Why humans need to matter
March 30, 2026
47 min
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752 of 775
March 30, 2026
Why humans need to matter
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Gray Area Episodes Around March 30, 2026
Episode 752 of 775 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
Why humans need to matter
Summary
Why do humans have this deep need to feel like we matter?
Sean Illing talks with the philosopher Rebecca Goldstein about why “mattering” is not the same thing as being important, how the hunger for validation can go really, really badly, and the different ways we try to justify our lives to ourselves. Love. God. Winning. Greatness. Service.
Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)
Guest: Rebecca Goldstein, author of The Mattering Instinct
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