What makes burnout different from exhaustion or fatigue? In episode 136 of Overthink, Ellie and David look at the history of the term burnout and its surprising connection to social justice. They also explore Byung-Chul Han’s reading of burnout as a natural consequence of “achievement culture.” How does our mindless scrolling on TikTok and Instagram reveal our inability to be bored and meditate? And how does this contribute to our personal and collective run-ins with burnout? Why do so many people, academics included, fail to recognize their own burnout? And is it even possible to escape burnout in a capitalist society? In the bonus, your hosts talk about the shame surrounding burnout, errand paralysis, and the relationship between burnout and compulsive buying.

Works Discussed:
Herbert J. Freudenberger, “Staff Burn-Out”
Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society
Emily and Amelia Nagoski, Burnout, the Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
David M. Peña-Guzmán and Rebekah Spera, Professional Philosophy and Its Myths
Anne Helen Peterson, Can’t Even: How Millennials became the Burnout Generation
Hannah Proctor, Burnout

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Patreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast
Website | overthinkpodcast.com
Instagram & Twitter | @overthink_pod
Email | dearoverthink@gmail.com
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Aperol spritzes, ‘Euro summers’, and aesthetic beach pics. In episode 135 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss all things travel. They discuss the differences how travel changes our relationship to the place where we're from, the difference between travel and tourism, and the place of travel in the history of philosophy. They go from Plato’s views that young people shouldn’t travel to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s belief that travel is essential for turning boys into men. They also explore the question, why do humans love to travel so much? In the bonus, your hosts debate over their relationships to phones and taking photos while travelling and dive deeper into what it’s like to experience culture shock.

Works Discussed:

Francis Bacon, “On Travel”
Agnes Callard, “Against Travel”
Paul Fussell, Abroad
Michel de Montaigne, “On Cannibals”
Plato, The Republic
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
George Santayana, “The Philosophy of Travel”
Joseph Shaules, The Intercultural Mind: Connecting Culture, Cognition, and Global Living
Emily Thomas, The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad

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Patreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast
Website | overthinkpodcast.com
Instagram & Twitter | @overthink_pod
Email | dearoverthink@gmail.com
YouTube | Overthink podcast

All metaphysical theories are…really weird. In episode 134 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with Eric Schwitzgebel about his book Weirdness of the World. They think through the difference between weirdness and bizarreness, the nonsensical nature of philosophical theories, and whether we should all just agree with Occam’s razor that the simplest explanation is always best.Is the recent theory that we’re all living in a simulation really that strange? Is it stranger than the idealist metaphysics of Plato or the atomism of Lucretius? And why are philosophical theories doomed to weirdness? Are we the weird ones, or do we just live in a weird world? In the bonus your hosts talk about the butterfly effect and the infinitude of the universe, and how neurodivergent traits can be rewarded in philosophy.

Works Discussed:
Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy
Eric Schwitzgebel, Weirdness of the World

Support the show

Patreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast
Website | overthinkpodcast.com
Instagram & Twitter | @overthink_pod
Email | dearoverthink@gmail.com
YouTube | Overthink podcast