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b"Most everyone has experienced restlessness\\xa0from time to time. A feeling of wanting more, but being unsure of how to find it; of struggling with distraction, but being unsure of what to focus on; of striking out in various directions, but not feeling any more fulfilled.\\n\\nWhile\\xa0we tend to think of restlessness\\xa0as a very modern phenomenon, a French diplomat and philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, observed the very same problems in America two centuries ago. And the roots of our restlessness\\xa0go back even further still.\\n\\nMy guests today will trace some of these genealogical\\xa0branches for us. Their names are Benjamin and Jenna Storey, they're a married couple, professors of political\\xa0philosophy, and the authors of the book Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment.\\n\\nWe begin our conversation with how the Storeys' inquiry into restlessness began from observing existential meltdowns in their students and a constant but unfulfilling busyness in their friends. The Storeys then explain how Tocqueville observed a similar\\xa0phenomenon at the start of the 19th century, before digging into two of the philosophers Tocqueville's observations were shaped by: Michel de Montaigne and Blaise Pascal. They first unpack Montaigne's ideal of living a life of cool,\\xa0nonchalant, existential indifference, which sought contentment in the here and now, and then discuss Pascal's critique of that philosophy, in which he argued that seeking diversion and distraction for its own sake only makes us miserable, and that humans must engage in an anguished search for something beyond ourselves. We then explore what happened in the West when Montaigne's approach to life was adopted by\\xa0the masses, and how it's led to feelings of existential\\xa0failure, an impossible search for constant happiness, envy, loneliness, and acrimonious\\xa0political debates. At the end of our conversation, the Storeys argue that while restlessness can never be entirely extinguished, it can be tamed, and suggest a few ways on how.\\n\\nGet the show notes at aom.is/restlessness."