VCM: What sparked the idea for your podcast?

Alexi: I wrote a book called “Bravey” after I ran in the Olympics and had this really intense post-Olympic depression. There is a chapter in the book called “The Mentor Buffet” and it's basically just reflecting on how I didn't have this one Keystone mentor in a mom. I lost my mom young. She took her own life when I was four, but I needed to find a way to know what to do in the world. I needed guidance, essentially. And I was like, well, if I can't have this one person, then I'm not going to see the world as scarce. I'm going to see it as abundant, and I'm going to have everybody else.

And so the Mentor Buffet is very real for me. The podcast came about because I think that there's a medium for every type of story, right? There's a purpose for books. There's a purpose for movies. I do both of those things. But a podcast feels like a really inviting place to have fresh, current, low pressure conversations where people feel comfortable and I just feel so lucky to go to grad school in a way of talking to all these people I admire, we all admire, about their mentors.

VCM: Who do you envision is listening to the show?

Alexi: Listeners are going to see that mentorship is not just passive, it doesn't just get handed to you. We all can seek out mentorship, and it's something we can reach for and use our imagination. You know, sometimes, like even a podcast is a mentor to me. When I listen to podcasts, I pretend those hosts are talking directly to me. And so, I hope the listeners learn really specific things that our guests have learned from their mentors, and start to get familiar with the practice of reaching for and receiving mentorship, as if it's an abundant thing that we all deserve and can have forever. 

We all can seek out mentorship, and it's something we can reach for and use our imagination.

VCM: Are there  themes or topics you will focus on in your show?

Alexi: I think confidence is going to be a big one. Confidence is this invisible muscle you can grow and you can grow it through experience, which is going to be fun to learn about. But you can also grow confidence by giving it to someone else by receiving it. So I think confidence will be a big one. Learning like what it is to be yourself and craft the self. I think we all want to discover our potential, but we don't always know what to do, and we don't always know how to think. So a lot of the mentorship is not just trying to replicate somebody else's life, exactly, it's trying to learn from them. How do they think? Because that's something that you can immediately absorb and make your own. It's like mentorship is like a patchwork quilt. You take qualities and things you learn from other people and you just immediately you can take them as your own.

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VCM: How do you plan to connect with your audience?

Alexi: My audience has already been writing in questions for the “Help Me Please” segment, which is just where people write in their real questions that they want to ask a mentor. Our guests answer a few of those questions every episode. We've had some really honest, funny, helpful answers. We will ask the people who influenced us, myself and my listeners, who influenced them. So hopefully this show can be wish-fulfilling in that way.

VCM: Do you have a favorite moment or story from the show?

Alexi: I got this advice from the woman who creatively produced South Park and Pen15 and Borat and Bridesmaids, and her name is Debbie, and I used it in a pitch with Disney like two days later, and I was so grateful that I had that conversation and I was like, “how could I live without this advice?” The show is not neutral for me or for anyone, it's going to affect you and it's going to be useful. It kind of made me feel good because I was like, “oh, I don't have to live a million lives to absorb infinite experiences, and I don't have time to live a million lives. So that's why we have this podcast. Mentorship can be challenging, too. I think people don't always think about the people you welcome in your life who have an unexpected effect in either direction.

I don't have to live a million lives to absorb infinite experiences

So it's a really delicate, not neutral role to play in someone's life and I hope that people feel like they want it and that they're curious about it forever and maybe they'll also become more aware of how they affect other people who might be looking up to them. We have a gold medalist coming on and she's going to talk about a business mentor, so it's unexpected people. Also we may never know about these mentors if I don't ask because sometimes people's mentors, it's like a third grade teacher. It's a coach from middle school, it's someone that we might never get to enjoy and learn about. That's why the show is highly specific.