About eight years back Jordan Peterson shifted from being just another Toronto professor to becoming a well-known public figure: today his youtube channel has over 8-million followers (which is quite a jump from his earlier academic days)
His latest work dives into old-testament stories creating fresh takes on ancient wisdom; its a mix of psychology and faith-based thinking. In his DC office he looks quite different from typical academics - wearing a jacket with religious symbols and speaking with intense focus about biblical meanings
Oh definitely... People have complimented me repeatedly on my bravery which makes me very uncomfortable because its not true
His path wasnt easy though. After speaking against certain gender-related policies he faced lots of push-back: lost his university position dealt with health problems and saw his wife battle a scary cancer diagnosis. Yet he keeps moving forward - doing interviews with people like Elon Musk and speaking at big events
- Lost teaching position at Toronto
- Faced criticism from mainstream media
- Dealt with personal health issues
- Wife recovered from serious illness
The way he sees it modern society needs old wisdom more than ever. He thinks that without proper understanding of gender roles and traditional values birth-rates will keep dropping and society might get weaker. His new book (coming out nov-18) tries to explain why these old stories still matter
When talking about his wife Tammyʼs recovery he gets emotional describing it as a spiritual experience. Despite all troubles he sees his current life as an adventure saying: “theres definitely some opportunity lurking around here somewhere“