Podcasts · Education · Science

How to Touch Grass

The Atlantic

65 episodes · in order

It may be time to rethink our relationships with our devices.

Episodes page 1 of 2

  1. Trailer: How to Build a Happy Life

    · 2:26 · S1 E1 · Trailer

    Welcome to How to Build a Happy Life! In this series, host Arthur Brooks digs into research and offers tools to help you live more joyfully. Join us for deep conversations with psychologists, experts, and friends of…

  2. How to Build a Happy Life: Be Self-Aware

    · 37 min · S1 E2

    Only when we admit we have a problem can we begin to find solutions. On the first episode of How To Build a Happy Life, we explore the neuroscience of emotional management, practices that help us befriend our inner…

  3. How to Build a Happy Life: Know You're Lonely

    · 41 min · S1 E3

    The irony in loneliness is that we all share in the experience of it. In this episode of How to Build a Happy Life, we sit down to discuss isolated living and Americans’ collective struggle to create a…

  4. How to Build a Happy Life: Don't Be Your Own Worst Enemy

    · 35 min · S1 E4

    In the social-media age, we curate images of our lives on a screen—making it especially easy to translate images of perfection as the image of oneself. But the pressure to pretend we are perfect is exactly the thing…

  5. How to Build a Happy Life: Know That You Know Nothing

    · 38 min · S1 E5

    If there’s one thing we might regret at the end of life, it’s that we missed out on moments that mattered—not because we weren’t physically there, but because our mind wandered off to some unknown place. In this…

  6. How to Build a Happy Life: Find the Secret to Meaningful Work

    · 41 min · S1 E6

    The road to purposeful work is paved with good intentions; but for many, happiness at work can feel like a hopeless cause. What if the secret to happiness at work has less to do with our extrinsic motivations—money,…

  7. How to Build a Happy Life: Live When You’re In Pain

    · 50 min · S1 E7

    As we wind down this series, a paradox remains in our pursuit of happiness—joy comes to those who have known pain. In order to overcome struggle—breakups, illness, even death—we must first accept and acknowledge its…

  8. How to Build a Happy Life: Identify What You Enjoy

    · 42 min · S1 E8

    In adulthood, many of us are forced to recalibrate our relationship with joy. As responsibilities multiply exponentially, time grows limited, and challenges mount, it becomes harder to make time for fun, let alone…

  9. Trailer: How To Start Over

    · 2:46 · S2 E1 · Trailer

    In this series, Atlantic staff writer Olga Khazan analyzes what it takes to change our relationships, our work, and our perspective—with a practical approach to one of life’s greatest mysteries: how to start over.…

  10. How to Start Over: When You Think It's Too Late

    · 33 min · S2 E1

    A professional change in midlife can provide a much-needed reset—at least when you’re looking for a career that more closely aligns with your passion. But finding what you love, especially once you’ve gone down an…

  11. How to Start Over: 'Parents Are Not All Good and All Bad'

    · 29 min · S2 E2

    Some families have the frictionless ease of unconditional love and understanding, but for many the stalemate of family tensions can be insurmountable. In this episode of How to Start Over, we explore what can be done…

  12. How to Start Over: When Partnership Is Not the Destination

    · 32 min · S2 E3

    In a society dominated by romantic couples, it can be hard to accept your unpartnered state for what it is. But for the “single at heart,” the desire for partnership is nonexistent—replaced with a sense of…

  13. How to Start Over: When Can a Marriage Be Saved?

    · 41 min · S2 E4

    Romantic relationships often show us the deep divide between expectations and reality. For any relationship struggling to overcome conflict, the first step to starting over may be identifying how your vision of…

  14. How to Start Over: The Misgivings of Friend-Making

    · 39 min · S2 E5

    In the post-social-distancing era, some of us can’t remember how to make a new friend. But for many, making friends has always been a challenge—left as an unfulfilled desire without any clear course of action. In this…

  15. How to Start Over: Forgive Ourselves for What We Can’t Change

    · 32 min · S2 E6

    When we regret our past, it can feel like we’re incapable of changing our future. But it may be our past “mistakes” that help us realize there is room to evolve. In the finale episode of How to Start Over, we explore…

  16. How To Build a Happy Life: When Expectations Don’t Meet Reality

    · 2:45 · S3 E1 · Trailer

    In our pursuit of a happy life, we build, we structure, and we plan. Often, we follow conventional wisdom and strategize. But what happens when our plans fall through and expectations don’t meet reality—when the things…

