I've always been interested in each career move being something that teaches me.

So what's something that I would learn?

How would it push me?

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.

From the TED Audio Collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Milman.

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.

On this episode, a conversation with Chris Duffy about his career in comedy and about the importance of humor.

Anyone can be funny, and especially anyone can laugh more.

Chris Duffy has spent his career moving fluidly between teaching, stand-up comedy, writing, and podcasting, all of which are shaped by curiosity,

improvisation, and responsibility. Chris is currently the host of the podcast, How to Be a Better

Human, where his conversations center on practical wisdom, vulnerability, and growth.

His new book, Humor Me, How Laughing More Can Make You

You Present, Connected, and Happy, is about how to laugh more every day and how to find more

humor in the world, which is certainly what we can use more of now. Chris Duffy, welcome to Design Matters.

Thank you so much for having me, Debbie. It's a pleasure

to be here. Chris, I read that one of your earliest memories is when you brought a book of shaggy

dog jokes to the hospital to cheer up your great Uncle Norman after he had a heart attack. What gave you the sense back then that humor

could be a way for him to heal? Oh, well, that's true that I did do that. And it's interesting,

the framing of what gave me a sense that humor had the power to heal, because I think a big part of it

was humor got the power of giving me attention, even when he was getting a lot of attention in the hotel, in the hospital room.

Okay, total reframe.

But I was also like six or seven.

...