One must imagine Sisyphus…bored. Take a break from boredom and listen to episode 78 of Overthink as David and Ellie guide you through the fabulously idle realm of this “bestial, indefinable affliction.” They discuss the peaceful highs and painful lows of their middle school summer slumps, the endless days of pandemic panic, and the sluggish mornings of monks during the Medieval period. What can boredom teach us about existence? Is Kierkegaard right that the masses are boring while the nobles bore themselves? Can 9-year-olds be existentially bored? Maybe all we need to overcome boredom is a little bit of fun, perhaps a holiday. Or is it?

Works Discussed

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground
Andreas Elpidorou, The Feeling of Boredom, Boredom and Poverty
Evagrius, Of the Eight Capital Sins
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics
Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
Pascal, Pensées
Lars Svendsen, A Philosophy of Boredom
Michel de Montaigne, Of Sorrow
The Twilight Zone

* In the episode, we misattributed the quote “The cure for boredom is curiosity” to Dorothy Parker. The quote belongs to Ellen Parr.

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Boredom