The Overexamined Life

Todd Fink has the ability to casually articulate some of the most complex spiritual paradoxes all while exuding an aura of warmth and love. We explore the ego, the healing effect of nature, and the way society and commerce can commodify art and turn spirituality into an industry - in an effort to figure out what’s real and what’s performance, what’s authentic - who are we really when nobody’s watching?

More from Todd: michaeltoddfink.com

Sick of being ruled by your emotions?
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WATCH THE PODCAST on Youtube
Follow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his Website
Jonah writes on Substack
You can contact The Overexamined Life at team@jonahprimo.com
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A tech founder tried the same dark retreat as Nate and tapped out after three hours. One of favourite friends of the show - Nate Green, did over a hundred, straight, alone, and with a real risk of losing his grip on reality. He walks us through what a hundred hours in blackout darkness does to your sense of time, your sense of self, and your ability to tell whether you're living or dying. Then faces the Reckoning of Self, my closing gauntlet of questions on fear, death, and regret.

Sick of being ruled by your emotions?
Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, 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 Instagram or Letterboxd visit his Website
Jonah writes on Substack
You can contact The Overexamined Life at team@jonahprimo.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if Nirvana isn't a mountaintop, monastery thing, but something available to you right now wherever you are. Stephen Batchelor spent ten years as a monk chasing exactly that, including three-month stretches sitting in silence asking "what is this?" He came out the other side as a controversial figure with his own brand of secular Buddhism that requires no mythical beliefs - essentially, we've been overcomplicating the whole path. Today on The Overexamined Life Podcast: a modern attainable definition of Nirvana, what "embracing suffering" really means, and how to get there without leaving your house.

Sick of being ruled by your emotions?
Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, 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 Instagram or Letterboxd visit his Website
Jonah writes on Substack
You can contact The Overexamined Life at team@jonahprimo.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Buckle up you philosophy degenerates for one of our more "out there" ones. Richard Lang has spent his life teaching Douglas Harding's "Headless Way" — a philosophy that starts with a genuinely disorienting perceptual experiment and ends up somewhere close to boundlessness, reduced stress, and a different relationship with your own self-consciousness. We talk through the exercise itself, what people report feeling when it lands, and why something this simple has stuck with people for seventy years.

Sick of being ruled by your emotions?
Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, 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

Want more from Richard? https://www.headless.org/

WATCH THE PODCAST on Youtube
Follow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his Website
Jonah writes on Substack
Email Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Sagar was a world-class rock climber until a freak accident left him tetraplegic overnight, paralysed in all four limbs, torso, and pelvic organs, losing not just his body but the identity and dreams built around it. Paul is also a Cambridge-trained philosopher who teaches political theory at King's College London, and he brings that same rigour to unpacking his own experience, from the physical horror of his new reality to the depression that came with it. Somehow, and against every expectation, he's emerged with an ease around words like "lucky" and "happy" that most people couldn't muster on their best day. This is a hard listen that goes to some dark places before it climbs back out, but what Paul finds on the other side might change how you think about what actually matters.

Sick of being ruled by your emotions?
Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, 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 Instagram or visit his Website
Jonah writes on Substack
Email Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.