A career. A partner. A home. Goals to strive for and a life to live on top of it all. Sounds passionate, right? What could possibly be wrong with that? What if, however, individual passion isn’t all there is to life?In this last episode of the series on living a value driven life, I take a look at what it means to be too passionate. With Simone de Beauvoir’s help, I once again ask, “What’s missing?” And the answer might just be a lonely one.
Technology. From hammers and shovels to smartphones and the AI best friend I beg for validation from (because asking a real human is apparently harder than rocket science). It’s shaped our lives for basically forever. But does it really free us to build the world we want, or quietly trap us in a cage we’ve built ourselves?With the help of thinkers Paulo Freire and Martin Heidegger, I explore whether leaning on technology is liberation or self-sabotage… and if it’s the latter, what on earth we’re supposed to do about it.
Do I have a problem? Am I too dependent on this? Am I an addict? These are questions I hear often in my work, and questions that rarely come with simple answers. Even when they do, there aren’t always easy fixes, because dependency isn’t just about chemicals, it’s also about who we are.In this episode, we dive into addiction from an existential perspective: what it means when your very sense of self becomes entangled with something outside of you. With insight from thinkers like Kierkegaard, and grounded in the raw reality of human suffering, we explore the deeper meaning of addiction.And maybe, just maybe, we’ll begin to question the way we see “addicts” altogether.
Grief — the ache we’re left with after a loss, the pit we fear we’ll never climb out of, and one of the hardest existential challenges we can face.In the third and final episode of our mini-series on death, we examine this painful aspect of mortality: what it means to be the one left behind. Joined by thinkers like Andrew Solomon, Kierkegaard, Rollo May, and Viktor Frankl, we try to make sense of grief and search for ways to find peace.One question hangs over the whole episode: Will grief ever stop — and if so, when? If not, how do we keep going?
Suicide — the topic we avoid. The conversation new therapists are trained to face despite discomfort and fear. The nightmare for families and loved ones. Yet it’s something that has weighed heavily on humanity’s mind since the beginning of time. How do we confront it? How do we talk about it? And perhaps most importantly, should it be considered a human right?In this episode, I wade into the dark and murky waters of suicidality with the help of Albert Camus, Emil Cioran, Viktor Frankl, and the Stoics. Together, we ask: where does autonomy end, and where does protection from ourselves begin?Maybe, once again, we’ll find that no answer is black and white — and it’s in the absurd complexity of it all that we begin to glimpse something like clarity.
Death — the thing so many of us fear most. Hardwired into nearly every living creature is the instinct to fight against it, yet it remains the one certainty we cannot escape. The opposite of survival, and still, the end awaiting us all. What kind of cruel joke is that? And why does it terrify us so deeply?In this episode, I open a new mini-series on death by asking: why do we fear it so much? And is there any way to escape such a horrid truth... or must we learn to accept it?With the help of a strange cast of characters, we’ll explore whether death truly is the end, and whether that’s really as terrifying as we think. Or... are there even stranger possibilities waiting for us?
Oh money. The thing that buys us what we want and what we need. The thing that seems to do everything for us. People love to say, “money can’t buy happiness”—yet most of us can’t even imagine happiness without it somehow being involved. Sometimes, having money feels just as essential as food and water. Maybe even more. But what is it, really?In this episode, I get a little help from one of modern philosophy’s favorite chaotic uncles, Slavoj Žižek, as I dig into what money truly is, what it does to us, and whether life without it is even possible.And ask yourself this: do you actually believe you could be happy without money? Or is that just a story we tell ourselves so we never have to find out?
What are labels, really? Are they made by us, or are they something bigger than us? Do they help define who we are, or just confuse us about the truth? Should we fear them, reject them, fight them—or embrace them and make peace with them?In this episode, I dig into what labels actually mean, how they function, and whether we truly embrace the ones we carry—or if they never really fit us at all. With thoughts from Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and even the ever-confusing Hegel, I ask: is life simple enough for labels to be useful, or do they only hold us back?Oh, and I also talk about being a potato… (trigger warning for you Irish out there).
What is art? How do we make it? What does it mean to see it, hear it, experience it? And who does it really belong to—the artist, the audience, or something else entirely?In this particularly pretentious and confusing episode (your words, not mine), I turn to existentialists of the past—like Martin Heidegger and Rollo May—to help untangle what art is supposed to mean, why it matters, and how it impacts those who encounter it.Along the way, we’ll also wrestle with the question of who gets to interpret art, and how to protect ourselves from the more dangerous traps of biased meaning-making.