  17. How To Build a Happy Life: When Virtues Become Vices

    · 32 min · S3 E1

    When the behaviors we thought would make us happy don’t, we’re forced to bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to be. But our happiness goals are often stifled by the disease of addiction—and its…

  18. How To Build a Happy Life: The Complexities of Human Love

    · 28 min · S3 E2

    Dating apps show us what we want—a relationship—without always accurately reflecting the experience of it. Our expectation that tech will create anything more than opportunities for social connectedness may overlook…

  19. How To Build a Happy Life: Spend Time on What You Value

    · 33 min · S3 E3

    We try to use our time wisely—both at work and in leisure—but we often waste it. We may blame work for stripping us of recreation, but when valuable free time comes around, we can often revert back to more work. What…

  20. How To Build a Happy Life: Subtraction as a Solution

    · 25 min · S3 E4

    From how we build our cities to how we shop, it can seem as though our natural human tendency is to add. But a culture of accumulation may be exactly what holds us back from the simple solution in front of us: taking…

  21. How To Build a Happy Life: The Right Choices in Parenting

    · 37 min · S3 E5

    The mandates of modern parenting can be dizzying. But in the effort to optimize our parenting, we may lose sight of the values we hope to impart to our children—and the skills necessary for individual decision making.…

  22. How To Build a Happy Life: A New Formula for Happiness

    · 29 min · S3 E6

    We often follow a misguided formula for happiness—pushing us toward material wealth and other worldly successes. But when our expectations set us down the wrong path, it may be time to reorient ourselves around…

  23. Introducing Holy Week

    · 8:02 · S3 E8

    Holy Week: The story of a revolution undone. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, is often recounted as a conclusion to a powerful era of civil rights in America, but how did this hero’s…

  24. Trailer: How to Talk to People

    · 2:48 · S4 E1 · Trailer

    On How to Talk to People we explore the barriers to relationship building and why—in a world of endless potential for connection—so many people still feel alone. From the struggle to prioritize non-romantic…

  25. How to Talk to People: How to Make Small Talk

    · 38 min · S4 E1

    Making small talk can be hard—especially when you’re not sure whether you’re doing it well. But conversations are a central part of relationship-building. In this first episode of How to Talk to People, we explore the…

  26. How to Talk to People: The Infrastructure of Community

    · 41 min · S4 E2

    Coffee shops, churches, libraries, and concert venues are all shared spaces where mingling can take place. Yet the hustle and bustle of modern social life can pose challenges to relationship-building—even in spaces…

  27. How to Talk to People: What do we owe our friends?

    · 35 min · S4 E3

    The terms of friendship are both voluntary and vague—yet people often find themselves disappointed by unmet expectations. In this episode of How to Talk to People, we explore how to have the difficult conversations…

  28. How to Talk to People: What Makes a House a Home

    · 40 min · S4 E4

    What motivated two families to engage in the organized chaos of shared living and how did they learn to talk through, and shape, new expectations for their family life at home? In this episode of How to Talk to…

  29. How to Talk to People: How to Know Your Neighbors

    · 30 min · S4 E5

    Are commitment issues impacting our ability to connect with the people who live around us? Relationship building may involve a commitment to the belief that neighbors are worthy of getting to know. In this episode of…

  30. How to Talk to People: How to Not Go It Alone

    · 39 min · S4 E6

    The values of individualism that encourage us to go it alone are in constant tension with the desire for community that many people crave. But when attempting to do things on our own, we may miss out on the joys of…

  31. How to Talk to People: ‘Everyone Used to be Nicer,’ And Other Persistent Myths

    · 28 min · S4 E7

    A lot of people are plagued by the feeling that society used to be better, that neighbors were more helpful, that strangers once talked to you. Some people channel that belief into political action, as in the Make…

  32. Introducing: How to Keep Time

    · 1:57 · Trailer

    Why can it feel like there’s never enough time in a day, and why are so many of us conditioned to believe that being more productive makes us better people? On How to Keep Time, co-hosts Becca Rashid and contributing…

  33. How to Keep Time: How to Waste Time

    · 35 min · S5 E1

    Co-hosts Becca Rashid and Ian Bogost explore our relationship with time and how to reclaim it. Why is it so important to be productive? Why can it feel like there’s never enough time in a day? Why are so many of us…

