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The Antidote
- Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
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Oliver Burkeman: Epidemics of Modern Life
- A BBC Radio 4 Collection
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman, Various
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
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Journalist and author Oliver Burkeman is well-known for his long-running Guardian column, 'How to Change Your Life', and has written three best-selling books on happiness, productivity and time management. In this radio collection, he looks at four central ills of modernity—busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Talking to a range of experts, he discovers how these problems became so widespread, and how we can go about tackling them.
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Oliver Burkeman’s Inconvenient Truth
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- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
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Bestselling author Oliver Burkeman is well known for his books and radio programmes exploring how we can lead meaningful and productive lives in an age of overwhelm. This time, he brings his keen sense of the ridiculous to bear on our obsession with convenience, looking at the hidden pitfalls of a life of ease. In these five episodes, Oliver attempts to assess the consequences of our reliance on convenience.
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Addicted to Busy
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- Unabridged
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There's a ritual of the modern workplace - one you've heard and most likely indulged in yourself. It's the call and response we go through when you ask a workmate how they're doing: 'Busy!' 'So busy.' It is pretty obviously a boast disguised as a complaint. And our simultaneously grim and half chuckled reply comes as a kind of congratulation: 'Ha, better than the opposite.' When did we start doing that? As if he didn't have enough to do, Oliver Burkeman explores this epidemic of busyness to reveal that it may not be what it at first seems.
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The Power of Negative Thinking
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- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
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Oliver Burkeman explores why people are often more successful - as are organisations, armies and governments - when they focus on reasons they are likely to fail; asks where happiness comes from, and whether we look for it in the wrong places; explores a phenomenon that has come to be called 'fungineering' – attempts to boost happiness in the workplace; and confronts what many of us see as the most negative of all experiences: death.
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Midlife
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- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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How can you reconcile yourself with the lives you will never lead, with possibilities foreclosed, and with nostalgia for lost youth? How can you accept the failings of the past, the sense of futility in the tasks that consume the present, and the prospect of death that blights the future? In this self-help book with a difference, Kieran Setiya confronts the inevitable challenges of adulthood and middle age, showing how philosophy can help you thrive. You will learn why missing out might be a good thing, how options are overrated, and when you should be glad you made a mistake.
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Short, thoughtful exploration
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How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything - Yes, Anything!
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Repackaged with a stunning new cover and an insightful new foreword, this book is one of six Dr. Albert Ellis "How To" titles to be reissued by Citadel in 2016-2017. Widely recognized as a pioneer of 20th century psychotherapy, Albert Ellis's works have stood the test of time, and continue to serve as the cornerstone of the Albert Ellis Institute, which has centers in 6 American cities and 20 countries abroad.
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Oliver Burkeman: Epidemics of Modern Life
- A BBC Radio 4 Collection
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman, Various
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist and author Oliver Burkeman is well-known for his long-running Guardian column, 'How to Change Your Life', and has written three best-selling books on happiness, productivity and time management. In this radio collection, he looks at four central ills of modernity—busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Talking to a range of experts, he discovers how these problems became so widespread, and how we can go about tackling them.
-
Oliver Burkeman’s Inconvenient Truth
- A BBC Radio 4 Series
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bestselling author Oliver Burkeman is well known for his books and radio programmes exploring how we can lead meaningful and productive lives in an age of overwhelm. This time, he brings his keen sense of the ridiculous to bear on our obsession with convenience, looking at the hidden pitfalls of a life of ease. In these five episodes, Oliver attempts to assess the consequences of our reliance on convenience.
-
Addicted to Busy
- Why Life Has Got So Hectic
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a ritual of the modern workplace - one you've heard and most likely indulged in yourself. It's the call and response we go through when you ask a workmate how they're doing: 'Busy!' 'So busy.' It is pretty obviously a boast disguised as a complaint. And our simultaneously grim and half chuckled reply comes as a kind of congratulation: 'Ha, better than the opposite.' When did we start doing that? As if he didn't have enough to do, Oliver Burkeman explores this epidemic of busyness to reveal that it may not be what it at first seems.
