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Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

232. Pause, Don’t Panic: Finding Calm in High-Stakes Moments

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

Think Fast Talk Smart

Education, Business, Career Skills, Careers, Influence, Communication, Career, Communicating, Language Learning, Leadership, Improv, Public Speaking, Career Growth

4.7 • 805 Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

To connect with others, you have to get out of your own head.


Whether presenting to millions on live television or talking to just one person, Dan Harris knows that the quality of every interaction depends on the presence you bring to it.

Harris is a former national news anchor for ABC News and is now the host of the 10% Happier podcast and author of 10% Happier and Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. As he knows from experience, there’s power in “Waking up to something fundamental, that the mind is out of control, and you don't want to be owned by it.” How do we break the pattern of being controlled by our thoughts? Mindfulness and self-awareness, he says, put “distance” between us and our “thoughts and urges and emotions,” enabling us to connect with ourselves and others with greater consciousness and clarity.

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Harris and host Matt Abrahams discuss how mindfulness can transform our communication, sharing strategies for deeper listening, responding versus reacting, and reflecting what others say back to them. “Relationships are the most important aspect of your happiness,” Harris says. The quality of those connections goes up when “you’re “less stuck in your own head.”

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Chapters:

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (02:10) - On-Air Panic Attack
  • (03:18) - Managing Communication Anxiety
  • (04:20) - Nervousness Before Live Audiences
  • (06:07) - Meditation Misconceptions
  • (09:55) - Responding vs. Reacting
  • (12:26) - Mindfulness & Productivity
  • (15:30) - Lessons from Interviewing
  • (17:38) - The Final Three Question
  • (24:57) - Conclusion

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, Matt here. Before we get started, a word from one of our sponsors. Their support allows us to bring you quality content free of charge.

0:10.6

We spend about a third of our waking hours working, but so many people feel stuck in their jobs they've outgrown. I've heard it all. What if the next move is even worse? I can't afford to take the wrong

0:22.1

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0:28.6

people feel stuck. That's where today's sponsor, Strawberry.Me, comes in. They connect you with a

0:34.0

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0:38.4

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0:43.7

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0:48.8

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0:58.1

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1:05.9

the career you actually want. Communication is all about connection.

1:12.8

But first, we have to give ourselves time and space to connect.

1:18.7

My name is Matt Abraham's, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School

1:23.4

of Business.

1:24.4

Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Today I'm really excited to speak with

1:30.2

Dan Harris. Dan is a former national news anchor for ABC News in the United States. He is the podcast

1:37.0

host of 10% Happier, an author of two books, 10% Happier, and Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. Welcome, Dan. I look forward to our

1:46.8

conversation. Me too. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Shall we get started? Yeah. All right. You are very

1:53.4

open about an on-air panic attack that you had. Can you tell us about the experience and how it changed

1:59.2

you and your approach to life in general?

2:02.2

Yeah, this happened back in 2004, so 21 years ago on Good Morning America, where I was anchoring the news and found myself unable to breathe in the middle of my schick.

2:12.8

Actually, if you Google it, just Google panic attack on television.

2:15.8

It's the first result, which is great.

...

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