The Absurd World Podcast

We all have titles, roles, identities, and labels we want to be known by. We want to be seen in certain ways, recognized as certain kinds of people, and understood in a way that reflects how we see ourselves. But do others always see us for who we feel we truly are? Do they even want to? And perhaps more frighteningly, do we need others to recognize us as we are in order to truly become who we bel...

Many of us go through life believing that, at least to some degree, we are relatively safe from the dangers of the world. That no one is out to get us. That if something goes wrong, there are people and systems in place that will have our backs. But what if that is not always true? What if, when things really go wrong, we are entirely alone in this world, left to fend for ourselves? In this episod...

It’s Halloween everyone! And you know what that means... A Halloween special episode!!! This October, we are taking a look at what it means to create stories of horror, from the myths and legends to the folklore that so many of them are built upon. From the stories of the Americas designed to warn us against threats from all around and within, to the stories meant to change the way we understand n...

If you were no longer able to work, do chores, support your friends and family, take care of others, or contribute to the world in some meaningful way... would you still be human? Or would you be as useless as a bug? This is the question we explore this week in the first episode of a series on the works and philosophy of the master of the absurd himself, German speaking Jewish writer Franz Kafka....

We wake up every morning. We go to work, attend school, take care of the household, and follow the routines we believe we need to maintain just to exist in this world. We try to make friends, build relationships, and find ways to add something meaningful to our lives. These are the steps we are taught to follow to live a “normal” life, to be productive, and to be healthy. But what happens when we...

If there is one question that comes up time and time again among those hesitant or concerned about the school of thought called existentialism, it is the fear that this way of thinking and living could lead to something terrible for those who embrace it: selfishness. But is it really so easy to fall down a selfish rabbit hole? And does being selfish necessarily mean that we are aware of what we ar...

How much control do we really have over ourselves and our inner worlds? Sure, we can choose to take one action or another physically, but do we really control the things that drive those actions? Do we actually have control over the internal reactions we call emotions? In this weeks episode, we explore what it means to have a healthier relationship with our emotions and, in turn, feel more in cont...

Are you alone? Am I? Are we all? And is loneliness a fundamental part of being alive? Something forced upon us? Something we choose? Or something far more personal? In this weeks episode, we dig into the experience of true loneliness: where it comes from, why it occurs, and what, if anything, we can do about it. With a jam packed exploration of the works of French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre,...

Are philosophers good people? Do they actually live the kinds of lives they tell the rest of us to aspire to? Or are they all talk and no action? In this weeks episode, we take a hard look at the lives of some of our favorite philosophers and the ways they sometimes seemed to completely contradict their own teachings. With thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Al...

Do you like eating meat? Is it delicious in every possible way? Does it remind you of good times with family, friends, or traveling? Same. So why am I vegan? And why am I asking whether you should be? In this weeks episode, I step away from the usual ethical and moral arguments surrounding veganism and animal consumption. Instead, we use the question of whether we should be vegan as a way to explo...

Do I love my country? If I do, does that make me toxic? If I don't, does that make me a traitor? Is there even a right answer anymore? And what does it really mean to be a patriot today? In this weeks episode, I explore what it means to love your country in a genuine and authentic way, and how patriotism can be expressed through action rather than blind loyalty. With the help of thinkers like...

What does it mean to be liberal? To follow liberal ideology? To be left wing? And what does it mean for me to call myself a liberal in the modern world, in the nation where I was born? Surprisingly, that is a much more complicated question than it might seem. In this weeks episode, I turn to several thinkers to try to understand what it actually means to be a liberal and whether it is an identity...

Why am I so bored all the time? Why is nothing entertaining enough for me anymore? Am I boring? Are other people boring? Have I simply become too accustomed to having endless entertainment at my fingertips? Or is something else going on? In this weeks episode, we take a long, hard look at boredom and what it actually means to us. With the help of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, along with a b...

What does it mean to be healthy? Really. Not what the latest fad tells us. Not what we are constantly told we should be doing. And not even what the government says. What does it actually mean to live a healthy life? In this episode, we stop and seriously ask how we know what is healthy for us in the first place. Is health really as straightforward and scientific as we tend to assume, or is there...

Am I a bad parent? Did I have bad parents? Is there even such a thing as a good parent? As a therapist, I am not sure there is a question I have heard more often or spent more time exploring. Throughout my career, clients have asked what it really means to be a bad parent, and whether anyone can truly be called a good one. In this weeks episode, I dive into these questions with the help of British...

Should I have kids? Should you? Should anyone, for that matter? Is anyone ever truly ready to become a parent? Do we really know why we want children? And if we do, how can we tell when we are actually ready? In this weeks episode, I explore what it really means to have a child and the questions we should be asking before making one of the biggest decisions of our lives. With the help of thinkers...

Do you ever wish aliens would just abduct you and take you on an adventure? A chance to leave behind the endless stress, conflict, and uncertainty of life on Earth? It sounds nice... but there is one small problem. Would we even be able to communicate with them? Could they understand us, or we them? Is it possible that two intelligent beings could encounter one another and never truly know it? And...

What are we, really? We are told we are human. But what does that actually mean? It seems like such a simple question, yet philosophers have wrestled with it for centuries. This week, we dive into the existential question of what it truly means to be human and whether our understanding of ourselves has missed something important. Guided by thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Er...

I exist. I am a human being who exists. I know this. I feel this. But how do I actually describe it? Do I list my traits? My personality? My qualities? Do these things really explain my existence, or am I something more than all of them? In this weeks episode, I explore what it truly means to exist and how we might begin to understand ourselves beyond the labels we so often identify with. With the...

There are many things we question on this podcast. We challenge assumptions, call out ideas we take for granted, and examine the concepts we think we understand. But surely there are some things so fundamental to our existence that they are beyond questioning... Time, for example. In this weeks episode, we turn to Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, who argues that time is far less straig...

You hear about it all the time. People claim to have it, joke about it, and reduce it to a collection of quirky habits. But for those who actually live with OCD, there is nothing funny about it. So let us explore what it really is. In this weeks episode, I introduce obsessive compulsive disorder and the deeply existential nature of this widely misunderstood condition. Together, we explore the neur...

Are you tired of being a square? Tired of always doing what you are told? Tired of following the rules and seeing reality the same way everyone else seems to? Well... have you ever considered psychedelics? In this weeks episode, we swan dive into the world of reality altering substances as we explore whether there is really only one way to experience reality. Guided by journalist Michael Pollan an...

We hear so much about change. About finding ourselves, becoming authentic, and creating meaning in our lives. But would it not be nice if someone handed us a map? In this weeks episode, and the final installment in our three part series on Jungian psychology, we explore the possibility that such a map may already exist. With the help of American thinker and writer Joseph Campbell, and with an extr...

We know the absurd. By now, we are familiar with it. Heck, this podcast is named after it. But what if there is more to absurdity than randomness, contradiction, and chaos? What if there is something hidden within the paradox itself? In this weeks episode, and the second in our series exploring the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, we ask whether even the most absurd moments in life might hold...

We have all made countless choices in our lives. Some big, some small, some easily forgotten, and others that stay with us. Many of these decisions have shaped the course of our lives in ways we may never fully understand. But what if we are also shaped by the choices we did not make, the lives we did not choose to live. Our unlived lives. In this episode, we begin a series exploring the work and...