223. What About All the Questions We Haven’t Answered?

How can you learn to love uncertainty? Is it better to cultivate acceptance or strive for change? And, after 223 episodes, what is the meaning of life? 

 

• SOURCES:
  • Jessica Alquist, professor of psychology at Texas Tech University.
  • Roy Baumeister, professor of psychology at The University of Queensland.
  • Raymond Carver, 20th-century American short story writer and poet.
  • Stephen Colbert, comedian and late-night TV host.
  • Matt Damon, actor and film producer.
  • Viktor Frankl, 20th-century Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher.
  • Steve Heine, professor of psychology at University of British Columbia.
  • Charles Krauthammer, journalist.
  • Reinhold Niebuhr, 20th-century American theologian.
  • Keanu Reeves, actor.
  • Elisabeth Sifton, author, editor, and book publisher.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times, by Steve Heine (2025).
  • "Learning to Love Uncertainty," by Jessica L. Alquist and Roy F. Baumeister (Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2024).
  • "Confused or Curious? Openness/Intellect Predicts More Positive Interest-Confusion Relations," by Kirill Fayn, Paul J. Silvia, Egon Dejonckheere, Stijn Verdonck, and Peter Kuppens (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2019).
  • "A Note to Readers," by Charles Krauthammer (The Washington Post, 2018).
  • "Interest — The Curious Emotion," by Paul J. Silvia (Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2008).
  • The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War, by Elisabeth Sifton (2003).
  • "Late Fragment," by Raymond Carver (A New Path to the Waterfall, 1989).
  • Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl (1946).

 

• EXTRAS:
  • "What Makes an Idea Interesting?" by No Stupid Questions (2024).
  • "Should You Get Out of Your Comfort Zone?" by No Stupid Questions (2024).
  • "Do You Need Closure?" by No Stupid Questions (2024).
  • "Secret o’ Life," by James Taylor (JT, 1977).

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.