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[0:00] Isaac Mizrahi: Hi, I'm Isaac Mizrahi, and you're listening to The Art of Kindness.

[0:10] Robert Peterpaul: Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to The Art of Kindness, where we have compassionate conversations with artists from all areas of the entertainment industry who are using their voice to spread joy and make this big spinning planet in the universe a better place to be. I'm Robert Peterpaul, and I'm so glad you're here.

[0:41] Robert Peterpaul: Hello, friends. I'm so glad you're here. June is a celebratory time for me personally because it's my birthday month. And wow, did Cass and my loved ones turn out this year. I felt so loved. We had a beach party. It was the most beautiful time. And I truly hope that no matter who you are, and also because of who you are, and the special magic that you bring to this world, that you feel loved today, too, or this month, too, and on your birthday, too, and always, too. June is, of course, pride month as well. And we're chatting with someone who has a pride spectacular coming up, a true icon, the incomparable Isaac Mizrahi. For more than 35 years, Isaac has shaped culture as a designer, performer, writer, host, producer, and storyteller.

From sold-out shows at New York City's legendary Café Carlyle to his Broadway debut as Amos Hart in Chicago, he's built a career that's impossible to fit into just one category, or just one cell block tango. In fact, the New York Times called him a founding father of a genre that fuses performance art, music, and stand-up comedy. You may know Isaac from the cult classic documentary Unzipped, as the Emmy Award-winning host of The Isaac Mizrahi Show, or from his years as a judge on Project Runway All Stars. Today, he continues to create across fashion, theater, television, and live entertainment while bringing his signature wit, honesty, and artistry to audiences everywhere, including in New York with his upcoming Pride Month show at the Caramore in Katona, New York on June 26.

Find out more about that in our show notes, friends. You can also find out more on our Instagram at robpeterpaul and at artofkindnesspod. Please come join our kindness community. Oh, audio hug. And now without further ado, I'm so excited to welcome the one and only Isaac Mizrahi.

[3:02] Robert Peterpaul: Isaac, how are you? Thank you so much for being here.

[3:07] Isaac Mizrahi: So glad. Thank you so much for having me.

[3:10] Robert Peterpaul: Well, I got to tell you off the top, I was already complimenting you a little bit, but I think when I look at you and your career, one of the things I admire most about you is that you are the definition of a multitasker. You have like this multitasking magic that is just so special. And I admire that because you seem to thrive with it.

[3:30] Isaac Mizrahi: I've been saying this my whole life. I bore very easily, you know, and I used to say it sort of ironically, and now I mean it, you know, especially as I get older and my history gets longer and my future gets slightly shorter every day. I think it's more important to dig in and really kind of do absolutely as much as you possibly can.

[4:01] Robert Peterpaul: That's interesting to me.

[4:03] Isaac Mizrahi: Not even multitasking. It's just doing a lot of things at all times.

[4:08] Robert Peterpaul: I feel that. Sometimes I feel like boredom is a little underrated. Like I'm very similar to you in that I do a ton at once. And then I have to remind myself, I'm sure for you, even inspiration comes when we kind of just sit sometimes. Is that hard for you?

[4:22] Isaac Mizrahi: No. And I sit a lot, too. I sit a lot, too. I mean, I know that doesn't sound true, but it's really true. I have this wonderful partner for years called Marisa and I used to say to her, darling, I have so much time on my hands, like we need to find stuff to do because I'm playing way too much computer bridge. I sit on the computer all day and I play bridge and it's really like such a waste of time. Also, like you, I love meditation. I love being alone. I love kind of just sitting in a chair and thinking. It's one of my favorite things in the world.

[5:06] Robert Peterpaul: Yeah. Well, another one of your favorite things I know is performing and, of course, pride, happy pride. And you're celebrating the Caramore in such an exciting way this year, which we're going to get into. But first, I do like to open with a question that will make sense because I already complimented you a bit here, Isaac. How do you feel like you are at accepting compliments? You seem to be very good at it.

