Former senior US national security official Miles Taylor shares a personal account that raises a broader civic concern: the growing cost of dissent in American public life. Drawing on his experience inside government and living the consequences of speaking openly, he says that the real threat to US democracy isn't the politicians or hard-liners — it's the two-thirds of Americans who don’t speak up. (This talk contains mature language.)

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What if your hardest emotional challenges could be solved by talking to a stranger? A person who has gone through the exact same situation or something very similar. That’s the premise of Proxy, a podcast that investigates your niche emotional conundrums with host Yowei Shaw. In this episode, Yowei and Chris talk about the power of knowing you’re not the only person going through something, however specific. Whether it’s losing your job, a friend breakup, or an alternate version of your life that you can’t let go of, Yowei has a method to make it all make more sense.

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What do you hear when you sit in silence? For artist Rose B. Simpson, that question is the beginning of all art. She comes from a line of ceramic artists stretching back generations and, as part of her multidisciplinary work, she also builds custom lowrider cars. (If that sounds like a contradiction, that's kind of the point.) In conversation with "Design Matters" podcast host Debbie Millman, Simpson invites you to find your own aesthetic — not by searching, but by listening.

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We see consciousness in AI the same way we see faces in clouds, says neuroscientist Anil Seth. He explores the all-too-human tendency to project inner life onto machines that are brilliant mimics, not sentient beings, and gives a definitive answer to the urgent question: Will AI ever gain consciousness?

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Architect Riyad Joucka believes your home should be a mirror of who you are. Using 3D printing and ancient architectural wisdom, he's designing efficient, personal homes that respond to context, climate and culture without sacrificing character. He makes the case that we should start designing for people, not the market.

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Confidence doesn’t come before action — it comes from taking action, says business leader Kat Cole, who worked her way up from waitress to CEO of a global health company. She presents a simple yet powerful practice called the “hot shot rule” to help you step into a leadership mindset, break free from inertia and take decisive action when it matters most.

This episode originally aired in 2025.

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Over two decades of interviewing countless creative people, Debbie Millman (host of the iconic "Design Matters" podcast) had a realization: the pride and joy of accomplishing something often evaporates almost instantly. She explains how to stop chasing external validation for your achievements and instead live for the act of creation itself.

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Why does searching your symptoms online always leave you more frightened than before? As former chief medical officer of WebMD, physician John Whyte spent years believing more information meant better health — until he saw how too much of it was making people spiral. In a world of health influencers, algorithms and AI tools designed to keep you clicking, he reveals why clarity and context is a better prescription. 

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The author of the award-winning novels “Pachinko” and “Free Food for Millionaires,” Min Jin Lee, discusses her remarkable career and the long journey and intention behind her Korean diaspora novels.

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“Every conversation has the potential to open up and reveal all the layers and layers within it, all those rooms within rooms," says musician and host of the beloved podcast Song Exploder, Hrishikesh Hirway. In this profoundly moving talk from 2022, he offers a guide to deep conversations and explores what you learn when you take that same kind of close listening we often give to music, and turn it toward people.

A lot has changed for Hrishikesh since this popular talk was released, and after more than a decade helping other artists tell their stories and helping us think about listening in new ways, he's got a new solo album that just came out, called In the Last Hour of Light, which he describes as a memoir of sorts. Elise Hu, host of TED Talks Daily, caught up with him earlier this month to talk about his new album, how his ideas about listening have evolved since his talk, and what his own creative process looks like today. They also do a mini Song Exploder of sorts to take a peak into Hrishikesh's own songwriting process, breaking down one of the new songs on this album, "Things Change, Even Now," (co-written with Vagabon), which is shared in full at the end of the episode.

This episode originally aired in 2022. The interview was recorded in April 2026.

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“Truth is the real oxygen for democracy,” says Vjosa Osmani Sadriu, the 6th President of the Republic of Kosovo. As a child of war, she once longed for someone to save her people. Now she’s been in the rooms where decisions are made — and she’s never forgotten what brought her there. In conversation with solutions journalist Angus Hervey, she reflects on what it takes to defend democracy in a world where truth itself is under threat. (Recorded on April 14, 2026)

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