SLO MO REWIND: Alain de Botton on How to Keep Your Partner Happy

Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat

Continuing our love and relationships series, we revisit my chat with the incredible Alain de Botton. One of the most listened episodes on Slo Mo, I and the British-Swiss philosopher, Alain de Botton, dive deep into one of my favorite topics: Love. Alain de Botton is a philosopher and writer of essayistic books that have been described as a "philosophy of everyday life." He’s written on love, travel, architecture and literature. His books have been bestsellers in 30 countries and have s...

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1. SLO MO REWIND: Alain de Botton on How to Keep Your Partner Happy (00:00:00)

2. Alain's definition of love (00:02:14)

3. How the opposite extreme of love is Loneliness, not Hatred. (00:03:28)

4. How Life is a desperate emergency, and if we can just admit that, things open up. (00:05:39)

5. Why Christianity gives a privileged role to those who suffer. (00:07:40)

6. One of the most honest takes on sex you'll ever hear (00:08:52)

7. How we're always trying to get our life as close as possible to our true reality (00:10:22)

8. If we're all imperfect, doesn't that make imperfection perfect? (00:11:19)

9. How we've replaced happiness with "fun" just as we've replaced love with "romance" (00:18:45)

10. The contradictions in love and how they're only glaring because they violate a script or story we expect from our relationship (00:20:05)

11. How we shouldn't be held accountable for what we feel, but rather the actions we take based on those feelings. (00:24:07)

12. Reinterpreting the typical disaster scenario in a relationship when one partner cheats on another (00:25:08)

13. Humanity's transition from demonizing sex to trying to understand it (00:30:00)

14. The differences (or lack thereof) between male and female in love and sex (00:30:58)

15. Sexual fetishes and their unique place in couple connections (00:33:32)

16. Undertakers and nurses as beacons of acceptance (00:35:58)

17. The game of life is trying to find connections (00:37:31)

18. The ironic outcome of jealousy's intentions (00:40:56)

19. How to keep your partner faithful (00:41:21)

20. Alain's love advice to my daughter (00:48:25)

21. Coping with the feeling of being rushed into marriage as a woman (00:52:32)

22. What "God is love" really means (00:55:21)

23. Seeing your partner as an Adorable Idiot rather than just a regular idiot (00:58:25)