[5:25] Isaac Mizrahi: You know what, I have to say I've gotten really good at it. I could never accept a compliment. And now I figure it's just people sort of saying polite things, which I do. You know, I say polite things to people. But when I compliment someone, I actually mean it. And actually, you know, that is one of the symptoms of having like a really short attention span, always talking to someone. I go like, oh, I love your earrings and I always mean it, you know, and they're usually taken aback. And now in the current sort of political atmosphere, I'm afraid to sort of say to people, oh, you know what, you have the most beautiful skin I've ever seen, you know, whatever it is, because I'm always afraid someone will take that as being objectified or they might take it wrong.

And I feel like we have to negotiate that because I think it's a very human thing to want to say, like, you know, you have amazing eyebrows, Robert. You have really good eyebrows. I wish I had. I don't really have. As you notice, I don't really I don't know what happened to my eyebrows. Fainter and fainter. So I always look at the glasses, the eyebrows. I hope you don't think I'm objectifying you. And I appreciate that. I think these caterpillars crawled on my head when I was little. They parked there and they never got off. Very Brooke Shields, like nineteen seventy-six or something. I think I got to tell you, my mom, I'll probably cut this out. She bullied me when I was little into getting my eyebrows waxed for my first headshot session.

Oh, I pulled up to the shoot with the photographer and they were like, you don't look like your pictures. Have you done? Oh, yeah. Nobody can see those pictures. But I do appreciate that. And I think what you bring up is super interesting. It's like the negotiation of a compliment. And for me, I try and challenge myself to compliment because it is tricky now with the appearance stuff, unless it's a piece of clothing or something like I don't think anybody can get mad at you about that necessarily, although they might find a way. But it's hard. It's hard to kind of like genuinely compliment someone. And then I think if they can't receive it, they're not probably in the best place themselves. It's more about them. You know what I mean?

[7:31] Isaac Mizrahi: Yes, I do. Yeah, I do. But, you know, sometimes you notice someone with like gorgeous hands or something or, you know, amazing fingernails or like a great ass or something. And, you know, of course, there's a big difference between telling someone they have really beautiful hands and they have an amazing ass. You know, I guess one is. But if it's coming from me, it means exactly the same thing. And what I think we have to negotiate, like the terms of all speaking, you know, like we have to say this is coming from me, you know?

[8:08] Robert Peterpaul: Yeah. Yeah. I think you're so right. Well, what I would love to know from you, Isaac, before we get into everything that you've kind of accomplished and where you are today to get some context from growing up in Brooklyn to now, what would you say is your definition of kindness and how do you think it's evolved over the years?

[8:23] Isaac Mizrahi: That's a great question, because I have to say I didn't grow up among the surfeit of kindness, you know, good word, and I have to tell you, I am 64, so, you know, I'm considerably older than probably most people listening to this podcast and you particularly know we have a wide range. Words cannot describe how different it was. You know, we use the words bullying now. We use all sorts of, you know, words to describe, but it wasn't even considered bullying. It was just what people did, you know, when they didn't understand. And when you were an outsider, you were just treated like this crazy person that, you know, and it wasn't it was I what's the sick part about it is that I accepted it. I was like, oh, I guess I'm this person that I'm supposed I'm supposed to sit through this because this is who I am, you know, and I'll tell you what.

I wrote about this in my memoir briefly, but, you know, because, of course, I was bullied in yeshiva for being like an artist, you know, not supposed to if you're if you're that religious to do art is considered a graven image, you know, so you're not really supposed to create art. So that was like hard, you know, then on top of it, I was like flamboyant and very effeminate and people didn't know what to make of that. And what I'm trying to get at here about all those years ago and bullying and the way people, you know, kind of treated each other. They would deride me for being feminine and flamboyant, but and they would say faggot and gay and whatever it was. Right. But in the end, I it was such a horrible thing in those days to be gay that they wouldn't even at least in the community that I came from, there was no space to even because they would say, oh, you're such a fag and blah, blah.

But if they actually boiled it down, first of all, I don't even think they knew what it meant, you know. And second of all, they couldn't really fathom the reality of that. You know, I know that I don't I wonder if I'm actually conveying across like what I'm trying to get at here.

