Claim OwnershipHow to Be a Better Human
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Join How to Be a Better Human as we take a look within and beyond ourselves.
How to Be a Better Human isn’t your average self improvement podcast. Each week join comedian Chris Duffy in conversation with guests and past speakers as they uncover sharp insights and give clear takeaways on how YOU can be a better human.
From your work to your home and your head to your heart, How to Be a Better Human looks in unexpected places for new ways to improve and show up for one another. Inspired by the popular series of the same name on TED’s Ideas blog, How to Be a Better Human will help you become a better person from the comfort of your own headphones.
How to Be a Better Human isn’t your average self improvement podcast. Each week join comedian Chris Duffy in conversation with guests and past speakers as they uncover sharp insights and give clear takeaways on how YOU can be a better human.
From your work to your home and your head to your heart, How to Be a Better Human looks in unexpected places for new ways to improve and show up for one another. Inspired by the popular series of the same name on TED’s Ideas blog, How to Be a Better Human will help you become a better person from the comfort of your own headphones.
90 Episodes
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1Stephen Satterfield, the host of Netflix docu-series “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America,” thinks the bananas in the U.S. are gross. Sure, they’re convenient to produce and ship commercially, but they’re fibrous, bland and maybe worst of all inescapable! They’re also just one example of how what we eat is shaped by culture, politics, and history. In this episode, Stephen explains why he uses gastronomy as a way to understand the world and shares how we can use food to empower people who grow and consume what we eat. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
When do you feel like you've reached "success"? Julissa Arce is an acclaimed social justice advocate, the author of four books, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, and was named a 2019 Woman of the Year by the City of Los Angeles. But if you ask her, she’s still redefining what success looks like, and if it matters. Julissa immigrated to the United States at 11, and was undocumented for almost 15 years. In her latest book, and in today’s episode, she rejects the idea that assimilation can create belonging and brings success – and asks what we can do instead to reconnect and celebrate all that makes us unique. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
You know what they say about unsolicited advice (don’t give it!) but when it comes to SOLICITED feedback, author and executive coach Kim Scott says: bring it on. Kim believes that when it comes to improving your life at home, work, and anywhere in between, it helps to ask for – and provide – kind, but radical, candor. In this episode, Kim shares what she’s learned about embracing candidness and care in the workplace, gives tips on how to engage in constructive conversations, and opens up about the benefits of addressing bias in communication. Her latest book, "Just Work:
How to Root Out Bias, Prejudice, and Bullying to Build a Kick-ass Culture of Inclusivity" is out now. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
Television writer Cord Jefferson has written for the kind of shows that crack hearts open. From The Good Place to Watchmen, Station Eleven to Master of None, Cord has spent his career wrangling human emotions in the writers’ room – but also in his own life. In this episode, Cord speaks about the connection between his personal life and his creative work, how he thinks about vulnerability in making art and why he thanked his therapist in his acceptance speech for his first Emmy. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
What does "burnout" even mean anymore? If you're asking yourself this question, you've come to the right podcast. Anne Helen Petersen is the writer who helped popularize the term and she thinks people are missing the big picture. In this episode, Anne Helen and Chris discuss the structures that are leading so many people, from nurses to teachers to office workers, to suffer from chronic, work-related stress. Then, Anne Helen suggests some of the ways that we can rethink our relationship to work – and offers practices that could protect us from laboring past our limits. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
From risky snowboard halfpipe runs, to 400m sprints where every second counts, to high-stakes archery tournaments, performing well in sports requires mental toughness as much as physical toughness. How do athletes get “in the zone”? And what can we all learn about focus, flow, and mental resilience from athletes?
Good Sport is a podcast from the TED Audio Collective about the fascinating psychology behind athletic competition. Each week, host Jody Avirgan guides you through an array of stadiums, pitches, pools, and slopes–all the ways that sports can shed a light on the ups and downs of being human. Follow Good Sport wherever you get your podcasts.
