A Sunny Nihilism? (w/ Wendy Syfret and Kevin Currie-Knight)

January 03, 2022 00:56:51
A Sunny Nihilism? (w/ Wendy Syfret and Kevin Currie-Knight)
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A Sunny Nihilism? (w/ Wendy Syfret and Kevin Currie-Knight)

Jan 03 2022 | 00:56:51

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Show Notes

Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina University) chats with Wendy Syfret (VICE Asia) about her new book The Sunny Nihilist: How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy. They talk about such things as why the modern world relentlessly seeks meaning in everything, whether nihilism is a viable or liberating response, and whether/how nihilism is reconcilable with strong belief and activism.

3:00 - What is nihilism?
10:35 - When did Wendy come to nihilsm and find it liberating?
16:48 - Why do we in the modern world "find" meaning in everything?
25:41 - Why does "finding" objective meaning satisfy more than creating subjective meaning?
30:38 - Are the young generally more nihilistic than their elders? Where is nihilism in pop culture?
38:59 - How to reconcile nihilism with activism (another thing that Wendy cares about)?

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