Best Of: An Epicurean Guide to the Good Life

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Education, Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Greek philosopher Epicurus made a rather bold claim over two thousand years ago. The key to life, he said, is simple: pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Around this maxim he developed a school of philosophy, Epicureanism, which promised its adherents that if they took care of their basic needs, surrounded themselves with trustworthy friends, and developed a basic understanding of science, they would be happy. But is it really that simple? Can the advice of someone born 2,363 years ago still hold true? To answer these questions, we turned to Emily Austin, professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University and author of the delightful book Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life. (This episode first aired in January 2023.) Sponsored By: Granola — If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to granola.ai/idea Incogni — Protect your personal information online and get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/nbi Quince — Refresh your spring wardrobe and get free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/nbi Shopify — Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rufus Griscombe, and this is the next big idea.
0:05.0	Today, the 2,000-year-old case for hedonism. Do you like pain?
0:31.5	It's a funny question.
0:33.3	Who likes pain?
0:36.1	Most of us, I think, would say that some suffering is part of a good life, and we admire those
0:41.8	who suffer well.
0:43.4	There was a saying in the 1980s when I was growing up, no pain, no gain, a workout mantra
0:48.6	immortalized by Jane Fonda.
0:50.9	But some quipster put no pain, no pain on a bumper sticker, and I remember thinking,
0:57.2	that's more like it.
0:58.8	Must we be masochists?
1:01.1	On the one hand, you might say that masochism is a clever adaptation to a world in which suffering
1:05.9	is inevitable.
1:07.5	If we're going to feel pain, we may as well learn to like it.
1:10.9	We've also learned that a certain amount of discomfort resets our hedonic set point and makes
1:16.2	pleasure more readily available.
1:18.7	I learned this from fascinating conversations with Anna Lemke and Paul Bloom in two of my
1:24.1	favorite episodes in the last few years.
1:26.7	On the other hand, a reasonable case
1:28.6	could be made that we celebrate masochism to a degree that's unhealthy. Embrace suffering in
1:34.3	this life so you might enter the kingdom of heaven in the next one. Our priests have been telling
1:38.7	us this for millennia in what smacks of a scam to keep peasants toiling the fields and tithing the church.
	...

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