-
The Power of Negative Thinking
- And How It Can Be a Powerful Route to Joy, Success and Satisfaction
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oliver Burkeman explores why people are often more successful - as are organisations, armies and governments - when they focus on reasons they are likely to fail; asks where happiness comes from, and whether we look for it in the wrong places; explores a phenomenon that has come to be called 'fungineering' – attempts to boost happiness in the workplace; and confronts what many of us see as the most negative of all experiences: death.
-
Midlife
- A Philosophical Guide
- By: Kieran Setiya
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can you reconcile yourself with the lives you will never lead, with possibilities foreclosed, and with nostalgia for lost youth? How can you accept the failings of the past, the sense of futility in the tasks that consume the present, and the prospect of death that blights the future? In this self-help book with a difference, Kieran Setiya confronts the inevitable challenges of adulthood and middle age, showing how philosophy can help you thrive. You will learn why missing out might be a good thing, how options are overrated, and when you should be glad you made a mistake.
-
-
Short, thoughtful exploration
- By Mark Tanner on 22-03-2023
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How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything - Yes, Anything!
- By: Albert Ellis Ph.D., Kristene A. Doyle - foreword
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Repackaged with a stunning new cover and an insightful new foreword, this book is one of six Dr. Albert Ellis "How To" titles to be reissued by Citadel in 2016-2017. Widely recognized as a pioneer of 20th century psychotherapy, Albert Ellis's works have stood the test of time, and continue to serve as the cornerstone of the Albert Ellis Institute, which has centers in 6 American cities and 20 countries abroad.
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The Comfort Crisis
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In many ways, we’re more comfortable than ever before. But could our sheltered, temperature-controlled, overfed, underchallenged lives actually be the leading cause of many our most urgent physical and mental health issues? In this gripping investigation, award-winning journalist Michael Easter seeks out off-the-grid visionaries, disruptive genius researchers, and mind-body conditioning trailblazers who are unlocking the life-enhancing secrets of a counterintuitive solution: discomfort.
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I Can Listen To This Over and Over
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Die with Zero presents a startling new and provocative philosophy as well as practical guide on how to get the most out of your money—and out of your life. It's intended for those who place lifelong memorable experiences far ahead of simply making and accumulating money for one's so-called Golden Years. In short, Bill Perkins wants to rescue you from over-saving and under-living. Regardless of your age, Die with Zero will teach you Perkins' plan for optimizing your life, stage by stage, so you're fully engaged and enjoying what you've worked and saved for.
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So many flaws
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Oliver Burkeman: Living with the News
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- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
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Award-winning journalist and author Oliver Burkeman has written three bestselling books on happiness, productivity and time management. Now, in this thought-provoking radio series, he looks at the way we consume and obsess over the news, and why it's so bad for us. Tracing the origins of the modern news cycle, from the first mass production of newspapers in the 19th century to 24-hour rolling news and the alluring interactivity of social media, he shows how we have gone from a scarcity to a superabundance of information.
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Great listen but this is not a book.
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From the New York Times best-selling author of Chasing the Scream, a radically new way of thinking about depression and anxiety. What really causes depression and anxiety - and how can we really solve them?
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Some good ideas, a lot of incomplete science.
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A Guide to the Good Life
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One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life.
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Really good introduction
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Some incentives are obvious, but many of the most powerful incentives are accidental, and invisible even to those who designed them. Some are tame - and some are most definitely not. Whether it’s bounties for criminals or Instagrammable meals, training your dog or saving the planet, incentives regularly backfire, go missing, mutate and evolve. Without oversight, their unintended consequences can have very global effects. Here, economist Jason Murphy uncovers the huge incentive systems we take for granted and turns them inside out.
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All good, until the great contradiction...
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From the creator of the wildly popular blog Wait but Why, a fun and fascinating deep dive into what the hell is going on in our strange, unprecedented modern times.
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Excellent food for thought
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every woman should read or listen to this book
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Being a stoic means embracing positivity and self-control through the ability to accept the uncertainty of outcomes. With this stoicism guide, the beginner stoic will learn how to take charge of their emotions on the path to sustained happiness and satisfaction. This easy-to-navigate stoicism guide gives you the emotional tools needed to let go of the things you can’t control and find joy in what you have.
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The modern world can be a complicated, frenzied, and noisy place, filled with too many options, products, ideas and opinions. That explains why what many of us long for is simplicity: a life that can be more pared down, peaceful, and focused on the essentials. But finding simplicity is not always easy; it isn’t just a case of emptying out our closets or trimming back commitments in our diaries. True simplicity requires that we understand the roots of our distractions – and develop a canny respect for the stubborn reasons why things can grow complex and overwhelming.
