The Overexamined Life

Join the free gratitude club! It’s so wholesome! patreon.com/tolclub Spiritual mentor Dianne Horton , claims she doesn't suffer…not because she was born that way, but because it's a skill she learned and believes anyone can develop. At one point she even says she enjoys eating an ice cream as much as being in a car crash, so I challenged Dianne harder than I usually would to understand how she cul...

After 100 interviews with gurus, doctors, and scientists chasing the same question...what actually makes happiness stick...I've landed on four things we can do to win at life. And by win at life, I mean not be depressed. It's working. I call it the Proof of Life. Have a squiz at this one, I think it's really helpful. Sick of being ruled by your emotions? Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bon...

This episode has been de-monetized out of respect for the Viveka Hermitage.   Join the free Gratitude Club: patreon.com/TOLclub Email me: team@jonahprimo.com   I seek council from one of the wisest people I know, Jitindriyā, a Buddhist nun. Jitindriyā helps me out with understanding death, depression, love, karma, apologising, and much more.   If you are navigating depression, anger...

Join the gratitude club for free 😊 Patreon.com/tolclub When pain refuses to go away, many of us start to believe we're permanently broken. That was my story too. I used to suffer from chronic daily migraines that were basically life ruining. I recovered in part through the mind-body approach pioneered by Dr. John Sarno, which sees chronic pain as a nervous system signal that can be changed. It ch...

Join the gratitude club free! Patreon.com/tolclub When I hit something uncomfortable, I suffer in my head. My guest Paul Attia is an overexaminer too, only when he faces a problem, he doesn't just get crippled by it. He analyses it, contextualises it, and builds a framework to solve it according to his values. Then he lives by it, deliberately, nothing left to chance. As an ex cross-examiner turne...

When confronted with devastating grief, perhaps the most visceral pain humans can experience, most of us hide. We numb ourselves, distract ourselves, and do everything we can to avoid it. My guest today is Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, who chose a different path. After the loss of her daughter, she turned toward grief rather than away from it, transforming her pain into a life's work helping others navig...

Join my FREE Gratitude Club so we can all be a lot happier for f*cks sake. https://www.patreon.com/c/TOLclub OK so. Earlier this week I spent 10 minutes examining every inch of my naked body in the mirror…an exercise in extreme suffering I undertook in the pursuit of enlightenment because Stephan Bodian told me to. Bodian is a former monk, psychotherapist, pioneering Western Zen teacher, and the o...

JOIN THE GRATITUDE CLUB FREE: patreon.com/tolclub Recent science has told us that gratitude has the power to do something nothing else in the world can. It can get you off the hedonic treadmill. We go deep into what that means, and look at said science :) Sick of being ruled by your emotions? Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: p...

If you're a writer, musician, entrepreneur - someone building something in the margins of your real life, this one is for you. My guest today is Caddicarus : over a million subscribers, nearly 400 million views, and a very honest bloke. Here's the thing so many of us carry without even realising it, the belief that the moment we hit the number , whatever your number is, life clicks into place...

Jonathan Bricker makes the case that shame isn't just a byproduct of addictive behaviour, it's basically the whole engine. We get into why that voice in your head, the really mean one. The really really really really mean one, is actively strengthening the very cravings it's trying to crush. And Jonathan hands us something genuinely useful: a clear, evidence-based way of handling urges that doesn'...

What if death wasn’t something to fear? What if you were completely at peace? In short, what if dying didn’t suck? Helen and her team at Preparing the Way ( https://preparingtheway.com.au/ ), walk alongside people in the final chapter of their lives. We talk about what it means to heal into death rather than fight it, why grief doesn't start when someone dies but long before that, what the phrase...

This will make all your food taste so good that you just might literally explode right now where you are I'm serious, click this to explode. We all want to explode! Sick of being ruled by your emotions? Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub   Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App F...

This one got personal. We go deep into my own panic attacks, and at a certain point it stops feeling like an interview and starts feeling like a live therapy session. Dr. David Rosmarin is a clinical psychologist, Harvard Medical School faculty member, and founder of the Centre for Anxiety, and he has spent his career arguing that anxiety isn't a disease to be cured but a human condition to be und...

