What if you’re just starting out in life and everything you’re supposed to be excited about – college, career, money and success – leaves you cold? What if even your friendships seem empty? What if nobody you ask can tell you how to find meaning in life?

That was Michael’s quandary at 17. All through high school he’d been looking for answers, and now he figured he didn’t have any choice. “Either I find meaning,” he resolved, “or I end my life…”

Well – he’s still here. I know – I talked to him just last week on zoom, and he smiled a lot.

So I asked him what happened, and how he keeps smiling – even in the face of climate change, the pandemic, and all the other the disasters brewing all around us all the time.

And he told me – and I ended up smiling too.

Some of what we talk about in this episode:

• How to have faith in the future without being naive or fanatical