The Examined Life
The Examined Life podcast explores the questions we should be asking ourselves with a range of leading thinkers. Each episode features a different interview, and appeals to those interested in wisdom, personal development, and what it might mean to live a good life. Topics vary from discussing the role of dopamine mining and status anxiety, to exploring the science of awe and attention.
Episodes
28 episodes
Tom Chatfield - What myths are we telling ourselves about technology?
Technology is taking on a mythic mantle as we look to our creations to supply us with a sense of belonging and purpose, but this is a category error because tech cannot honestly deliver on these promises. In this podcast
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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56:01
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Rosie Spinks - What Do We Do Now That We're Here?
Rosie Spinks Substack - https://rojospinks.substack.com/aboutKenny Primrose Substack - https://positivelymaladjusted.substack.com/Moby Gratis Music - https://mobygratis.com/Writer and journalist Rosie Spinks joins us to exp...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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52:32
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Ruth Taylor - How do we develop better cultural values?
Ruth Taylor explores how our cultural conditions shape our values and beliefs, revealing how we can build futures where humans and other life forms flourish together on our planet. She illuminates the often invisible narratives that guide our t...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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59:57
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William Damon - Am I serving a bigger purpose than myself?
What does it mean to live a purposeful life? Is the way you're spending your time truly reflective of your deepest values and aspirations? These questions stand at the heart of my enlightening conversation with William Damon, Professor of Psych...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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54:36
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Katharine Birbalsingh - Why are we ignoring our future?
What shapes our children's future? Who are they becoming? And why aren't we talking about it more? Katharine Birbalsingh, known as "Britain's strictest headteacher," has a clear vision for the role of school's in shaping the future of Britain.<...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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53:14
Peter Gray - What do children need to develop psychologically?
If you’re a parent or a teacher, you’ve probably wondered about what the best conditions are for psychological development in children, and where we might have gone so wrong as a society. This week, we talk with psychologist
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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55:33
Michael Sacasas - what should we be doing for ourselves, even if a machine can do it for us?
Michael Sacasas writes about technology and human flourishing through his wildly popular newsletter The Convivial Society. I have been reading his work for a number of years and find it bo...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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1:00:17
Michaeleen Doucleff - what are the universals of childhood?
What if the Western approach to parenting is based on spurious cultural assumptions, not human nature? In this episode, science writer Michaeleen Doucleff takes us inside indigenous communities around the world to reveal what Western parenting ...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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1:05:24
Season II summary: it's all about attention
In this summary episode, we take the theme of attention which runs through most of conversations in the second season. In the episode you'll hear fragments of conversation from Iain McGilchrist, Dacher Keltner, Dougald Hine, Phoebe Tickell, Ale...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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27:50
Oliver Burkeman - How can I more fully embrace my finitude?
This is a distilled version of last year's conversation with the writer Oliver Burkeman. In it, you'll hear Oliver talk about our troubled relationship with time and how to mor...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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20:45
Phoebe Tickell - Is the root of our problems found in the way we see the world?
Phoebe Tickell is a biologist, systems thinker, and 'imagination activist'. Phoebe works across multiple contexts applying a complexity and systems thinking lens and engaging people in how to think differently about the planet and its problems....
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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55:37
Alex Evans - What do we do about the religion shaped hole?
What do we lack when we lack religion? In this episode Alex Evans explores the role that religion has historically played in both collective and individual life, and the shape it leaves behind when it disappears. The stories that we locate ours...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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53:14
Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor - Who are we, and what are we doing here?
Dr Jill Bolte-Taylor was a neuroanatomist at Harvard when she suffered a severe stroke on the left hemisphere of her brain. It was an experience which profoundly changed her life, and opened her up to the agency we all have in choosing our atte...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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53:09
Todd Kashdan - What are the best ways to be influential when lacking power and status?
Show links:Todd's website - https://toddkashdan.com/Todd's Substack - https://toddkashdan.substack.com/Kenny's Substack - https://positivelymaladjusted.substack.com/Examined Life youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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55:01
Iain McGilchrist - What is my culture preventing me from seeing?
Iain McGilchrist is a rare polymath who draws on his background in literature, philosophy, medicine and the sciences to make a profound argument that the kind of attention we pay to the world determines not only the kind of people we become, bu...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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57:29
Eve Poole - What is distinctive about being human?
As AI evolves and replaces different human functions, it raises questions about what it is that makes us distinctively human, and whether that distinctiveness can and should be programmed into AI. This is a question that Dr Eve Poole has though...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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56:35
Dougald Hine - How do we make good ruins?
Are you optimistic about the future? Do you think we're heading in the right direction as a species? If not, you're in good company. In this episode the writer and speaker Dougald Hine explores what's gone wrong with 'modernity', and what it mi...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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59:18
Elizabeth Oldfield - Who is it that I want to be becoming?
In this episode the writer and podcaster Elizabeth Oldfield explores the question ‘who is it that I want to be becoming?’ We discuss the pernicious forces that are shaping us, and what it means to be intentional about structuring our time...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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54:48
Dacher Keltner - How can awe help us to find more meaning in life?
How can we find meaning in life? In this episode we are joined by the celebrated psychologist Dacher Keltner where we explore where meaning comes from, and how the emotion of awe can help us find it. Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology ...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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1:00:34
Seasonal Reflections for the Year Ahead
This is a special summary episode with reflection points from 2023 to take forward into the year ahead. The episode pulls together one key idea from each conversation, accompanied by some thoughts on why I found it particularly helpful and inte...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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32:19
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Madeleine Bunting - what is home?
Ever found yourself pondering what truly constitutes a sense of 'home'? Join me as I, alongside award-winning author and journalist, Madeline Bunting, explore the multifaceted concept of home and the profound emotions associated with it. From r...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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50:16
Sir Terry Waite - how do we rebuild trust and foster community?
Sir Terry Waite spent almost five years in solitary confinement as a hostage in Beirut. After being released he founded Emmaus UK for the homeless and Hostage International, both of which he is president of. He has recently been kni...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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57:20
Helena Norberg-Hodge - Why is life getting harder and faster?
Why does life seem to be getting harder and faster day by day? How can we shift the paradigm towards a more sustainable and harmonious existence? Join us as we tackle these questions with Helena Norberg-Hodge, an influential thinker, writer, aw...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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57:33
Will Storr - How am I keeping score?
How do you keep score in the game of life? Journalist and author Will Storr explores the evolutionary roots of our need to play games for status and connection, and why it is valuable to become consciously aware of the games we are playing, and...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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57:19