meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Within Reason

#124 Sisyphus 55 - So You're Having an Existential Crisis

Within Reason

Alex J O'Connor

Religion, Morality, Ethics, Society & Culture, Cosmicskeptic, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy

4.91.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2025

⏱️ 91 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ben Thomas is @Sisyphus55, a YouTuber creating videos about philosophy, existentialism, nihilism, absurdism, and meaning. His new book, So You're Having an Existential Crisis: a Roadmap for Lost Souls, is available now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey everyone, I'm going to be on stage in London on the 17th of November at the Leicester Square Theatre,

0:05.6

in conversation with my friend Dr John Nelson talking about philosophy, God, religion, consciousness,

0:12.0

whatever you like really, there will be an extensive Q&A period. Early bird tickets are

0:16.2

available right now for substack subscribers, or the general sales starts on the 6th of October. It's the first

0:21.7

time I've done anything like this, just putting on a show and seeing how it goes. I'm sure we'll do

0:26.3

more in the future if this goes well, but for now at least, it's one night only. So get your tickets

0:31.2

when you can. All the links you need are in the description to this episode. What exactly is an

0:36.2

existential crisis? Yeah, so that's a, that's a good, definitely a good like jumping point into this. Because when I'm writing in the book about the existential crisis, that's kind of like also the entryway into how I get into philosophy. And I think that's for a lot of people.

0:55.1

That's how they get into philosophy.

0:56.8

And I think also just broadly bringing up an existential crisis before we get into,

1:01.9

you know, what it is, what it isn't.

1:04.4

I think there's always a potential like pathologizing it and that there's like

1:10.4

kind of levels of severity

1:13.1

with an existential crisis like there are um uh i think people that can be very very depressed and they

1:20.0

can try to like intellectualize the depression sometimes and i i do think like yes we can have this

1:25.3

like discourse about the importance of philosophy but but if people are, like, really struggling, um, there's other resources that are maybe less,

1:33.6

uh, you know, intellectually, like, troubling, uh, to kind of go through, like, you know,

1:39.5

seeking actual help and stuff. But at the same time, I do think, like, an existential crisis

1:43.8

is a good

1:44.5

concept for describing kind of a wide range of experiences that involve kind of alienation,

1:52.1

a sense of isolation, kind of grappling with one's own mortality. And it really, like,

1:58.7

at the end of the day, I borrow this from Nietzsche a lot, the notion of pain on some level as being a doorway to some sort of truth.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Alex J O'Connor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Alex J O'Connor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.