Listen "The case for failure"
Episode Synopsis
Is our society's fixation with success hindering our ability to find humility? Sean Illing speaks with Costica Bradatan about his new book In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility, which explores failure through the lives of historical figures like Gandhi and the philosopher Simone Weil. They discuss the benefits of engaging with our limits and what we can learn from those who've embraced failure.
Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area
Guest: Costica Bradatan, Professor at Texas Tech University and Honorary Research Professor of Philosophy at University of Queensland in Australia, Religion/Philosophy editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and author of In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility.
References:
In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility by Costica Bradatan (Harvard University Press, 2023)
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, translated by Justin O'Brien (Vintage Books, 1991)
The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufman (1872)
The Trouble with Being Born by E.M. Cioran, translated by Richard Howard (Arcade Publishing, 1973)
Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
Support The Gray Area by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts
This episode was made by:
Engineer: Patrick Boyd
Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area
Guest: Costica Bradatan, Professor at Texas Tech University and Honorary Research Professor of Philosophy at University of Queensland in Australia, Religion/Philosophy editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and author of In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility.
References:
In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility by Costica Bradatan (Harvard University Press, 2023)
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, translated by Justin O'Brien (Vintage Books, 1991)
The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufman (1872)
The Trouble with Being Born by E.M. Cioran, translated by Richard Howard (Arcade Publishing, 1973)
Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
Support The Gray Area by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts
This episode was made by:
Engineer: Patrick Boyd
Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More episodes of the podcast The Gray Area with Sean Illing
It’s okay to not be okay
22/12/2025
Forgiveness is optional
15/12/2025
The pornification of everything
08/12/2025
What counts as progress?
01/12/2025
How to survive awkward encounters
17/11/2025
Truth in an age of doublethink
10/11/2025
The case against free will
03/11/2025
What the climate story gets wrong
27/10/2025
The Great Enshittening
20/10/2025
America chose violence. Now what?
13/10/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.