Oliver Burkeman on mortality, acceptance and imperfectionism

How We Live Now with Katherine May

September - when we’re almost as likely to be trying to reform ourselves as in January - is the perfect moment for Oliver Burkeman’s new book, Meditations for Mortals.

Katherine sat down to talk to Oliver for her Book Club, and there was one question she was burning to ask: do you confuse lots of readers too?

Oliver, you see, has mastered the art of subverting the self-help genre. It’s not that he doesn’t want to offer succour to people who are struggling, nor that he denies we can change. It’s just that he wants us to understand how unrealistic we’ve learned to be about our capacity to do things. He urges us to accept our imperfections, our limitations, our fundamental humanness.

Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

• Oliver on X
• Oliver's website
• Oliver’s book, Meditations for Mortals: UK | US

• Join Katherine's Substack for a free reading guide, video recordings and transcripts
• Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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