As students rushed into the Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center Auditorium Nov. 12, Ben Nemtin and Duncan Penn sat relaxed in a back room with only the company of their laptops and backpacks as they waited to share their many adventures with their fans. After creating, producing and starring in a hit show on MTV, Nemtin and Penn could use a team of experts to help them on their journey. Instead, they maintain complete control of the project they started six years ago called The Buried Life.
Nemtin began the lecture explaining how he always wanted something more during his college years. “I wanted to be a part of something cool and meaningful,” he said. Penn’s brother, Jonnie, was also on the hunt for something bigger and better as he was struggling financially. Nemtin drafted his friend Dave Lingwood and teamed up with the Penn brothers to create a list of 100 things they wanted to do before they died. They called their project “The Buried Life,” a reference to a 150-year-old Matthew Arnold poem. They planned to cross off every item on the list during a two-week road trip in the summer of 2006. They also pledged to help strangers cross off their list items along the way.
While similar lists are known as bucket lists, the four Canadians never related to the phrase. “It doesn’t quite cover it for us. People don’t put their wildest dreams on bucket lists,” Nemtin said. Their wildest dreams came true when the two-week trip turned into something more. MTV aired “The Buried Life” back in 2010. It caught the attention of thousands as fans watched the fearless quartet ask Taylor Swift on a date and crash a party at the Playboy Mansion. Other episodes allowed the audience to watch as family members reunited and a little girl conquered her fear of roller coasters.
Even after MTV canceled the show, The Buried Life thrived. In March, they crossed off list item number 19: write a best-selling book. “What Do You Want to Do Before You Die?” features list items of people around the world accompanied by beautiful illustrations from six different artists. While they hoped the book would help cross off another item, they were shocked at the response. “When we first started The Buried Life, we had already set really, really big benchmarks,” Penn said. “But the book was an amazing surprise.”
Nemtin and Penn ended the lecture by giving audience members a chance to share their list items. While one audience member shared her wish to arrange for the Auburn basketball team to play a game with her brother who has Down syndrome, another confessed her personal struggle with leukemia and her motivation to start a foundation to help kids with cancer. “I was nearly brought to tears,” Auburn freshman Savannah Peirce said. “It was moving to hear everyone’s stories.”
Throughout the lecture, the audience members’ confessions and even the meet-and-greet, Nemtin and Penn stressed the importance of making a list. They admitted to taking things off their list after becoming disinterested in them. However, they never felt pressured to remove list items others deemed impossible.
As they shared their list, their struggle and their journey, Nemtin and Penn instilled inspiration in the audience that night. “The Buried Life is a way of life,” Penn said. “Your list evolves as you evolve.” As Nemtin asked at the beginning of the lecture, what is keeping you from accomplishing every item on your list? The answer is nothing.
If you are interested in helping the guys if they come back to Auburn to help people cross off items on their lists, you can email secrets@theburiedlife.com and add Auburn as the subject line.