Alain De Botton

speaker

1,037 appearances 5 recordings 5 series first heard Jan 2024 last heard 1 Jul

Alain De Botton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Conversations · Special Collection: Alain de Botton on the true hardwork of love and relationships · 22 May 2026 podcast

And you'd be going, well, you know, we're actually splitting up.

And then, you know, but we know that there is reward in kind of sticking with it.

Because you know that because the person's not going to be able to run away immediately, you know that you can introduce into the relationships troubling dynamics that you might otherwise have to not wrestle with.

So it gives you the kind of security to get to grips with all sorts of stuff that, you know, it might be easier on a superficial level, but less rewarding ultimately to ignore.

Well, it is definitely a bomb.

And I think, you know, what's striking is I think looking around me and something that happens in the novel too, people are pretty good with children nowadays.

Parents are pretty good with kids.

You know, 150 years of child psychology has told us a lot about how we should behave with a child and we should affirm them and love them and confirm their views, etc.

But what I find striking is the difference between the way that people treat kids and the way they treat adults.

So, you know, imagine a typical parent.

You come home from work.

You make a nice dinner for your kid.

You put it in front of them.

They're maybe two and a half years old.

And they go, bleh.

They throw it on the floor.

And they go, I don't want that.

And, you know, they've made a mess, et cetera.

The typical parent goes, oh, you must have a sore tooth.

Or maybe you didn't sleep, et cetera.

Showing 701–720 of 1,037 · page 36 of 52