I am tired. You are tired. We are all, collectively, tired. Some of us might call it burnout. Maybe all of us have felt it at some point. But what does that really mean, and how do we keep it from spreading any further?

In this weeks episode, we explore burnout as something far more complex than simple exhaustion, depression, or weakness. With the help of South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han, and the thinkers he draws from like Hannah Arendt and Friedrich Nietzsche , we ask how deeply burnout is woven into the fabric of our society and whether it has been ingrained in us to the point that we pursue it without even realizing it...

Many of us spend a huge portion of our lives online. Scrolling, swiping, clicking through an endless stream of images and videos that claim to show us the world. But is that world actually reality, especially now that AI is part of the picture?

And was it ever reality to begin with?

In this episode, I explore how photography and video may have quietly reshaped the way we believe we experience reality, often in deceptive ways. With the help of American essayist Susan Sontag, we question what it really means to see life through a camera and whether these images reveal anything objective at all, or simply convince us that they do.

We talk about a lot of complex topics on this podcast. Confusing, shifting, and often elusive ideas, and the language we use to try to make sense of them. But if there were one concept we could all count on understanding, it would have to be evil...

... Right?

In this weeks episode, I dive into why that is most definitely not the case as we explore what evil is, and more importantly, what it is not. With the help of German philosopher Hannah Arendt, we begin to question whether evil is something deeply complex and difficult to grasp, or if its power lies in just how simple it might actually be.

We’ve spent a lot of time exploring the world around us, how it works, how it misleads us, how it often feels indifferent to our existence. We’ve looked at the many ways we try to survive within it. But we keep returning to something deeper: not just surviving, but creating a place for ourselves and living authentically within it. And that raises a difficult question; how do we actually come to belong?

In this episode, I explore the tension at the heart of belonging, the constant push and pull between ourselves and the world as we try to find our place within it. With the help of German author Hermann Hesse and his novel Steppenwolf, we examine what it means to seek belonging in a world we often fear… and sometimes feel rejected by.

Freedom matters, maybe more than anything else. To some more than life itself. It’s one of the central ideas this podcast has explored from an existential perspective. But have we ever stopped to ask whether freedom is really all it’s cracked up to be? Is it truly the ultimate goal of human life?

In this week’s episode, I question whether our idea of freedom is overly idealistic and maybe even a kind of fantasy. What if freedom is not only difficult, but deeply unsettling? What if, in some ways, we fear it more than oppression?

With the help of German-American psychotherapist Erich Fromm, we explore the human need for belonging, and how that need may quietly undermine our pursuit of true freedom.

Do you feel like your mind never slows down? Dread, anxiety, aimlessness… a fear of being vulnerable enough to truly connect, paired with a deep longing for belonging and intimacy that only true vulnerability can bring?

Sounds like you should talk to someone.

In the final episode of this philosophical check-in series, we explore the role of psychotherapy; what it is, what it can offer, and why it might matter more than we think. With guidance from thinkers like Irvin Yalom, Viktor Frankl, and Carl Jung, we look at what therapy was always meant to be, why it can feel so hard to find now adays, and why it may still be worth the search.

I’ve shared a lot with you over the past year; ideas about money, ethics, morality, society, ideology, and how we treat each other and the world we live in. For some, these ideas spark a desire to take action. For others, they can feel overwhelming… like there’s nothing you can really do.

Which makes me wonder… you mad bro?

In the second part of this philosophical check-in series, we explore what happens when these ideas stir up frustration, helplessness, or even rage. With the help of thinkers like Fyodor Dostoevsky, we consider what action might look like when you can’t fix everything, and whether that means you shouldn’t act at all.

It’s been a year of episodes, and it feels like the right time to ask a simple but important question… are you okay?

We’ve covered a lot together, exploring existential crises, personal struggles, and the many ways the world can feel overwhelming. We’ve looked into some heavy, unsettling ideas. Maybe it’s time for a philosophical check-in.

In this first episode of a short series focused on reflecting on your journey, I invite you to consider how life has been as you try to balance individual freedom with responsibility to others and the world around you. Drawing on ideas from philosophers like Simone de Beauvoir and Friedrich Nietzsche, we explore whether it’s possible to find some kind of balance through it all.

It’s the beginning of the twentieth century. The founders of existentialism are gone, and Europe stands in a near-constant state of upheaval. The world is primed for a surge of thought, questions of purpose, meaning, and above all… freedom.

In this episode, the second part of our one-year anniversary special, we turn to the thinkers who would carry existentialism into the modern era. Their ideas would shape not only philosophy, but the lives of countless people searching for answers in an often unjust world.

Following the years before, during, and after World War II, we explore the rising philosophical careers—and occasional downfalls—of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Simone Weil, Keiji Nishitani, and Albert Camus as they help form the foundation of existential thought in the modern world.

Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, “I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.” For him, the actions we choose—those not born out of obligation but out of freedom—reveal who we truly are. In today’s episode, we explore that idea more closely.

After a year of episodes, we finally pause to ask: who were the existentialists this podcast is built upon? How did they come to believe and teach what they did? What experiences shaped their thinking?

In the first episode of a special two-part series exploring the lives behind the philosophy, we turn to three foundational figures of existential thought: Søren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Friedrich Nietzsche. It’s time to look at the hardships, struggles, and experiences that helped shape these towering voices in philosophy.