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In this episode Michael Sacasas explores what humans should keep doing even when machines can do it faster, cheaper, and “better,” and why convenience can quietly erode competence, attention, and relationship. We explore how friction, effort, and embodied practice can be part of flourishing rather than a problem to eliminate.  • the guiding question of what remains good for humans to do even when tasks can be automated  • Albert Borgmann’s focal things versus devices and what central heating replaces in home life  • the myth of time saving technology and how efficiency can multiply work  • what generative AI changes about writing and why the drafting process shapes thinking  • dishwashing, cooking, and other manual tasks as spaces for reflection and conversation  • why care for children and the elderly raises the deepest limits on delegation  • camping and “measured deprivation” as a way to recover presence and appreciation  • grounds for hope through local choices, better questions, and community deliberation  • hospitality and weak ties as a humanizing counterweight to online mediation  • practical habits for families including outdoor time, naming the natural world, reading, saying no, and shared meal prep  If you do enjoy the episode, please send it on to someone who might find it interesting or leave a review. It will help other people find it.  The Examined Life Substack - https://thisexaminedlife.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips Michael's Substack - https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/ Support the show

In this episode I speak to Sherry Turkle about why generative AI feels intimate, why that intimacy is often a simulation, and what we lose when we outsource love, care, and growth to machines. We keep returning to one question: what is the end game of letting AI become a friend, therapist, teacher, or companion, especially for children and for civic life. • AI as an attachment technology that comes for the heart  • the lure of friction-free connection and why we are “cheap dates”  • why pretend empathy can reduce real-world support and community investment  • therapy as an embodied relationship with consequences that a chatbot cannot replicate  • a practical litmus test: does AI help us grow resilience and inner life  • childhood development and the risks of AI speaking in the first person  • how validation-driven systems can de-skill us as citizens and weaken democracy  • a closing story about illness, prayer, and what real care feels like  If you did enjoy listening, then do please subscribe, like, share it on social media, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review, it will help other people find it. And sign up for the Substack This Examined Life, where I publish a newsletter and very much invite any kind of engagement and conversation with you people about what it means to live well at this moment and what the questions are that we should be asking ourselves. Relevant links The Examined Life Substack - https://substack.com/@kennyprimrose?utm_source=user-menu Sherry Turkle - https://sherryturkle.mit.edu/ Support the show

We pull together the strongest takeaways from months of conversations on death, grief, and loss, and we share why these topics reach so many people despite how easy they are to avoid. We explore how facing finitude can sharpen our values, deepen our love of life, and help us become more grounded and emotionally mature.  • why death and grief conversations feel taboo and why they matter  • how chasing immortality can be a way to avoid finitude  • Katherine Mannix’s question about mortality as threat or catalyst  • learning to sit with sorrow instead of suppressing it  • what end-of-life “life audits” reveal about buried regret  • B.J. Miller’s view of grief as a metabolic force  • how loss can distort into blame when we do not process it  • grief and death as teachers that clarify values and purpose  • living and grieving at the same time without being overwhelmed  • growing up past Peter Pan patterns toward grounded elderhood  Please do reach out. Stay up to date on Substack, where I've published periodic newsletters. That's at this examine life. Links are in the show notes.  Support the show

What does death reveal about who we really are? This week I'm joined by Professor Douglas Davies, Director of the Centre for Death and Life Studies at Durham University and one of the world's leading scholars of death, ritual, and belief. His work spans decades and disciplines — from the anthropology of funerals to digital legacy, from woodland burial to the theology of grief — and his central conviction runs through all of it: the dead live within us, and recognising that can help us live better. We talk about the ways death strips away the myth of the self-made individual, revealing that we are fundamentally relational beings — shaped by the people, places, and memories we carry. Along the way, we cover the full arc of how societies and individuals make meaning in the face of mortality. We talk about: Résumé virtues versus eulogy virtues — and why the gap between them mattersThe concept of "dividual" personhood, and why the idea of a fixed, separate self breaks down when we actually look at how people live and grieveHow grief theory has shifted from letting go to continuing bonds — and what that means for how we mournWhy funerals work: their role as social containers for emotion and meaningThe rise of celebration of life services and direct cremation, and what those trends tell usWoodland burial, the scattering of ashes, and the pull of relational placesDying alone, shame, dignity, and what COVID forced us to confront about communityDigital death platforms, online memorials, and why offline ritual still does something differentNew body disposition options, including alkaline hydrolysisPets, suicide, and the ways love complicates every tidy theory of griefFor further reading, Douglas's book Death, Ritual and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites (now in its third edition) is a rich and authoritative guide to everything this conversation touches — available from Blackwell's and other independent bookshops. If this episode resonated with you, the best thing you can do is share it with someone. Word of mouth is genuinely how the podcast finds new listeners. And if you haven't already, leaving a review is hugely appreciated. Support the show

