{"id":26313,"date":"2026-08-13T03:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources2.soundstrue.com\/?post_type=podcast&#038;p=26313"},"modified":"2026-08-12T12:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T18:55:16","slug":"just-one-question-james-hollis-why-am-i-here","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/resources2.soundstrue.com\/podcast\/just-one-question-james-hollis-why-am-i-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Just One Question | James Hollis: Why Am I Here?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; border: 0 none;\" src=\"https:\/\/art19.com\/shows\/1632d73c-91ea-42a8-a3db-a62b135d081c\/episodes\/42fafc07-8208-499f-b46e-25d719db9636\/embed?theme=dark-custom&amp;primary_color=%23F60F60\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tami came to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Living with Borrowed Dust<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> wanting to talk about the abyss \u2014 the chapter that held her attention most. James Hollis offers Heidegger&#8217;s framing of it: not the pit that swallows you, but the openness of being.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then he does something guests rarely do here. He takes the question back. The abyss opens, he says, every time we ask a truly radical question \u2014 radical from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">radix<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, root \u2014 and there is none more radical than \u201cWhy am I here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He answers it from inside a hospital bed. Two serious spinal surgeries, real doubt about whether he&#8217;d come through, and what he describes feeling is not despair but something closer to adventure. He thanked his surgeon on the way into the operating room. Fear is normal, he says, and anxiety is real \u2014 but neither one has to be the thing that decides how you live.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this episode:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heidegger&#8217;s abyss as the openness of being, and how that reframe exposed Hollis&#8217;s own defenses<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The patterns we build against the unknown: power over small things, staying out of harm&#8217;s way, narcissistic inflation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why mortality is the one statistic with no uncertainty in it, and what that should free us to do<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep walking \u2014 if you&#8217;re in the middle of the forest, you&#8217;re halfway through<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dignity over pride, and the one thing nobody can take from you unless you give it away<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taken from the full <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Insights at the Edge<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> conversation with James Hollis. Find the complete interview in this feed or at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundstrue.com\/a\/resources\/podcast\/james-hollis-find-what-you-love-and-let-it-kill-you\/\">soundstrue.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":26315,"template":"","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1085],"tags":[170],"contributor":[542],"class_list":["post-26313","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-growth","tag-insights-at-the-edge","contributor-james-hollis"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Just One Question | James Hollis: Why Am I Here? | Sounds True<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Just One Question | James Hollis: Why Am I Here? | Sounds True\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tami came to Living with Borrowed Dust wanting to talk about the abyss \u2014 the chapter that held her attention most. 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