Dan Harris

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 990 Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In an ever-growing world of mindfulness teachers and wellness influencers, Dan Harris has remained grounded with modest goals. One of those goals is baked into the name of his best-selling book and podcast, “10% Happier.” Dan talks to Rachel about his unconventional path from “self-centered journalist” to “alleged happiness expert,” and whether being a “good-ish” person is good enough.To listen sponsor-free and support the show, sign up for Wild Card+ at plus.npr.org/wildcard

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This message comes from the Thrive Center.
0:02.6	Their podcast With and Four, hosted by Dr. Pam King, explores big questions about meaning and purpose
0:09.0	through conversations that bring psychology and spiritual wisdom together.
0:13.4	Follow With and For wherever you're listening.
0:16.8	Just a heads up, this episode does have some strong language.
0:20.6	What do you enjoy complaining about?
0:23.1	My own mind.
0:24.5	My favorite thing I ever wrote was the first line to my first book, which was,
0:29.0	The Voice in My Head is an asshole.
0:33.0	And I think that is true.
0:35.8	I think it's true for many people.
0:38.1	I'm Rachel Martin, and this is Wildcard, the game where cards control the conversation.
0:44.8	Each week, my guest answers questions about their life.
0:48.0	Questions pulled from a deck of cards.
0:50.3	They're allowed to skip one question and to flip one back on me.
0:53.7	My guest this week is Dan Harris.
0:55.4	The next time you're in a spiral of anxiety, ask yourself this question.
0:59.9	Is this useful?
1:00.9	We often and very quickly cross the line between constructive anguish and useless rumination.
1:08.6	Dan Harris and I have been on parallel tracks for much of our career.
1:11.9	We both covered faith and spirituality as reporters.
1:14.7	We were colleagues for a while at ABC, and then several years later, we both ended up leaving
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.