The Observing I Podcast

Emil Cioran and the Insomnia of Being

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Emil Cioran was the most honest philosopher of the twentieth century. He believed, with total intellectual sincerity and forensic rigour, that being b...

Not Yet: The Philosophy of Ernst Bloch

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Not yet.Ernst Bloch was born in a factory town on the Rhine in 1885 and spent the next ninety-two years refusing to accept that the present tense was ...

Leszek Kolakowski, the man who autopsied his god

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What do you do when the thing you used to explain everything stops explaining anything?Leszek Kołakowski was born in Poland in 1927. He grew up under...

Vladimir Solovyov and the Philosophy of the World Soul

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Three times in his life, Vladimir Solovyov saw her. Once at nine years old in a Moscow church. Once in a lecture hall mid-sentence. Once face down in ...

Nikolai Federov: The Librarian who declared war on Death

24 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What if your acceptance of death isn't wisdom? What if it's surrender with better branding? What if the most dangerous idea humanity ever had wasn't p...

Jan Patočka and the Philosophy of Living in Truth

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jan Patočka was a Czech philosopher who spent thirty years banned from teaching, running illegal philosophy seminars in private apartments, passing h...

Mikhail Bakhtin and the Unfinished Self

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

You are not one person. You never were.This is not a metaphor about complexity or depth. This is not inspirational content about containing multitudes...

Lev Shestov and the Violence of Reason

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Lev Shestov spent his entire life at war with the most dangerous idea in human history. Not God. Not death. Not the void. Reason itself. The belief th...

The Berdyaev Problem: What If You're Afraid of Freedom?

27 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

September 1922. A German steamship loaded with Russia’s most dangerous weapons. Not bombs. Not guns. Philosophers. Seventy intellectuals who committ...

Dostoevsky: Patient Zero of the Nervous Breakdown

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Your life is being optimized into a coffin. Every app on your phone, every metric at your job, and every "wellness" routine you follow is designed to ...

Kafka and the Machinery of Modern Dread

13 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to 2026. The calendar flipped, but the gears didn’t stop grinding.Most people think Franz Kafka wrote fantasy. They think he dreamed up gian...

The Vanishing of Vernon Pale

16 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a little different. It’s a work of fiction. A Christmas ghost story for philosophers. A Dickensian horror wrapped in VHS static and ...

The Secret Lives of Objects

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What if everything around you has a secret life you’ll never access?Graham Harman’s object-oriented ontology makes a radical claim: objects aren’...

Chronophobia: Why Modern Life Makes Us Afraid of Time Itself

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You wake up and the first thing you think is how many hours you wasted sleeping. How many emails piled up. How many opportunities slipped past while y...

Ethics for the End of Everything

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The universe is falling apart. That is not a metaphor. That is physics. That is the second law of thermodynamics. That is entropy winning every single...

How Imagination Becomes Reality: Grant Morrison and the Tulpa Effect

16 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Grant Morrison had a nervous breakdown in 1988 while writing about insanity. He was channeling madness, writing madness, becoming madness. And then on...

Hyperobjects and Other Nightmares: Timothy Morton and the Ecology of Collapse

02 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You think you understand climate change. You don’t. You think it’s a problem you can solve with better recycling habits and electric cars. It’s ...

The Cartography of Pain: Paul Auster's City of Glass and the Architecture of Identity

26 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A writer named Daniel Quinn answers the wrong phone number at three in the morning and becomes a detective who never existed. He follows a father who ...

Four Thousand Weeks: A Love Letter to Your Mortality

19 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You have approximately four thousand weeks to live. If you’re lucky. If you’ve already lived thirty years, you’ve spent about fifteen hundred of...

Peter Putnam's Cosmos: The Functionalist Demolition of Self

12 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week on The Observing I, prepare for the total demolition of your most cherished comfort: the belief in your soul. We drag the ghost out of the m...

The Philosopher’s Cage: Why Every Age Builds Its Own Prison

28 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Philosophy sells itself as the search for truth. Eternal wisdom. Universal principles. But strip away the polish and what you find isn’t purity, it’...

Heidegger and the Horror of Existence

14 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Martin Heidegger doesn’t waste time with the easy questions. He doesn’t ask what truth is, or what justice means, or whether God exists. He asks t...

The Pendulum of Suffering: Schopenhauer’s Dark Philosophy

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Life isn’t a journey. It isn’t progress. It isn’t destiny unfolding like some golden road. According to Arthur Schopenhauer, life is a pendulum....