  34. How to Keep Time: How to Look Busy

    · 38 min · S5 E2

    Many of us complain about being too busy—and about not having enough time to do the things we really want to do. But has busyness become an excuse for our inability to focus on what matters? According to Neeru…

  35. How to Keep Time: How to Leave Work Time at Work

    · 25 min · S5 E3

    Before laptops allowed us to take the office home and smartphones could light up with notifications at any hour, work time and “life” time had clearer boundaries. Today, work is not done exclusively in the workplace,…

  36. How to Keep Time: How to Rest

    · 35 min · S5 E4

    Between making time for work, family, friends, exercise, chores, shopping—the list goes on and on—it can feel like a huge accomplishment to just take a few minutes to read a book or watch TV before bed. All that…

  37. How to Keep Time: Time Tips From the Universe

    · 36 min · S5 E5

    Time can feel like a subjective experience—different at different points in our lives. It’s also a real, measurable thing. The universe may be too big to fully comprehend, but what we do know could help inform the ways…

  38. How to Keep Time: Can We Keep Time?

    · 42 min · S5 E6

    It can be tough to face our own mortality. Keeping diaries, posting to social media, and taking photos are all tools that can help to minimize the discomfort that comes with realizing we have limited time on Earth. But…

  39. Introducing: How to Know What's Real

    · 1:44 · S6 E1 · Trailer

    What is “real life,” now that the internet and AI are integrated into so much that we do? In the new season of The Atlantic’s popular How To series, co-hosts Megan Garber and Andrea Valdez explore deepfakes, illusions,…

  40. How to Know What's Real: How to Know Who’s Real

    · 29 min · S6 E1

    Social media has made it easier to build more parasocial relationships with celebrities and influencers. What impact are those connections having on our relationships IRL? And how do they shift our understanding and…

  41. How to Know What's Real: How to Live in a Digital City

    · 28 min · S6 E2

    While the vibrance, innovation, and cacophony of online life can feel completely unlike anything humanity has ever created before, its newness isn’t wholly unprecedented. Humans reckoned with many similar challenges to…

  42. How to Know What's Real: How to Trust Your Brain Online

    · 33 min · S6 E3

    This episode explores the web’s effects on our brains and how narrative, repetition, and even a focus on replaying memories can muddy our ability to separate fact from fiction. How do we come to believe the things we…

  43. How to Know What's Real: How to Keep Watch

    · 28 min · S6 E4

    With smartphones in our pockets and doorbell cameras cheaply available, our relationship with video as a form of proof is evolving. We often say “pics or it didn’t happen!”—but meanwhile, there’s been a rise in…

  44. How to Know What's Real: How to Win at Real Life

    · 32 min · S6 E5

    Games can serve as an escape from reality—but they can also shape our understanding of trust, collaboration, and what might be possible IRL. Megan Garber talks with C. Thi Nguyen, an associate philosophy professor at…

  45. How to Know What's Real: How to be Immortal Online

    · 37 min · S6 E6

    With digital spaces regularly evolving and updating, and the infinite scroll beckoning to us at all times, this episode questions if we have, as a culture, fully embraced the end of endings. Hanna Reichel, an associate…

  46. How to Know What's Real: How to Know What’s Really Propaganda

    · 24 min · S6 E7 · Bonus

    Peter Pomerantsev, a contributor at The Atlantic and author of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, is an expert on the ways information can be manipulated. For this special episode, Megan…

  47. Best of “How To”: Spend Time on What You Value

    · 35 min · S7 E1

    This new season of How To is a collection of our favorite episodes from past seasons—a best-of series focused on slowing down, making space, and finding meaning in our hectic lives. This first episode, from our third…

  48. Best of “How To”: Rest

    · 35 min · S7 E2

    This new season of How To is a collection of our favorite episodes from past seasons—a best-of series focused on slowing down, making space, and finding meaning in our hectic lives. This episode, from our fifth season,…

  49. Best of “How To”: The Infrastructure of Community

    · 42 min · S7 E3

    This new season of How To is a collection of our favorite episodes from past seasons—a best-of series focused on slowing down, making space, and finding meaning in our hectic lives. This episode, from our fourth…

  50. Best of “How To”: Waste Time

    · 35 min · S7 E4

    Our latest season of How To is a collection of our favorite episodes from past seasons—a best-of series focused on slowing down, making space, and finding meaning in our hectic lives. This episode, from our fifth…

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