The Overexamined Life

JOIN THE GRATITUDE CLUB FREE: patreon.com/tolclubRecent science has told us that gratitude has the power to do something nothing else in the world can. It can get you off the hedonic treadmill. We go deep into what that means, and look at said science :)Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primo  WATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackEmail Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.comHere are all the studies with their links:Emmons & McCullough (2003) — Gratitude journaling, well-being, and physical healthPubMedFull PDFWood, Joseph, Lloyd & Atkins (2009) — Gratitude and sleep qualityPubMedScienceDirectMills et al. (2015) — Gratitude and heart failure (mood, sleep, inflammation)PubMedRedwine et al. (2016) — Gratitude journaling RCT, inflammatory biomarkers, heart rate variabilityPubMedPMC Full TextGrant & Gino (2010) — Gratitude expressions and prosocial behaviorHarvard Business SchoolSemantic ScholarWood, Froh & Geraghty (2010) — Comprehensive review of gratitude and well-beingScienceDirect

If you're a writer, musician, entrepreneur - someone building something in the margins of your real life, this one is for you.My guest today is Caddicarus: over a million subscribers, nearly 400 million views, and a very honest bloke.Here's the thing so many of us carry without even realising it, the belief that the moment we hit the number, whatever your number is, life clicks into place. Caddickarus has the number and he still found himself burnt out, hollow, losing the will to make the very thing that made him who he is.The data doesn't keep you going. The passion keeps you going. The why keeps you going.Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackEmail Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com

Jonathan Bricker makes the case that shame isn't just a byproduct of addictive behaviour, it's basically the whole engine. We get into why that voice in your head, the really mean one. The really really really really mean one, is actively strengthening the very cravings it's trying to crush. And Jonathan hands us something genuinely useful: a clear, evidence-based way of handling urges that doesn't involve white-knuckling it or hating yourself thin.Checkout Jonathan’s addiction app, Quitbot, here: https://quitbot.net/Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackEmail Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com

What if death wasn’t something to fear? What if you were completely at peace? In short, what if dying didn’t suck? Helen and her team at Preparing the Way (https://preparingtheway.com.au/), walk alongside people in the final chapter of their lives. We talk about what it means to heal into death rather than fight it, why grief doesn't start when someone dies but long before that, what the phrase conscious dying actually means, and Helen very generously lets me use myself as a guinea pig, which results in one of the stranger and more unexpectedly moving conversations I've had on this show. Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackEmail Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com

This will make all your food taste so good that you just might literally explode right now where you are I'm serious, click this to explode. We all want to explode!Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primo  WATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackEmail Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com

This one got personal. We go deep into my own panic attacks, and at a certain point it stops feeling like an interview and starts feeling like a live therapy session.Dr. David Rosmarin is a clinical psychologist, Harvard Medical School faculty member, and founder of the Centre for Anxiety, and he has spent his career arguing that anxiety isn't a disease to be cured but a human condition to be understood. That when you stop fighting it, the edge comes off. And beneath it, more often than not, you find a virtue.More from Dr. Rosmarin https://dhrosmarin.com/Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackEmail Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com

The grass may be greener on the other side, but it doesn’t matter, you’re on this side. Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackEmail Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com

We spend our days optimising, refining, and sanding down every rough edge, only to end up exhausted in a life that looks right but feels strangely hollow. In this conversation with Johann Hari, we unravel the illusion of “junk values” and explore Eudaimonia, a deeper, more human kind of meaning that can’t be engineered.More about Johann here! https://johannhari.com/Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primo  WATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackEmail Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com

Do you ever feel like you’re missing your own life? Like you’re just a passenger? You’re always experiencing something, but when you look back, the day is a blur… memories without the feeling of having lived them. It feels like just yesterday I was 17. It probably does for you too. Unless you are 16. Anyway. I think I’ve found a solution to this problem. Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primo  WATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackEmail Jonah Primo at overexamined@jonahprimo.com