Finding Meaning In The New Age of Anxiety

Thanks For Asking

Feelings & Co.

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.7 • 13.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The world doesn’t make a lot of sense right now, including other people and why they think the things they think and do the things they do. So I’m tapping in Steven J. Heine, professor of Social and Cultural Psychology and the author of Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times to talk about: -How these times are actually kind of precedented by the Age of Anxiety -How we make meaning -How our stories drive our choices, and our choices make our stories -A million other things. You can buy Steven’s book here to support her, independent bookstores, and this podcast. You can support this show and get ad-free episodes of our entire back catalog (and more!) on my substack. Have something you want to talk about? You can call or text us any time at 612.568.4441 or email [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi guys, it's Nora. If you like what we've done here on Terrible Thanks for asking, you might
0:06.3	want to check out our YouTube channel. We have two new videos going up every week over at
0:12.9	YouTube.com slash at feelings, A-N-D, co. That's feelings and co. There's a link to it in our show description. So see over
0:23.1	on YouTube if that's what you're into. What a sales gal I am. Ready to launch your business? Get
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0:51.1	Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.
0:53.6	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:59.4	Um, how are you?
1:03.1	Most of us say fine or good, but obviously it's not always fine, and sometimes it's not even that good.
1:11.3	This is a podcast that gives people the space to be honest about how they really feel.
1:17.1	It's a place to talk about life, the good, the bad, the awkward, the complicated.
1:24.0	I'm Nora McInerney, and this is thanks for asking.
1:39.1	If you are having an existential crisis, and who isn't, this episode is for you. Things right now are
1:46.3	tough to put it very mildly the day that I'm recording this. The U.S. economy is
1:52.3	crashing, crashed in free fall, just one line going straight now. Tariffs. They're everywhere.
1:59.8	We're tariffing. Terriffing? Is it a verb? We don't know,
2:03.4	but we're doing it to penguins. Our government has been hijacked by a deranged billionaire with a
2:07.5	breeding fetish. Our few flimsy safety nets are being pulled apart thread by thread. I could go on,
2:13.0	but do I need to? We are living in times that are, depending on who you ask, trying times, uncertain
	...

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