Avsnitt
-
Do you ever wish aliens would just abduct you and take you on an adventure? A chance to leave behind the endless stress, conflict, and uncertainty of life on Earth? It sounds nice... but there is one small problem.
Would we even be able to communicate with them? Could they understand us, or we them? Is it possible that two intelligent beings could encounter one another and never truly know it? And what does any of this have to do with bats?
In this weeks episode, I explore the strange challenge of understanding minds that are fundamentally different from our own. With the help of philosopher Thomas Nagel and several other thinkers, we ask whether it is ever truly possible to know the inner world of another conscious being.
The answer may leave us feeling more isolated than we ever expected.
-
What are we, really?
We are told we are human. But what does that actually mean? It seems like such a simple question, yet philosophers have wrestled with it for centuries.
This week, we dive into the existential question of what it truly means to be human and whether our understanding of ourselves has missed something important. Guided by thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Ernest Becker we turn especially to ecologist and philosopher David Abram and his expansion of the work of French existential philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
Together, we ask not only what it means to be human, but whether we have forgotten how to be one.
-
Saknas det avsnitt?
-
I exist. I am a human being who exists. I know this. I feel this. But how do I actually describe it? Do I list my traits? My personality? My qualities? Do these things really explain my existence, or am I something more than all of them?
In this weeks episode, I explore what it truly means to exist and how we might begin to understand ourselves beyond the labels we so often identify with. With the help of English existential psychotherapist Mick Cooper, alongside insights from Sartre, Jaspers, May, and others, we dive into the nature of human existence and discover that what we usually mean by "existence" is only the beginning.
Perhaps misunderstanding what it means to exist is also why we so often struggle to understand how to live.
-
There are many things we question on this podcast. We challenge assumptions, call out ideas we take for granted, and examine the concepts we think we understand. But surely there are some things so fundamental to our existence that they are beyond questioning...
Time, for example.
In this weeks episode, we turn to Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, who argues that time is far less straightforward than it appears. As we explore the many ways humans experience, understand, and attempt to measure time, we begin to see that even our most basic assumptions about reality may not be as certain as we once believed.
Perhaps the hardest things to define are the very things we think we already know.
-
You hear about it all the time. People claim to have it, joke about it, and reduce it to a collection of quirky habits. But for those who actually live with OCD, there is nothing funny about it.
So let us explore what it really is.
In this weeks episode, I introduce obsessive compulsive disorder and the deeply existential nature of this widely misunderstood condition. Together, we explore the neuroscience, daily experience, philosophy, and treatment of OCD, examining what it is actually like to live with a mind caught in cycles of doubt, fear, and uncertainty.
With the help of existential psychotherapist Viktor Frankl, we may discover that relief from suffering is not found through certainty, but through a fundamentally existential shift in how we relate to uncertainty itself.
-
Are you tired of being a square? Tired of always doing what you are told? Tired of following the rules and seeing reality the same way everyone else seems to? Well... have you ever considered psychedelics?
In this weeks episode, we swan dive into the world of reality altering substances as we explore whether there is really only one way to experience reality. Guided by journalist Michael Pollan and his book How to Change Your Mind, with a guest appearance from philosopher and psychologist William James, we investigate some of the most misunderstood substances in human history.
Together, we ask whether psychedelics reveal an entirely different way of being, perceiving, and understanding the world... or whether they simply convince us that they do.
-
We hear so much about change. About finding ourselves, becoming authentic, and creating meaning in our lives. But would it not be nice if someone handed us a map?
In this weeks episode, and the final installment in our three part series on Jungian psychology, we explore the possibility that such a map may already exist. With the help of American thinker and writer Joseph Campbell, and with an extra Jungian flair, we dive into the concept of the Hero’s Journey to ask what it truly means to become whole.
Using stories like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Lord of the Rings, and Kingdom of Heaven, we explore both the metaphorical and very real journey that may lie ahead of us.
-
We know the absurd. By now, we are familiar with it. Heck, this podcast is named after it. But what if there is more to absurdity than randomness, contradiction, and chaos? What if there is something hidden within the paradox itself?
In this weeks episode, and the second in our series exploring the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, we ask whether even the most absurd moments in life might hold meaning. Whether the contradictions we experience are not obstacles to understanding, but invitations toward it.
What if the paradox is trying to tell us something? All we have to do is dig deeper, search honestly, and be willing to embrace whatever we find along the way.
-
We have all made countless choices in our lives. Some big, some small, some easily forgotten, and others that stay with us. Many of these decisions have shaped the course of our lives in ways we may never fully understand. But what if we are also shaped by the choices we did not make, the lives we did not choose to live.
Our unlived lives.
In this episode, we begin a series exploring the work and ideas of Swiss psychotherapist Carl Jung and how his thinking can guide and influence our existential exploration.
Get ready for a midlife crisis yall!
-
Life is ambiguous. There are no clear, cosmic rules handed down to guide us. The rules we follow are human made, shaped by culture, history, and belief. Without something claiming absolute certainty, it can be difficult to know what you should be doing at all. That uncertainty can feel terrifying. But what if it also opens a different possibility? What if you can create your own sense of direction while still remaining subjective and ethical, and what if that guidance is already within you, waiting to be heard
In this episode, I explore what it means to have boundaries. What they are, how they function, and why they matter. With the help of American psychotherapist Robert Jackman, we look at how boundaries can be both deeply uncomfortable and incredibly necessary, and why they might be one of the most important tools we have for living authentically
-
I am tired. You are tired. We are all, collectively, tired. Some of us might call it burnout. Maybe all of us have felt it at some point. But what does that really mean, and how do we keep it from spreading any further?
