A Mind-Expanding Conversation About Human History and Happiness With Tim Urban

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sometimes on this show, we talk about the news. This episode is about the diametric opposite of the news. It’s about thinking deeply about human history and trying to appreciate the awesome length of time and the finitude of our lives. It's an interview with Tim Urban, a blogger at the mind-expanding site Wait But Why, and the author of a new book What’s Our Problem: A Self-Help Book for Societies. If you don’t know Tim and his work, I would sum up his thing this way: Tim is a kind of alien. He has an incredible talent for seeing our world as if from the perspective of a goofy but smart extraterrestrial, who takes not the 30,000-foot view on life, but the 300,000-foot view of life, and history, and human nature. In this show, we talk about … you know what. I'm not even going to try to sum up the hour. Just enjoy. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_ Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Tim Urban Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Erica Maris, founder of Ily and host of What About Your Friends.
0:05.1	A brand new show on the Ringer podcast network dedicated to the many lives of friendship
0:09.5	and how it's portrayed in pop culture.
0:11.7	Every Wednesday on the Ringer dish feed, I'll be talking with my best friends, Steven Othello,
0:15.8	and your favorites from within the Ringer and beyond about friendships on TV, and movies,
0:20.4	pop culture, and our real lives.
0:22.4	So join me every Wednesday on the Ringer dish feed where we try to answer the question TLC
0:26.3	asked back in the day.
0:27.8	What about your friends?
0:30.8	Sometimes on this show, we talk about the news.
0:35.0	This episode is about the diametric opposite of the news.
0:41.3	It's about thinking deeply about human history, trying to see all 250,000 years of it in
0:47.6	a glance, trying to appreciate the awesome length of time and the finitude of our own lives.
0:56.8	This episode is an interview with Tim Urban.
1:00.0	Tim is a blogger at the Mind Expanding Site Wait But Why, and the author of a new book called
1:07.4	What's Our Problem, a self-help book for societies.
1:13.0	If you don't know Tim and his work, I would sum up his thing this way.
1:20.5	Tim is an alien.
1:23.0	He has an incredible talent for seeing our world as if from the perspective of a goofy,
1:28.9	but smart, extraterrestrial who takes not the 30,000 foot view of life, but the 300,000
1:36.0	foot view of life and history and human nature.
1:41.7	In this show, we talk about, I don't even know, I don't know how to summarize the next
	...

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