What does it mean to try to change the world — without losing yourself, or everyone else, in the process? This week I'm joined by Anthea Lawson: activist, writer, former journalist, and campaigner who has spent three decades working on issues from the arms trade to financial secrecy. Her new book, How Not to Save the World: Doing Good Without Annoying Everyone (Oneworld, 2026), is a candid and hopeful look at the traps that well-meaning people fall into — and how to find a better way through. We explore the hidden "save the world" script that pushes so many of us toward either frantic overwork or numb despair, and why both tend to backfire. Anthea maps out a third path — grounded in humility, relationship, and local people power — that turns out to be more effective, and more sustaining, than heroic effort alone. We talk about: The two default responses when the world feels overwhelming: compulsion and shutdownWhat "script messages" are, and how unconscious patterns quietly drive activism cultureHow a genuine commitment to good can tip into righteousness that pushes people awayWhy the protest voice often fails in everyday relationships — and what listening can do insteadHow purity tests and perfectionism raise the barrier to entry and shrink movementsOverwhelm as a structural tactic that keeps communities divided and reactive"I know better" dynamics, lived experience, and the legacy of class and white saviour thinkingWhy meaningful change now requires people power over individual heroicsAntidotes: service, bridge-building, showing up without ego, and the value of genuine relationshipRegulating the nervous system through embodiment and co-regulationMaking space for grief — not as defeat, but as something shared that creates breathing roomHow Not to Save the World is available from independent bookshops — you can order it through Bookshop.org, which supports independent booksellers directly. Follow Anthea's writing and thinking on Substack at anthealawson.substack.com. If you enjoyed this episode, a rating or review goes a long way — and do sign up on Substack for This Examined Life, where you'll find updates, newsletters, and reflections between episodes. Support the show

Gavin Francis is a GP in Edinburgh, and also one of the best writers I know of on what it means to be a body moving through a life. In this conversation we got into territory I didn't quite expect — how much of modern spiritual hunger ends up in the consulting room, why a diagnosis can be both a relief and a trap, and what it actually looks like to help someone climb out of a dark period without reaching straight for a prescription. He has a ten-point list he shares with patients in despair. It's practical without being glib, and I think it's quietly one of the most useful things in this episode. We also talked about attention — how flow and deep engagement are being quietly eroded, what AI convenience might be costing us in terms of capability and friction, and why awe and equanimity aren't soft ideas but things that actually hold communities together. He's thoughtful, unhurried, and genuinely humble about what medicine can and can't do. I came away with a clearer sense of what flourishing actually means — which is not the same thing as happiness, and is worth distinguishing. If it resonates, please pass it on. You can find more conversations like this at This Examined Life — and if you'd like updates and new episodes delivered to you, sign up on Substack. Support the show

