In part two I dive deep into the insights we can draw from Aella's story and her worldview and how it relates to my work

Lex's Interview with Aella

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFSrxSBrgSc

Timestamps:

Book: The Will to Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Aella is a great case study for looking at the beauty and meaning to be found in a journey of overcoming hardship. If you find this interesting I dive deeper in part 2

Lex's Interview with Aella:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFSrxSBrgSc

Timestamps:

I dive deep into the science of happiness and suffering. Hedonic adaptation is a concept I introduced in ep2 but didn't really explain. Understanding hedonic adaptation is core to understanding the utopian trap and ultimately to understanding my approach to confronting the current meaning crisis. This episode was done freeform, that's why it's so much longer than the others

Thank you to Laurie Santos for helping to solidify my understanding of the science of happiness (hedonic adaptation in particular). She has some great online courses

My take on the symbolic worldview. I believe that by embracing a symbolic worldview we can overcome the materialistic worldview, and in doing so, we can beat the meaning crisis.

Luke Smith - He explains why he moved out of the city and joined an Orthodox community

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxozmaGISOI

Jonathan Pageau

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXnef2Ltklg

Song only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5K0znZXIo4

Discussion of what utopianism is, why it is the standard in modern society, and why it inevitably leads to nihilism. Utopianism can take form on a grand scale, as with communism for instance; but it can also take form on a personal scale, as with alcoholism

This is a reading of an essay which lays the ground work for the language I'll be using and the approach I'll be taking in this podcast. I plan to do more freeform discussions and bring on guests in the future, but I'd like to lay some ground work first.

Credit to John Vervaeke for enlightening me on the historical context of the meaning crisis and insight into modern psychology. He has great resources on YouTube