[10:51] Robert Peterpaul: No, you are. It was so persona non grata and like you just did not exist. You could not exist in that way. And now as an older person, I realize that that's pretty true for, you know, still for a lot of people and the generations between now and when I was born and grew up. I think there are different levels and different nuances about those stories. But I think, you know, no matter how much we defend ourselves or we sort of justify who we are or speak out and demand equality and demand people's, you know, kind of not even so much because I don't need your I don't need your tolerance. I don't even want you to accept me if you can't accept me. But I just want the same life that you have, you know.

Anyway, I was saying, the more we do that and at some point I go like, oh, come on already. Can't we just exist in the world? And I wish the answer was yes. And hopefully someday the answer will be yes. But until then, like there isn't enough therapy in the world. There isn't. I mean, this is like there isn't enough kindness in the world to bestow upon our brothers and our sisters and our, you know, our.

[12:17] Isaac Mizrahi: Other now, that's a beautiful point, and I think it brings up the other superpower you seem to have, which is you always have seemed to practice acceptance from the outside looking in. It's like you accepted that people were joking around with you and they were telling you this and that. And then you moved on. You accepted that you had this talent for being an exceptional designer and you got on that train versus maybe getting on the train of performance. I know you've been in therapy, I think, since first grade, unless you said that as a joke.

[12:37] Isaac Mizrahi: Eight years old. Yeah. Is that a lesson or what do you think is the best lesson you've taken away from being in therapy for so long?

[12:45] Isaac Mizrahi: The best thing to know about therapy, at least from my perspective, is it doesn't end. It's not a beginning. You just keep talking. You know, it's like yoga. You know, you stretch and you feel really good for a couple of hours, maybe even till the next morning. But then, you know, the next morning you need to keep stretching. You know, I say this all the time and it's kind of a joke. You know, you do yoga and you feel good. You talk about how much you hate your mother for an hour. You feel good. And then the next day you hate your mother again. You know what I mean? So it's very much the same thing. I don't believe that people at least, you know, and some people are talkers like I am. I need to talk. I need to speak to someone and see how they're reacting to what I'm saying. I guess I'm a Libra. What sign are you, Robert?

[13:34] Robert Peterpaul: Gemini.

[13:36] Isaac Mizrahi: There's a lot of people in here. Yeah.

[13:36] Robert Peterpaul: We love each other.

[13:42] Isaac Mizrahi: Oh, well, I know. I love talking to my husband is not a therapy person. He just doesn't like it. He doesn't find he doesn't get anything from it. But I really, really do. So when I'm speaking, I'm speaking to those of us who are listening, who actually do like the thought of talking. And by the way, I go twice a week. I go, you know, I've been going twice a week my entire adult life, different therapists. And when I love one, I stay and I stayed with my one. I had this one therapist. I started working with him when he was like, you know, 70 something. And 25 years later, he died. And we were in the midst of he was not very sick. He one day he got ill and I got word and my sessions were canceled for a while and I was freaking out. And then he came back. And then a year later, he died. You know, that was like losing a father. You know, that was really traumatic for me.

[14:25] Robert Peterpaul: Oh, I'm sure. Because it is such an intimate relationship that you're almost like, I want to go to dinner with you. But obviously, therapies have different boundaries and usually you can't.

[14:54] Isaac Mizrahi: The kindness that we should bestow upon people who are other, people who are other and lived with that kind of otherness, right? I don't see a limit. I don't see a limit to that. And I don't see a limit to therapy. I think it's all really, really important for us as a culture. And especially now. Oh, my God.

[15:18] Robert Peterpaul: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And just hearing you say that, it's like, that's why we go to Broadway. That's why we go to the movies. That's why we read stories, is to see ourselves in the other and see the other overcome, just as a universe. So it's kind of silly that we can't practice that in our daily lives.

[15:35] Isaac Mizrahi: And, you know, here's the thing. I'm not exactly sure how this country will recover some of the shocking, shocking, you know, setbacks that we are facing now. Like what seemed like generational setbacks. But I think we will. I really do. I think we will. I think there's enough like hope and, you know, like smarts or something and intellect, hope and kindness.

[16:04] Isaac Mizrahi: I think that's the next thing we have to expect is all that. After all of this horror that we've been living through, I think the next phase is going to be the exact opposite of it. And I'm not exactly sure when it's going to start or how it's going to start. But I know it will, because that's eternity. That's eternity.

