Michael Easter on the Comfort Crisis

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2021

⏱️ 73 minutes

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Summary

Journalist and author Michael Easter talks about his book The Comfort Crisis with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Easter thinks modern life is too easy, too comfortable. To be healthy, he says, we need to move out of our comfort zones and every once in a while try to do something, especially something physically demanding, that we didn't think was possible. Easter discusses rising levels of anxiety and depression in the West and why taking on challenges can be part of the solution.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics
0:07.0	and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover
0:13.0	Institution.
0:14.0	Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode and find links and other
0:19.0	information related to today's conversation.
0:21.0	You'll also find our archives, but every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.8	Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.
0:29.8	We'd love to hear from you.
0:33.8	Today's June 30th, 2021, and my guest is journalist and author Michael Easter.
0:41.8	We're going to be talking about his book, The Comfort Crisis.
0:45.8	Michael, welcome to econtalk.
0:47.8	Thanks for having me on, Russ.
0:49.8	What is the comfort crisis?
0:51.8	So, on the comfort crisis, I argue that a lot of the comforts and conveniences that are
0:58.8	a part of our daily life really influence our daily lives, everything from the fact that
1:04.2	we don't have to put in effort for our food.
1:06.2	The fact that our food is so calorie dense, the fact that we live in at 72 degrees and don't
1:10.7	face challenge in modern life.
1:13.0	It's great, but at the same time, it's come with a lot of downsides, so it's associated
1:17.0	with a lot of our common physical and mental health problems.
1:20.8	So, sort of get at that question and what it means to us and what it's done to us.
	...

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