A Cure for Existential Boredom

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s one thing to be bored by having to wait in line or sit through a dry lecture. It’s another thing to be bored with life itself. What can you do about this kind of existential boredom? My guest will share a remedy with us today on the show. His name is Kevin Hood Gary, and he’s a professor of education, specializing in the philosophy of education. We begin our conversation with the difference between situational and existential boredom, and how the latter arises when we toggle solely between work and amusement. Kevin argues that we need to add an element of leisure, as the ancients understood it, into our lives, and we talk about what that looks like, and how it requires embracing solitude, study, epiphanies, and love.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:12.0	It's one thing to be bored by having to wait in line or sit through a dry lecture.
0:15.8	It's another thing to be bored with life itself.
0:18.8	What can you do about this kind of existential boredom?
0:21.6	My guest will share a remedy with us today on the show.
0:24.6	His name is Kevin Hood Gary and he's a professor of education specializing in the
0:28.4	philosophy of education.
0:30.1	We've been in a conversation with the difference between situational and existential boredom
0:34.0	and how the latter arises when we toggle solely between work and amusement.
0:38.4	Kevin argues that we need to add an element of leisure as the ancients understood it into
0:42.2	our lives.
0:43.2	When we talk about what that looks like and how it requires embracing solitude, study,
0:47.5	epiphanies and love.
0:49.6	After the show's over, check out our show notes at awm.is slash existential boredom.
0:58.4	All right, Kevin Gary, welcome to the show.
1:09.5	Thank you.
1:10.5	Great to be here.
1:11.5	So you recently published a book called Why Boredom Matters, Education Leisure in the
1:16.0	Quest for a Meaningful Life.
1:18.3	What led you to write a book about boredom and how to deal with it?
1:23.1	So I actually wrote a paper about 10 years ago on boredom and contemplation and a colleague
1:28.6	of mine in an ed psychology class was actually teaching the paper and shared that it was
	...

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