The grass may be greener on the other side, but it doesn’t matter, you’re on this side.  Sick of being ruled by your emotions? Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primo WATCH THE PODCAST on Youtube Follow Jonah Primo on Ins...

We spend our days optimising, refining, and sanding down every rough edge, only to end up exhausted in a life that looks right but feels strangely hollow. In this conversation with Johann Hari, we unravel the illusion of “junk values” and explore Eudaimonia, a deeper, more human kind of meaning that can’t be engineered. More about Johann here! https://johannhari.com/ Sick of being ruled by your em...

Do you ever feel like you’re missing your own life? Like you’re just a passenger? You’re always experiencing something, but when you look back, the day is a blur… memories without the feeling of having lived them. It feels like just yesterday I was 17. It probably does for you too. Unless you are 16. Anyway. I think I’ve found a solution to this problem.  Sick of being ruled by your emotions?...

A.I. is getting smarter and more intimate. People whisper secrets to glowing screens, confess fears to code, feel understood by something that isn’t conscious. I catch myself doing it too, more than I probably should. So I called in Deborah Nas, tech strategist and futurist, to talk A.I.-induced psychosis, the ethics of A.I. romance, and what it means for our brains, hearts, and society. Few conve...

What if changing your mind wasn’t a weakness, but the most honest way to live? I am convinced (for now) that embracing the idea that you are not one rigid identity allows you to not ‘dig in’ to any one position and really frees you up to be authentic. When there’s no self to defend, hypocrisy isn’t hypocrisy at all: it’s honesty. Sick of being ruled by your emotions? Join our Patreon for AD-FREE l...

The creative life can be brutal. It seems there’s endless work required for the most minimal recognition, and this endless work only begins after you finish your day job, since none of it pays anyway. At least this line of thinking is one creatives tend fall prey to. Which is not helpful, regardless of whether or not it’s true. Cue Adam Leipzig; Adam was a senior executive at Walt Disney Studios a...

The voice in your head is either your ally or your enemy. And you have the power to choose. The words we use to describe ourselves our the words we begin to believe. The way you speak to yourself, really really, matters  Sick of being ruled by your emotions? Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub  ...

Today, I chat with Dr. Shannon Albarelli, a clinical psychologist, mindfulness instructor, and ketamine-assisted therapy guide. We dive into her journey through loss, and explore how science, ancient wisdom, and psychedelics can help us unlock new parts of ourselves, find peace, and actually enjoy being alive. Find out more about Dr. Shannon here: https://www.doctor-shannon.com/ Sick of being rule...

In honour of the 2026 Winter Olympics, we sit down with speed skating gold medalist Mark Tuitert to explore what actually separates an Olympic champion from everyone else—and it turns out it’s not just training harder, but mastering forgiveness, acceptance, and the messy reality of being human. Drawing on Stoic philosophy, personal loss, and hard-won perspective, this conversation is a must-listen...

If nobody knows, how can we trust anything? Fortunately Alan Watts weighs in to make us feel at peace.  Sick of being ruled by your emotions? Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub   Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primo   WATCH THE PODCAST on Yout...

Vic Zerbst is a weapon of mass creation. They co-wrote and starred in Optics (Logie-nominated for Best Scripted Comedy) and the Christmas movie Nugget is Dead. They are also one half of the award-winning sketch duo Fruidian Nip, and this year premiered Converted! which is a queer musical developed through the Rebel Wilson Comedy Commission. But we had Vic on not just as a comedian, but as a razor-...

Master Mingtong Gu, an ex-mathematician turned meditation master, has abandoned his algorithms for slow-motion arm waving. Well it’s much more than that. The art of Qigong is a recipe to become calmer, clearer, and harder to rattle. We talk about what Qigong is, how it regulates your nervous systems, why you can’t logic your way out of burnout, why today’s leaders are ineffective, how to take cont...