Watching Alain de Botton preach has become one of my daily KZfaq rituals before bed.

The best channel ever! This is my most treasured find on KZfaq! Thank you so much for all the amazing videos!

Really brilliant! Love Alain de Botton. I live in Dhaka, Bangladesh and it is hard to get books written by him. I have been a fan since 2003 when I first read The Romantic Movement. And I am happy to report that now in 2013 you can occasionally find his books being sold in some of the bookshops of Dhaka. His ideas cross borders and cultures and are really accessible. We need more kind and gentle philosophers like him.

a society becomes modern when they stop going to church on sundays and start listening to Alain de Botton lectures on sunday

alain de botton, i almost listen to you everyday, helps me to get back on our core reality. the thought of death has been despairing me for a long time before you, when i discovered your thoughts i felt like me talking in terms of your main arguments. please continue producing, i believe not only your current audience but also and especially humanitys future generation will make a lot use of your thoughts and insights. cheers from istanbul !

Ah! I'd rate Alain's content and delivery better than a lot of Ted talks. Can't wait for more topics.

I keep listening to Allen ,6 years on. Still as relevant as before.

Every time I scroll down to the comments after a TSOL video I can't help but read all the comments in the voice of Alain de Botton. Even this comment is currently being read back to me in the voice of Alain de Botton.

I couldn't stop smiling and just purely enjoying this video the entire way through. I thoroughly enjoy most every video some more than others. I have actually changed the way I look at the world and how I connect with people. I wish I could express my appreciation somehow more - "fan mail" from the US or what not.

I love the way Alain thinks and presents his thoughts to all of us. Everyday issues and situations perfectly explained, and this is something we can all learn from :)

This is the greatest channel ever. One simple reason: the comments are logical, no one are killing each other.

These talks are brilliant! I'm so happy to have stumbled upon this channel.

It was just half an hour but you may learn the whole world from him. Best 1/2 hour I've ever experienced!

He's such a good speaker. I constanly find myself fascinated by the ideas he points out.

why can't they teach this stuff in school? I feel like I completely wasted 12 years of my life.

I decided I wanted to watch Alain speak instead of watching the morning news and found this video. Perfect. Usually I'm disgusted by the news in less than 10 minutes. Instead, today I'll be late for work because I couldn't stop watching this. So glad I discovered him!

I don't know how I stumbled onto this channel but it's definitely been an interesting time watching these videos.

'It is only on the front page because it is so, deeply, unusual'. Quote of the video for me

I actually get up in the morning and listen to and watch the birds singing any flying and look at the flowers.

Alain De Botton is my new role model. Only discovered him today after the Daily Mash did a spoof article on him being the new Daily Mail editor. Love him now.

Love you very much,the way you explain your self from Los Angeles. Agree with your perspective. I love history and such. Currently what is going on and the past.past,and history.

This came into my orbit purely by chance , as is often the case with KZfaq. A student of Philospohy that is able to bring the wisdom of ages to bear on current affairs. Thank you. I will continue to follow you :)

The talk is pretty long for a youtube format, but Alain likes to talk a lot. So here's a breakdown of the talk: 0:00 - 7:00 general talk about todays news periodically appearing similiar stories - archetypes taken from his book 8:50 Someone extraordinary doing something very ordinary 9:40 Report of some people dying somewhere 16:10 personal tragedy ( man killing his family) 19:30 technological accidents ( car, train and plane crash) 21:30 medical - something to crack death 23:00 celebrity in general 24:00 celebrity doing something boring 25:00 envy triggering 29:20 economic 31:00 obsession with bad guys and avoidance of systemic problems some important stuff to mention: 7:20 popularization of really important stuff ( global warming and legs of girls) 28:00 delivering unbiased news 32:00 important things occur irregulary and over longer timespans than the daily news might suggest 33:40 take a break from news watching 33:55 there are other living creatures besides humans

"The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.

I thoroughly Enjoyed this presentation.

It's just amazing. I wish that few journalists from India can take lecture from you as it's very important to revise their medium of information.

