In this candid conversation, Susie Taaffe and her guest Cass explore existential questions about purpose and happiness in a technology‑saturated generation. They critique how constant signals from the internet, smartphones, and social media dictate notions of fulfillment, arguing that a drastic reset may be needed to rediscover authentic meaning. The dialogue shifts to personal anecdotes: a Coachella trip where the anticipation and pre‑event experiences outweighed the concert itself, illustrating the classic "journey over destination" theme. Cass recounts her decision to walk the Camino after a period of upheaval, describing the structured yet uncertain nature of the pilgrimage and the subsequent struggle to decide what comes next—work, travel, or staying in Europe. Throughout, both speakers emphasize the value of uncertainty, self‑trust, and the process of rebuilding one’s life after intense experiences.
Chapters
And that is the big question, isn't it? It's like, what, what is the point? Like, why are we here? Like, what is the point of all of this? I think especially our generation, we've come up through the ranks. We had the introduction of the internet, we had the introduction of the smartphone, we had the introduction of the social, the social media, the Instagram and the YouTube. Um, but we've had so many new evolutions of technology and how life goes that I think we haven't really had a chance to just like peel it all back. And like the simplicity of life for our parents in the '80s, it was much more basic and more simple. And I think that now there's so many extra layers of like signal that can tell you, this is what you should be doing, this is what you should be doing, this will make you happy, this will make you happy, buy me, I'll make you happy, buy me, I'll make you like whatever it is.
Yeah.
We have— we are the generation that's had this influx of everything telling us how to be happy. And I think sometimes you need to do something drastic just to blow it all up and then rebuild the pieces.
Yeah, and figure out what is truly special and what's truly beautiful and what actually means something to me.
Yeah.
And it's not the new whatever. It's not, it's not a bigger something or else, uh, something or other. It's, it's—
yeah. It's not even like the fancy holiday because, you know, You know that anticipation of the fancy holiday or the concert that you've been so looking forward to, and you know that feeling after it, like it's over? It's kind of like, uh, post-holiday blues. Yeah, it was like, it was good, but it was— it's actually the anticipation that's more exciting. Yeah. And Cass and I went with our other sister and our cousin and a close friend and, and Mikey P, our sister's husband, on this trip to Coachella. It was going to be— it was like a life, um, Not old, was it? We're like, you know the word, like a, like a once in a lifetime. There we go, once in a lifetime opportunity that we could all take time off to go to Coachella. But it was actually the journey around that we did before Coachella where I actually enjoyed the most, not the actual Coachella concert itself.
No, it was, it was the reason for the trip, but it was, it was the build-up and the chat beforehand and, and the activities we did around Coachella and then the chat afterwards and the memories. That's That's what it was. That was what was so special about it.
So I suppose the cliché for that would be the journey.
Sue.
I know you've all heard it a million times before. It's never the destination, it's the journey that matters. And Cass did a very big journey. Yes, I did do a big journey. And walked 2 Caminos back, like post, uh, 14-month trip to Europe. 14 months, yeah. So like a Camino at the front end and a Camino at the back end. And we've covered the Camino trips in a separate video. Which I'll link below. But I want to actually talk about probably, A, why did you decide to walk a Camino? And B, and this is from knowing how I know you were at the end of the first Camino, what happened when the first one ended?
So I guess the, the decision to walk the Camino came, uh, from inspiration from a very, very dear friend. Um, she walked the Camino, I think, in 2017, and it was life-changing for her. And I was at the stage where I'd hit the boggle button. I'd quit my job, um, got rid of all my belongings, uh, had taken a 3-month road trip around Australia, moved back to my hometown Brisbane, um, and the next decision was to go to walk a Camino. Um, and after that, I didn't really know what I was going to do. I would be in Europe, um, uh, but didn't— I had no plans. And that was That was quite scary and very uncertain, and a lot of people— so many people asked, well, what are you going to do afterwards? And my answer, my honest answer was, I don't know. I actually don't know what I'm going to do. And as I was walking the Camino, the end date of the Camino kept getting closer and closer and closer, um, and I still didn't know what I was going to do. I had some travel plans, um, which took me up to about July, and at the time I was, uh, I had some time restrictions in Europe, so I had to be out of the Schengen zone in Europe, um, 3 months after I started the Camino. Um, so I, I knew that I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what.
Um, yeah, I could feel that when you finished. It was like I could feel her energy was like, I had that part planned and I went through the process of that and I got amazing things from it, but it was sort of nearly like a That part wasn't the cliff.
No.
That was the easy bit.
It was the easy bit because it is, it's quite structured and you know, you know how long it's going to take and you know where you need to go from point A to point B and how you do that is entirely up to you. But it is, it's, it's, it's contained. After that, it was like, well, now what? Now actually, now what? Um, do I, do I work? Do I travel? Do I stay in Europe? Do I come back to Australia? Do I go somewhere different? Um, and that was— there was so much uncertainty. Um, and so I, I had some travel planned, um, which was excellent. Travel is always amazing for open— for broadening your horizons, for opening your eyes, for, um, building trust in yourself.
Mm.
To, to figure out where are you gonna go. I, I didn't have a huge amount of money. So each decision had to be made about where do I want to go, how do I get there, where am I going to stay, how can I physically get there— train, bus, plane, walk. Um, so I, I did some travel. I think the, the, the Camino is great for building trust in yourself to make daily decisions, that they're going to be not always the right decision, but you make a decision and then you make that decision work.