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I loved it.
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We pile on “to-dos” but don’t consider “stop-doings”. We create incentives for good behavior, but don’t get rid of obstacles to it. We collect new-and-improved ideas, but don’t prune the outdated ones. Every day, across challenges big and small, we neglect a basic way to make things better: We don’t subtract. Leidy Klotz’s pioneering research shows why.
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Really interesting and useful book
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Alan Kohler, one of Australia’s most trusted financial experts, offers unique insights into and thorough analysis of the crisis in financial services. Having observed the industry firsthand for more than 45 years, Kohler sees the big picture in a way no-one else can. With a sharp and unflinching eye, Kohler explains how the stage was set for corruption, breaks down the royal commission’s findings and unpacks what it means for you.
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I could listen to his dulcet tones all day.
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Publisher's Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
What if ‘positive thinking’ and relentless optimism aren’t the solution to the happiness dilemma, but part of the problem?
Oliver Burkeman turns decades of self-help advice on its head and paradoxically forces us to rethink our attitudes towards failure, uncertainty and death. It’s our constant efforts to avoid negative thinking that cause us to feel anxious, insecure and unhappy. What if happiness can be found embracing the things we spend our lives trying to escape? Wise, practical and funny, The Antidote is a thought-provoking, counter-intuitive and ultimately uplifting read, celebrating the power of negative thinking.
Critic Reviews
"Burkeman has written some of the most truthful and useful words on happiness to be published in recent years." (Guardian)
What listeners say about The Antidote
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Estefania Londono
- 10-06-2021
Amazing topics and well researched.
I struggled with the narrator's voice, very boring, at the end I seemed to not have a clear conclusion.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 07-05-2020
Stoicism, Buddhism and death
A well written and page turning adventure through discovering something better than the pursuit of happiness and positive thinking. Exactly what I needed to read, thanks Oliver, would recommend to all
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3 people found this helpful
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- Shay
- 12-10-2019
This book came highly recommend
This book came highly recommend and it certainly lived up to it! Very well written piece and very thought provoking.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 06-12-2023
Awe inspiring
This book takes you on a journey through a unique perspective of happiness in life. It’s entertaining and and informative. I loved it!
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- Anonymous User
- 09-08-2023
Entertaining and well-reasoned
Oliver Burkeman writes compellingly and humorously about the human experience. An enjoyable and thought-provoking audiobook to listen to!
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- Amazon Customer
- 25-03-2023
Lightweight
The pursuit of happiness is such an interesting topic but unfortunately not when it’s written in a style where the author has not real expertise in the subject but relies completely on the work of others to contradict the worthwhile attributes of ‘positive thinking’. His arguments range far and wide as he dips into every concept, and era in which beings have sought solutions to the human dilemma. And all that dipping, name dropping, quoting become incredibly annoying. Mr Burkeman’s book is rather slight instead of offering anything truly meaningful.
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- Mark White
- 01-03-2023
Pairs well with 4000 weeks
As someone who enjoyed 4000 weeks, the Antidote was a treat with a vaguely similar theme, and tons more interesting references and stories to help make the underlying points stick.
Particularly outstanding in this title is the theme of how goals and ruthless confidence in achieving them can be far more detrimental than creating poor outcomes... it can, as Oliver relates, go as far as being deadly.
If you like having your views on the world and your own existence stirred, then this book is for you.
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- Stacey Brown
- 04-01-2023
Thoroughly enjoyable
I enjoyed every minute of this book. As a recent philosophy student, and a recovering self-help positivity addict, this book helped me understand many of the concepts that have been on the fringe of my consciousness for a while. I find Burkeman’s style both engaging and soothing, and I’m left wanting to listen to The Antidote again and again so I can wipe away some of the happiness ideals that have left me feeling miserable about my life for so long.
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- Anonymous User
- 27-12-2022
One of the best
This is an excellent book that both clearly and entertainingly walks through the key tenants of this approach. And this approach is … spot on!
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- Anonymous User
- 11-10-2022
Oliver has a wonderful style
Some poignant pieces in the book, but I recommend 4000 weeks over the Antidote. Great research and good storytelling style.
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