The quest for authenticity

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Sean Illing talks with Skye Cleary, philosopher and author of the new book How to Be Authentic. The book is an examination of how to live an authentic life through the lens of the life and thought of the great French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986). Sean and Skye discuss what authenticity really means — and how it's often a misused term today, why we should resist performing roles predetermined for us by society, and how to have a truly intimate relationship without surrendering yourself — or your freedom.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), Interviews Writer, Vox

Guest: Skye Cleary (@Skye_Cleary), author, philosopher

References:

• How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment by Skye Cleary (St. Martin's; 2022)
• "Existentialism Is a Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre (1946)
• The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (1949; tr. 2011 by Constance Borde & Sheila Malovany-Chevallier)
• Aristophanes's speech in Plato's Symposium, 189c–193e
• The Useless Mouths, play by Simone de Beauvoir (1945)
• Inseparable by Simone de Beauvoir (tr. Sandra Smith; published for the first time by Ecco; 2021)
• "Before She Loved Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir loved Zaza" by Leslie Camhi (New York Times; Aug. 27, 2021)
• After The Second Sex: Conversations with Simone de Beauvoir by Alice Schwarzer (Pantheon; 1984)
• Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir (1958)
• Pyrrhus et Cinéas by Simone de Beauvoir (1944)

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This episode was made by:

• Producer: Erikk Geannikis
• Editor: Amy Drozdowska
• Engineer: Patrick Boyd
• Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall

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