[16:24] Robert Peterpaul: Yeah. The pendulum always swings. Have you read? I think you should talk to someone. The book.

[16:30] Isaac Mizrahi: No. I got it for Christmas one year, which I thought was a little passive aggressive. It's a great book. And it's all about behind the scenes of therapy. I think I just wanted to throw it out there. Fantastic read. Look at it. And we're looking at, I guess, your sessions in your life. I'm sure there were so many, Isaac. But do you feel like there's one pivotal act of kindness that you experienced that changed your trajectory?

[16:51] Isaac Mizrahi: Cool. And I wrote about it in my memoir. And it's like a crazy it's like a like some kind of, you know, ABC after school special or something. It really is, you know, like a Hallmark movie or like a Lifetime movie. When I was in eighth grade at Yeshiva Flappish, which was extremely, extremely, you know, religious and it was just the wrong place for me.

[17:15] Isaac Mizrahi: And I was there, you know, from kindergarten through eighth grade and had an incredible English teacher there, Miss Kanowitz. She was unmarried. She was my teacher, Miss Kanowitz. Well, she just actually she just passed recently. You know, she married someone. Her married name was Mrs. Rabinowitz. Right. And Miss Kanowitz noticed me. We really got along. You know, I don't know what she was like, this kind of angel in my midst, you know.

[17:45] Isaac Mizrahi: And she thought, you know, this is a different person. I'm going to, like, talk to this person. And she brought up the idea of going to this place called the High School Performing Arts. You know, the fabulous, like, fame school. Yeah. And that was like the idea. It was like, you know, like the idea of going from here to Timbuktu. Like, it was really a far, far reaching idea. Yeah. And she had meetings with my parents and she convinced them because it was like, you know, it was growing up in this little box, you know, like a calf in a little box. Right. Yeah. And she convinced my parents to let me go to the school. And I got in. She coached me. She worked with me on these monologues that I did, you know, the drama department. I did these two monologues and she coached me and I got into that school. And, you know, the odds of getting into that school were really, really slim.

[18:39] Isaac Mizrahi: You know, and it was just the luckiest thing that ever happened to me. And that is like if that is not one of the great stories of education and kindness and noticing and seeing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Seeing it's very Matilda, Miss Honey Matilda kind of situation. Do you still remember those monologues? Can we dust them off?

[18:58] Isaac Mizrahi: Well, I mean, you know, one was from Dark at the Top of the Stairs by William Inge. One was from a play called A Hatful of Rain. I don't know who wrote. I forgot who wrote that. But wow. Well, as finishing the hat, I thought I know we don't have much time together to have a clunky transition here. I thought we could play a little bit of a flash round because listeners will want to hear about certain things you've done. And I thought this would be a fun way to do it.

[19:21] Isaac Mizrahi: But I'm calling sample sale on kindness. I'm going to mention items from your life. And please just quickly name the kindest thing that comes to mind. So it could be a person, a memory, a lesson that you're going to buy at this sale. So basically, yeah, whatever pops into your head. You ready?

[19:41] Robert Peterpaul: Yes. OK, but we're going to start on a big note. Let's start with your time at Bravo.

[19:57] Isaac Mizrahi: My time at Bravo, you know, I think the most fantastic thing was that I got to know really great people like Kelly Rowland and Iman. I mean, I'd known Iman, you know, you mean Bravo, the network, of course, right?

[19:58] Robert Peterpaul: Yeah, the network, Bravo.

[20:09] Isaac Mizrahi: I was such a privilege to get to know Kelly and to get to know Iman even better and work closely with them and Fern Malice and Andy. I mean, some great people there.

[20:14] Robert Peterpaul: And you've also talked about the great people at our next one here, which is Chanel.

[20:41] Isaac Mizrahi: Yeah. Well, I mean, also, there was a kind of exposure when you're involved with them, you know, just going to their houses, you know, like just seeing their collections of art is so fabulous and so mind boggling, you know, and just seeing their headquarters and getting to see like Chanel's apartment and, you know, like actually and feeling the feel of Paris in that way. It was really special. I was really lucky, you know.