In her critically acclaimed Showtime docuseries, Couples Therapy, clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik thinks deeply about relationships, emotions, and connection. In this episode, Dr. Guralnik explains why she believes psychoanalysis helps us love better, dispels myths about the right time to go to therapy, and gives tips on how to unblock our relationship with the world around us. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
When it comes to sports, it might seem like there are two kinds of people. Those who are religious about their love for the game and those who only see Super Bowl Sunday as a vessel for an epic halftime concert – if they think about it at all. Jody Avirgan argues this is a false binary. In Good Sport, his new show from the TED Audio Collective, Jody makes the case that sports are as good a lens as any to understand the world – regardless of whether you are an athlete, a fan or a begrudging bystander. In this episode, Jody shares the lessons he’s learned from playing and reporting on sports at the highest levels, and makes a compelling case that sports can help us uncover the amazing emotions that make us better humans. You can listen to Good Sport wherever you are listening to this. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
The internet can be a wonderful, but also a terribly unpleasant place. Andrew Marantz knows this well. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker who spent three years embedded in the world of internet trolls to understand how regular people propel fringe talking points into the heart of online conversations. In this episode, he shares how ideas spread on the internet – and what we can do to make our digital experiences less about doom-scrolling, and more about real human connection. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
The phrase “comparison is the thief of joy” might be the kind of cliche that makes you roll your eyes – and yet, it’s an idea that is, scientifically, pretty accurate. In today’s episode, psychologist Laurie Santos – a Yale professor and host of “The Happiness Lab” podcast – discusses some of the surprising evidence behind what does and doesn’t make us humans happy. Laurie also shares strategies on how to improve our well-being, discusses the irony behind “self-care”, and explains why happiness is often a journey not just within, but beyond, ourselves. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
Activist, and MacArthur Genius, Ai-jen Poo believes that caring for others is one of the fundamental acts that make us human. But from nannies to elder-care workers, house cleaners to living assistants, single parents and beyond, globally, caretakers do not earn fair wages or recognition for their essential, life-giving labor. The President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Ai-jen explains how society undervalues domestic work, and provides a framework on how we can start a conversation about the future of care for our loved ones – and ourselves. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
There’s one thing that connects all living beings – an experience so profound yet so common. Today’s guest, Michael Cruz Kayne says it best: “It's gonna happen to you, to the people you love – even to the people you hate. Whether we like it or not, we are going to die. For sure.” Yet despite its inevitability, it can be so hard for us to speak about death and loss. So how can we begin to open up about grief, and show up for others who are experiencing it? Michael is a writer, comedian, and the host of the podcast “A Good Cry”. Michael’s son Fisher died when he was just days old. In this episode, Michael talks about his experience and how talking about his emotions helped him heal, and shares times when humor was -- and wasn’t -- able to capture the ineffable seemingly-endless experience of loss. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
Why do so many of us wait until a new calendar year to start setting our goals? For today’s guest, Gretchen Rubin, “there really is no magic to January 1st”-- and the best time to start a healthy habit is just, well, “now.” Gretchen is a podcaster and the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including “Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits--to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life.” In this episode, she shares eye-opening frameworks on the different ways to make and achieve goals, gives tips on how to create habits that actually improve our lives and discusses why chasing happiness isn’t always fun – and why it doesn’t always make us feel happy. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
Whenever we have a question – about ourselves or the world around us – it can be helpful to visualize our answer in order to really understand it. But how do you conceptualize something as big as inequality, as complex as grief, or as silly as your probability of correctly guessing today’s Wordle? For data journalist Mona Chalabi, the answer is through data – and drawing. You’ve probably seen Mona’s illustrations on the internet. She’s known for interpreting data in a way that makes you GET it. In today’s episode, she explains how anyone could use analysis to answer their most personal questions – from whether or not to have a breakup to how many friends you should have. For the text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
When was the last time you really connected with someone who disagrees with you? Or saw a post on social media that challenged your views? Or listened to a newscast from across the political aisle? Modern life places us in all kinds of echo chambers – so what happens when these divides stop us from actually seeing and understanding one another? Today’s guest, journalist Mónica Guzmán, is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted –twice– for Donald Trump. Now the chief storyteller for “Braver Angels”, an organization dedicated to political depolarization, Monica shares the tools she uses to find common ground with her loved ones. She talks about why interacting with (and listening to) different points of view is critical work – and how through curiosity we can achieve the seemingly impossible task of understanding those we tend to think of as our enemy. Her book, “I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times” is out now.
