Alain de Botton
speaker
86 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 10 Jul
Alain de Botton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The Resilient Mind · The Hidden Reason You Can't Stop Overthinking - Alain de Botton · 10 Jul 2026
podcast
It's a compensatory activity.
And so be it.
So we should never look to our gurus to actually be...
You want to go, of course they did that.
They're so invested in maintaining a sort of adult poise.
Of course they're going to have a fragile hold on it.
They wouldn't bother otherwise.
And that's okay.
That's absolutely fine.
I mean, look, bless the Americans, but the problem with America is that it was started by people who thought you could build Jerusalem on this earth.
That you literally could build a city on the hill here and there.
Whereas, you know, European culture...
was a tragic culture, which essentially thought of human beings as inherently flawed, the playthings of the gods, and unable to master the show until maybe the next life, but definitely not this one, which immediately creates a comedic modesty around the gap between your aspirations and your reality.
And so growing up in Britain – I mean, Britain doesn't do many things well, but one of the things it really does well is a kind of melancholy, dark humour –
I mean, this is the home of the Smiths.
This is the home of Monty Python.
These people are latching onto the fact that life is absurd, dark, and that the most sophisticated response is a kind of rich, somber, hilarious laughter.
And the reason why America has changed the planet so radically is that it's made up of people who think that such a thing is possible.
And you don't have to wait till the next world.
You do it right here and now with some tools and you go to Silicon Valley and off you go.
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