{"id":62592,"date":"2017-02-21T15:05:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T21:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=62592"},"modified":"2026-10-13T20:23:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T01:23:47","slug":"podcast-280-growing-subversive-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-280-growing-subversive-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #280: Why Growing Up Is a Subversive Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking around, there seems to be a dearth of grown-ups in our culture. We put a premium on seeming cool and hip and will spend inordinate amounts of money to retain our youthful looks. Meanwhile, being known as \u201cmature\u201d has become something to avoid entirely, as it signifies you\u2019ve become a boring, stogy old coot. As a result, we\u2019ve got a lot of folks in our society who are adults by merit of their chronological age, but don\u2019t appear or act as such.<\/p>\n

But what if growing up doesn\u2019t mean you have to be boring and lame? What if becoming a grown-up is actually a really rebellious act?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the argument my guest today makes in her latest book. Her name is Susan Neiman and she\u2019s the author of Why Grow Up? Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age<\/i><\/a>. Today on the show, Susan and I discuss why becoming a grown-up has gotten a bad rap, how our culture — including smartphones — infantilizes us, and what the Enlightenment thinkers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Emanuel Kant can teach us about how to become a grown-up. Susan then goes on to share ideas on what you can do to feel more like an autonomous adult and why embracing that role is such a subversive thing to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking around, there seems to be a dearth of grown-ups in our culture. We put a premium on seeming cool and hip and will spend inordinate amounts of money to retain our youthful looks. Meanwhile, being known as \u201cmature\u201d has become something to avoid entirely, as it signifies you\u2019ve become a boring, stogy old coot. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/280-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/280-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/280-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/280-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/280-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast: The Benefits of Growing Up, or "Adulting" | The Art of 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