PLAY PODCASTS
Forget Self-Improvement. Try This Instead in 2026.

Forget Self-Improvement. Try This Instead in 2026.

The Next Big Idea Daily

January 7, 202625m 25s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (traffic.megaphone.fm) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

Maybe you’ve already set some resolutions for 2026 — exercise more, eat better, be more patient. But here’s the problem: We make these promises to improve ourselves as if our selves are solid, fixed entities that just need a little tweaking. But there might be a wiser approach. J. Eric Oliver is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, and his new book is called How To Know Your Self: The Art & Science of Discovering Who You Really Are. He joins us today to explain why seeing yourself as a process rather than a fixed thing might be the most powerful resolution you could make this year — and how that shift opens up possibilities you didn’t know you had. Then, in the second half of the show, we'll hear some big ideas from Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by philosophy professor Kieran Setiya.

Sponsored By:

Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/daily