How to Be a Better Human

Stories are such a powerful human invention that even the fictional ones can feel completely true. Dina Nayeri is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work highlights just how influential the sto…

If you’ve ever felt apprehensive about trying something seemingly woo-woo to improve your mental health (like meditation, mindfulness, or simply touching grass) you're not alone. Dan Harris was a min…

Romantic love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be – at least that’s one way positive psychologist Barbara Fredrickson puts it. Barbara’s decades of research suggest that emotions outside of our narrow de…

In her critically acclaimed Showtime docuseries, Couples Therapy, clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik thinks deeply about relationships, emotions, and connection. In this episod…

If there's one thing this show believes in, it's that finding joy and comedy in life is essential when being human gets tough. Wajahat Ali is a writer who knows this well. His charming and powerful s…

Wanting to “find yourself” isn’t something that only happens in coming-of-age movies – anyone, at any age, can wonder what it’d be like to have a different life. Bevy Smith knows this. A self-describ…

If you’ve ever opened up social media in the hopes that it would cheer you up only for it to leave you upset, angry, or tired, you are not alone. So what if we could turn that special power the inter…

There’s a saying about two things that are inevitable in this world, and Alua Arthur wants to help you think about one of them with less fear. No, she’s not a tax professional – she’s a death doula, …

Have you ever recalled a story only to have someone point out "that's not how it went"? Well, what happens when what we misrepresent are our historical narratives? David Ikard is a Professor of Afric…

What makes YOU happy? Dr. Robert Waldinger is the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, an 83-year-old project that tracks how life experience across decades affects health and wellbein…

What’s your favorite dish — and what culture originated that recipe? Whether you’re thinking about grilled cheese, burritos, curry, pho… (we would go on but we are getting too hungry) trying somethin…

Maurine “Mighty Mo'' Kornfeld will soon turn 102 years old, and most days, you can catch her doing laps in a Los Angeles public swimming pool. And that’s not just because she regularly competes in – …

This show is all about growth – and it’s always inspiring to know that the amazing guests we bring on still see room in their own lives to become better humans. This season TED Audio Collective+ subs…

Keyboard and mouse clicks, the song of an ice cream truck, a neighbor’s yapping dog – what kind of noises soundtrack your life? Today’s guest, Dallas Taylor, is the host and creator of the Twenty Tho…

There’s a saying that comedy is tragedy plus time. Perhaps that’s why some of our biggest problems feel easiest to manage with a dose of humor. Comedian, journalist, and actor Roy Wood Jr. has spent …

Liana Finck’s cartoons explore life’s big predicaments: what to make for dinner, how to leave a party without being rude, how to feel like more than a snack machine once you have a child. In today’s …

If you ask Christian Cooper, a science writer, editor, and the host of the show “Extraordinary Birder With Christian Cooper”, birding can teach us all kinds of lessons about life, self-acceptance, an…

How well would you say you know yourself? Do you feel like the same person you were 10 years ago? Today’s guest, Shankar Vedantam, loves these kinds of questions and what they reveal about what we be…

One of the most important things that humans do is learning how to relate – to ourselves, one another, and, crucially, to our parents. Dr. Becky Kennedy, who was deemed the “Millennial Parenting Whis…

When he was a teenager, Andrew Leland was diagnosed with a condition that causes a gradual loss of vision. Over the years, Andrew’s literal view of the world has narrowed – but the ways in which he c…