218. Bill Bryson (writer) – the most extraordinary machine
Journeys of discovery and wonder in the inner and outer world, with beloved author Bill Bryson.
November 2, 2019
52 min
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219 of 237
November 2, 2019
218. Bill Bryson (writer) – the most extraordinary machine
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Big Think Episodes Around November 2, 2019
Episode 219 of 237 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
213. Catherine Wilson (philosopher) – the Epicurean cure for what ails ya
218. Bill Bryson (writer) – the most extraordinary machine
223. Karen Armstrong (theologian) – the art of getting outside of yourself
Summary
Do you have a body? I do, but I was mostly unaware of this fact until somewhere in my mid-30s, when my life strategy of living like a bourbon-loving brain-in-a-vat became increasingly untenable. Since then, I’ve come to understand something that might have been obvious to you all along. The body’s not just a convenient support system for coming up with clever things to say—it’s how we experience the world. It’s most of what we mean by living.
And for all its marvelous autonomy, it’s also wonderfully, bafflingly complex. My guest today is the author Bill Bryson. In his new book THE BODY: A GUIDE FOR OCCUPANTS, he has been kind enough to demystify it for us to the extent that that’s possible, and to help us revel in its mystery everywhere else. Bill is the beloved author of A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING and A WALK IN THE WOODS, and I’m delighted to have him on the show.
Surprise conversation starters in this episode:
Excerpted from Think Again episode #215 with Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie.
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