How practicing curiosity could help the world around you (with Joe Hanson)
How to Be a Better Human
TED
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 November 2021
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever wondered why there are seven days in a week? Or, why glaciers are blue—or what color even is? Today’s guest, YouTube creator Joe Hanson, makes a living by asking—and trying to answer—these kinds of questions. A biologist turned video producer and educator, Joe spends his days thinking about how telling stories and encouraging curiosity can help people think more deeply about the universe they live in, and engage with science in more meaningful ways. In this episode, he gives tips on how to unleash our innate desire to know things, explains what makes good science, and shares how cool facts can help you save the planet— and win big at trivia night. Joe was a part of Countdown, TED’s climate conference, which you can learn more about at countdown.ted.com. You can check out “It’s Okay To Be Smart”, Joe’s award-winning science education show from PBS Digital Studios, on YouTube. We want to know what you think about the podcast! Let us know your thoughts by visiting this link https://survey.prx.org/BetterHuman—and get a chance to be featured in a future episode To learn more about "How to Be a Better Human," host Chris Duffy, or find footnotes and additional resources, please visit: go.ted.com/betterhuman
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ted Audio Collective. |
| 0:02.0 | Audio Collective. |
| 0:04.0 | You're listening to How to Be a Better Human. |
| 0:10.0 | I'm your host Chris Duffy. |
| 0:12.0 | So one of my favorite things in the world is talking to scientists. |
| 0:15.0 | Over the past couple years, I've gotten to talk to a variety of researchers |
| 0:19.0 | across all sorts of different disciplines, |
| 0:21.0 | and I think that my biggest surprise has been that there is no such thing as a boring topic, right? Like someone studies something like sharks or volcanoes or sex, you know it's going to be interesting. But then, when I talk to a scientist who studies something that I would initially consider very boring, like sand, it turns |
| 0:38.6 | out that the really fascinating part about that is then who is the person who spends years of their life trying |
| 0:44.8 | to understand Sand right how can you be the most passionate person about Sand in the |
| 0:49.3 | entire world that ends up being fascinating and hilarious and amazing and I get to ask them |
| 0:54.4 | about that and discover why does that they think this thing that I think is |
| 0:57.5 | boring is actually so amazing and then I often end up being convinced all right |
| 1:01.7 | Dr. Sand I see you So while I'm not personally a scientist at all, I was an English major, I wasn't a scientist, but I do really admire that curiosity that scientists approach the world with. I think there's |
| 1:14.7 | something really beautiful about trying to find answers to questions that no one's |
| 1:18.3 | asked before and then to share those answers with everyone else. I love that. And I wonder how we can all |
| 1:24.0 | approach the world and each other with that kind of curiosity. Today's guest |
| 1:28.2 | Joe Hansen, he is all about that. He's not only a scientist himself but a world-renowned science |
| 1:33.5 | communicator who makes videos that millions of people around the world watch and |
| 1:37.3 | learn from. And here's a clip from Joe's talk about the process that he uses to |
| 1:41.1 | make those videos, answering what seemed like simple questions |
| 1:44.1 | but turned out to be big exciting adventures. |
... |
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