Dan briefly whittles down his top 10 takeaways from the science of behavior change. In this episode we talk about: How our brain’s evolution for short-term survival makes long-term goals harder Picking the right goals Making it easy Leveraging fresh starts How to make goals a team sport The crucial role of mindfulness and self-compassion This episode is part of our monthlong Do Life Better series. Related Episodes: The Science of Making – And Keeping – New Year’s Resolutions | Hal Hershfield How...
Jan 03, 2025•25 min•Ep. 886
Contemplating your own death can feel like a massive bummer at first, but there’s good news: how you react to that inescapable fact really matters. Vinny Ferraro has practiced insight meditation (vipassanā) since the mid-90s. He’s the Guiding Teacher of the Big Heart City Sangha in San Francisco and has led a weekly sitting group for almost two decades. As a fully empowered Dharma Teacher thru Spirit Rock/IMS, he has taught residential retreats at Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, and the...
Jan 01, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 885
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- “Radical self-love” — what it is and how to do it. It is incredibly common for many of us humans, whatever our gender, to be at war with our bodies -- trying to live up to the people we see in the movies, on social media, or even the versions of ourselves in old pictures. This never-enough-ness can lead to an ambient level of self-loathing that can be incredibly destructive....
Dec 23, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 884
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Very few of us relish chaos and disruption, but they are facts of life, given the nonnegotiable nature of change. In this episode with Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, we’re going to talk about how to tune into the value of disruption, and learn how to sit with the chaos. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel is an ordained Zen priest, holds a Ph.D., and worked for decades as a social science researc...
Dec 20, 2024•52 min•Ep. 882
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Can mindfulness really pull you out of a spiral of self-judgment? Don’t you need to be judgmental sometimes? What’s the difference between being discerning and judgmental? Description: Meditation and mindfulness doesn’t uproot your capacity to be judgmental, but it can help you see the value in being judgmental by learning how to work with the judging mind. La Sarmiento has ...
Dec 18, 2024•54 min•Ep. 881
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Equanimity: what it is, what it isn’t, and how to get it. Guest Kamala Masters was one of the teachers at Dan’s first ever meditation retreat. In this episode she dives into how to develop equanimity and shares her story of learning how to practice meditation during her everyday life while raising three children on her own. Kamala Masters has been meditating since the 1970s,...
Dec 16, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 880
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Dan and Executive Producer, DJ Cashmere, pull back the curtain on what we do, how we do it—and what’s coming next. In this episode we talk about: An exciting New Year's series reveal and upcoming meditation challenge What goes into making the show–and why we do it The ins and outs of starting a new business And much more Sign up for Dan’s newsletter here Follow Dan on social...
Dec 13, 2024•36 min•Ep. 878
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- How your blindspots hurt your decision-making— and how to fix it. Anu Gupta is an educator, lawyer, scientist, and the founder and CEO of BE MORE with Anu , an education technology benefit corporation that trains professionals across corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors to advance DEIB and wellness by breaking bias. His work has reached 300+ organizations training mo...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 877
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- The upside of the often misunderstood "tribalism". Michael Morris is the Chavkin-Chang Professor of Leadership at Columbia Business School as well as a Professor in its Psychology Department. Outside of academia, Professor Morris has consulted with and conducted executive training workshops for hundreds of clients across the globe, including Fortune 100 firms, governments, a...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 876
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- A famed author and humorist takes a deep dive into grief (with Dr. Bianca Harris as co-host). Sloane Crosley is the author of The New York Times bestselling books Grief Is for People , How Did You Get This Number , and I Was Told There’d Be Cake . She is also the author of Look Alive Out There , Cult Classic and The Clasp , both of which have been optioned for film. She serv...
Dec 06, 2024•55 min•Ep. 874
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Smart strategies that emerged from a brutal year. Sam Sanders is an award-winning reporter, radio host and podcaster. He co-hosts the podcast Vibe Check with Zach Stafford and Saeed Jones. He also currently hosts The Sam Sanders Show from KCRW. Check out the album he mentioned in the episode, Caroline Rose’s The Art of Forgetting . This is part 2 in a 3-part series we’re run...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 873
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- A journalist explores one of humanity’s most brutal and unavoidable experiences. Cody Delistraty is a writer and speechwriter, most recently working as the culture editor at the Wall Street Journal Magazine. He has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and was the European arts columnist for The Paris Review. He has degrees in politics from New York U...
Dec 02, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 872
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- This scientist says that walking is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Here are some ways you can incorporate it into your life. Today we're going to talk about something so obvious, but so incredibly powerful. Walking. This is the third of a three part mini-series we're doing focused on the benefits of spending time outdoors. Dr. Keltner is one of the world’s f...
Nov 29, 2024•34 min•Ep. 870
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Buddhist megastars in conversation. Today, we’re dropping a recording of a live event we held earlier this year, during which Joseph Goldstein and Dr. Mark Epstein came on stage for a fascinating set of conversations. We did this event to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Dan’s first book, also called 10% Happier. The night was structured like a late night show, so there wa...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 869
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- How learning to apologize can upgrade your life. V (formerly Eve Ensler) is the Tony award-winning playwright, author, and activist. Her play The Vagina Monologues is an Obie award-winning, Olivier-nominated theatrical phenomenon that has been translated into 48 languages and performed in 140 countries. She is the author of numerous books, including the recently released bes...
Nov 25, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 868
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Practical tips for accessing the healthcare of nature no matter where you live. It’s very possible that you've heard the long list of physiological and psychological benefits that one can derive from getting out into nature. Those benefits include improved mood, boosted immune system, lowered blood pressure and more. That being said, 80 percent of Americans live in urban are...
Nov 22, 2024•27 min•Ep. 866
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. A journalist-turned-Buddhist-nun shares six phrases – or mantras – to help keep your relationships on the rails. Relationships can be tricky. Especially if you find yourself upset with someone, and instead of talking it through, you let it fester until one moment you completely lose it and end up having to apologize. If you’ve ever felt like you had friction with the people in y...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 865
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. A compendium of expert advice on handling all the complications — and pleasures — that the holiday season brings. I have whipped up a holiday survival guide for you, a series of evidence-based strategies for navigating what can be a tricky time of year. During the course of this episode, I'm going to talk about nine pain points, including navigating political differences around ...
Nov 18, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 864
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Scientific evidence that spending time in nature has profound impacts on your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. We’ve got something special planned for you today. We’re talking about the massive psychological and physiological benefits of being in nature. Nature impacts your mood. It has a whole long list of positive benefits for your nervous system, and even chang...
Nov 15, 2024•35 min•Ep. 862
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Radical strategies for the scarcity mindset. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 861
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Evidence from the guy who pioneered the science. James Pennebaker is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is known for his early research on expressive writing and health. More recently, he has pioneered ways to study people’s personalities and behaviors through the analysis of their language use. His text analysis program LIWC is used ac...
Nov 11, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 856
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. A crucial (and often misunderstood) concept in Buddhism: letting go. For this episode, Executive Producer DJ Cashmere interviewed a trio of brilliant Dharma teachers to get their advice about how to handle surrendering or letting go. This is the fourth in a series of 'correspondent' episodes , in which DJ identifies a pain point in his life and meditation practice, then goes out...
Nov 06, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 858
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- What ancient Greeks and Romans figured out about stress reduction. You may have heard about stoicism, in the common parlance, as having a stiff upper lip, sucking it up, grinning and bearing it, suppressing your emotions, etcetera. Or you may have heard of Stoicism, the ancient Greco/Roman philosophy, that has become the de rigeur set of life hacks among millennial self-opti...
Nov 04, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 857
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- How to get the practice into your molecules—not in some militaristic way, but in a way that feels easy and natural. Alexis Santos has been in the field of mindfulness and meditation since 2001. After graduating from Harvard University in 1995, he spent several years in medical school before leaving his chosen career as a doctor to seek out a different path. It was while trav...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 855
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- How optimizing this skill can change your life – and the world. Rabbi Sharon Brous has some extremely practical tips for how to improve what psychologists call your social health. She is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR , a Jewish community in LA. Her new book, a bestseller, is called The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Heal Our Hearts and Mend Our Broken World . Related...
Oct 28, 2024•56 min•Ep. 854
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- The Buddhist case — and toolkit — for “don’t-know mind.” For this episode, Executive Producer DJ Cashmere interviewed a trio of brilliant Dharma teachers to get their advice about how to handle being wrong. This is the third in a series of 'correspondent' episodes , in which DJ identifies a pain point in his life and meditation practice, then goes out into the world to repor...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 852
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- A Stanford innovation expert shares practical tips on future-proofing your mind. Frederik Pferdt was Google’s first Chief Innovation Evangelist, where founded Google’s Innovation Lab. He’s also taught classes on innovation and creativity at Stanford University for more than a decade. His new book is called What's Next Is Now: How to Live Future Ready . In this episode we tal...
Oct 21, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 851
Last month, Dan appeared on Impolitic With John Heilemann — the two guys are old friends — to talk through Dan’s strategies for staying sane in the homestretch of this anxiety-fueled, agitation-inducing, existentially unnerving election; why failure is often more productive and profitable (mentally, emotionally, spiritually) than success; how to maintain a sense of calm, balance, and serenity while working harder than, in Dan’s phrase, a “six-peckered goat;” and the career earthquake that’s led ...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 845
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Why the man behind “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” is a self-help junkie. Judd Apatow is one of the most prolific comedic minds in the industry. Recently, Apatow produced Peacock’s buddy comedy Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain and Universal’s romcom, Bros, starring and co-written by Billy Eichner. Apatow also directed, produced, and co-wrote with Pam Brady, the ...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 849
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- What you resist persists. Buddhist strategies for acceptance and equanimity. Ofosu Jones-Quartey , a meditation teacher, author, and musician hailing from the Washington DC area brings over 17 years of experience in sharing mindfulness, meditation and self-compassion practices with the world. Holding a bachelor’s degree from American University and certified by the Mindfulne...
Oct 16, 2024•58 min•Ep. 848
