The Science of Feeling Dead Inside with Dr. Corey Keyes

What if you’re not burned out, not clinically depressed, and nothing in your life is falling apart—but you still feel numb, empty, or like you’re just going through the motions? In this episode, sociologist and mental health researcher Dr. Corey Keyes explains the science behind that feeling, and why he calls it “languishing.” We dig into how our culture massively underestimates mental health by defining it as “not sick,” and why that quiet definition keeps so many of us stuck. Corey shares how watching his own father’s life slowly unravel pushed him to rethink success, work, and what it really means to flourish. You’ll learn the key differences between languishing and flourishing, the hidden ways modern life pulls us toward numbness, and why feeling “dead inside” might actually be an existential alarm clock trying to wake you up. We don’t just stay in theory—we talk about what real flourishing looks like for regular people with jobs, kids, stress, and messy lives. Corey's book, Languishing: How to Feel Alive Again in a World That Wears Us Down, is available now wherever books are sold! Support the Show - Become a Patron! Help us grow and become a Patron today: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can listen to The Science of Feeling Dead Inside with Dr. Corey Keyes online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Science of Feeling Dead Inside with Dr. Corey Keyes is an episode from Smart People Podcast by Smart People Industries.

This episode is 67:03 long.

This episode was published on Dec 16, 2025.

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