Seen and Unseen: The Moth Podcast
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to The Moth. I'm Meg Bowles. We hear this term, I feel seen, often enough. People jokingly say it when they find someone who shares an appreciation of something, a mutual love of argyle socks or fried pickles. But some people wish they could be seen in a deeper way, while others hide in the shadows for their own protection.
What does it mean to feel seen or unseen in society?
In this episode, we play with the idea of being and not being seen. When not being seen or acknowledged shines a light on a deeper social construct, or when being seen can literally put your life in danger. Our first story comes from the writer Eliza Reed, who lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. She shared her story live on stage at the Union Chapel in London. Here's Eliza Reed, live at the moment.
One spring evening, back in 2016, I'd just finished cooking supper for my four kids, who were two, four, six and eight years old. And the landline phone rings. Now, when the landline phone rings, that was usually either my mother-in-law calling from down the road in Reykjavik, Iceland, where I live, or it was my own mother calling from the farm in Canada, where I grew up. But on this occasion, it was neither. It was a man who identified himself as a pensioner in a remote northwestern part of the country. And the man told me that he had been watching my husband, Gudni, on television that day. And he was so impressed with what Gudni had to say that he just thought he would call and pass on the message that he thought Gudni should run for president of Iceland.
Now, the news in Iceland that day was dominated by something called the Panama Papers scandal, which you may remember was this scandal that involved various offshore tax havens and global leaders or their families. And in Iceland, our prime minister at the time and his family were implicated in this scandal. and ultimately had to resign. Now, concurrently to that, there was this ongoing presidential election in the country, because we have both a president and a prime minister in Iceland. And the president who had served for 20 years had announced that he was not seeking reelection for the election that year. Now, of course, a scandal like the Panama Papers scandal that affected our own politicians was huge news in Iceland, and the television cut to just ongoing commentary on what was going on.
And my husband, Goodney, is a sort of bookish, cardigan-wearing history professor. And he was the expert that they called on live television to comment on the crisis. And that day, he appeared on TV for about six hours with a colleague, talking about what was going on in neutral, nonpartisan, sometimes funny but understandable terms. Anyway, about 15 minutes after that first phone call, Landline phone rings again. Not my mother or my mother-in-law. This time, it's a police officer from the south of the country. And he, too, has been watching Goodney that day on TV. And he, too, and some colleagues have been so impressed by what they saw that he had looked at my number in the phone book and thought he would just call and suggest that Goodney consider running for president of Iceland.
The phone kept ringing. And I remember thinking, wow, when Goodney gets home from work, he is never going to believe this story of what has happened. But actually, when he came back that night, he was very sanguine. He took out his phone and he showed me just DMs, text messages, instant messages, all saying exactly the same thing to him.
How did Eliza Reid become the First Lady of Iceland?
Now, Goodney had never before considered or tried running for elected office. despite the fact that he was an academic expert on the presidents of Iceland and was writing a book about it at the time. But all of a sudden, the stars had aligned in such a constellation that he really needed to make a considered thought about it and make a response. And really, the decision distilled down to just a few core questions. Would we ruin our children? Could we afford to do it? Would I still be able to continue my work as a writer and editor? And most importantly, did he want to do it, and did he think he could do a good job?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:21
2
What does it mean to feel seen or unseen in society?
0:21–3:55
3
How did Eliza Reid become the First Lady of Iceland?
3:55–29:06
4
What challenges did Eliza face in her new role?
29:06–34:38
5
What does it mean to have an invisible platform as a First Lady?
34:38–36:10
6
What insights did Eliza gain about gender equality?
36:10–37:35