
Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina University) chats with Wendy Syfret (VICE Asia) about her new book The Sunny Nihilist: How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy. They talk about such things as why the modern world relentlessly seeks meaning in everything, whether nihilism is a viable or liberating response, and whether/how nihilism is reconcilable with strong belief and activism. 3:00 - What is nihilism? 10:35 - When did Wendy come to nihilsm and find it liberating? 16:48 - Why do we in the modern world "find" meaning in everything? 25:41 - Why does "finding" objective meaning satisfy more than creating subjective meaning? 30:38 - Are the young generally more nihilistic than their elders? Where is nihilism in pop culture? 38:59 - How to reconcile nihilism with activism (another thing that Wendy cares about)?