Podcasts · Education

How to Be a Better Human

TED

287 episodes

How To Be A Better Human isn’t your average self improvement podcast. Each week join 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.

More about the show

Follow Chris on Instagram and TikTok at @chrisiduffy. Buy his book Humor Me.

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Episodes page 2 of 6

  1. How to find true love (w/ Francesca Hogi)

    · 38 min

    Love coach Francesca Hogi is dedicated to helping daters find “lasting love in the midst of a broken dating culture.” In this episode, Francesca shares her approach to analyzing romantic patterns and feeling more…

  2. How to confront your inner critic (w/ Anu Gupta)

    · 39 min

    How do you quieten the judgmental voice in your head? Educator and entrepreneur Anu Gupta suggests you actually listen to it.Anu joins Chris to discuss the effects of human biases on our psyche and how to combat…

  3. How to make social risks pay off (w/ Ben Swire)

    · 44 min

    Many company cultures can feel stagnant and uninspiring, says designer Ben Swire, whose job is to help people take creative risks. Ben shares why icebreakers, compliments, and competitive bonding games can undermine…

  4. What it means to truly pay attention (w/ Kevin Townley)

    · 47 min

    Kevin Townley is a meditation teacher. But he’s also a comedian who leads museum tours and an actor whose career spans Men in Black 3 and Law & Order. In today’s episode, Kevin talks about how to practice the art of…

  5. How to experience the world like a good dog (w/ Alexandra Horowitz)

    · 42 min

    Can our dogs feel guilt? Or have they successfully trained us with their puppy eyes to win a treat and extra kibble? Alexandra Horowitz is a researcher and head of the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College; she joins…

  6. How to make 2026 a year full of laughs (w/ Chris Duffy and Manoush Zomorodi)

    · 38 min

    For the past five seasons, host Chris Duffy has been interviewing guests from psychotherapist Dr. Orna Guralnik to poet Sarah Kay to author Andrew Leland and more on how they work to become better humans. In this…

  7. Interview: The razor-thin line between contagion and connection w/ Dan Taberski | from TED Health

    · 30 min

    After a mysterious wave of tics and twitches swept through a small-town high school in New York, documentary podcaster Dan Taberski set out to investigate what was really happening. Drawing on extensive research and…

  8. Work advice from the world’s favorite couples therapist w/ Master Fixer Dr. Orna Guralnik | from Fixable

    · 41 min

    Relationships of any kind can be tricky—but therapists are here to help. In this special episode, Anne and Frances talk to clinical psychologist Dr. Orna Guralnik, star of the hit show Couples Therapy, to translate her…

  9. Re-release: Throwing good parties and building community (w/ Priya Parker)

    · 38 min

    Many of us are entering the new year with a similar goal — to build community and connect more with others. To kick off season five, Priya Parker shares ideas on how to be the host with the most. An expert on building…

  10. 2025 Staff Picks - Best of How to Be a Better Human

    · 28 min

    Remember those fun high school superlatives like the “Class Clown” or the “Biggest Flirt”? In this special How to Be a Better Human season finale, you will be hearing from our previous guest Dallas Youth Poet Laureate…

  11. Pods Fight Poverty: Why Giving Money to Others Makes us Happier | from The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

    · 49 min

    Money can buy you happiness – but not in the way we think. Giving money away – especially to help others – has been shown make us happier than spending on ourselves. Social psychologist Lara Aknin explains the best…

  12. How to find small delights in an uncontrollable world (w/ Sarah Kay)

    · 40 min

    What makes a hometown home, and how do you find community? Sarah Kay is a spoken word poet and author of the latest poetry collection, A Little Daylight Left. Sarah and Chris grew up in New York City where the…

  13. How to Eat with Awareness and Purpose (w/ Sean Sherman)

    · 33 min

    If you remove ingredients like dairy, wheat, flour, cane sugar, beef, pork, and chicken from your diet—then what do you eat? For Sioux chef Sean Sherman, excluding colonial ingredients from his cuisines gives him the…

  14. How to find belonging (w/ Hanif Abdurraqib)

    · 33 min · Explicit

    Where do you belong and what does community mean to you? These are the central questions Chris asks poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib while visiting Hanif’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Hanif is a poet and…

  15. Why you need to learn how to fight in a relationship (w/ Dr. Julie and John Gottman)

    · 36 min

    “All couples fight. In fact, how they fight in the first three minutes predicts with 96% accuracy not only how the rest of the conversation will go, but how the rest of the relationship will go six years down the…

  16. How to break bad habits (w/ Edith Zimmerman)

    · 40 min

    Edith Zimmerman is a sketchbook cartoonist and writer of the Substack newsletter, Drawing Links. In this episode, she joins Chris to talk about honesty and self-discovery. From sharing her artwork to discussing her…

