Chef: Why do anything right now? Is it really that different? Right? What's different? You have, Chef, as an answer, and you have an answer. He says grad school is the best time of your life if you have lots of funding and don't have to teach. But there's a lot of pressure to sort of make your own meaning as a grad student.
Suppose all of humanity was infected by a virus that left us all infertile--no one will come along after us. How would you react to such a world? Agnes Callard of the University of Chicago says she would be filled with despair. But why does this seem worse than our own inevitable deaths? Callard speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the meaning of life, and what exactly about the end of humanity is so demoralizing. The conversation concludes with a discussion of whether humanity is making progress.