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The Thomistic Institute

Burnout Society – Dr. R.J. Snell

The Thomistic Institute

The Thomistic Institute

Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Thomism, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Catholicism, Philosophy, Christianity

4.8873 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dr. R. J. Snell analyzes our “burnout society” as an achievement-obsessed culture that drives people to anxiety, depression, and exhaustion by demanding endless self-optimization while starving them of leisure, contemplation, and a meaningful narrative for their lives.


This lecture was given on December 8th, 2025, at University of Pennsylvania.


For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.


About the Speakers:


R. J. Snell is Editor-in-Chief of Public Discourse and Director of Academic Programs at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, NJ. He has been a visiting instructor at Princeton University, where he is also executive director of the Aquinas Institute for Catholic Life. He's written books and articles on Natural Law, Education, Bernard Lonergan, Boredom, Subjectivity, and Sexual Ethics for a variety of publications.


Keywords: Achievement Society, Attention Economy, Burnout and Depression, Byung-Chul Han, Disenchantment and Meaning, Existential Poverty, Leisure and Contemplation, Sabbath Rest, Student Anxiety, Thin Soul

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.

0:06.0

Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.

0:13.0

The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Tomistic Institute chapters around the world.

0:19.0

To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at

0:22.5

to mystic institute.org.

0:25.0

So we're going to talk about burnout society,

0:27.2

and I'm basically just going to steal and then read to you a bunch of quotes

0:30.2

from the Korean-German philosopher, bionghal Han.

0:34.0

Because you said there was going to be thoughtful reflections

0:36.0

with deep insight, and I don't have any of that.

0:38.3

So I'll give some of my own words and then we'll just read him.

0:41.3

A few years ago in a widely noted essay, Bill DeWershowitz then of Yale warned that the nation's top colleges were turning students into zombies.

0:50.3

While DeWershowitz noted that many of his students, and then he was at Yale, as I mentioned, were bright, thoughtful, creative kids.

0:57.9

Most of them, he said, seemed content to color within the lines.

1:02.2

Very few were passionate about ideas.

1:04.9

Very few saw college as part of intellectual discovery.

1:08.2

And he says, everyone dressed as if they were ready for a job interview at a

1:11.6

moment's notice. Now, I know they're not Pen or Drexel students, so naturally they were upset,

1:18.1

but I wonder if you might recognize something of yourself in Dershowitz's description of students.

1:23.8

As he puts it, they were driven, accomplished, talented, disciplined, successful, and capable.

1:30.0

And yet he continues, if you look beneath the facade of seamless well adjustment,

1:35.5

what you will often find are toxic levels of fear and anxiety, emptiness, aimlessness, and isolation.

...

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