Are you pushing yourself to stay on top of everything—yet feeling as though the ‘aliveness’ has been quietly optimised out of your life?

In this episode, we welcome Oliver Burkeman, bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks and Meditations for Mortals and former Guardian columnist on productivity and living well. Oliver reflects on his decade-long journey from cynicism to sincerity, sharing how his search for the perfect system ultimately revealed a deeper truth: the effort to conquer our limits is fundamentally at odds with reality.

We explore the pervasive urge to “clench”—a physical and psychological bracing against life—and how this habit pulls us away from the truth of our finite time. Oliver argues that embracing our limitations is not a failure, but a powerful gateway to greater freedom. Challenging the modern obsession with mastering time, he offers a more humane perspective on living well.

This conversation invites you to rethink what truly matters, loosen your grip on constant optimisation, and rediscover a more intuitive approach to time—one that restores your capacity to feel fully alive, present, and human.

You can connect with Sarah on:

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If you’d like to revisit this conversation, you can check out the transcript: https://thorpe-scott.com/oliver-burkeman-transcript

Production support from ⁠Rethink Audio⁠ & Alice Giuditta.