Uploaded September 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
What if the first question we asked on a date were, "How are you crazy? I'm crazy like this"? Philosopher and writer Alain de Botton's essay "Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person" was one of the most-read articles in The New York Times in recent years. As people and as a culture, he says, we would be much saner and happier if we reexamined our very view of love. Nowhere do we realistically teach ourselves and our children how love deepens and stumbles, survives and evolves over time, and how that process has much more to do with ourselves than with what is right or wrong about our partner. The real work of love is not in the falling, but in what comes after. (Original Air Date: February 8, 2017)
About the Guest:
Alain de Botton is the founder and chairman of The School of Life. His books include “Religion for Atheists,” “How Proust Can Change Your Life,” and the novel “The Course of Love.”
Visit our website to read the transcript, download the episode, or listen to the unedited interview: onbeing.org/programs/mary-oliver-listening-to-the-world-jan2019
Visit our On Being Classics Library, where this episode is featured: onbeing.org/libraries/classics
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What if the first question we asked on a date were, "How are you crazy? I'm crazy like this"? Philosopher and writer Alain de Botton's essay "Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person" was one of the most-read articles in The New York Times in recent years. As people and as a culture, he says, we would be much saner and happier if we reexamined our very view of love. Nowhere do we realistically teach ourselves and our children how love deepens and stumbles, survives and evolves over time, and how that process has much more to do with ourselves than with what is right or wrong about our partner. The real work of love is not in the falling, but in what comes after. (Original Air Date: February 8, 2017)
About the Guest:
Alain de Botton is the founder and chairman of The School of Life. His books include “Religion for Atheists,” “How Proust Can Change Your Life,” and the novel “The Course of Love.”
Visit our website to read the transcript, download the episode, or listen to the unedited interview: onbeing.org/programs/mary-oliver-listening-to-the-world-jan2019
Visit our On Being Classics Library, where this episode is featured: onbeing.org/libraries/classics
STAY IN TOUCH
Facebook: facebook.com/onbeing
Twitter: twitter.com/onbeing
Instagram: instagram.com/onbeing
Newsletter: onbeing.org/newsletter
OUR PODCASTS
On Being with Krista Tippett: onbeing.org/series/podcast
This Movie Changed Me: onbeing.org/series/this-movie-changed-me
Becoming Wise: onbeing.org/series/becoming-wise
