Feeling stuck, numb, or overwhelmed? Crashing out for the third time this week? Good news! Philosophy, the sad girl discipline of academia, has lots of advice for you. This episode breaks down 5 reasons why we get stuck according to philosophical greats like Franz Kafka, Soren Kierkegaard, Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and more. We’ll talk about practical strategies to climb out of your spiral and start feeling like yourself again. If your search history includes ‘why am I like this’ and ‘how to feel okay again,’ press play.

EPISODE OUTLINE

00:00 Intro 

04:53 You’re stuck because…

05:00 1. You’re free 

05:18 The dizziness of freedom (Kierkegaard)

06:04 We’re condemned to be free (Sartre)

07:13 The fig tree allegory (Sylvia Plath)

13:21 2. You’re choosing information over experience 

13:35 Mary’s Room hypothetical (Jackson)

22:49 3. You’ve outgrown a version of yourself

23:02 The Metamorphosis (Kafka) 

26:54 4. You’re expecting sense in senseless places

27:04 The Trial (Kafka)

35:14 5. You think nothing matters 

35:24 Mechanical life (Camus)

36:34 The moment of the absurd (Camus)

37:13 The myth of Sisyphus (Camus) 

40:08 Lightning round recap 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 

On Anxiety, Soren Kierkegaard (1844)

Being and Nothingness, Jean Paul Sartre (1943)

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (1963)

The Big Secret, Deepak Chopra (2008)

Epiphenomenal Qualia, Frank Jackson (1982) 

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka (1915)

The Trial, Franz Kafka (1925)

The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus (1942)