All The Feelings • Adulting

What does it mean to be an optimist? What is it like to look at the world and see not just hope, but possibility?

Yeah, we don't know either. I guess we'll never know.

KIDDING... kidding, of course. But here's the interesting thing: It turns out optimism is much more complicated than we ever imagined -- and it's precisely because it is so much more than just being blindly good-natured all the time.

So this week, Tommy brings you a story of the dark side of optimism, one that ends in a crushing, embarrassing blow to his ego, and his back. And Pete comes with scales and stuff. It's like math, and he talks about it with the same level of understanding that he brings to his math studies. That is to say, you might have to work extra hard to understand what the hell he is talking about.

Also, there's a chance he brings up "Building Information Modeling" but fails to mention that he's actually talking about "Building Information Modeling" as he is talking about it.

But don't worry: the punchline of this whole episode is that the world isn't as bad as it seems and, in spite of all the "messaging" out there, humanity is low-key kicking ass right now if you know where to look.

Bonus round: Carl Sagan drops the mic on this episode.

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What is All The Feelings • Adulting?

All the Feelings, Season 10: Adulting—A Life-Long Course in Feeling Unprepared

You know that moment when you look around and realize, Oh no… I’m the adult in this room? Maybe it’s when you pretend to understand tax brackets. Or when your back starts to hurt because you "slept." Or when you stand in the grocery store, staring at asparagus, wondering if you should be investing in heavy greens futures.

Welcome to All the Feelings Season 10, where your able hosts, Tommy Metz III and Pete Wright, are going to tackle the unspoken truth of adulthood: nobody actually knows what they’re doing most of the time. This season, we’re diving into the emotional chaos of adulting—all the things that, by now, we should have mastered but somehow still make us feel like confused 12-year-olds wearing oversized suits.

We’ll explore the existential panic of estate planning (Wills: Now Featuring Your Inevitable Mortality!), the sheer absurdity of socializing as a grown-up (Why Is Making Friends Harder Than Filing Taxes?), and the shame spiral of arguing (Yes, You Can Still Lose a Fight in Your 40s!). We’ll unpack civic duty, grief, apologizing, and the delicate balance of managing time without feeling like you’re constantly failing an invisible test.

And of course, we’ll get real about the things that make adulthood straight-up weird: why is sleep suddenly a competitive sport? Why does gift-giving induce a full-blown identity crisis? And why does every conversation about homeownership involve so much sighing?

This season, Pete and Tommy are back to do what they do best: explore the emotional absurdity of being human. Because if adulthood is just a long series of pop quizzes, we might as well laugh about it together.