The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne

What’s it all about? Why am I here? Is there a God? Why do bad things happen? What happens when we die?

On RTÉ’s The Meaning of Life, Gay Byrne has spoken with public figures about these questions and many others. Few of them are religious experts—and Gay Byrne certainly wouldn’t claim to be—but all of them have, at times, had cause to think about life and its meaning.

Here, for the first time, Gay recollects the most insightful discussions on the big themes: childhood, love, faith, disbelief, morality, grief—the universal themes that bind us all—and reveals the meaning the interviews have had for him.

Gay suggests that the show’s success is less to do with the profile of its guests and more about the fact that viewers can imagine themselves in the hot-seat. “How would I answer that one . . . ? What do I think . . . ?” Now, readers can re-experience the interviews at leisure and ponder their own beliefs from the written word.