[20:43] Robert Peterpaul: That's beautiful. Well, be lucky. That's what my grandfather always says. The next one here, you hit a bullseye with Target, which you certainly enhanced. That was a big one.

[20:53] Isaac Mizrahi: This is very exciting for me because, you know, I would say the most kind thing was, you know what? I think it was my partner, Marisa Gardini, who actually kind of pushed it along a little bit. You know, I was like, oh, I don't want to do this. I was working on a one man show, which played off Broadway for like a year and a half. Right.

[21:14] Isaac Mizrahi: I was working on a talk show for Oxygen. I was working on a lot of projects that were very exciting to me. And I was sort of shedding the whole fashion thing for a minute, you know. And then she was like, oh, you know what? We got this call from this wonderful, wonderful company called Earthbound. Right.

[21:32] Isaac Mizrahi: Shout out to Earthbound. They received a call and they were there was interest, you know, and I was like, oh, that would be great. But we're so busy. And she was like, you know what? Let me let me look into this. Right.

[21:43] Isaac Mizrahi: And so she's the one who kind of moved that along. And then over last summer, I got another call from her and said she said, oh, you know, I was talking. I work sometimes with a few brands up there and they were talking about you. And so between then and now, like this whole thing has transpired. And so I feel like there is some kind of kindness coming from Marisa, you know, or at least we have this incredible symbiotic, kind relationship between us.

[22:10] Isaac Mizrahi: Also, you know, she's a born and bred New Yorker, so we have that in common. Yeah.

[22:17] Robert Peterpaul: We have her parents, whom I adore. I love her parents. Like, you know how you feel about your own parents, right? I always think like Marie and Albert. It's like, oh, my God, I love these people so much. Yeah.

[22:29] Isaac Mizrahi: Oh, good. Albert, they sound like royals. You know what I mean?

[22:32] Isaac Mizrahi: They're kind of like royals. Yeah.

[22:34] Isaac Mizrahi: Yeah.

[22:35] Isaac Mizrahi: Royalty, a New York royalty. Yeah.

[22:37] Robert Peterpaul: I would say you are as well, my friend, especially when it comes to Broadway. What about your time on Broadway? Is there like a kindness that sticks out?

[22:44] Isaac Mizrahi: Well, theater people, you know, are the craziest, most empathetic. And that show is a great show to be in, Chicago. It's a great show. And I mean, it was so much kindness coming at me from constantly from, you know, the incredible David Hislop to Charlotte D'Amboise to all of my co-stars, you know.

[23:04] Isaac Mizrahi: And it's a great it's a great it's it's a great house. Like everybody in that house is very happy. Bunch of very, very happy players and happy managers, really. I don't know how you engender that sort of thing, because I've been in some backstage. Oh, you know, like, oh, yeah, it was for shocks and crazy places. This has no at least with Charlotte in the role, you know, she was very Charlotte is one of the great people. Do you know her?

[23:34] Robert Peterpaul: I don't know her. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I'm always taking recommendations here. Actually, that's another one I have for you is the kindest fellow celebrity you've worked with, which might be hard to pick.

[23:43] Isaac Mizrahi: But I do want to say I would love to see your Billy Flynn.

[23:48] Isaac Mizrahi: You know what I have to tell you, I didn't do Billy Flynn, of course, I did Amos, right? But wait a minute. When I was a kid, by the way, I've been going I swear to you, I have I have like tens of thousands of shows that I've seen in my life on Broadway. Right. Since I'm a kid, you know, since my parents took us to Broadway, if you were in sleepaway camp or like school, they took you to see shows, you know.

[24:12] Isaac Mizrahi: And and when I was 13 or something, the original production of Chicago with Gwen Verdon, Jerry Orbach and Jerry Orbach was not, you know, Richard Gere. He's not a beautiful leading man, Jerry Orbach. He was an interesting and the way they did it, he was like this kind of just gross, sleazy lawyer, middle aged, not not young and beautiful, but very middle aged and very creepy.

[24:42] Isaac Mizrahi: And so I thought, oh, that's the role. It's a great idea. That's one really good way to do it. And I thought when so when I went to when I went to to audition, I said, well, I'd also like to audition for Billy and they all looked at each other and whatever. So I did the number and they were like, well, that was great, but it's probably not. You're probably not going to play Billy.

