BROADCASTS.com

Life isn't an easy road to navigate. We're\xa0moody creatures, susceptible to an array of psychological setbacks, emotional ups and downs, fruitless\xa0searches for meaning, and\xa0trials posed by anxiety, depression, and despair. It's the kind of journey one needs a survival guide for, and my guest today says one of the best can be found in the writings of existential philosophers.\xa0\n\nHis name is Gordon Marino and he's a football and boxing coach, a professor of philosophy, and the author of\xa0The Existentialist's\xa0Survival\xa0Guide: How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic\xa0Age. Gordon and I begin our conversation with how he personally found\xa0existentialism, and how his coaching intersects with his teaching. We then get into what existential philosophy\xa0is all about, and the thinkers and authors who are considered\xa0to be existentialists. Gordon shares what he thinks is the greatest existential\xa0novel, and which of Soren Kierkegaard\u2019s books he most recommends reading. From there we delve into what Kierkegaard has to say about anxiety, how he thought\xa0existential\xa0angst\xa0was the ultimate\xa0teacher, the distinction\xa0he drew between depression and despair, and why he argues that procrastination\xa0is one of our greatest moral dangers. We then unpack the different models of living an authentic life that the existentialists\xa0espoused, and what Nietzsche meant with his injunction to "live dangerously." We then get into the existentialists\u2019 take on love, why love is actually hard to accept, and why you should presuppose love in others. We end our conversation with what boxing can teach about existential philosophy.\xa0\n\nGet the show notes at aom.is/existential.