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Intelligence Squared

The Sceptic's Guide to Self Help

Intelligence Squared

Intelligence Squared

Arts, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.21.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Oliver Burkeman is the anti-self-help author that everyone interested in self-help should read. He encourages us to embrace uncertainty and imperfection in a world obsessed with self-improvement and relentless goal-setting. For over ten years he wrote the popular ‘This Column Will Change Your Life’ column for The Guardian and his latest book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals, was a huge bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. Sarah Wilson is the founder of the global ‘I Quit Sugar’ movement, was editor of Cosmopolitan Australia at the age of 29, and has interviewed two Australian prime ministers, Beyoncé, Brené Brown, the Dalai Lama and dozens of moral philosophers, effective altruists and existential risk experts during her career. Her most recent book, This One Wild and Precious Life, won the US Gold Nautilus Prize and describes how she spent three years hiking around the world, following in the footsteps of Nietzsche and Wordsworth and emerging with a blueprint for living a wilder, more connected life. For this episode, Burkeman and Wilson come together at Intelligence Squared for an engaging discussion about the limitations of the traditional self-help industry, the importance of mindfulness, and practical strategies for leading a more balanced and purposeful life. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. And while you’re listening, why not visit Intelligencesquared.com and sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear about some of our great upcoming events and deals. If you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared. Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Sure, this is Peloton.

0:02.4

This is a 15 minute low impact ride.

0:05.6

But so is this.

0:07.2

We're here together for a 10 minute empathy meditation.

0:10.5

And even this.

0:11.9

We get hit in with a 20 minute hip-hop shadow boxes session.

0:16.6

Ah, what more could you ask for?

0:18.3

Well, with thousands of classes on our bike trend and app,

0:21.3

there's more to Peloton than you might have thought.

0:23.6

This is Peloton.

0:25.5

Internet connection and Peloton all acts as membership required.

0:28.4

C1 Peloton.co.uk

0:30.3

So you've arrived.

0:32.1

You head to the brassery.

0:33.4

Then the terrace.

0:34.8

Cocktail?

0:36.0

Don't mind if I do.

0:39.0

You raise your glass to another guest

0:41.0

because you both know the holidays just beginning.

0:44.4

Please get your cake and that's two.

0:46.0

And you're only in terminal three.

0:48.2

Welcome to Virgin Atlantic's unique upper-class clubhouse experience,

...

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