We hardly ever talk openly about our money. Today’s guest Wendy De La Rosa thinks that’s a costly mistake. She is a behavioral scientist who helps people understand and rewire their relationship with money. A former private equity investor at Goldman Sachs, Wendy is now an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School and the co-founder of Common Cents Lab, which works to improve financial well-being for low- to moderate-income people. In this episode, Wendy shares actionable insights on how to prepare and invest in your financial future, explains why the emotional aspect of decision-making impacts how we spend or save, and breaks down why financial insecurity should not be a source of shame -- and why the issue of wealth inequality cannot be solved merely by budgeting.
In 2017, Alex Honnold did what even the world’s best rock climbers thought was impossible. He climbed to the top of El Capitan– a granite rock mountain more than 3,000 feet high– without a rope, harness, or net. His audacious feat was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo,” and it left Adam Grant with some burning questions about what we can learn from his unique approach to managing fear. In this episode of ReThinking, another podcast in the TED Audio Collective, Alex opens up about how he regulates his emotions when he’s hanging on by just a few fingers, what still scares him, and how he stays motivated to pursue ambitious goals. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/RWAG2. And for more conversations on how the world’s most interesting people think, follow ReThinking with Adam Grant wherever you're listening to this.
We don't know about you, but we are fans of weekends. And social security. And health insurance. And the end of child labor! And all of these workplace protections exist because of the advocacy of labor unions. In this episode, American political scientist Margaret Levi shares the long history of organizing labor, and explains how unions create equality and protect worker rights. Margaret also discusses her optimism about today’s young workforce and why she believes that an equitable future requires a revival of the labor movement.
Most positive change starts with a challenge to the status quo. But going against the current and speaking up for the right thing can be a challenge–especially if you’re the only one voicing your concerns. Luvvie Ajayi Jones is a two-time New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and a self-described professional troublemaker. In this episode, Luvvie shares why she’s reclaiming the term “troublemaker”, gives tips on gathering the courage to speak up, and explains why she thinks all of us would benefit from getting a little more comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Do you remember a time you ACTUALLY felt represented in pop culture? For Libyan American journalist Noor Tagouri, those moments of being portrayed in a way that feels real can actually be an important catalyst for positive social change. Noor has spent the last decade of her career in journalism, uncovering hidden stories and challenging biases in the mainstream. In this episode, she talks about the importance of telling a story from all angles–and why searching for truth despite pushback is a scary but necessary part of being human.
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didn't like
this podcast is absolutely superb as well as replete with invaluable orginalities
amazing is it ?
Very inspiring <3
far too many ads
it helped me sooo much🤩 thank youu
Heard this was a favorite by listeners, and now know why Enlightening and heartfelt Perhaps it'll take time to find that special someone, but it's more important that that person feels special to you and vise versa Commitment is key, and from there stems respect, and ultimately, love
Heart-warming and inspiring This's also a personal belief, that we all have an influence, an impact, regardless of how we view ourselves. Our very existence dictates it Happy they made up and look forward to working with each other + build a more authentic and understanding bond 👏
be encouraged
Regarding that guest, George...being a relationship "expert" doesn't give you the right to define love for other people and tell them how they should be choosing a partner 🙄 it's a bit pretentious to think that he can just generalize those two things for every person on the planet. His advice isn't that good either. Bad guest.
"That kind of language hurts people" - so obvious but powerful. Great podcast, thank you so much ❤️
"You don't want to make someone think it's undiscussable" That's absolutely true, I've let what I interpret as someone else wanting to stop the topic guide my reactions without even asking how they feel. I was probably wrong.
A statement and a question does not make it a long question. They're two different types of question not two different lengths.
I like the host better than Celeste in regards to empathy. Sharing your own experience, when done appropriately, expands both total understanding and the comprehension of the both parties. Even if your suggestions or experience is not directly useful, the participants become more creative. 9.5/10 I have assisted in the other person opening their mind and understanding their heart. It doesn't matter if their solution is the opposite of yours as long as you got them thinking instead of being completely overwhelmed with emotions or confusion.
lmao this trash podcast spends like 1/4 to 1/2 of their episodes on commercials. thankful for the fast forward button. not ideal if you are hands free.
Keep on trying! https://www.logobids.com/users/boyama
🤣🤦🏽♂️ zen priest
Having high inflation nowadays, even vegetables are too expensive. It is not a kind of poor people food. 😂
nothing quite as awful as recycled episodes... lame
she identifies as they/them...makes sense why she is so contradictory and unoriginal...