Trevor Noah is well known as a former host of The Daily Show and a prominent comedian, but those aren’t the only interesting details about him. The South African entertainer has lived an eventful life that has invited introspection, making him wise beyond his 42 years. Much of what he wrote about in his bestselling book, Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood, is about his upbringing with a white father and Black mother during apartheid in South Africa.
In October 2024, Noah appeared on the podcast The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett to discuss how he sees himself and how he navigates difficult experiences. In the interview, he recalls his most horrific memory: receiving a call that his mother had been shot point-blank in the head by his stepfather. Miraculously, she survived. The bullet went through the back of her skull and exited her head, missing her brain, spinal cord, and major blood vessels. Noah’s stepfather was arrested but never went to prison, and the experience evoked long-lasting emotions of grief, resentment, and pain.
Following this traumatic life event, Noah was left to wonder how someone moves on from something like that, which he defines as the lowest point in his life. When asked how he could overcome the experience and the trauma, his response is simple: you can’t. He uses a metaphor comparing life to the Japanese art of kintsugi to illustrate his point.
Noah explains, “You break a plate, or you break a vase or something… But they don’t just glue it back together, they glue it back together and they sort of adorn it with a golden binding. And what you get is an object that is somehow more beautiful than before it was broken.”
Noah believes that healing is not about becoming perfect or “fixed,” but growing and changing from bad experiences to become someone slightly different but still beautiful. “We get to wear our cracks with a new type of pride and a new type of beauty.” For him, good people and good experiences helped him repair himself and seal the cracks to find more beauty in himself.
Comedian, host, and author Trevor Noah has lived an eventful life filled with highs but also one particularly traumatic low.
When he was a child, his stepfather shot his mother in the head. She survived, but it was undoubtedly a disturbing event.
Noah calls it the lowest point in his life, which has led to long-lasting emotions of grief, resentment, and pain.
But, he also compares his life experiences to kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold.
Noah uses this art form as a metaphor for life, saying we heal from bad life experiences with positive life experiences that repair our cracks, making us more beautiful people.
Watch the full podcast here:
Sources: Trevor Noah: My Depression Was Linked To ADHD! Why I Left The Daily Show!
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