  17. How to use your muscles — or risk losing them (w/ Bonnie Tsui)

    · 45 min

    Did you know that you start losing bone AND muscle mass as soon as the age of thirty? Or that your fingers and toes don’t have muscles? Or how women in Scotland are starting to compete in the lighting of Dinnie Stones…

  18. How do you stop caring what others think? A filmmaker and a therapist answer | TED Talks Daily

    · 29 min

    How do you quit people-pleasing? Internet filmmaker Baron Ryan and family therapist Stephanie R. Yates-Anyabwile unpack the all-too-common fear of rejection and explore the practices necessary to reclaim your ability…

  19. How Texas became America’s biggest producer of wind energy (from Speed & Scale)

    · 27 min

    This is the surprising story of how Texas – rich in oil and gas – became America's biggest producer of wind energy. For our first episode, Ryan and Anjali talk with Pat Wood, once George W. Bush’s right hand man and…

  20. A practical guide to taking control of your life | TED Talks Daily

    · 11 min

    The real lever of a meaningful life isn’t intelligence or hustle — it’s personal agency, says Cate Hall, former Supreme Court attorney and once the world’s top-ranked female poker player. Sharing her journey from the…

  21. How to strengthen your relationships — one airport ride at a time (w/ Kasley Killam)

    · 35 min

    How often do you connect with different people each week? How many many close relationships do you aim to cultivate during those connections? And how long do these interactions last? Kasley Killam has the perfect guide…

  22. How to build your kid's confidence — by leaving them alone (w/ Lenore Skenazy)

    · 41 min

    How do you raise confident and capable children in a seemingly scary and unsafe world? According to Lenore Skenazy, the solution is simple yet controversial — you leave the kids alone. Lenore is the president of Let…

  23. How to talk so people will listen (w/ Julian Treasure)

    · 39 min

    What’s more important in communication— the content or the delivery? Julian Treasure is a five-time TED speaker and the author of Sound Affects: How Sound Shapes Our Lives, Our Wellbeing and Our Planet, and he argues…

  24. How to communicate better (w/ Charles Duhigg)

    · 37 min

    What makes some people supercommunicators? How can you become one too? This is the central lesson in Charles Duhigg’s bestseller Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret of Communication. Charles and Chris dissect…

  25. How to stop doomscrolling — and what to do instead? (w/ Katherine Cross)

    · 40 min

    Is it effective to engage with politics on social media — and what does it take to make actual change? Katherine Cross is a researcher on online harassment and the author of Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost)…

  26. The future of finding love with Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd | ReThinking with Adam Grant

    · 36 min

    What will dating look like in the age of AI? Whitney Wolfe Herd is the founder and CEO of Bumble, the popular dating app that has helped millions of people meet their match. In this episode, Whitney chats with Adam…

  27. How to rest when life is overwhelming (w/ Katherine May)

    · 40 min

    When someone you love is going through a difficult time, what do you say? Despite your best intentions, author Katherine May argues offering help or shying away from tough conversations isn’t as effective as you think.…

  28. How to love your complicated family (w/ Ashley C. Ford)

    · 41 min

    What parts of yourself did you lose as you grew up? This is one of the central questions asked in Ashley C. Ford’s memoir, Somebody’s Daughter. Ashley joins Chris to talk about growing up with an incarcerated father,…

  29. How to be more joyful (w/ Ingrid Fetell Lee)

    · 38 min

    What makes kids so joyful? Why do polka-dots and bright colors invoke feelings of joy? How do our senses shape our experience of joy? These are questions designer Ingrid Fetell Lee studies. Ingrid is the author of…

  30. How to keep close friendships (w/ Aminatou Sow)

    · 40 min

    “People are expected to have good friendships, but nobody talks about how they happen,” says journalist Aminatou Sow. Aminatou is also the host of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend and the author of the book Big…

  31. How to find laughter anywhere (w/ Dan Harris and guests)

    · 24 min

    Humor is all around us— you only need to be intentional about seeking moments of laughter and joy in your life. In this special compilation episode on humor, Chris shares six short snippets from his conversation with…

  32. How to rethink your emotional attachment to clothes (w/ Diarra Bousso)

    · 41 min

    We often think donating clothes is a sustainable act, but when tons of garments are shipped to places like West Africa, it creates environmental waste and disrupts local artisans’ livelihoods. Diarra Bousso, a…

  33. How to stop devoting yourself to your job (w/ Sarah Jaffe)

    · 41 min

    Sarah Jaffe is the author of Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keep Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone. She and Chris discuss the emotional toll of modern work culture and the importance of community.…

