Our guest this week is Zoe Cormier, author of Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll: The Science of Hedonism and the Hedonism of Science, who challenges us to take fun seriously. And not just fun: joy, ecstasy, transcendence, pleasure, the whole shebang.
Zoe’s journalism has featured in Rolling Stone, The Times, Wired, Nature, New Scientist, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, BBC Focus and many other publications. As a founder of the organization Guerilla Science, Zoe believes that science is not only a tool but a wonderful window into the biggest questions of existence, and that understanding the world better helps us live life more fully.
What we get from this:
There’s so much in this conversation because almost every spiritual tradition, and Lifefulness, makes joyful celebration a key part of a good life.
Zoe’s passion for science - and for the hedonistic aspects of life - shines through in our discussion, so you’ll feel good about having fun. We dive into why, and how, art, comedy, music and dance are so vital to humanity.
She was really insightful when she stressed how monastic religious traditions - ones which insist we find spiritual truth and fulfilment in solitude, silence, and asceticism - have got it all wrong. Rather, she thinks we find our greatest source of spiritual wonder in the hedonic acts we perform with each other: bopping on the dancefloor, writhing at the rave, and bonking in the bedroom. (Quick disclaimer: while I (Sanderson) am writing this in the first person, James chose the word 'bonking').
If you want to live life more passionately and less guiltily, this is the conversation for you.
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