Libsyn Directory

#374: The Evolutionary Case for Kindness | Dacher Keltner

Release Date: 08/30/2021

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

You may have heard about stoicism, in the common parlance, as having a stiff upper lip, sucking it up, grinning and bearing it, suppressing your emotions, etcetera. Or you may have heard of Stoicism, the ancient Greco-Roman philosophy, that has become the de rigeur set of life hacks among millennial self-optimizers.

How to Meditate with No Agenda | Bonus Meditation with Jeff Warren

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

Free your creativity with this light meditation and see where the momentum takes you.

#381: What Does it Actually Mean to Be a "Whole Person"? | Scott Barry Kaufman

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

In this episode, we’re going to demystify concepts such as: self actualization, personal growth, authenticity, and bringing your “whole self” to the table.

#380: Psychedelics and Meditation | Michael Pollan

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

Michael Pollan has done more than perhaps anybody else in recent history to change the conversation on the use of psychedelic drugs, or plant medicine. He is author of the best selling book called How to Change Your Mind and he recently followed up with another book called This is Your Mind on Plants. Pollan is also the co-founder of the University of California Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, along with another recent podcast guest, Dacher Keltner.

Accepting the Unpleasant | Bonus Meditation with Joseph Goldstein

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

Accepting the unpleasant: easier said than done. Joseph demonstrates how to overcome reactivity and build the skill of acceptance.

#379: How to Get the Wisdom of Old Age Now | Dilip Jeste

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

Happiness levels are really high when we’re young. They then steadily dip through our 20s, 30s, and 40s, and bottom out in our early 50s–at which point, they make a sharp and sudden rise. Then, through our 60s, 70s, and 80s, they are way above where we were in our youth.

#378: Life, Interrupted | Suleika Jaouad

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

Here’s a thought experiment: how would you handle it if you got a terrible diagnosis?

High-Fiving the Inner Critic | Bonus Meditation with La Sarmiento

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

Today’s meditation is animated by two profound insights. The first is that we don’t just tend to listen to our inner critic–we tend to believe it. And the second is that the path forward requires us to treat our inner critic with compassion and kindness.

#377: A More Relaxed Way to Meditate | Alexis Santos

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

A common problem among type-A people is trying to win at meditation. But the practice doesn’t work like that. If you over-effort, if you try to make something happen, it’s pretty much guaranteed not to happen. What is guaranteed is that you will suffer. Meditation is like a video game where you can’t move forward if you want to move forward too badly.

#376: Letting Go of Perfectionism | La Sarmiento

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

In this episode, we’re talking about the difference between kindness and what our guest, La Sarmiento, calls “radical kindness,” how to muster the strength to be kind to annoying people while setting appropriate boundaries, the difference between radical compassion and what the Tibetans call “idiot compassion,” and their experience of learning to accept themselves in a culture that is not always so welcoming.

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Here’s a question: Is there an evolutionary advantage to being kind?

Our guest today is Dacher Keltner, an eminent scientist who will make the case that, contrary to popular conceptions of evolution (dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest), and contrary to a lot of what we see on the news, our species is actually uniquely wired for kindness and compassion.

Dacher Keltner is the Director of the Social Interaction Lab at the University of California at Berkeley, the Faculty Director of the Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, and the author of the book Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life.

In this episode, we talk about Darwin’s perspective on human sympathy and selfishness, where he stands on the question of Original Sin versus Buddha Nature, the importance of touch when it comes to communicating compassion, and the relationship between teasing and kindness.

We are bringing you this Ten Percent Happier podcast series in collaboration with the Apple TV+ Original Series Ted Lasso because kindness is a huge theme in the show, and there are many practical lessons embedded right in the plot.

Watch Season 2 of Ted Lasso on Apple TV+. Subscription required. Apple TV+ and/or select content may not be available in all regions.

Download the Ten Percent Happier app today: https://10percenthappier.app.link/install

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/dacher-keltner-374

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