“A Philosopher’s One-Word Theory for Why the World Feels So Weird,” from Plain English with Derek Thompson.
In this podcast episode, University of Chicago philosophy professor Agnes Callard puts forth what host and Abundance author Thompson calls “one of the most original ideas I’ve heard in a long time.”
Callard explains why everything — especially on the internet — feels so exhausting and divisive: because we are now living in a “uni-context.” Humans once lived in their own closed worlds, Callard argues. But thanks to technology, we are now forced to inhabit the same conversation, reshaping how we experience time, attention, and morality — and simultaneously leading to more comparison and competition. Listen to Plain English on Apple Podcasts.