If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Have you ever wondered why our culture’s obsession with "living your best life" can be so damaging when things actually go wrong?
- What if the secret to a meaningful life isn't about being "fixed," but about learning how to inhabit the fragile space of being incurably human?
- Are you curious about how to navigate life's most difficult seasons without falling for the empty promises of "toxic positivity" or the prosperity gospel?
Listen to No Cure for Being Human — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from No Cure for Being Human
- Discover why the contemporary obsession with living your 'best life' is a toxic illusion that falsely promises total control over your circumstances.
- Understand the sinister subtext of the prosperity gospel and modern wellness culture, which wrongly imply that sickness and suffering are simply your own fault.
- Find out why you should reconsider making a bucket list and why your personal pain never needs to be framed as a mandatory learning experience.
- Explore the historical connections between the 1970s New Age movement, 1980s self-help literature, and the mantras of modern wellness influencers.
- Realize that being human inherently involves messiness and misfortune, freeing you from the exhausting burden of trying to perfectly control your life.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from No Cure for Being Human
Mind Map
No Cure for Being Human
The Illusion of Control
Prosperity Gospel
Living Your Best Life
The Reality of Existence
The Myth of the Bucket List
Dark Origins
Flaws of Quantifying Life
A Better Approach
Work and Meaning
The Productivity Trap
Redefining Calling
The Reality of Pain
Toxic Positivity
The Inspiration Trap
Body and Self
Physical Disconnection
Embracing Superficiality
Collective Suffering
Clinical Trials
The COVID-19 Pandemic
Actionable Takeaways
Ditch Forced Gratitude
Accept Humanity
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 9
Why did Kate Bowler object so strongly to the prosperity gospel books sold in the hospital gift shop?
No Cure for Being Human — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: A breakdown in the hospital gift shop.
Chapter 3: What’s wrong with living your 'best life,' anyway?
Chapter 4: Spending time when there is barely any time left.
Chapter 5: A life measured by ten key experiences? The argument against bucket lists.
Chapter 6: Does working hard barely work?
Chapter 7: On the pointlessness of pain, or why not everything must always have a meaning.
Chapter 8: Superficial worries and why they matter.
Chapter 9: A shared lesson: pain and suffering in the age of COVID.
No Cure for Being Human Summary & Overview
No Cure for Being Human (2021) is the thoughtful chronicle of Kate Bowler’s attempts to make the most of her life after a brutal cancer diagnosis at only 35. Part memoir, part critique of the widespread obsession with positivity, No Cure for Being Human is a poignant dispatch from the fragile border between life and death.
Who Should Listen to No Cure for Being Human?
- Those who’ve supporting a loved one through a serious diagnosis, or have received one themselves
- Critics of the prosperity gospel and impeccably curated Instagram feeds
- Those grappling with the idea that they, too, might be incurably human
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