Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. My guest today is Dean Rickles. He's professor

of history and philosophy of modern physics at the University of Sydney and a director

of the Sydney Center for Time. Life doesn't last that long. The ever-present specter of

death looms large, even if you live to be 100. This can feel like a tragedy in many ways.

What use are our efforts if they'll all be turned to dust, eventually? The philosopher's

insight is needed here to give us a fresh perspective. Expect to learn why keeping your

options open is a path to an early grave, how you can remind yourself of the miracle that

you're alive at all, the solution to living a listless, unintentional life, whether

death is actually the only thing that gives life any meaning, the danger of being a sailor

without a journey or a route, and much more. I didn't plan it to be this way, but this

feels like quite an appropriate episode, I think, to go into the Christmas period with.

I do sometimes feel a bit melancholy when it's Christmas time. I think it's because I'm

back home and I'm reminiscing about what's happened throughout the year and everything

slows down a little bit. I do think that considering the shortness of life and where it is

that we're going with our days is probably a pretty nice reflection and it is, despite

the morbid sounding description, it is actually quite uplifting. So this will be the last

episode I get to speak to you about before Christmas happens. There is no episode this

Saturday. I figured that I would give everyone that ears arrest on Christmas Eve. But

yeah, thank you very much. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Love you all. I can't

wait to see what the New Year's got to install. Tons and tons of exciting things. But for

now, enjoy the food, enjoy the family, be present. Remember that life is incredibly short

and that this could be one of the last Christmas that you get to spend with even the annoying

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