Stephen Cave is a philosopher, writer, and Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. His work sits at the intersection of philosophy, religion, ethics, and technology, exploring humanity’s oldest questions about death, meaning, immortality, and what it means to live well in a rapidly changing world. Before entering academia, Stephen worked as a diplomat for the British Foreign Office. He is an internationally recognised public philosopher whose research and writing examine how human beings confront mortality, and how emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence, are reshaping those responses. In this conversation, we explore why the awareness of death may be the defining feature of being human, and how our attempts to escape mortality continue to shape culture, religion, science, and modern technological ambition. In This Episode We Explore: The evolutionary roots of the survival instinct paired with a uniquely human awareness of deathTerror Management Theory and why immortality beliefs appear across culturesReligion, legacy, fame, and technology as competing “immortality stories”The wisdom tradition: gratitude for the sheer unlikeliness of being aliveServing others as an antidote to self-focused mortality anxietyPresence, mindfulness, and practices that reduce future-oriented fearNear-death experiences — and how naturalistic explanations can still preserve meaningWhy living “forever” might collapse identity, values, and purposeLife-expectancy myths, real medical progress, and the limits of longevity optimismAI and biological technologies accelerating anti-ageing researchModern abundance alongside a growing crisis of meaningPopulation pressure, carrying capacity, and what it would take for longer lives to go wellStephen Cave’s Books Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization A widely acclaimed philosophical exploration of humanity’s enduring attempts to overcome death.Should You Choose to Live Forever? A concise introduction to one of philosophy’s most provocative questions: would immortality actually be good for us?AI Narratives: A History of Imaginative Thinking about Intelligent Machines (with Kanta Dihal) An exploration of how stories, myths, and cultural imagination shape our understanding of artificial intelligence.Podcast Links: www.examined-life.com https://thisexaminedlife.substack.com/ Support the show

Mortality: Threat or Catalyst? A Conversation with Dr. Kathryn Mannix In this episode of The Examined Life, Kenny Primrose is in conversation with writer, speaker, and retired palliative care physician Dr. Kathryn Mannix about whether mortality is experienced as a threat or a catalyst for living. Mannix describes how early fear and resentment of death drew her to caring for dying patients, what she observed as medical abandonment, and how nurses taught her that the most important thing at the bedside is “how you are.” She argues that modern culture has lost “death literacy,” fueling fears shaped by Hollywood depictions and that talking about death through storytelling helps people to understand ordinary dying and what to expect. The discussion covers loss of control, end-of-life “audits,” regret as a processed, safer place than rage or shame, emotional literacy, and companionship that makes space for distress. Mannix suggests accepting finitude can clarify values and cultivate gratitude. 00:00 Mortality As Catalyst 01:27 Meet Dr Mannix 04:01 Threat Or Catalyst 04:32 Learning To Be Present 11:22 Magical Thinking Fears 16:56 What Dying Looks Like 23:11 End Of Life Audit 27:38 Rethinking Regret 32:25 Regrets and Joys 34:05 Regret as Wisdom 35:01 Emotional Literacy Work 38:35 Guilt Shame Reframing 40:50 Self Compassion Voices 43:33 Holding Space Culture 48:52 Telling the Story 51:22 End of Life Audit 53:28 Death Catalyst Gratitude 58:59 Closing Reflections Relevant Links: https://www.kathrynmannix.com/ www.examined-life.com https://thisexaminedlife.substack.com/ Support the show

