Didi Wagner: freedom has no age or address –

If we’ve all felt the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, imagine someone whose job it is to travel the world. That was the reality of Didi Wagner46, who has been running the program for 15 years unusual place, from Multishow. The presenter, who started out as an MTV VJ, built a solid career on TV showing viewers the most varied and unusual places in the world, while closely following some of the main musical events in the country.

Without being able to set foot in an airport, Didi managed to reinvent herself — and, of course, change the way she looks at herself and everyday challenges.

THE START OF CHANGE

– (Patty Lima/)

“The first few months were very difficult, because I was very scared”, she says. “I had many projects for 2020, I was going to participate in Lollapalooza and Rock In Rio through Multishow, I was going to launch a book… and all these processes were on hold. How I was going to handle my career gave me a lot of anguish.. At first, I was inert. I didn’t have that presence of immediately treading paths of reinvention. I stood by, scared. In addition, I was very concerned about supporting my daughters, teenagers entering a period of isolation, at a time when socializing is preponderant.”

The break in the recordings may have happened in practice, but his work period was not stopped. “We took a trip in November 2019 to Chile. We toured the whole country, explored a little of the south, the north, we went to Santiago and produced 8 unpublished episodes for a new season that would be shown in early 2020”, he says. “As the pandemic took us all by surprise, it seemed more appropriate to hold the season a little longer, at a time when all of us, ideally, within the possibilities of each one, should be at home. When the quarantine situation proved to be more prolonged and that we were all more adapted to this new reality, and with an understanding that it would take some time to return to normal (but still, life had to go on), we put the new season on the air in July 2020”.

ADAPTATION POWER

No

Last year no new seasons were recorded, but Didi and the show’s team started thinking about a new one. The conclusion, according to her, was that after having explored so many places around the world, the moment was to bring the program back to São Paulo. “The first season was in São Paulo, in 2006. Why not show a little bit of the city again?”, he said. The differential, this time, would be both asking other famous people to tell what they define “their São Paulo”, and giving space for the city’s own characters, those people who make it special, to speak too.

“When we went to record the pandemic, it was still at a very critical moment, more so than now, and also at a time when we felt that São Paulo deserved this affection as a city that had so many closed businesses and was trying to recover. put it back on, reinvent yourself”, explains Didi. “It was a bit of an intention of Lugar Incomum to talk about São Paulo, but as a means of serving as gas and inspiration for any other city. Nobody is minimizing the importance of isolation, in any way questioning the necessary measures to contain COVID, but it was our intention to speak ‘the city resists’. Faced with so many necessary limitations, how beautiful to see that people have found ways to reinvent themselves, relocate themselves, to continue existing and resisting.”

WELL-BEING IN PANDEMIC TIMES

F

in terms of resistance and adaptation, Didi herself realized the need to put these terms into practice. For her, one of the points that was most latent during the pandemic period and even now is the importance of your family nucleus. Didi is married to Fred Wagner since 1998 and has three daughters with her husband: Laura, Luiza and Julia.

“It has always been one of my biggest priorities in life. When we saw each other, the five of us, isolated at home, I gained a greater perception of how important this family dynamic is for me, to preserve our relationship – despite the daily friction! As we can count on each other, that was really nice”, she says.

Therapy also played an essential role in the presenter’s life., which continued with the services, now online, during periods of quarantine and social isolation. For her, having a space of her own, where she could exchange freely and talk openly about everything, was essential. “That helped me a lot because, in this context of such an intense family life, it was really nice to have someone from the outside with whom I could talk and share my intimacy a little more”.

Dealing with three daughters, a pre-teen and two teenagers, at home was not easy for the presenter either. “I spent a lot of energy and focused on supporting them. Apart from the issue that we have a privileged life, and I recognize that, but this demand to adapt to distance learning, not being able to meet anyone, not having contact with the outside world, seeing everything through a screen of computer, for a teenager it is a very complicated business along with this atmosphere of fear and panic”.