121 In the Province of the Mind: The work of John C. Lilly

31 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Step into a black coffin filled with warm saltwater. Float until your body disappears. Wait until your thoughts collapse. What’s left? Just awarenes...

120 Attention is the Last Frontier: Bernard Stiegler and the Age of Distraction

24 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bernard Stiegler’s life reads like something out of a parable. A young man with no future robs banks in 1970s France, spends years behind bars, and ...

119 Laughing at the End of the World: The Philosophy of Slavoj Žižek

17 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Slavoj Žižek is a philosopher who shouldn’t exist. Dishevelled, incoherent, constantly coughing and stumbling, he looks less like a thinker and mo...

118 The Middle Path of the Mind

10 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After a month away in Indonesia, the temples, incense, and heavy heat of Bali still linger in my mind. The summer break has ended, and The Observing I...

117 Antonin Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty

06 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Antonin Artaud didn’t want to entertain you. He wanted to infect you. He wanted to burn down the theatre, then climb into the ashes and scream until...

116 Georges Bataille, The Philosopher of Holy Filth

29 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is not clean.It doesn’t try to sanitize the grotesque or turn philosophy into polite conversation. It doesn’t quote thinkers to make ...

115 The Death of Deep Time

22 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You know that nagging feeling, right? That relentless pressure of the "now"? The constant urge to scroll, to react, to optimize for the immediate? We'...

114 Hannah Arendt: Totalitarianism, Evil, and Action

15 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Project Mayhem, prepare yourselves. This week on The Observing I, we’re tearing into the mind of Hannah Arendt, the radical thinker who redefined ou...

113 A Tyranny of Happiness

08 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Alright, Project Mayhem, this isn't another episode about chasing good vibes. This week, The Observing I rips apart the shiny façade of forced positi...

112 Screaming in an Echo Chamber

01 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You’re trapped. Not by physical walls, but by invisible ones. The constant, self-confirming loop of your feed, your tribe, your chosen narrative. Ev...

111 Life: The Ultimate Pay-to-Win Scam

25 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They’ve gamified your existence, turning every breath into a metric, every action into a score. On this episode of The Observing I, we confront the ...

110 The Memory That Speaks

18 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What if the ground beneath your feet remembered more than you do? What if the stories you inherit, the ones whispered across centuries, aren’t just ...

109 Sophia’s Dream

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You were told this world was real. That flesh was truth. That gravity meant something.But what if none of it was supposed to happen?This is the dream....

108 The Ethics of Monsters

13 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We cheer the hero. We hiss at the villain. But what if we've had it backwards all along?In this episode of The Observing I, we dig deep into the ethic...

107 Ego is a Deepfake

06 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What if everything you think you are is just a performance? A glitch. A mask. A beautifully rehearsed hallucination mistaken for truth.In this episode...

106 The Sacred Between

30 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What if the most important thing you’ll ever do isn’t think, achieve, or succeed - but truly meet another human being?In this episode of The Obser...

105 Slay the Dragon, Steal the Fire

16 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every great story follows a pattern. From Star Wars to The Matrix, from The Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter, we see the same arc: an ordinary person...

104 The Architecture of Unfucking Ourselves

09 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You’ve been lied to. Not just by society, not just by the self-improvement industry, but by the person staring back at you in the mirror. Every beli...

103 Panopticon Dreams

02 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are you being watched? Not by a person. Not by some trench-coated agent in a van. But by a system - one that never blinks, never forgets, and knows yo...

102 Monks, Mystics, and Madmen

23 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever tried sitting in complete silence with nothing but your own thoughts? No phone. No music. No distractions. Just you.If that idea makes y...

101 The Meaning Crisis

09 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Something feels off, doesn’t it?You wake up. You go through the motions. You scroll endlessly, consuming more information than any human in history,...

100 The Lost Tape

02 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You’ve been sold a lie. Happiness. Perfection. The stories that shape you, control you, keep you running like a hamster on a wheel, chasing a dangli...

099 We built the gods that will bury us

26 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we’re diving headfirst into the philosophical minefield of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This isn’t just about robots an...

098 The Truth is a Mosaic, and We're All Bleeding from the Edges

19 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Here’s the pitch: What if every religion you’ve ever heard of, every sacred story, every whispered prayer, was just a shard of broken glass? Each ...

097 The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick

12 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In our first episode of 2025, we dive deep into The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick - the sprawling, chaotic, and profoundly philosophical work of one of s...

