
Meditations for Mortals
Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
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Narrated by:
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Oliver Burkeman
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By:
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Oliver Burkeman
About this listen
Long-listed, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, 2024
Long-listed, Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2024
Long-listed, Audible.com Best of the Year, 2024
"The philosophical tone of his delivery is perfect."—AudioFile on Four Thousand Weeks
This program is read by the author.
A map for a liberating journey toward a more meaningful life—a journey that begins where we actually find ourselves, not with a fantasy of where we’d like to be—from the New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks
Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, Meditations for Mortals offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life Oliver Burkeman calls “imperfectionism.” It helps us tackle challenges as they crop up in our daily lives: our finite time, the lure of distraction, the impossibility of doing anything perfectly.
How can we embrace our non-negotiable limitations? Or make good decisions when there’s always too much to do? How do we shed the illusion that life will really begin as soon as we can “get on top of everything”? Reflecting on quotations drawn from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores a combination of practical tools and daily shifts in perspective. The result is a life-enhancing and surprising challenge to much familiar advice—and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully.
To be listened to either as a four-week “retreat of the mind” or devoured in one or two sittings, Meditations for Mortals will be a source of solace and inspiration, and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life. In anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
©2024 Oliver Burkeman (P)2024 Macmillan Audio
Interview: "Meditations for Mortals" inspires us to stop being perfectionists
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Critic reviews
“Meditations for Mortals offers a bracing and refreshing antidote for what ails high achievers. With crackling wit and counterintuitive wisdom, Burkeman shows that it’s okay—and often smarter—to do less, let some goals slide, and embrace our imperfections. This book is both a comfort and a challenge—exactly what our trying times demand.”—Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret
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“I follow Oliver Burkeman's personal, literary, and journalistic adventures into wisdom with admiration and exhilaration. Now he brings us a ‘retreat of the mind’ in a very special book. We should all read this, preferably in the company of others—for the sake of our aching world as well as the state of our souls.”—Krista Tippett, host of On Being
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Story
Bestselling author Oliver Burkeman is well known for his books and radio programmes exploring how we can lead meaningful and productive lives in an age of overwhelm. This time, he brings his keen sense of the ridiculous to bear on our obsession with convenience, looking at the hidden pitfalls of a life of ease. In these five episodes, Oliver attempts to assess the consequences of our reliance on convenience.
By: Oliver Burkeman
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Why Are We So Angry?
- And What Is It Doing to the World?
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Why is everyone so angry nowadays, and what is it doing to the world? In the developed world we live in a blessed epoch, a time and a place where life has never been better. Infant mortality has been all but abolished, we have greater personal choice than ever before, we have access to technology that would have been seen as the stuff of science fiction little more than a decade ago. We are safer and wealthier than at any time in human history. So why are we so damn angry about everything?
By: Oliver Burkeman
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Oliver Burkeman: Living with the News
- A BBC Radio 4 Series
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
- Original Recording
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Award-winning journalist and author Oliver Burkeman has written three bestselling books on happiness, productivity and time management. Now, in this thought-provoking radio series, he looks at the way we consume and obsess over the news, and why it's so bad for us. Tracing the origins of the modern news cycle, from the first mass production of newspapers in the 19th century to 24-hour rolling news and the alluring interactivity of social media, he shows how we have gone from a scarcity to a superabundance of information.
By: Oliver Burkeman
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Oliver Burkeman: Epidemics of Modern Life
- A BBC Radio 4 Collection
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman, Various
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
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Journalist and author Oliver Burkeman is well-known for his long-running Guardian column, 'How to Change Your Life', and has written three best-selling books on happiness, productivity and time management. In this radio collection, he looks at four central ills of modernity—busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Talking to a range of experts, he discovers how these problems became so widespread, and how we can go about tackling them.
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An interesting and nuanced look at four modern problems
- By Nick on 01-22-25
By: Oliver Burkeman
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The Joy of Connections
- 100 Ways to Beat Loneliness and Live a Happier and More Meaningful Life
- By: Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, Allison Gilbert - contributor, Pierre Lehu - contributor
- Narrated by: Tovah Feldshuh, Allison Gilbert, Pierre Lehu
- Length: 3 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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When Surgeon General Vivek Murthy sounded the alarm that loneliness “represents an urgent public health concern”—exacerbated by social media overuse, the residual effects of the pandemic, and the lack of meaningful relationships—trusted therapist Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer knew that her unique perspective and expertise could help. Long beloved for breaking stigmas around sexual problems, Dr. Ruth made it her mission to help individuals break free from the bonds of hopelessness and isolation.
