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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

SPECIAL EPISODE! How To Fail: Alain De Botton on embracing vulnerability in the age of Coronavirus

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

Sony Music

Society & Culture

4.7 • 9.6K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2020

⏱️ 66 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the second of two special episodes, the renowned philosopher Alain de Botton, returns to How To Fail With Elizabeth Day to talk about how to be human and how to stay (relatively) sane in the grip of a global pandemic. We talk about the fact that, right now, it's rational to be a little demented and how we should all take lessons from our childhood and be less ashamed of bursting into tears when we really need to. He tells me about the merits of stoicism, the comfort that comes from admitting the situation we're in without sentimentalisation and what it means to find consolation in these unprecedented times.Along the way, de Botton tackles how to deal with grief and dismantles the idea of any hierarchy of suffering - insisting that how we feel is a fact that must be taken seriously, even if there are people worse off than us. And he also tells me about the need 'to turn the light on in the room of your fears' so that the darkness no longer has the power to terrify us. This leads to the brilliant idea of having a pessimistic shopping list, where you write down all the things you're most afraid of.In many ways, this interview is the perfect companion piece to Mo Gawdat's episode last week: de Botton tackles similar subjects but approaches them from a different angle, one that embraces darkness rather than choosing not to dwell on it. I found it so comforting talking to him, and it's a comfort that has sustained me for the days since doing the interview. I hope it does the same for you.*If you really can't get enough How To Fail content and are looking for something to read during lockdown, there is a book! How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now and available to order here*Alain de Botton is the founder of The School of Life You can see a video of this podcast recording on their YouTube channel.* How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and recorded, edited and mixed by Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email howtofailpod@gmail.com* Social Media:Elizabeth Day @elizabdayAlain de Botton @alaindebotton  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Now time for a quick message from Canva. Creating visual content is an essential part of what I do.

0:08.0

Regular listeners will know that before I knew any better, I drew my own logo for How To Feel With Felt It Pens.

0:15.0

The creative process, as you can imagine, hasn't always been easy for me.

0:19.0

And in the past, I used to do this thing where I would really struggle to format visual presentations.

0:27.0

And I would try to put together a mishmash of different fonts and filters from various aspects of social media

0:36.0

and then I would try and save the image and then I would try and repost it.

0:39.0

And it just never looked very good. But here is the answer to all of your problems. It's Canva for Teams.

0:45.0

Canva for Teams is a design platform that makes it easy for anyone, even me, to create stunning content in any format.

0:53.0

From social media posts to videos, presentations and websites. Ever since I found Canva for Teams, it has been easy to collaborate and design with my team.

1:02.0

And it makes the whole process so much more fluid, creative and fun.

1:07.0

It means that I can use Canva to create a guest announcement, for instance, for How To Feel, which I do every week.

1:14.0

And then I can communicate with my team directly on that platform. And they can suggest any ideas and just edit it directly.

1:21.0

And it just makes it all so much more free-flowing. You can design anything with endless templates. Canva presentations, which means you can take your presentations to the next level with professionally designed presentation templates.

1:35.0

And Canva whiteboards, you can capture your team's best ideas with infinite space to brainstorm and collaborate.

1:42.0

You can turn inspiration into design in no time using premium fonts, photos, graphics and videos that add personality and edge to my team's content.

1:53.0

You can also kickstart your creative process with Canva's AI-powered magic features, such as magic right, where all you do is enter a prompt and magic right generates a first draft.

2:05.0

It's the perfect way to banish writers block, increase your output or get to a first draft fast.

2:12.0

You can design and collaborate with Canva for teams. Right now, you can get a free 45-day extended trial when you go to Canva.me-slash-fail.

2:24.0

That's Canva, C-A-N-V-A dot me-M-E slash fail for a free 45-day extended trial. Canva.me-slash-fail. Thanks again to Canva for supporting this podcast.

2:41.0

Channel 4 is the home of your next TV obsession. As the UK's biggest free streaming service, they have it all from classic comedy box sets to shocking reality, gripping drama and mind-bending documentaries.

2:57.0

They make content that's different from the rest and that represents a broad cross-section of society. It's the home of unfiltered entertainment. It's altogether different telly made for you and happily for me because regular listeners will know about my married at first sight Australia obsession.

3:16.0

I can't get enough of it. I watch it every single night. I really miss it when it's not on on a Sunday. For anyone who doesn't know, it follows Australian singles who tie the knot with partners selected for them by relationship experts, including male shitting, former How to Fail podcast guest.

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