634: The Happiness Paradox & Lessons from Life’s Last Room with Amy Low
The Holy Post
Phil Vischer
4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2024
⏱️ 92 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s show is all about perspective. First, Phil offers his perspective on the news stories fans send him on social media about Icelandic cucumbers and water buffalos, and how they compare to articles he actually likes about robotic mushrooms and avoiding gluteal amnesia. Then, a recent article explores our culture’s focus on products, practices, and apps designed to increase our happiness, and why focusing on happiness is a sure way to miss it. And Christine Emba’s latest article in The Atlantic looks at why government support and financial incentives have failed to reverse declining birthrates in many countries. She argues the decision to have children isn’t about money but meaning. Then Amy Low shares about her memoir “The Brave In-Between” and the perspective she’s gained by living with a terminal cancer diagnosis for five years. Plus, Skye and Mike Erre have different perspectives about holiday decorations.
Holy Post Plus:
Bonus Interview with Amy Low: https://www.patreon.com/posts/111819242/
0:00 - Intro
1:52 - Show Starts
2:52 - Theme Song
3:14 - Sponsor - Hiya Health - Go to https://www.hiyahealth.com/HOLYPOST to receive 50% off your first order
4:19 - Sponsor - Go to https://www.fromourplace.com and use code HOLYPOST to get 10% off site wide on beautiful cookware!
5:28 - Holiday Decor Disagreements
11:56 - Wounded Water Buffalo
15:11 - Tiktok Blamed for Cucumber Shortage
18:22 - Mushrooms Piloting Robot Hands
22:25 - Dead Butt Syndrome
28:09 - Does Tracking Happiness Make Us Miserable?
41:07 - Is the Decline of Birth Rates Really Economic?
58:45 - Sponsor - Faithful Counseling - This episode is sponsored by Faithful Counseling. Give online therapy a try at https://www.faithfulcounseling.com/HOLYPOST and get 10% off
59:52 - Sponsor - World Relief - Visit https://worldrelief.org/holypost/ to find out how to get two FREE e-learning courses and celebrate World Refugee Day with World Relief!
1:01:06 - Interview
1:06:01 - Why Did Amy Low Write The Brave In-Between?
1:10:10 - What Are the “Rooms” We Go Through in Life?
1:17:00 - The Honesty That Comes Out Near Death
1:23:10 - Where is the Meaning in Pain?
1:31:10 - End Credits
Links Mentioned in the News Segment:
Water Buffalo That Was on the Loose in Iowa Captured:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/water-buffalo-on-loose-injured-aggressive-iowa/
Viral TikTok Video Creates Cucumber Shortage in Iceland:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2024/09/06/viral-tiktok-video-creates-cucumber-shortage-in-iceland/
Robot controlled by a king oyster mushroom blends living organisms and machines:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/04/science/fungus-robot-mushroom-biohybrid/index.html
Sitting All Day Can Cause Dead Butt Syndrome:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/04/well/move/dead-butt-syndrome-gluteal-amnesia.html
Are We Happy Yet?:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/opinion/happiness-tracking-america.html
The Real Reason People Aren’t Having Kids:
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2024/08/fertility-crisis/679319/
Other resources:
The Brave In-Between: Notes from the Last Room by Amy Low: https://a.co/d/5Hm69Ic
Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/
Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus
Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost
Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop
The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Holy Post. Today's show is all about perspective. |
| 0:04.0 | First, Phil offers his perspective on the news stories that fans send him on social media, |
| 0:10.0 | stories about |
| 0:13.7 | Icelandic cucumbers and how they compare to the articles he actually likes, |
| 0:16.4 | articles about robotic mushrooms and avoiding gluteal amnesia. |
| 0:20.7 | Then a recent article explores how our culture's focus on products, practices, and apps designed |
| 0:26.3 | to increase our happiness actually prevent us from being happy. |
| 0:31.1 | Then Christine Emba's latest article in the Atlantic looks at why government support and financial incentives have failed to reverse declining birth rates in many countries. |
| 0:40.0 | She argues the decision to have children isn't really about money, but about meaning. |
| 0:46.0 | Then Amy Lowe shares about her memoir, The Brave In Between, and the perspective she's gained by living with a terminal cancer diagnosis for five years. |
| 0:56.0 | All of that, plus Mike Erie and I have very different perspectives about holiday decorations. |
| 1:02.0 | I've got one big announcement before we jump into the show. |
| 1:05.0 | Holy Post Media is launching a brand new podcast with our friend, New Testament scholar, and New York Times columnist E.S.S. Macaulay. |
| 1:13.8 | E.S. podcast is going to debut on September 25th, |
| 1:17.5 | and new episodes will be released every Thursday after that. |
| 1:21.2 | But we need your help. If you want to be part of the launch team for |
| 1:24.8 | ESAW's new show and help spread the word then head over to holy post.com |
| 1:29.7 | slash launch team. Again it's Holy Post.com slash launch team all one word. We're |
| 1:37.6 | really excited about having ESAW on the Holy Post Media team and we're super |
| 1:41.6 | grateful for all of you who've helped us get to this point and |
| 1:44.8 | who are going to help us launch ESAW's new show in the next few weeks. |
| 1:48.8 | Okay, here is episode 634. |
... |
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