funny thing happens. So the pain increases linearly. So every day is a little more painful than the day before.

but your consciousness the space in which the pain and your own emotions are occurring is enlarging exponentially so to put it another way every day the pain gets worse but every day you care less that you're in pain wow pain it's the physical sensation is more but it's a smaller percentage of your overall awareness because your awareness is expanding correct correct and so this is sort of i'm in this mindset more or less and i'm on route 66 i'm near the end of my day so i'm maybe on mile 21 of the day so you'd walk from five to five you'd walk 12 hours a day or what was yeah i'd start around 5 a.m i do 8 i take a break this is fun i play games of myself i do 8 i take a break then do another 8 and now it's around 1st around 1st i'm

maybe 11, 12 and that. You've done 16 miles already? Now I'm at 16. Now I take another break. Okay, so now I got 16. My next segment I'm going to do four.

Well, I already did 2.8. So four is easy, right? So now I do four. Now I should be around 1.30 p.m. I've done 20 miles. And every day I would say, now I'll do a victory lap.

I do four more. So I would set my goal at 20 every day I never walked 20 I'd walk 24 but this feeling of doing a more than I said I was going to do fuel me

as opposed to I'm doing just what I was supposed to do so I would make my goal 20 I'd do 24 instead of saying my goal is 24 and doing 24 these little things gave me just a little more juice I'd play games with the

days of the week I had psychological ties with each day of the week from school. Monday, I hate Monday, Tuesday, I hate Tuesday, I hate Tuesday, Friday, Friday I like Friday, Saturday I like Saturday, Sunday I like Sunday because those were from high school because Friday meant the weekend's coming. So I would make my day off Thursday. Friday is the first day of the week. Even though it's the first day of my walking week, it still felt like the last day of the week because of these old psychological ties from high school. So I'm like, oh, Friday,

easy. So I finished Friday. I already got one done. Saturday. I love Saturdays too. Saturday's done. By the time I get to Monday, I'm already halfway done with the week.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I play these little, little games. Now, going back to the reservation, so I'm on the Wallapai reservation. I don't remember what day it was. Don't ask me that. Okay, I won't. So I'm walking, and I always walked in,

to traffic. This way you can see that because the most dangerous thing actually isn't rattlesnakes or bears. It's being hit by a car. It's cars. So these cars are coming at me. You want to be able to see them. So if they're on their phone or something and they creep over that white line, you can jump by that. So that's why I'd always walk into traffic. So I'm on the left side of the road. And on the right side of the road, I see a Ford F-350 pull over to the side. Now immediately I started to feel like this old not belonging fear And it wasn't an angry person getting out of the car Was I saw like a little two pairs of van skateboard sneakers

They hop out and see it's a I want to say a kid He's probably about 21 He was a kid to me because I was 31 Yeah So this young man and he dangerously Place Frogger and crosses Route 66 over in my side I'm like oh gosh please don't get hit right he comes over my side of the road and i meet this young man i say hi what's your name he said

rowan we had a little bit of small talk he he turns to go back to his car i says nice to meet you takes a picture and it's like spirit or you know someone's telling me like there's more to this right i don't need to tell you yeah yeah yeah Did you think he just came out to look for you or he's looking for... Well, I was in my ego. I was in my ego. Yeah, yeah. So my ego is going, oh, he's here to get a picture with me or something, right?

And he wasn't there for that reason at all. So it's more. And I remember this question that my friend taught me, if you're ever trapped in small talk and you want to go deeper, ask this question. I said, if I pray for you, what should I pray for? for. He takes a second, and his eyes go down to the ground.

He said, Mike, five years ago, my father died from drinking. And three years ago, my only sibling, my big brother, who was like my rock, he died from drinking. and three months ago my mom died from drinking so if you pray for me pray for my sobriety because I'm the only one left

he turns around he says wait he darts across the road again scaring the daylights out of me he reaches in the F-3-50 He pulls out this little leather satchel, comes back across Route 66, presses it in my palm.

And he says, Sweetgrass and sage, this will keep you safe on our land. Before I even understood what was happening, he was back in his car, he drove away the west, the way I was going, and he put a fist out the window like this. his way of saying

keep going he disappears into the horizon I'm just like you are now I'm crying he wasn't there to get something for me was there to give something to me and often these people

that we think are challenging to us they're there to give us some kind of gift and it's like well well he's on the walk of his life, and he has not given up. So I'm going to do the same to the best of my ability.

Thank you for sharing that story. Thank you for sharing who you've become and helping us all to feel that we can get a little closer to being whole ourselves. I hear you going to sing another song. Yeah, I would love to. I would love to. Thank you. Okay. What's the song and what's the story?

behind the lyrics. Okay, so this song is called A Beautiful Day. It's called A Beautiful Day. I hope he's kept his sobriety. I hope so, too. But you have no way of knowing because you didn't exchange numbers.

We didn't. We exchanged sage and sweet grass. That's great. You know? I have a feeling he's doing okay. I hope so. Take us out. Okay.

It's a beautiful day to be alive. February in L.A. Such a vibe. I've got a hundred different moods from one day to the next. And I've seen a lot of things, but still I know I'm blessed. Because life is not a checklist. I'm sorry to my keep checking all my messages done being a pessimist your way wasn't working i know i'm far from

perfect i gotta put that work in it's time for a change it's a beautiful thing to be a life it's a beautiful day to be alive so if you're a beautiful day to be alive so if you If you've got love, then give it away. Here's to the joy in the pain. It's a beautiful day to be alive. Now there's a part of me underneath the part that I let people see. Mike Posner is already off on his next great adventure. This time, hiking the Continental Divide,

I'm here packing for the Continental Divide Trail. That is the natural ridge that splits America's river system. On one side, water flows to the east, on the other to the west, out to the Pacific Ocean. It stretches 3,000 miles from Canada to Mexico. Mike says it's one of the most challenging and grueling trails in the United States and takes about four months to complete. This time, his intention is to unite people in a divided world. He says he's fueled by and walking toward love. So if you've got love, then give it away.

Here's to the joy and the pain. So we're going to be averaging about 30 miles a day. That's an ultramarathon every day for 100 days. Hey. It's a beautiful day to be a life. Wow, thank you, Mike Posner. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for sharing your music, for sharing your journey,

for sharing your soul with us. You are just, you are delight. Thank you. I feel the same about you. You can find Mike's online community. It's called Inner Bloom at Mike Posner.com. And what are y'all doing over there? You know, we just have a call basically.

Every Thursday, it's a free call. The community's free. And it's just people trying to join in the light. So it's about an hour or two call. We do music. We dance. We do breathwork. We do meditation.

and people are trying to walk the path. We talked about earlier the path when you first get on it is lonely, so we try to make a space for all those people. Building a community. It's a space for miracles and transformation. That's wonderful. Inner bloom. My thanks to you listening and watching our conversation,

I think Mike's five lessons are, listen, words to live by. I'll see you next week. Go well. You can subscribe to the Oprah podcast on YouTube and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. I'll see you next week. Thanks, everybody.