096 Immanuel Kant, the OG over thinker

22 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today's episode, we're talking about Immanuel Kant, the philosopher with ideas so big, they’re still shaping how we think centuries later. We tak...

095 Living Courageously in the Face of Mortality: A Tribute to Ernest Becker

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Exploring Becker’s central ideas, we uncover how the awareness of mortality shapes human behaviour, fuels creativity, and drives us to seek meaning ...

094 The Collapse of Time: Dougles Rushkoff and the Age of Present Shock

08 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

He's also one of the few living philosophers that we've covered so far (the other being Alain de Botton, go check out that episode as well).Have you e...

093 Buer, the Demon of Philosophy

01 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What if a demon could teach you philosophy? In today's episode, we delve into the world of Buer, the Demon of Philosophy, as described in the Ars Goet...

092 Minecraft, but it's an Existential Crisis Simulator

24 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re getting into the voxel world of Minecraft. Far more than just a video game, Minecraft stands as a mirror to the human ex...

091 Why you need a personal philosophy

17 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to craft a set of beliefs and values that truly reflect who you are? Why is it important in today’s fast-paced, often chaotic worl...

090 The Problem with Modern Stoicism

10 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus practiced Stoicism as a guide to ethical living, duty, and interconnectedness, today’s interpretations ...

089 Merkabah Mysticism: Aliens, Magic, and Consciousness

03 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today's episode, we delve into the ancient world of Merkabah mysticism. Originally rooted in early Jewish mystical practices, the Merkabah—meanin...

088 Every major philosophical ideology in 30 minutes

27 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we're doing a high speed birds-eye view of the major philosophies from the pre-Socratic philosophers like Thales and Pythagoras, through the mi...

087 The Hidden Dangers of the Self Help Industry

20 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today's episode, we take a deep dive into the darker side of self-help culture. While the self-help industry promises growth, success, and happines...

086 Are you just a product of your mind?

13 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we'll look at the relationship between thoughts, identity, and self-perception, and the contrasts of Western philosophies, like Descartes' "I t...

085 Exploring the Dark Tetrad

06 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’ll break down the four traits that make up this shadowy quartet: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Sadism.But ...

084 Navigating Life with a Narcissist: Essential Strategies

29 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Narcissists can leave us feeling emotionally drained, manipulated, and doubting our own reality - but it doesn’t have to be this way.Join me as we d...

083 BONUS: The story of Narcissus

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As you're having to wait until Sunday for the next episode rather than Friday, here's a bonus episode where I tell the Greek myth of Narcissus and Ech...

082 Stop Trying so Hard: Lao Tzu and the art of Wu Wei

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Discover how this philosophy invites us to let go of the need to control and force outcomes, and instead, flow with life’s natural rhythms.We’ll d...

081 The Coexistence of Dualism and Non-Dualism in Spiritual Thought

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we’ll dive into their philosophical roots, psychological impact, and modern relevance in areas like politics, technology, and menta...

080 Why Our Pain Defines Us: A Philosophical Look at Suffering

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From philosophical perspectives like existentialism and Stoicism to modern challenges such as social injustice, mental health, and the impact of techn...

079 The War for Your Mind: Unraveling Psychological Warfare

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Psychological warfare isn’t about guns, tanks, or bombs. It’s about winning the war for the mind. It’s the art of influencing thoughts, emotions...

078 Sigmund Freud, Psychoanalysis, and why you want to have sex with your mother

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

He’s been called the father of psychoanalysis, the man who brought the unconscious mind to the forefront of our understanding of human behaviour. Hi...

077 Decoding Carl Jung: Dreams, Archetypes, and the Collective Unconscious

16 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today's episode, we're getting down into it with Carl Jung. We go on a deep exploration into his psychology, from dream interpretation, the power o...

076 Occultism's influence on Modern Psychology

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today's episode, we delve into the mysterious intersections between the occult and modern psychology.From the pioneering theories of Sigmund Freud ...

075 Cosmic Horror: The Psychology of H.P. Lovecraft

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today's episode, we embark on a chilling journey into the life and mind of the writer H.P. Lovecraft.We'll explore his personal story and the philo...

074 The Delusional Psychology of Consumerism

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sleep. Consume. Obey.We'll be looking at its historical roots, exploring the psychology behind our behaviour in relation to it, the role that advertis...

073 Abraham Maslow and his Theory of Human Motivation

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re delving into the life and works of one of the founders of humanistic psychology - Abraham Maslow.We’ll explore his hie...

