Oliver Burkeman’s art of the non-retreat

Kicking off the episode with an existential crisis, the inimitable Oliver Burkeman joins Katherine to explore his own, unique take on rest and retreat. A familiar name to many in both the US and the UK, Oliver’s book Four Thousand Weeks has put him at the heart of the global conversation around building a meaningful life. As you might expect, Oliver turns the concept of the podcast on its head whilst taking Katherine on a wild ride through topics from whether we should use AI as a creative tool to favourite notebooks to whether TS Eliot was on the path to spiritual enlightenment. A wonderful, brain-stretching conversation that reaches way beyond the confines of an imagined cabin in the woods to explore wider ideas around what it really means to get away from it all and if we should even try. Oliver’s Links Oliver's website to buy his books and sign up to his newsletter Things mentioned in the programme Kendra Allenby’s New Yorker beach cartoon NYC stationery store Goods for the Study Shinzen Young on T.S. Eliot Visit The Clearing website for a full transcript and to discover how to enjoy the episodes ad free Buy Katherine’s books: Enchantment | Wintering | The Electricity of Every Living Thing: UK / US Follow Katherine on Instagram Visit Katherine’s Website Production Credits Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong Producer - Alice Lloyd Music - The Leaf Library @theleaflibrary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Oliver Burkeman’s art of the non-retreat online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Oliver Burkeman’s art of the non-retreat is an episode from The Wintering Sessions with Katherine May by Katherine May.

This episode is 1:00:46 long.

This episode was published on Dec 13, 2025.

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