A Brief Dispatch
Updates and a scheduled pause
Since my last missive the summer has leapt onto the UK like a large sweaty tiger. I've mostly been trying not to melt, while the news cycle has provided its discordant and unsettling soundtrack of earthquakes, wars, leadership chaos and Scotland's regrettably early World Cup exit.
The hum of endlessly anxious news has a destabilising effect, which makes disappearing from the digital world and into the wilderness feel like a necessity. Tomorrow morning I head to Norway for a few weeks off grid - ten nights hiking, canoeing and sleeping in tents. Following this, I have a few days to wrap up my current job, say some fond farewells and then head into the Scottish wilderness again for a week or so. I’ll be going quiet for the next month or so and will be pausing any paid subscriptions from now.
Some updates…
In the meantime, here are a few updates. Last week I dropped a new podcast episode with Anthea Lawson, where we discussed the inclination to save the world — something she has just published an excellent book about called How Not to Save the World - doing good without annoying everyone. Anthea is a writer and activist interested in how our inner psychology and script messaging can get in the way of our desire to make the world a better place. I really enjoyed the conversation and hope you will too.
Today I am releasing the final conversation on death, with Professor Douglas Davies of Durham University. He’s delightfully avuncular and has the most melodious Welsh accent I’ve ever heard. He is also an anthropologist who is a world authority on death. We talked about the way that death presses home that the Western notion of the individual is a myth: it is in death that we realise how interconnected and complex our personhood really is. Heavy and heady stuff, but he makes it oddly cheering. Have a listen on the usual channels.
Over the coming months I have a few more podcast conversations lined up for when I return. These will explore different themes, though with the same TXL question at their heart - what should we be asking ourselves? I also aim to put together a summary episode reflecting on the death series, which feels like it has much still to yield, and conversations that want to speak to each other.
Who wants a sticker?
Here’s a small experiment I’d like your help with. I plan to order a stack of stickers and postcards with a QR code and brief description/ad of the podcast, and intend to dot them around public places - noticeboards, lamp posts, bookshops, pubs. You readers live all over the place, and many of you travel a lot too, so I thought: why not send some out for dispersion. If you’re up for casually deploying a sticker or two in your corner of the world, send me your address by message or email (kp@examined-life.com) and I’ll post some out to you. Let’s see where they end up.
Until then, I wish you all well, I’ll be back in touch on Substack when I resurface in a month or so. If you’re a paid subscriber, there’s a video message for you below.
