Chris Duffy | from Design Matters
How to Be a Better Human
TED
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2026
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chris Duffy—comedian, writer, and host of the TED podcast How to Be a Better Human—joins to discuss how humor shaped his path from teaching and improv to podcasting and television. Together, they explore why laughing more isn’t about being funny, but about attention, vulnerability, and connection, and how humor helps us stay human.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, we have a special bonus episode for you today. It is a conversation that I had with |
| 0:04.8 | the incredible Debbie Millman, the host of another TED podcast called Design Matters, and I had |
| 0:09.4 | the immense honor of getting to sit down with Debbie and talk about my life and my work and my |
| 0:14.5 | new book, Humor Me. It was such a gift. I think Debbie is truly like one of the all-time great |
| 0:19.5 | interviewers, a Hall of Fame podcaster. |
| 0:21.9 | She's able to get her guests to pull such unexpected threads out of their choices, creatively |
| 0:28.2 | and artistically and personally, and to think about their careers as a whole and the way that |
| 0:32.4 | their lives have lined up. It was really exciting and frankly a little intimidating to be |
| 0:36.8 | on the other side of the microphone and get interviewed by Debbie. But was really exciting and frankly a little intimidating to be on the other side of |
| 0:38.0 | the microphone and get interviewed by Debbie. But I really enjoyed our conversation and I'm so |
| 0:42.8 | excited to share it with you right now. So here for you, How to Be a Better Human Listeners, |
| 0:48.0 | today's episode is from Design Matters and it features me, Chris Duffy. I've always been |
| 0:54.0 | interested in each career move being something that teaches me. |
| 0:57.2 | So what's something that I would learn? |
| 0:58.8 | How would it push me? |
| 0:59.8 | And this was a huge shift for me because it's the first thing that I did where it was in no way edited for laughs. |
| 1:09.7 | From the TED Audio Collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Milman. |
| 1:17.1 | On Design Matters, Debbie talks with some of the most creative people in the world about what they do, how they got to be who they are, and what they're thinking about and working on. |
| 1:25.7 | On this episode, a conversation with Chris Duffy about |
| 1:29.0 | his career in comedy and about the importance of humor. Anyone can be funny, and especially |
| 1:34.0 | anyone can laugh more. Chris Duffy has spent his career moving fluidly between teaching, stand-up |
| 1:44.0 | comedy, writing, and podcasting, |
... |
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