BJ Miller on Loss, Meaning, and Learning to Feel In this conversation, Kenny Primrose speaks with palliative care physician BJ Miller, co-founder of Mettle Health, about grief—not as an interruption to life, but as one of its central experiences. Rather than treating grief as something that happens only after death, Miller suggests it is a constant human condition: the emotional response to loving things that inevitably change, fade, or disappear. The problem, he argues, is that modern culture is profoundly grief-illiterate. We rush people toward closure, reward emotional stoicism, and teach one another to avoid feeling too much. Drawing on his own life—including a catastrophic electrical accident at age 19 and the later death of his sister, Miller explores how grief shapes identity, attention, relationships, and even politics. When grief is denied, it often reappears disguised as anger, grievance, blame, or division. When felt honestly, however, grief reconnects us to meaning, deepens aliveness, and enlarges our capacity to live well. The conversation ranges from personal loss to healthcare reform, from daily mortality practices to the healing role of beauty and nature at the end of life.  In This Episode  Why grief is not exceptional but universal  How emotional avoidance creates “grief illiteracy”  The pressure to perform strength—and its hidden costs  What patients at the end of life teach about living  How grief transforms into anger, grievance, and polarization  Loss as a doorway to presence and gratitude  The importance of rituals and communal containers for mourning  Why medicine often treats death as failure  Practicing mortality as a path to meaning  Beauty, nature, and tenderness as forms of medicine Key Ideas Grief as Love Continuing Grief reveals what mattered. Rather than diminishing life, it clarifies it. Grief vs. Grievance Unfelt grief frequently becomes blame, resentment, or political division. Learning to Feel Emotional literacy—pausing before reacting, tolerating discomfort—is both personally healing and socially protective. Rituals Matter Modern societies have lost many shared practices that help people metabolize loss. We must rediscover or reinvent them. Rethinking Healthcare End-of-life care should prioritize meaning, beauty, and connection—not simply the postponement of death. Website - www.examined-life.com Substack - https://thisexaminedlife.substack.com Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ExaminedLifePodcast BJ's TED talk - https://www.ted.com/talks/bj_miller_what_really_matters_at_the_end_of_life Other resources on Grief - https://edition.cnn.com/all-there-is-anderson-cooper Mettle Health - https://www.mettlehealth.com/  Support the show

Learning from Loss with Dr. Lucy Hone How do you survive the unthinkable? When resilience researcher Dr. Lucy Hone lost her 12-year-old daughter in a tragic accident, she didn't just study the science of grief—she had to live it. In this episode, Lucy joins Kenny Primrose to share the practical, evidence-based tools that help us oscillate between mourning and living, and what we can learn about life in the wake of loss. In This Episode: In this new series on grief and mortality, we explore why the "stages of grief" model often fails us and what actually works instead. Dr. Lucy Hone discusses her journey from the University of Pennsylvania’s resilience program to the frontlines of her own personal tragedy. Key Topics Discussed: The Myth of "Bouncing Back": Why we need a more pragmatic definition of resilience.The 3 Habits of Resilient Grievers: Simple, actionable shifts in attention that can change your trajectory.The "Helping or Harming" Test: A vital tool for psychological flexibility.The Jigsaw Metaphor: How to rebuild your life when the old pieces no longer fit.Hidden Grief: Understanding "non-death" losses and how to process them.About Lucy: Dr. Lucy Hone is a best-selling author, TED speaker, and co-director of the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing & Resilience. Her work has been published in The Journal of Positive Psychology and featured in The Washington Post, BBC, and The Guardian. Resources Mentioned: Book: Resilient Grieving: How to Find Your Way Through a Devastating LossNew Book: How Will I Ever Get Through This? (On hidden and non-death grief)TED Talk: The Three Secrets of Resilient PeopleConnect with The Examined Life: Host: Kenny PrimroseWebsite: www.examined-life.comYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@ExaminedLifePodcastFollow & Subscribe on substack: https://thisexaminedlife.substack.com/ Support the series - buymeacoffee.com/kennyprimrose If you found this episode helpful, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps others find these conversations. Support the show

A short trailer for the forthcoming season where we explore mortality, immortality, loss, grief and finding meaning in the wake of them.  In the above clip you'll hear snippets from Lucy Hone, BJ Miller, Kathryn Mannix and Victor Strecher - with other episodes to follow. Subscribe and stay tuned for the forthcoming episodes, and sign up to This Examined Life on Substack to receiving updates and related essays to your inbox - This Examined Life | kenneth primrose | Substack Support the show

We explore what human flourishing means beyond quick hits of happiness and how attention, character, and community shape a life with depth. We offer practical ways to set tech boundaries, recover presence, and build habits that support meaning and stronger relationships. • defining flourishing as purpose, virtue, health, relationships, and stability • attention as a moral act that shapes identity • flow states, boredom, and the role of friction in mastery • how persuasive tech erodes agency and presence • resilience, emotion regulation, and numbing versus feeling • presence and awe as markers of a meaningful life • community ties, shared rituals, and mutual flourishing • practical boundaries for phones and persuasive design • replacing screen time with calls, walks, craft, and rest If you enjoyed this, please send it to someone who might benefit; subscribe, leave a review. - For More information about the Digital Detox Club, click here - Home | The Digital Detox Club - To sign up for This Examined Life on Substack, click here - This Examined Life | kenneth primrose | Substack Music made by Moby (mobygratis - Free Moby music to empower your creative projects) Support the show