I love this channel, the best on KZfaq!!. It' also great to put a name and face to the voice :D

I LOVE your channel. Thank you so much for making this.

What a brilliant man.

Wise, beautifully delivered words.

great! Alain! we need more material with spanish subtitles, please please!

I love how such a huge organisation takes the time out to reply to comments worth replying to :)

Wonderful find. Useful ideas to shape "living."

Great work Alain!

One time I was at work and something stressful was going on and I said, “I’m just gonna read the newspaper to cheer myself up.” 😂

Awesome talk!

So, this is the wonderful voice behind animated series in SL. Awesome!

Simply brilliant.

Really interesting. What you said about empathy for world news... I totally get it. However, the landscape is starting to change in that regard. If you ever look at Vice News, they do a type of "News Emergence" where the reporters live and breathe in conflict zones and describe the news and events in a type of documentary, and show the faces and lives behind the conflicts. I even saw the BBC trying to mimic their reporting style in some cases, like the war in Ukraine.

equal parts informative and funny Alain should do stand up :)

People need to re-watch this today. This video is so relevant now. Its crazy how nothing has changed since this first aired in 2014

Will you please do a video on the art of leadership!

is the kind of man you would listen all day

The BBC isn't biased? I think it's positively ORWELLIAN.

this was amazing

love the bit about envy and Elon Musk...I'm envious of Alain de Botton! I wish I was as eloquent as him, as sharp and lucid as him, and have an audience like him. Hey-ho.

21:18 The news headline is such a distorted picture of our society (Alain de Botton)

Great insight, here's a question how long will clickbait survive?

Would love to hear him comment on humans of new york

Excellence incarnate!

This talk is more relevant now than ever. The truth. We are being played like fiddles by the media. The comments sections on news pages, Twitter etc is damaging and divisive. We become hopelessly judgmental of others. Love and care about your family and friends. The rest is distorted truths and manipulation of your emotions. We can't change human nature, just accept that and apply gentle humour to this thing we call life.

Okay, next time I catch myself wasting time playing a game I've already won, or even worse, FreeCell, I'm going to remind myself that this channel has some lecture I'll really enjoy. Like this. I'd seen that the news was repetitive and didn't really push people forward, and I'm glad this broke down why. Also, I may or may not map certain media outlets to 127.0.0.1 in my hosts file. Even less time wasted!

So many great minds, you've created so many solutions If only we could begin to transition back to Matrilineal societies, the solutions wouldn't be necessary We are in a world which lacks nurturing- true nurturing. We do not know how to nurture ourselves. #RussellMeans

Plato and buddha headline news ...that'd be the day! ..or a weekly word from your beloved Nietzsche! :p

Alain de Botton is a person that was meant to be born and exist.

Hey Alain, you should add a link to the website in the video description.

Brilliance. Anyone who tells me again this guy's a middle-brow intellectural I'm going to deck!

He is brillant 🌎🌱✨🌈💚🙏🏻👏🏻

Alain would you do a talk on Envy

Thanks

People get the media they 'deserve' and want. So, if the media is stupid and useless the reason of it being stupid and useless is pretty obvious. Ive learned in this channel that the demand is what builds societies, and its a brilliant idea. So the solution lays in education, as always. Thats why it seems like The School of Life and Alain de Botton were meant to exist. Just look at Alain, he is perfect for the duty and work that he is doing: ambitious and dreamful down to earth 'philosopher', good looking, extraordinary communicator (with a very archetypical voice), humble but at the same time a leader and very confident, man of action and strong will and former of the School of Life, etc... He is the ultimate 'philosopher'. Probably the most universal man on earth right now. People like Alain is what humanity needs, without being cliché, im being absolutely serious.

Great mind

"Makes us envious" or about whom we choose to be envious of?

The pre-1997 BBC was excellent. What happened was the idea of being a gentleman was 'unpersoned' by post'97 universities.