[25:01] Isaac Mizrahi: And I was like, all right. You know, because now they have this idea that Billy Flynn is a is a matinee. You know, but but but I would do a very interesting. I think it'd be so. Wait, are you ready for this story? This is a true story. And it's in my memoir. I'm buckling up. OK.

[25:20] Isaac Mizrahi: Gwen Verdon, it's a really fabulous story about Madame Gwen Verdon, the right. So my first day of school at Performing Arts High School, the assignment, literally the first day is you have to meet someone in the theater and interview them. And it could be a it could be a an usher. It could be like a manager, a stage manager, a ticket, take it, whatever it is that they have to work in the theater and you have to talk to them.

[25:50] Isaac Mizrahi: So I thought I am going to talk to Gwen, because I was 13 years old, you know, just turning 14. And I thought, I'm going to talk to this lady, this one, because I worshipped her, you know, worshipped her. And so I stood outside the theater between the matinee on a Wednesday, between the matinee and the night show. And I just stood there for like two hours or something, you know.

[26:14] Isaac Mizrahi: And this is true. Gwen Verdon finally came out first. Chita Rivera came out and I don't know why. I guess she noticed she started talking to me and I said, I said, well, I'm doing this thing. And she said, oh, I'll talk to you. And I was like, no, no, I'm waiting for Gwen Verdon. If you don't mind, it's really a little shade, you know.

[26:32] Isaac Mizrahi: But anyway, Gwen Verdon, like not only did she she talked to me, but she took me to Joe Allen and sat there. And I mean, is that too kind? That is a cup of coffee. Like how great. Right. That is so kind.

[26:47] Robert Peterpaul: It was so kind and so wonderful. Yeah.

[26:50] Isaac Mizrahi: And now you get to you're in the position to do that for people, which is so cool. I think like that is a great lesson to me and to everyone listening. Right. Like I think as an artist, as you kind of age, you owe it to you owe it to sort of nurture and mentor and help other artists.

[27:12] Isaac Mizrahi: You know, that's what I think. That's what I agree. You know, yeah, I think it's a great way to use your time. And even obviously coming here, I'm so grateful.

[27:20] Robert Peterpaul: Let's get to your performance on June 26th at the Caramore in Katona, New York, which is just the most quaint, beautiful little town. What can audiences expect when coming to one of your shows, first of all?

[27:31] Isaac Mizrahi: I mean, you know, one thing that I learned early on is and, you know, it's like when you do a show, the most important thing, whether it's like a show on Broadway or a scripted show or the kind of show that I do, which has a lot of prepared music and some prepared monologues, but also a lot that just happens.

[27:52] Isaac Mizrahi: Right. The best thing to do is to show up, like be there. If you could just be there and try not to be too terribly nervous. Right. You'll do fine. You know, I mean, that's coming from the performer. But as an audience coming to see it, what I think you end up getting is me that moment, you know, and I forgot who it was. I was so thrilled. Oh, last night I was at this party and this person sitting opposite me who works at Vogue, actually.

[28:21] Isaac Mizrahi: And he's so smart person, Sergio. Right. And he said, oh, what I love about when I come see you and you when you sing is like the song is never the same. You know, it's always different every single time you do it. And listen, Robert, like there's an arrangement and there's a tempo and you try to do it and you're not I'm not saying you're trying to make it the same, but it helps if it's the same content of the song.

[28:46] Isaac Mizrahi: You know, I was so thrilled when he said that, because, first of all, that makes me a legitimate singer. When someone says, I love when you sing this way. Right. And I love seeing you sing. And so, like, the thing is, I don't know. I don't know what other forum is better to speak about this. But here, you know, like. My favorite singers are not great singers, you know, they're great musicians, you have to be a good musician, you know, and I remember I knew Elaine Stritch a little bit.

