HeyJaredThe Observing I Podcast
Award winning podcast about philosophy, psychology, and the human experience. New episode every Tuesday. theobservingi.com
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 8
- Latest publication
- Sep 22, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 7, 2026
Latest episodes
Epictetus and the Things You Can’t Control (opens the original)
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Epictetus is usually reduced to one clean Stoic idea: focus on what you can control and let go of the rest. But his actual philosophy is stranger than that, especially once you start asking what is really “up to us” when even our thoughts, emotions and circumstances refuse to cooperate. In this episode, I look at Epictetus through the gap between what happens and what we decide it means, from unanswered messages and broken relationships to coercion, injustice and the limits of inner freedom. The
The Anti-Guru: U.G. Krishnamurti and the End of Seeking (opens the original)
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U.G. Krishnamurti spent most of his life chasing enlightenment, then decided the entire search had been a mistake. He rejected gurus, methods and the promise that enough spiritual work would eventually produce a better version of you. What interested him instead was the seeker itself: the part of us constantly comparing who we are with who we think we ought to become. Some of U.G.’s claims are difficult to defend, particularly his account of the biological transformation he called the “calamity”
Weaponising Self-Awareness: The Mind That Can Catch Itself (opens the original)
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What happens when the mind catches itself in the act? This episode explores self-awareness, metacognition and the strange moment where a thought, reaction or impulse becomes visible before it turns into behaviour. But more self-awareness isn’t always better. We look at rumination, cognitive defusion, choice blindness and the limits of introspection, asking whether noticing the mind gives us any real control over it, or simply gives us another layer of thought to get trapped inside. Much love, Da
I Never Asked for This: Anti-Natalism and the Ethics of Birth (opens the original)
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What if having a child is a moral decision we rarely treat like one? Anti-natalism begins with an awkward fact: nobody consents to being born, every life contains some degree of suffering, and the person who will live with the consequences has no say in the decision that creates them. In this episode of The Observing I, I look at the philosophy behind that argument, from Schopenhauer’s pessimism to David Benatar’s claim that coming into existence is always a harm. Benatar’s case is more difficul
The Return from the Peak (opens the original)
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You can dissolve the self, touch the infinite and return convinced you have seen behind the curtain. Then the tea goes cold, someone still deserves an apology, and the ego quietly promotes itself to “the awakened one”. This season finale asks what altered states are worth once the visions fade, and where spiritual insight ends and psychological crisis begins. Stanislav and Christina Grof, William James and Jack Kornfield guide us through the difficult return to ordinary life. The real test is no
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