The group, there's power in the GROUP

thanks

brilliant

Does anyone know what his new “news website” is? The one that’s meant to replace classic news, one with a different, more empathetic approach, to learning about new important situations. He said it was named “philosopher”-something? But I didn’t quite catch it. Pls lemme know if you do, thanks!

What would happen if the world was led by well-meaning psychologists?

I contacted a woman talking about hunger in the paper because she talked about gardening. She didn't mention kudzu. There are 250,000 articles on kudzu recipes for a vine that is organic, super plant that grows in many places in the USA. She was not interested in telling or writing anything about kudzu as a food. Sad because kudzu detoxes the liver. Also the Buddy System is not forced on women, and yet men have the Buddy System forced on them.

30:32 how people are and why it's a disaster.....the end of his speech is SPECTACULAR

I'll wait a couple more years for this man to open Xavier Institute

his hair resembles a wreath which gives him a princely appearance. haha awesome!

This being before 2016 says a lot..

But if the newspaper has stories about both Taylor Swift and Climate Change in it, isn't it better to put the image on the front that gets the most purchases? Wouldn't that increase the chance of the climate change story being read if more people purchase it? If not then perhaps the problem is just that people aren't interested in climate change to start with. Maybe Taylor Swift should be hired as a spokesperson for it.

I'm on the search of why art is important. And here he says a reason, in relation with the news: 9:32

He has a Ted talk u should watch

Chris Hedges explains this as the end of empire; obsession with absurdity instead of substance and reality

1.Two ways to keep a society 2:57 passive , resigned, despairing, accepting of whatever status quo is given them 2. 5:08 GLOBAL WARMING vs TAYLOR SWIFT....Architecture of NEWS has broken down 3. 8:04 news archetypes 4. 10:49 steady state NEWS . why we don't care 5. 12:00 death of photojournalism 6. 30:32 how people are and why it's a disaster.....the end of his speech is SPECTACULAR

Link to the site that Alain mentions at the end of this. www.philosophersmail.com/

Watching this after the George Floyd incident is really something...

I really love VICE media as a news artform. Their photojournalism is beautful and they actually cover events in a way that are much more thought provoking and empathetic.

I'm in love...

What does he say at 28:29-28:30? "I'm not just the very, very (what?). it's nonsense! " Just can't understand this one word... is it 'firm'?

Ahhhhh I'm below the line!

The greatest true philosopher alive today?

Does the philosophers mail not exist anymore?

Generally I get annoyed with Atheists, but this guy is indirect and has a sense of humour about it.

On the subject of news comments: Keep in mind the people posting are in the vast minority. Even here on youtube, with our infamous comment section, most people just watch the video instead of voicing their views. This video itself has a 1:1000 comment-to-views ratio, which tells you precisely how many people are actually spewing this negativity. The "Silent Majority" goes unheard in many places, especially in news comments.

Haha I love this

The media is focused on superficial things not on the core problems of humanity.

Since every smart comment has been made, I'll make a silly one: turn on closed captions and watch the first 20 seconds

Actually I fall asleep to your videos

I admire Elon and think he is inspiring, I'm not so sure about Musk. Robert Graves wrote 'The Nazarene Gospels Restored' thinking it'd change the culture. It sold only 200 copies. Proves Alain's point? Though Robert's 'The White Goddess' has had more influence with his other works.

Hear, hear

Sailors fighting in the dance hall Oh man look at those cavemen go It's the freakiest show Take a look at the lawman Beating up the wrong guy Oh man wonder if he'll ever know He's in the best selling show

I like his presentation on Envy. Elon Musk!!!!!!!!!!!!

ahh i want him to come to my university and give a speech

But Alain, arent saints christian representation of most primal of human tradition: Honored ancestors! People who did something great and we should look up to them. I, personaly, dont find them a great example for, lets be honest, useless celebreties that are forced upon us because they are exiting, or tragic. Great videos, and keep them up! Your a real rolemodel for young thinkers and philoshopers everywhere. Greetings from Serbia :)

So... who was Taylor Swift of the time?