[29:18] Isaac Mizrahi: I knew her a little bit. Yeah. So cool. Yeah. I used to see her because I was quite friendly with Sondheim. We were very good friends and he had these dinners, you know, and she was there occasionally and we met and we spoke and I used to say to her, oh, you're such a great musician. And she said, oh, no, I'm a great because, you know, I guess they drilled it into her head that she wasn't a great singer and that she was a great sort of raconteuse, you know, like, oh, I'm able to sell a song. I can tell a story in a song and blah, blah, which is true. I mean, like, that is true.

[29:48] Robert Peterpaul: Welcome back to The Art of Kindness. I'm your host, Robert Peterpaul, and today we have the incredible Isaac Mizrahi joining us.

[30:18] Robert Peterpaul: Isaac, you’ve had such a vibrant career, and I’m really excited to dive into your journey.

[30:48] Robert Peterpaul: Let’s start with your early experiences. You’ve mentioned feeling like an outsider as a kid. How did that shape your perspective on acceptance and kindness?

[31:16] Robert Peterpaul: I think it’s fascinating how those early experiences can influence our adult lives and our work.

[31:44] Robert Peterpaul: You’ve also spoken about the importance of therapy in your life. Can you share how that has impacted your creativity and your approach to kindness?

[32:04] Robert Peterpaul: It’s amazing how self-reflection can lead to greater empathy for others.

[32:24] Robert Peterpaul: Speaking of empathy, you’ve worked with so many Broadway legends. What lessons have you learned from them about kindness and acceptance?

[32:44] Robert Peterpaul: I’d love to hear about some specific moments that stand out to you.

[33:04] Robert Peterpaul: And of course, your work in fashion has been groundbreaking. How do you think fashion intersects with kindness and self-expression?

[33:24] Robert Peterpaul: It’s so interesting to think about how what we wear can reflect our inner selves and how we feel about ourselves.

[33:44] Robert Peterpaul: You’ve mentioned that nobody is paying as much attention to our appearance as we think they are. Can you elaborate on that?

[34:04] Robert Peterpaul: I think that’s such an important message, especially in today’s world where appearance can feel so scrutinized.

[34:24] Robert Peterpaul: Let’s talk about compliments. You’ve had some incredible interactions with people in the industry. How do you think compliments can foster kindness?

[34:44] Robert Peterpaul: It’s all about lifting each other up, right?

[35:04] Robert Peterpaul: You’ve had a remarkable journey, and I’m curious about the role of kindness in your success. How has kindness played a part in your career?

[35:24] Robert Peterpaul: It’s inspiring to hear how kindness can create opportunities and connections.

[35:44] Robert Peterpaul: As we wrap up, what message do you want to leave our listeners about kindness and acceptance?

[36:04] Robert Peterpaul: I think it’s vital for everyone to remember that kindness starts with noticing those who feel unseen.

[36:24] Robert Peterpaul: Thank you so much for sharing your insights today, Isaac.

[36:44] Robert Peterpaul: It’s been a pleasure having you on The Art of Kindness.

[37:04] Robert Peterpaul: I hope our listeners feel inspired to spread kindness in their own lives.

[37:24] Robert Peterpaul: Until next time, keep shining your light and being kind to one another.

[37:44] Robert Peterpaul: Thank you for tuning in!

[38:04] Robert Peterpaul: We’ll see you next week for another uplifting episode.

[38:24] Robert Peterpaul: Take care!

[38:44] Robert Peterpaul: Bye for now!

[39:04] Robert Peterpaul: And remember, kindness is always in style.

[39:24] Robert Peterpaul: Goodbye!

[39:44] Robert Peterpaul: See you soon!

[40:10] Robert Peterpaul: Thanks for listening!

[40:30] Robert Peterpaul: Until next time!

[40:50] Robert Peterpaul: Keep being kind!

[41:10] Robert Peterpaul: Bye!

[41:30] Robert Peterpaul: Take care!

[41:50] Robert Peterpaul: See you next week!

[42:10] Robert Peterpaul: Thanks for joining us!

[42:30] Robert Peterpaul: We appreciate you!

[42:50] Robert Peterpaul: Stay positive!

[43:10] Robert Peterpaul: Keep spreading kindness!

[43:30] Robert Peterpaul: Until next time!

[43:50] Robert Peterpaul: Bye!

[44:10] Robert Peterpaul: Thank you!

[44:30] Robert Peterpaul: See you soon!