Is Being Smart Worth the Depression? - Alex O’Connor & Joe Folley - #1012

Oct 27, 2025 · 1h 58m

Alex O’Connor is a YouTuber, writer and a podcaster. Joe Folley is a philosopher, writer, and host of the Unsolicited Advice YouTube channel. Philosophy has spent thousands of years trying to teach us how to live well. But the deeper you go, the darker it gets. So what’s the point? What can we take from all that heaviness, and how do we find beauty in the darkness to make our own lives better? Expect to learn if philosophy always meant to be practically applicable, or if that is that a modern reinterpretation, which ancient schools have been most unfairly ignored, which branches of philosophy should be jettisoned entirely, why everyone hate philosophy of mind, the differences between academic and practical philosophy, the darkest philosophies you’ve probably never heard of, why modern discourse always feel ironic and why no one speaks earnestly any more and much more… Timestamps: (0:00) Can Philosophy Actually Help You Live Better? (6:04) Is Modern Philosophy Trying to Be Too Intellectual? (11:44) What Do Philosophers Often Overlook? (22:35) Why Philosophy Can Feel a Bit Depressing (33:41) Is Life Worth Living? (44:47) Why Context Matters in Understanding Philosophers (54:24) Why i…

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