How to Be a Better Human

How to navigate complicated family dynamics (w/ Emerson Whitney)

How do you bring up difficult topics—especially when it involves a loved one? In this episode, Emerson Whitney, author of the book O Mother, talks about the grief of losi

Does it Take a Twisted Mind to Write Twisted Stories? | from Better In Person

Harlan Coben doesn’t think so. The mega-best-selling author talks suburbia, impostor syndrome, and what he learned from his college friend David Foster Wallace. If you'd

Summer Fridays: How zombies, dragons, and superheroes could make you a better person (w/ Christopher Robichaud)

Roleplaying games and the Marvel universe may be fictional, but they can also teach us a lot about morality in the real world. Christopher Robichaud is a Lecturer in Ethi

How to be creatively inspired (w/ Hrishikesh Hirway)

Hrishikesh Hirway is a musician and producer, but you probably know him best as the host of the podcast Song Exploder. Hrishikesh has a new album out, “In the Last Hour o

Summer Fridays: The art of paying attention (w/ Wendy MacNaughton and Laurel Braitman)

If you found yourself doodling or writing a lot as a child but then lost the hobby as you grew up, Wendy MacNaughton and Laurel Braitman want to help you recapture your s

The last places without human sounds (w/ Matt Mikkelsen)

What is natural sound in an increasingly noisy world? asks sound recordist and audio engineer Matt Mikkelsen. Matt travels the world recording natural sounds in places wh

Summer Fridays: Why you should try birding (w/ Christian Cooper)

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 ab

How increasing your happiness can help solve climate change (w/ Jiaying Zhao and Elizabeth Dunn)

The conversation around climate change is often bleak and terrifying, but it doesn’t have to be that way, says climate behavior scientist Jiaying Zhao, or JZ. In this epi

Summer Fridays: How to clean your house without losing your mind (w/ KC Davis)

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

What trees can teach us about life (w/ Robert Moor)

What can we learn from trees? Robert Moor thinks that the path to a well-lived life lies in trying our best to live like a tree. Branch out, prune what doesn’t work, and

Summer Fridays: Lessons from 102-year-old swimmer Maurine Kornfeld (re-release)

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

Why should you care about animal sex? (w/ Perrin Ireland)

Perrin Ireland is an artist and environmentalist who draws science comics. She’s also the author of Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex. In this episode,

Summer Fridays: How to be more joyful (w/ Ingrid Fetell Lee) (re-release)

How to find and create Joy in your life -- what is joy? And what is its purpose in our lives? We talk with Ingrid about how to cultivate more joy in our daily lives, espe

How to understand your family history (w/ Keith Rushing)

Journalist Keith Rushing has spent years trying to report on his most difficult story - the history of his own family. Who do we come from? What do we inherit from the pa

Summer Fridays: How to find “your thing” (or your many things) (w/ Constance Hockaday) (re-release)

Some people are born knowing exactly what they want to do with their life – and because of that, they’re able to get to the top of their field. But most of us have multip

What the data shows about youth mental health (w/ Candice Odgers)

“Social media and screen time aren’t the most important factor in teen mental health,” says development psychologist Candice Odgers. While this claim sounds counterintuit

Summer Fridays: How to get your sense of wonder back (w/ Nate DiMeo) (re-release)

How do you make sense of the present? Nate DiMeo might suggest you look at the past. Nate is the host of the podcast and book, The Memory Palace. Nate joins Chris to disc

How to think fast and talk smart (w/ Matt Abrahams)

Matt Abrahams is a communication expert who teaches strategic communication at Stanford University, hosts the podcast Think Fast Talk Smart, and wrote the new book Think

Why you are starved for creativity—and how to fix it (w/ Katina Bajaj)

Katina Bajaj is a scientist studying “creative health.” She looks at the role of play, fun, art, and creativity in our overall wellbeing. When was the last time you’ve go

How play is the secret to success at work (w/ Maxwell Pearce)

Why is it so fun to watch your team win in the World Cup or to be a Knicks fan as they finally get an NBA championship? There’s a collective joy in sports that can also b