072 The Journey to Authentic Self Expression

05 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re exploring the nature of authenticity, delving into what it means to live a true and genuine life.Join us as we unravel t...

071 The Influence of Storytelling on Human Perception

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re exploring the ways in which narratives shape our minds, influence our beliefs, and connect us to our cultural heritage.W...

070 Embrace Your Mess: The Power of Accepting Imperfection

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re venturing into the world of embracing our imperfections.We’ll look at what it means to be imperfect and what philosoph...

069 Find your talent, not your passion

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re challenging that common advice of “follow your passion” and looking at why focusing on your talents instead can lead...

068 The paradox of Parasocial Relationships

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re diving deep into the world of parasocial relationships - those emotional connections we form with celebrities, influence...

067 "The Observing I" book has launched

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we’re going to be taking a deviation from our usual transmission.This Monday, which was a bank holiday for all of you in the UK, a ...

066 Beyond the Brain: Understanding Consciousness

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re getting into the esoteric realm of thought and consciousness. What is thought, and how does it shape our experience? Wha...

065 The Power of Empathy and Sympathy

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we are getting into the world of empathy and sympathy. These two emotions play crucial roles in our social interactions, relatio...

064 The modern wisdom of Alain de Botton

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today's episode, we're exploring the world of Alain de Botton, the philosopher who makes old ideas feel fresh. We'll explore how he takes complex c...

063 The Way of Zen: Alan Watts' Legacy

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we delve into the life, philosophy, and enduring influence of one my favourite modern philosophers - Alan Watts. He was an incre...

062 The philosophy of Diogenes of Sinope, the man who lived in a jar

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re exploring the life and philosophy of the famous cynic Diogenes of Sinope, possibly one of the most eccentric philosopher...

061 David Hume: The Philosopher who shook the world

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we’re venturing into the sceptical world of the 18th Century philosopher David Hume.Hume shook the foundations of science, mor...

060 Hermes Trismegistus Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We'll explore who this mysterious figure might have been (*clue: it wasn’t Thoth), the core principles of Hermetic philosophy, and how they've shape...

059 The Pursuit of Authenticity: Exploring Nietzsche's Philosophy

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode, we explore the life and philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century thinker who challenged traditional morality and cham...

058 Albert Camus, The Stranger, and absurd existentialism

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ever feel lost in a universe that seems indifferent to your existence? This week on The Observing I, we delve into the world of existentialism and the...

057 A crash course in Stoicism

22 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s time for a change in direction.Today marks the first episode in our Philosophical Deep Dives, where I pick a certain school of thought and expl...

056 Mastering self control

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I’m doing my damnedest to help you take control over what can be our biggest adversary - our “self”. I'll be exploring the bene...

055 Developing a growth mindset

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we’re getting into the belly of the growth mindset. It’s all about the power of “if I’m consistent and put the effort in, I c...

054 A deep dive into procrastination

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we explore the topic of procrastination, examining its psychological underpinnings and the effects it has on our mental health, perso...

053 Exploring emotional intelligence

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we’re diving into the depths of emotional intelligence. We’ll explore what it means, give it some philosophical and cultural cont...

052 Overcoming the fear of failure

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we’re going to unravel the fear of failure.We’ll explore its evolutionary and societal roots, its psychological impact, and how i...

051 Blueprints for Better Habits

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I’m unpacking the intricacies of habit formation, examining the habit loop's cue-routine-reward structure, and the neuroscience tha...

050 The philosophy of happiness

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Firstly, it’s episode 50. That feels like a milestone.It also feels like the time since episode one has gone incredibly quickly. I should celebrate,...

049 Holding yourself accountable

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I'm talking all about accountability.I look at both the philosophical and psychological perspectives of what it means to be accountab...

048 Creating your personal manifesto

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we’re continuing with the theme of supporting your resolutions this year.As part of that, I’m delving into the transformative pow...

047 The power of Critical Thinking

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I’m exploring the world of critical thinking. What it is, how it enables us to approach a problem or idea pragmatically, and what a...

046 Get comfortable being uncomfortable

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I’m talking about how to get out of our comfort zone. It’s a challenging space, pushing ourselves beyond the boundaries of what w...

045 An interview with Ralph Sutton

29 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I'm talking with Ralph Sutton. Ralph is a TV and radio veteran, the host of the goodsugar podcast alongside Marcus Antebi (founder of...