Hello and welcome to Being Well, I'm Forest Hanson.

If you're new to the podcast, this is where we explore the practical science of lasting

well-being.

And if you've listened before, welcome back.

It's natural to have moments, even in the course of a generally happy, generally pretty

fulfilling life, where we question our meaning, value, and purpose.

This is often concentrated when we face the reality of our own mortality.

And there's nothing quite like a pandemic to cast that one into sharp relief.

So today we're exploring a topic that's been top of mind, I think, for many people over

the last year and a half.

Existential dread.

How can we face our ends and find the meaning and purpose that can help us live good lives?

To help us do that, I'm joined as usual by Dr. Rick Hanson, because a clinical psychologist,

a best-selling author, and he's also my dad.

So dad, based on our warm-up conversation that we had to kind of set this recording up,

I'm guessing that you're not feeling a lot of existential dread right now, but feel

free to correct me here.

Well, you know, words mean different things for different people, and sometimes there are

these technical meanings.

And one of the words that's also bandied around with regard to existentialism is nausea.

So when I look into myself in the plain meaning of nausea or dread, no, I'm not experiencing

either one of them.

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