In Conversation: Alain de Botton on Excellent Company with Jamie Laing

Alain de Botton sits down with Jaime Laing on the @GreatCompanyPodcast. Together they dive into such subjects as: What is love? How do we navigate heartbreak? Why is our childhood so critical in shaping the rest of our life? And what does it all mean, anyway? Along the way, Alain walks Jamie through some of the reasons why we experience the ‘ick’, the typical emotional burdens parents project onto their children, and why breakdowns often lead to breakthroughs. They also explore ways of understanding our own relationships – and how our attachment styles and past experiences can shape the way we love. Great Company is an original podcast from JamPot Productions uploaded with their permission to The School of Life. If you enjoyed this podcast you can find more on the Great Company podcast, links below: YouTube |  @greatcompanypodcast Instagram |  @greatcompanypodcast TikTok |  @greatcompanypodcast -- Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://www.theschooloflife.com/the-school-of-life-youtube/ Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/articles/ Timestamps 00:00 What is the meaning of life? 00:45 Finding the extraordinary with the ordinary 3:30 An exercise that can help with anxiety 07:00 How difficult self-awareness is 08:50 What Jamie was like as a child 10:20 Why funny people often come from sad childhoods 12:50 Looking for familiarity not happiness in relationships 18:00 Examining Jamie’s relationship through attachment styles 21:45 Acknowledging a relationship is between two broken people 23:00 Why asking ‘How are you mad?’ on a date can help 25:00 Best way to diffuse an argument with a partner 26:30 The worst heartbreak comes from the nice ones 29:20 How to become the best version of yourself 31:20 Our past can explain how we act in our current relationships 36:45 What has led me to do what I do 39:20 Life is about deepening time not just lengthening it 40:40 Ways to help when feeling mentally unwell 48:30 Breakdowns can actually be breakthroughs 50:15 Why read my new book ‘A Therapeutic Journey’ 52:00 Final eight questions #THESCHOOLOFLIFE #GREATCOMPANYPODCAST #ALAINDEBOTTON -- THE CREDITS: Exec Producer: Jemima Rathbone Assistant Producer: Gurlina Heer Editor: Steve Melia Video: Jake Ji Marketing: Eleanore Bamber Social Media: Laura Coughlan SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices