Humans have always been captivated by beauty, and for almost as long, we’ve been marketed products and new technologies to help us achieve certain beauty standards. Elise Hu is a journalist and the author of “Flawless: Lessons in looks and culture from the K-beauty industry.” In this episode, she shares the fascinating insights she’s learned from years of studying the $10 billion K-beauty industry and the cutting-edge skincare, niche makeup products, and technology that promise to optimize our a...
Jun 12, 2023•33 min
Whether it’s grades and test scores, cushy jobs or big salaries, our ideas of “success” tend to be incredibly narrow and often start incredibly early. Julie Lythcott-Haims is a New York Times bestselling author and former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford, and she is dedicated to helping people reconsider what really makes a happy, “successful” adult. Julie shares wisdom for parents and anyone who has been parented on why it’s crucial to question societal expectations, how to find your own path and w...
Jun 05, 2023•34 min
Selling products, ideas or even yourself is a task that can feel daunting, or maybe even a little uncouth for some people. But Colin Coggins, author and adjunct professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business, believes that anyone can learn the skills needed to sell anything – and that you already have more “sales” experience than you think. Colin shares why he believes that the best salespeople defy the expectations of what society thinks of as a successful salesperson, how self-awareness can he...
May 29, 2023•28 min
Telling other people what you want – or need – can be a really difficult thing to do! Nedra Glover Tawwab is a therapist and New York Times bestselling author who helps people create healthy boundaries with themselves and others, both at work and in personal relationships. In this episode, she talks about why identifying your needs is so important, clarifies what healthy boundaries can look like and shares empowering tools so you can advocate for yourself – and get the treatment you deserve. For...
May 22, 2023•34 min
Jill Heinerth is a professional cave diver who faces threats big and small constantly – from dangerous technical dives deep inside underwater caves, to searching for never-before-seen ecosystems inside Antarctic icebergs. Jill recounts her incredible experiences in maneuvering through challenging times and shares tips on how to face what scares you – and dive into your own rich, rewarding adventures. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...
May 15, 2023•30 min
For some of us it’s easy to lose ourselves in our work. But a lack of boundaries between your personal and work life is something mental wellness educator Gloria Chan Packer would warn you twice about. Gloria speaks about the perils of gaining your sense of self-worth from your job, discusses her experience with burnout and stress and shares empowering insights on how to shift our perspectives to create – and maintain – a healthy distance. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscr...
May 08, 2023•33 min
Making friends as an adult can feel like a baffling obstacle course. Why was it so much easier to connect as kids? To help you find well-rounded and fulfilling friendships, psychologist Marisa Franco discusses science-backed tips on how to make (and keep) friends, like the optimism-inducing "acceptance prophecy" and the shame-reducing "theory of chums." Learn more about the power of platonic love and how it can help you experience the full richness and complexity of who you are. This conversatio...
May 01, 2023•33 min
Chloe Cooper Jones knows how it feels to be complicit. The critically acclaimed author has moved through life with a rare disability that brings incredible physical pain and plenty of outward judgment. And she’s even guilty of judging herself. But now, she’s challenging our ideas of motherhood, disability and beauty in her memoir, Easy Beauty. In this episode, she talks about using art to step outside of your own mind, sitting with difficult experiences, embracing the messy contradictions of the...
Apr 24, 2023•34 min
ALOK doesn’t quite get the term multihyphenate – but how else to describe the internationally acclaimed author, poet, comedian, and public speaker? From exploring belonging and the human condition, to fighting to degender the fashion and beauty industries, ALOK is tapping into their creativity constantly. Today, they share their approach to the creative process, how art has helped them accept the beauty and pain of life, why poetry and comedy need each other and so much more! For the full text t...
Apr 17, 2023•37 min
Let’s face it: if chores were fun, they probably wouldn’t be called that. Because for most people, life can be overwhelming – and that means it doesn’t always look like a cleaning commercial where everyone is dancing their way to do laundry, take out trash, or smiling while washing the dishes. KC Davis is a therapist, author, podcaster, and TikToker who knows that caring for yourself can be a struggle. In this episode, she shares how radically rethinking “care” tasks –like not seeing a lack of c...
Apr 10, 2023•34 min
Kelli is a nurse at a leading teaching hospital where communication issues are not only leading to resentment – they could also be affecting patient care. After hearing from Kelli about the larger problems at play in the healthcare space, Anne and Frances discuss the link between communication and transparency and guide Kelli into taking matters into her own hands. This is an episode of Fixable, another podcast from the TED Audio Collective. If you want to be on Fixable, call our hotline at 234-...
Apr 03, 2023•28 min
Stephen 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...
Mar 27, 2023•29 min
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...
Mar 20, 2023•32 min
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 t...
Mar 13, 2023•36 min
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...
Mar 06, 2023•34 min
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 ...
Feb 27, 2023•31 min
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,...
Feb 20, 2023•40 min
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...
Feb 13, 2023•35 min
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 bysta...
Feb 06, 2023•33 min
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 te...
Jan 30, 2023•35 min
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 ...
Jan 23, 2023•36 min
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...
Jan 16, 2023•39 min
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 h...
Jan 09, 2023•39 min
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-op...
Jan 02, 2023•38 min
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. ...
Nov 28, 2022•36 min
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 ...
Nov 21, 2022•38 min
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 o...
Nov 14, 2022•38 min
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...
Nov 07, 2022•44 min
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 requ...
Oct 31, 2022•34 min
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 ...
Oct 24, 2022•38 min
