michael ignatieff

On episode 174, we welcome Michael Ignatieff to discuss the consolation of philosophy, the difference between comfort and consolation, distinguishing between false and true consolations and how they affect those suffering, the various secular and religious consolations, the purpose of hospice care and how it helps people die well, using one’s death to create meaning, consolations as myths and why it doesn’t matter if they’re true, the impossibility of moral purity and Michael’s regrets as a politician, the symbolism of the book of Job and the irrationality of the question ‘why me?’, and why consolation is a social process that necessitates the need for others.

Michael Ignatieff is the author of Isaiah Berlin and The Warrior’s Honor, as well as over fifteen other acclaimed books, including a memoir, The Russian Album, and the Booker finalist novel Scar Tissue. He writes regularly for the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books. Former head of Canada’s Liberal Party, director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and president of Central European University, he is currently a professor at CEU in Vienna. His newest book, available now, is called On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times.

| Michael Ignatieff |

► Website | https://michaelignatieff.ca/books

► Twitter | https://twitter.com/M_Ignatieff

► Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-ignatieff-228781153

► On Consolation Book | https://shorturl.at/DIOX4

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Writer, historian, academic, and former politician Michael Ignatieff joins Digging Deep for a wide-ranging conversation on one of the most poignant and enduring aspects of human life: how we cope with loss. Drawing on his new book, On Consolation, Ignatieff shares how he lost both his father and mother within just a few years of each other, and how he came to accept that loss. He talks about how sometimes consolation isn’t possible and that it’s not always necessary to find meaning in tragedy. He provides a powerful reminder that human life has not changed as much as we think it has over the centuries, and that whatever we experience has been experienced by others over the centuries. He also talks about the changes he sees happening in the world and his hope in what he calls “the fiendish ingenuity of the human species.” Michael touches on his time as a politician, and shares some very candid opinions on the current state of politics. Listen in as we talk about dreaming big, the humbling experience that is life, and Michael's overarching message that we are not alone.

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