We trace how realistic hope sustains people through captivity and crisis, from the Stockdale Paradox to Sir Terry Waite’s agency in confinement, and preview Dr. Lucy Hone's reframe of resilience as steering through rather than bouncing back. A brief, grounded message closes for anyone in a hard season, with a request to share and stay connected. • what the Stockdale paradox really means • why deadline‑based optimism breaks people • agency as daily practice under pressure • sir Terry Waite’s memory and interior freedom • resilience as steering through, not bouncing back • pragmatism, optimism, and agency as core tools • a preview of the conversation with dr Lucy Hone See if you can think of one person who you think might find this helpful, who might need to hear about optimism and pragmatism and finding agency in dark times Sign up to the Substack This Examined Life if you haven't done so already, where you can receive the newsletter and upcoming episodes and events, and leave a review on the podcast channel if you get the chance. Wherever you get your podcast, it really helps others to find it. Support the show

Living With Purpose: Insights from Victor Strecher In this episode of The Examined Life Podcast, host Kenny Primrose explores the profound questions of life's purpose and values with Professor Victor Strecher, a leading expert in the field from the University of Michigan. Strecher shares his deeply personal journey following the tragic death of his daughter, which led him to a renewed focus on what matters most in life. The conversation delves into how reflecting on death and one's core values can lead to a more purposeful and fulfilling life. Strecher also discusses the scientific and physiological benefits of having a strong sense of purpose, the distinction between self-transcending and self-aggrandizing purposes, and practical steps for individuals seeking to discover their own purpose. The episode touches on themes of identity, motivation, and the human condition, offering listeners profound insights and practical advice for living a more examined life. 00:00 Introduction: What Matters Most 00:34 Welcome to The Examined Life Podcast 00:44 Exploring Victor Strecher's 'Life On Purpose' 01:40 A Conversation with Professor Victor Strecher 03:35 The Big Question: Who Am I? 05:09 The Root System of Our Lives 08:09 A Personal Story of Loss and Purpose 14:15 The Mystical Experience and Its Impact 21:32 The Role of Death in Understanding Life 24:59 Exploring the Neuroscience of Purpose 25:26 The Role of Core Values in Purpose 26:16 Purpose and the Brain's Fear Center 26:53 Building the Brain's Purpose Muscle 28:08 Types of Purpose: Self-Transcending vs. Self-Aggrandizing 28:57 Historical Perspectives on Purpose 31:52 The Metaphor of the Camel, Lion, and Child 35:05 The Crisis of Meaning and Purpose 41:51 Practical Steps to Discovering Your Purpose 47:39 Final Thoughts and Reflections Links: Substack - https://thisexaminedlife.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips Examined Life Website - www.examined-life.com Victor Strecher - https://sph.umich.edu/faculty-profiles/strecher-victor.html Support the show

Sir Anthony Seldon is one of the most influential voices in the UK on education. He has led three prominent independent school, and written or edited more than 40 books. In this episode we explore how education can honour what truly matters in a time when AI can outscore us on the tests we designed. Sir Anthony Seldon lays out a shift from human capital to human flourishing, urging schools to cultivate agency, character, and love of learning. • redefining the purpose of education toward human flourishing • harms of exam-driven systems and narrow metrics • every child’s unique gifts and “song” • AI exposing the limits of cognitive-only assessment • OECD’s human flourishing model and core competences • coaching pedagogy to build agency and judgment • practices for inner life, mindfulness, and body care • virtues and pro-social habits for a resilient future • choosing subjects you love to sustain motivation • balancing measurable outcomes with the immeasurable As ever, do please share this episode with others you think might like it or on social media Sign up for This Examined Life on Substack, where you can receive updates, bits of writing, and you can support the show Any feedback or ideas can be emailed to me at [email protected] Support the show