
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Cult leaders, religious fanatics, dictators, and charlatans all have one thing in common: they exploit our fear of death. Humans act out “immortality projects” in the form of religion, culture, and political ideologies as unconscious ways to override the terror we feel at our uniquely self-aware knowledge that we will one day die. Where the orthodox priest promises eternal life, the cult leader might predict an alien apocalypse, while the authoritarian strongman invokes the transcendent glory of leading a chosen nation and race.
In light of a recent death in the family, Julian leans into Ernest Becker’s Pulitzer Prize winning cultural anthropology text, The Denial of Death. He also draws on poetry and the archetypal psychology of Donald Kalsched to ask the big questions.
Does existential acceptance of death lead inevitably to nihilism? Is belief in God(s) and an afterlife necessary? Are poor or deeply traumatized people only left with despair in the absence of supernatural faith? Will children raised with no religion have no moral compass?
A rich discussion of philosophy and psychology alongside poems, myths, fairy tales, and deeply personal story-telling, especially about how to tell his 7-year-old that grandma won’t be back for Xmas.
Not to worry, though. This is, ultimately, an uplifting journey.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
By Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker4
20142,014 ratings
Cult leaders, religious fanatics, dictators, and charlatans all have one thing in common: they exploit our fear of death. Humans act out “immortality projects” in the form of religion, culture, and political ideologies as unconscious ways to override the terror we feel at our uniquely self-aware knowledge that we will one day die. Where the orthodox priest promises eternal life, the cult leader might predict an alien apocalypse, while the authoritarian strongman invokes the transcendent glory of leading a chosen nation and race.
In light of a recent death in the family, Julian leans into Ernest Becker’s Pulitzer Prize winning cultural anthropology text, The Denial of Death. He also draws on poetry and the archetypal psychology of Donald Kalsched to ask the big questions.
Does existential acceptance of death lead inevitably to nihilism? Is belief in God(s) and an afterlife necessary? Are poor or deeply traumatized people only left with despair in the absence of supernatural faith? Will children raised with no religion have no moral compass?
A rich discussion of philosophy and psychology alongside poems, myths, fairy tales, and deeply personal story-telling, especially about how to tell his 7-year-old that grandma won’t be back for Xmas.
Not to worry, though. This is, ultimately, an uplifting journey.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

4,664 Listeners

430 Listeners

15,681 Listeners

4,307 Listeners

3,349 Listeners

1,945 Listeners

6,258 Listeners

2,078 Listeners

3,546 Listeners

953 Listeners

16,925 Listeners

9,438 Listeners

576 Listeners

2,591 Listeners

1,033 Listeners