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Dr Ruth’s Goodbye message to the lonely
- By JustMe on 11-17-24
By: Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, and others
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Supercommunicators
- How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
- By: Charles Duhigg
- Narrated by: Charles Duhigg
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Come inside a jury room as one juror leads a starkly divided room to consensus. Join a young CIA officer as he recruits a reluctant foreign agent. And sit with an accomplished surgeon as he tries, and fails, to convince yet another cancer patient to opt for the less risky course of treatment. In Supercommunicators, Charles Duhigg blends deep research and his trademark storytelling skills to show how we can all learn to identify and leverage the hidden layers that lurk beneath every conversation.
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Valuable advice and information.
- By Cheryl J. on 03-13-24
By: Charles Duhigg
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Slow Productivity
- The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Cal Newport
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?
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Cal Needs Narration Training
- By T. S. Tatum on 04-25-24
By: Cal Newport
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Reset
- How to Change What's Not Working
- By: Dan Heath
- Narrated by: Dan Heath
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In Reset, Heath explores a framework for getting unstuck and making the changes that matter. The secret is to find “leverage points”: places where a little bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Then, we can thoughtfully rearrange our resources to push on those points.
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Accompanying PDF has chapter summaries
- By JOHN B SHRADER on 02-07-25
By: Dan Heath
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Over Work
- Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life
- By: Brigid Schulte
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Following Overwhelmed, Brigid Schulte’s groundbreaking examination of time management and stress, the prizewinning journalist now turns her attention to the greatest culprit in America’s quality-of-life crisis: the way our economy and culture conceive of work. Americans across all demographics, industries, and socioeconomic levels report exhaustion, burnout, and the wish for more meaningful lives. This full-system failure in our structure of work affects everything from gender inequality to domestic stability, and it even shortens our lifespans.
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Well researched
- By Deborah Willis Eaton on 10-30-24
By: Brigid Schulte
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From Fear to Fearlessness
- Teachings on the Four Great Catalysts of Awakening
- By: Pema Chödrön
- Narrated by: Pema Chödrön
- Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins
- Original Recording
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Where will we look when we are afraid? How do we find strength? In what can we place our trust? According to Tibetan Buddhism, there are four noble aspirations, known as the Four Great Catalysts of Awakening, which we can call on to cultivate strength and openness in any situation. From Fear to Fearlessnessbrings us into the company of beloved teacher Pema Chödrön to discover and cultivate these four immeasurables: maitri (loving-kindness), compassion, joy, and equanimity.
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I couldn't relate to this one...
- By customer on 07-07-15
By: Pema Chödrön
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Tiny Experiments
- How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World
- By: Anne-Laure Le Cunff
- Narrated by: Anne-Laure Le Cunff
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Life isn’t linear, and yet we try to mold it around linear goals: four-year college degrees, ten-year career plans, thirty-year mortgages. What if instead we approached life as a giant playground for experimentation? Based on ancestral philosophy and the latest scientific research, Tiny Experiments provides a desperately needed reframing: Uncertainty can be a state of expanded possibility and a space for metamorphosis. Neuroscientist and entrepreneur Anne-Laure Le Cunff reveals that all you need is an experimental mindset to turn challenges into self-discovery and doubt into opportunity.
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Very basic info, challenging narration
- By Igor on 05-05-25
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The Path of Aliveness
- A Contemporary Zen Approach to Awakening Body and Mind
- By: Christian Dillo
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Buddhism aims for the development of a flexible mind and skillful responsiveness-whether toward problems in one's personal life or broader issues like the ecological crisis. But in a culture now saturated with cliches about mindfulness and unrealistic fantasies about happiness, what does it truly mean to walk this path? The key practice is that of embodied aliveness.
By: Christian Dillo
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Meditations for Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself
- By: Dr. Joe Dispenza
- Narrated by: Dr. Joe Dispenza
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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This mental-rehearsal Audio Download set, the four-week guided-meditation companion program to Dr Joe Dispenza's book Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, is designed to move you from the analytical Beta brain-wave state to the state of Alpha, and develop your ability to sustain coherent brain-wave patterns.
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How to Use This (Response)
- By M. Cahill on 06-05-22
By: Dr. Joe Dispenza
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Hope for Cynics
- The Surprising Science of Human Goodness
- By: Jamil Zaki
- Narrated by: Jamil Zaki
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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For thousands of years, people have argued about whether humanity is selfish or generous, cruel or kind. But recently, our answers have changed. In 1972, half of Americans agreed that most people can be trusted; by 2018, only a third did. Different generations, genders, religions, and political parties can’t seem to agree on anything, except that they all think human virtue is evaporating.
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Bait and switch
- By Daniel on 01-31-25
By: Jamil Zaki
Great!
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solid advice
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Thoughtful
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Enter the stream
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Excellent Book
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Stuck? Stressed? Read This
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One of the most worthwhile "self-help" books out there!
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Loved 4000 weeks as well!
Takes the Pressure Off
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Fresh perspective!
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A lot here to ponder
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