  34. Jon Batiste | from Design Matters

    · 1 h 06 min

    Widely recognized as a musical genius and once-in-a-generation talent, Jon Batiste is one of history’s most brilliant, prolific, and accomplished musicians. The Grammy, Emmy, and Oscar-winning star joins to discuss his…

  35. How your brain predicts your reality (w/ Anil Seth)

    · 36 min

    What is the aspect of being you that you cling to most tightly? Why are you you and not somebody else? How do you understand and make sense of your experiences? These are questions studied by Anil Seth, Professor of…

  36. Why stealing other people’s ideas can be a good thing (w/ Austin Kleon)

    · 39 min

    Austin Kleon thinks stealing inspiration is a good thing — because it requires you to pay attention to the world. Austin is a self-proclaimed “creative kleptomaniac” and the author of five books, including Steal Like…

  37. Why you don't need a personal brand (w/ Debbie Millman)

    · 38 min

    “If you’re a good designer in five or ten years, you’re gonna want to look back on your portfolio with horror and nostalgia and somewhat amusement… because you want to be growing,” says illustrator Debbie Millman.…

  38. Information Inoculation: Defending Against Medical Myths: Why we need to fight misinformation about vaccines | from TED Health

    · 45 min

    Ethan Lindenberger never got vaccinated as a kid. So one day, he went on Reddit and asked a simple question: "Where do I go to get vaccinated?" The post went viral, landing Lindenberger in the middle of a heated debate…

  39. How to love parts of yourself you may not like (w/ Heather Havrilesky)

    · 39 min · Explicit

    Heather Havrilesky is the author of the book Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage. She’s also the writer behind the advice columns “Ask Polly,” and “Ask Molly,” which is written by Polly’s mischievous…

  40. How to learn from your failures (w/ Dawn Burrell)

    · 40 min

    Dawn Burrell is a celebrated long jumper, an Olympic athlete, and a chef’s whose cooking made her a semifinalist for a James Beard Award — and these are just a sampling of her many accolades. In this episode, Dawn…

  41. Re-release: How peace can persevere (w/ Aziz Abu Sarah)

    · 43 min

    It’s extremely difficult to move past anger and hurt driving you towards revenge. War, violence, and suffering are driven by that cycle of emotions. Palestinian author, peacemaker, and entrepreneur Aziz Abu Sarah knows…

  42. How to be a better friend (w/ Rhaina Cohen)

    · 38 min

    What would it look like if we took friendship as seriously as we take romance? Rhaina Cohen, author of the book The Other Significant Others: Reimagine Life with Friendship at the Center, talks to Chris about the value…

  43. How to see the humanity in everyone — even people you don’t like (w/ Abigail Marsh)

    · 43 min

    Why is American culture so fascinated with psychopathic people and true crime stories? Why don’t billionaires give more? What makes some people so generous that they’d undergo surgery to donate an organ to a complete…

  44. How to navigate changes in a relationship without fear (w/ Stephanie Yates-Anyabwile)

    · 39 min

    What is a romantic relationship “supposed” to look like? How do you feel when your relationship doesn’t check all the boxes? In this episode, licensed marriage and family therapist Stephanie Yates-Anyabwile talks about…

  45. How you can be more creative by taking a long walk (w/ Craig Mod)

    · 40 min

    What do we gain from a long walk? Craig Mod is a photographer and writer who has done treks and pilgrimages around the world. From the Camino de Santiago to the Old Tōkaidō Road, Craig Mod transforms the simple act of…

  46. 3 ways to fight climate change without getting overwhelmed (w/ Ayana Elizabeth Johnson)

    · 36 min

    The future could be amazing, if we get it right. That’s so rarely how we think about it though. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist and author of the anthology What If We Get it Right?, is constantly collecting…

  47. Re-release: How to enrich your everyday life with poetry (w/ Sarah Kay)

    · 31 min

    Roses are red, violets are blue, has poetry ever been intimidating for you? For many people, this art form can feel unapproachable, but poet and educator Sarah Kay, suggests that people who don’t like poetry just maybe…

  48. How you can move forward and learn from the past (w/ Clint Smith)

    · 39 min

    How do you grapple with national history, legacy, and the stories you tell yourself? Clint Smith is the author of the narrative nonfiction, How the Word is Passed, and the poetry collection, Above Ground. Clint joins…

  49. How to gossip — the right way (w/ Rachelle Hampton)

    · 35 min

    What makes a story so good you HAVE to tell everyone you know? How do you hook listeners with juicy details and tantalizing conundrums? In this special live episode, recorded at On Air Fest in Brooklyn, Chris is joined…

  50. How to raise emotionally resilient children (w/ Richard Weissbourd)

    · 39 min

    Happiness, high achievement, or kindness – which is most important to you in your kids? Which do you think your kids think you care about the most? Richard Weissbourd is a psychologist, the senior lecturer at the…

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