THE AFFECTED SELF-IMAGE

– (Patty Lima/)

U

An interesting point raised by Didi is how her daughters’ school did not require students to open their cameras during online classes. For the oldest, it was normal for this to happen and, according to the presenter, 80% of the students in the class had their cameras open. For the middle daughter, it was the opposite: 80% closed cameras and a feeling of not wanting anyone to “look at your face when you wake up” in an online class.

The generational difference in dealing with self-image is clear when she talks about her experience with teenage girls and also is reflected in their own relationship with the body and, mainly, with aging. “The issue of aging for women is heavier than for men and it is still a demand from society, yes. I even have to train myself not to have this ageist prejudice. I’ve been exposed my whole life to this pressure of the search for youth, for eternal beauty, and the search for aesthetic standards – and look who’s talking is a white, blonde person, European aesthetic standard. But anyway”.

“I even have to train myself not to have this ageist prejudice. I was exposed my whole life to this pressure of the search for youth, for eternal beauty, and the search for aesthetic standards – and look who is talking about a white, blonde person, European aesthetic standard”

For her, it is common for us to create within ourselves the demands that meet these standards and the ways to adapt to them. Therefore, she happily sees the movement on the internet in search of a healthier relationship with the body. “I think this body positivity movement is really cool for us to rethink the pressures we put ourselves under. I think there is a composition that is this, a collection of the world and something that we do with ourselves”.

For Didi, a conversation that brought a new vision on the subject was with the youtuber and activist Alexandra Gurgel, well known in the online environment for working on self-image issues. “She made me rethink a lot of things. I realized that I sometimes fell into some opinion stereotypes about the issue of fat bodies – you have to say that the person is fat, this is not a negative characteristic, it is a characteristic. We have to review our conscience. Social media have a very perverse role, but they can also have a very nice role when we look for the right influencers, the speeches that bring relevant reflections and thoughts behind”.

A BODY ALWAYS IN MOTION

A

When changing the subject to physical activities and sports, Didi confesses that she was thinking, before the interview, what she could talk about. And her response was not only categorical, but also very enlightening: “I came to the conclusion that, for me, it’s important to be on the move. Why do I try to do sport? I know that cardiovascular function is important, muscle function too, and I was wondering: why do it? I always want to be on the move.”

The movement is so present in his life that even his work on television contributes to these wanderings, always offering challenges and new opportunities that make use of the body as a tool at the service of information. “I even have in my day to day, in my wanderings in Lugar Incomum, articles that put me in places of unusual activities, sports that I never practiced. I like to be on the move. Of course, along with that I look for the physical benefit, I won’t be shallow either, I run!”, he jokes.

For her, maintaining constancy in running is what helps to expend energy and keep the body active and in shape, while yoga helps with flexibility and strength, not to mention presence training and small meditations, which, for the presenter, also has its benefits. “You have to be in the yoga position thinking about the position of your spine, the strength of your abdomen. Be present in the present moment. And then it works,” she explains.

Add to that a few functional workouts a week and we have a person who definitely doesn’t like to sit still! “You have to lift iron, it’s no use. Especially women, we have a muscular build that isn’t as strong normally. And then, on the weekends, when it’s hot, I take surf lessons. I’m not one of those who with rain and wind ‘I’m going’, I’m not going! But when it’s nice, I’ll go!”

To combine with such an active routine, Didi seeks to maintain a very varied diet, with lots of fruits and vegetables. In addition, she tries to spend one day a week eating a vegetarian diet, “almost vegan”, she explains, jumping on the “meat free mondays” bandwagonie Meatless Mondays. “I bought Paul McCartney’s cookbook and he says that if everyone went one day without meat – and he suggests that it be Monday – meat consumption in the world would decrease by I don’t know how many percent and planet earth would be much easier and happy. Our motivation is somewhat like this. We reduce the consumption of red meat a lot at home, we have a diet more based on fish, vegetables and legumes“, she says.

Furthermore, Didi is blunt when saying that she eats a little of everything: a little pizza, a little cake, and a little healthy food. “I eat, people! Sport ends up providing a little bit of this balance in terms of consumption. As the body is in motion, the carbohydrate is already being consumed, the metabolism is taking care of it. So, I think the balance goes there!”, she finishes her off.

Didi’s photos were taken at the SPA Santapele, at the Hotel…