In this weeks episode, we explore burnout as something far more complex than simple exhaustion, depression, or weakness. With the help of South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han, and the thinkers he draws from like Hannah Arendt and Friedrich Nietzsche , we ask how deeply burnout is woven into the fabric of our society and whether it has been ingrained in us to the point that we pursue it without even realizing it...
-
Many of us spend a huge portion of our lives online. Scrolling, swiping, clicking through an endless stream of images and videos that claim to show us the world. But is that world actually reality, especially now that AI is part of the picture?
And was it ever reality to begin with?
In this episode, I explore how photography and video may have quietly reshaped the way we believe we experience reality, often in deceptive ways. With the help of American essayist Susan Sontag, we question what it really means to see life through a camera and whether these images reveal anything objective at all, or simply convince us that they do.
-
We talk about a lot of complex topics on this podcast. Confusing, shifting, and often elusive ideas, and the language we use to try to make sense of them. But if there were one concept we could all count on understanding, it would have to be evil...
... Right?
In this weeks episode, I dive into why that is most definitely not the case as we explore what evil is, and more importantly, what it is not. With the help of German philosopher Hannah Arendt, we begin to question whether evil is something deeply complex and difficult to grasp, or if its power lies in just how simple it might actually be.
-
We’ve spent a lot of time exploring the world around us, how it works, how it misleads us, how it often feels indifferent to our existence. We’ve looked at the many ways we try to survive within it. But we keep returning to something deeper: not just surviving, but creating a place for ourselves and living authentically within it. And that raises a difficult question; how do we actually come to belong?
In this episode, I explore the tension at the heart of belonging, the constant push and pull between ourselves and the world as we try to find our place within it. With the help of German author Hermann Hesse and his novel Steppenwolf, we examine what it means to seek belonging in a world we often fear… and sometimes feel rejected by.
-
Freedom matters, maybe more than anything else. To some more than life itself. It’s one of the central ideas this podcast has explored from an existential perspective. But have we ever stopped to ask whether freedom is really all it’s cracked up to be? Is it truly the ultimate goal of human life?
In this week’s episode, I question whether our idea of freedom is overly idealistic and maybe even a kind of fantasy. What if freedom is not only difficult, but deeply unsettling? What if, in some ways, we fear it more than oppression?
With the help of German-American psychotherapist Erich Fromm, we explore the human need for belonging, and how that need may quietly undermine our pursuit of true freedom.
-
Do you feel like your mind never slows down? Dread, anxiety, aimlessness… a fear of being vulnerable enough to truly connect, paired with a deep longing for belonging and intimacy that only true vulnerability can bring?
Sounds like you should talk to someone.
In the final episode of this philosophical check-in series, we explore the role of psychotherapy; what it is, what it can offer, and why it might matter more than we think. With guidance from thinkers like Irvin Yalom, Viktor Frankl, and Carl Jung, we look at what therapy was always meant to be, why it can feel so hard to find now adays, and why it may still be worth the search.
-
I’ve shared a lot with you over the past year; ideas about money, ethics, morality, society, ideology, and how we treat each other and the world we live in. For some, these ideas spark a desire to take action. For others, they can feel overwhelming… like there’s nothing you can really do.
Which makes me wonder… you mad bro?
In the second part of this philosophical check-in series, we explore what happens when these ideas stir up frustration, helplessness, or even rage. With the help of thinkers like Fyodor Dostoevsky, we consider what action might look like when you can’t fix everything, and whether that means you shouldn’t act at all.
-
It’s been a year of episodes, and it feels like the right time to ask a simple but important question… are you okay?
We’ve covered a lot together, exploring existential crises, personal struggles, and the many ways the world can feel overwhelming. We’ve looked into some heavy, unsettling ideas. Maybe it’s time for a philosophical check-in.
In this first episode of a short series focused on reflecting on your journey, I invite you to consider how life has been as you try to balance individual freedom with responsibility to others and the world around you. Drawing on ideas from philosophers like Simone de Beauvoir and Friedrich Nietzsche, we explore whether it’s possible to find some kind of balance through it all.
-
It’s the beginning of the twentieth century. The founders of existentialism are gone, and Europe stands in a near-constant state of upheaval. The world is primed for a surge of thought, questions of purpose, meaning, and above all… freedom.
In this episode, the second part of our one-year anniversary special, we turn to the thinkers who would carry existentialism into the modern era. Their ideas would shape not only philosophy, but the lives of countless people searching for answers in an often unjust world.
Following the years before, during, and after World War II, we explore the rising philosophical careers—and occasional downfalls—of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Simone Weil, Keiji Nishitani, and Albert Camus as they help form the foundation of existential thought in the modern world.
-
Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, “I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.” For him, the actions we choose—those not born out of obligation but out of freedom—reveal who we truly are. In today’s episode, we explore that idea more closely.
After a year of episodes, we finally pause to ask: who were the existentialists this podcast is built upon? How did they come to believe and teach what they did? What experiences shaped their thinking?
In the first episode of a special two-part series exploring the lives behind the philosophy, we turn to three foundational figures of existential thought: Søren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Friedrich Nietzsche. It’s time to look at the hardships, struggles, and experiences that helped shape these towering voices in philosophy.
- Visa fler