In today’s world, we face fears, uncertainty, and living conditions that many have grown deeply tired of. Political terrors, social estrangement, and a good dose of paranoia — for many, it feels like the perfect time to rebel… or at least to demand serious change.In this episode, I focus on exactly how we can do that. People often find themselves lost at the starting line of what it takes to spark a true rebellion — of any kind. Luckily, our dear friend Albert Camus has some answers… though you may not always like them.So get ready to set aside your hate and thirst for vengeance, and dig deeper to discover the real sacrifices a rebel must make to build the world they long for.
Mysticism… What is it, really? Is it tarot cards, crystals, and reading the stars? Potions, curses, and chatting with spirits? Magic spells? Or is it just some nerds hanging out in basements, eating mushrooms, and flipping through ancient books?In this episode, we wrap up our three-part series on spirituality by exploring these spiritually adventurous souls who exist on the fringes of religious institutions.With help from thinkers like English philosopher Simon Critchley, we’ll ask what it might mean for anyone to become a mystic in this day and age — and why, maybe, we should seriously consider it.
What does it mean to have a religious experience? Do I have to talk to God? Do I have to be touched by the divine? Or… could it be more than that? Maybe I’ve already had one and didn’t even realize it.In this episode, we dive into what it really means to be religious—and to be open to having a religious experience at all. With a little help from psychologist, philosopher, and father of pragmatism William James, we unpack what it means to call yourself religious, who gets to make that claim, and why it might be a much grayer area than most people think.Turns out, your next religious experience might be closer than you think—so keep an eye on your morning coffee.
What does it mean to have faith? Is it something reserved for those who believe in a god (or gods)? For the religious only? Or is it something everyone takes part in, whether we realize it or not?In this week’s episode, we kick off the first in a three-part series on spirituality. I start us off with a headfirst dive into the meaning of faith. With the help of the great grandpapa of existentialism himself, Søren Kierkegaard, we explore the role faith plays in the lives of possibly everyone who has ever lived—and why it might be just as existential as stirring coffee in a French café… or dare I say, even more so....
What’s right and what’s wrong? How do I know if I’m doing the right thing — or if I’m just being a bad person? Jesse told me morality is all human-made… but then why do I feel so bad when I do something I think is wrong?In today’s episode, we dive into the concept of morality — not to brush it off as just another social construct, but to explore the deeper, human side of ethics beneath all the philosophical jargon.With help from Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, we dig into what morality really is, and why existentialism might need to take it more seriously than it usually does.
What does it mean to have control—and to be under someone else’s? And do we really know how to tell the difference?In today’s episode, I dive into the elusive, slippery concept of control and how it shows up in our daily lives, often in ways we don’t even notice. Along the way, we’ll turn to one of the most celebrated psychotherapists of the 20th century—often mentioned alongside Freud and Adler—Viktor Frankl.Maybe we’ll discover that control isn’t always about the actions we take, but about the freedoms we’re able to recognize… and the meaning we assign to any given moment
What’s true? What’s false? Who can I trust, and who should I question? Do I even know when I’m being lied to or fed misinformation?In this episode, I dive into the increasingly unsettling reality of our time: in a world where anyone can say anything and call it “truth,” how are we supposed to know what to believe?With the help of two major figures in the history of education and personal autonomy—Paulo Freire and Carl Rogers—I explore two urgent questions: Are we being trained to become easily oppressed? And if so, is the answer to that problem already hidden inside our own minds?
We’ve got AI, electric cars, photos of black holes, and—most importantly—a runaway alarm clock named Clocky. We are officially living in the future.But despite all this progress… do we actually understand ourselves any better than we did centuries ago?In this episode, I dig into the big question: Can science really answer life’s biggest, most human questions? And is that even what science is meant to do—or are we misusing it like we’ve misused so many things we don’t fully understand?
Can I say that I’ve ever truly been heard—really understood? That when I speak, others are actually listening from my perspective? Can you say that? It might not be so simple.In this episode, I explore just how complicated—and downright competitively messy—communication can be when it comes to truly seeing from another person’s point of view.To help me out, I call on philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein to explain the rules of the language game... I sure hope he doesn’t beat me up for being a slow learner...Discord server link! https://discord.gg/j8F9ngAJ
What does it really mean to perceive something? How do I get someone to understand my point of view? And how do I even know if what I perceived was real?In this episode, I journey deep into the phenomenological roots of modern existentialism to explore what it actually means to experience anything—whether it's drinking a cup of coffee or genuinely seeing a unicorn. Along the way, I’ll touch on psychology, neuroscience, and the slippery nature of reality.Also... Am I on acid right now? No seriously... am I?
Is happiness something we create, something we chase, or something that sneaks up on us when we least expect it?In this episode, I dive into the tangled world of joy, pleasure, freedom... and suffering? With a little help from our Russian friend Fyodor Dostoevsky, maybe we can start to make some sense of it all.Side note: when’s the last time you went to the dentist?