What is a Good Life? What is a Good Life? #123 - Philosophy as a Daily Practice with Jessica Böhme
On the 123rd episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I’m delighted to welcome our guest, Jessica Böhme. Jessica is a professor and academic director of technology management at FHM Berlin, and she is the founder of the Institute for Practical ekoPhilosophy (IPeP). She writes a weekly newsletter "wild:philosophy," where she explores how to live life in a collapsing world. Her expertise lies in utilising philosophy as a meta-technology for individual, social, and ecological transformations.
In this episode, we delve into the profound question of how to live this life—particularly in the context of sustainability and personal responsibility. We discuss the concept of 'messy disturbance' in navigating life's complexities, the paralysis that can come from heightened awareness, and reflect on the experiments Jessica undertook to align her actions with her values—including her remarkable "one dress" experiment, in which she wore the same dress every day for over a year.
This conversation celebrates curiosity, the wisdom gained through lived experience, paying attention to life’s feedback and how philosophy can be practiced in everyday life, offering a grounding force amidst uncertainty.
Ultimately, this episode points to a richness of life that can be experienced when we allow ourselves to be seen.
For more of Jessica's work, check out the following:
Website: https://www.jessicaboehme.com/
IPeP: https://www.institute-pep.com/
Newsletter: https://jessicaboehme.substack.com/
Books: https://www.jessicaboehme.com/books/
Contact me at mark@whatisagood.life if you'd like to explore your own lines of self-inquiry through 1-on-1 coaching, take part in my 5-week What is a Good Life? group courses, discuss experiences I create to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams, or you simply want to get in touch.
- For the What is a Good Life? podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos
- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/
- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/
- Exploring one-on-one coaching: https://www.whatisagood.life/p/one-on-one-coaching
- What is a Good Life? Course: https://www.whatisagood.life/p/the-what-is-a-good-life-course
00:00 How do I live this life? What principles?
04:10 Living in the messy disturbance of life
07:10 We are more resilient than we think
11:00 Engaging with the difficulty of our choices
13:30 The importance of living our theories
18:05 Wearing the same dress for a year
23:00 People don’t notice as much as you think
26:30 The connection with items through familiarity
30:00 The relationship between scarcity and care
32:05 The friction between long term and a world in flux
37:05 Standing by and living in our choices
42:35 Integrating more than rejecting ways of life
46:17 Seeing Philosophy as a daily practice
49:00 Life’s feedback and responding to it
51:30 Summary and what is a good life for Jessica?