What Is an Adult? (Ep. 1)

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Our team has launched a new podcast, called How to Be an Adult. It’s the trail guide to life that you should have received when you turned 18, but didn’t. Whether you’re 18 or 80, we intend to help you to feel like an equal to your peers, and to live excellently.

In the first episode, your co-hosts Luke Chao and Pascal Langdale discuss what it even means to be an adult. We discuss definitions, rites of passage, and how adulthood should feel empowering and liberating, rather than onerous and burdensome:

• This podcast aims to provide practical guidance for people who have become adults but don’t feel like they know what to do. We share thoughts to democratize self-assurance as an aspect of adulthood.
• Adulthood is defined beyond just legal definitions and looks at factors like emotional maturity and reasoning ability.
• Feelings of adulthood don’t necessarily indicate being an adult, as feelings can mislead. Outward markers don’t guarantee internal feelings of adulthood.
• Developmental psychology differentiates childhood, adolescence and adulthood as distinct phases, rather than seeing children as deficient adults.
• Responsibility can feel burdensome if one feels not up to it, but empowering if one feels able to fulfill it. Underestimating oneself is common.
• Identity is partially socially negotiated beyond just jobs/careers, including relationships with friends and family.
• Commercial value at work doesn’t encompass full humanity or value as a living being.
• Responsibility for one’s outcomes and future depends on steering one’s own course, not blaming others.
• Principles discussed aim to be universally applicable to humans rather than just individuals.
• Future episodes will outline axioms of treating oneself with respect, valuing truth, and being prosocial.

Table of contents:

00:00 – Introduction
02:02 – Definition of terms
03:09 – Legal and personal rites of passage
07:25 – When you feel like an adult, and what that means
11:13 – Childhood as a 20th century concept
12:25 – Adulthood can be empowering and liberating
15:32 – You have power over what surrounds you
22:16 – Shame and accountability
25:43 – What to expect from upcoming episodes
30:48 – Qualifications of your hosts

Pascal Langdale is our newest hypnotherapist. Born in London, he comes from a storied background in the performing arts. His understanding of humanity enriches our team’s conversations about human emotion and motivation.

Listen above, on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, or watch the full video on YouTube, free of third-party ads. Remember to like, subscribe and share!