How to embrace – and challenge – the idea of "beauty" (w/ Elise Hu) | How to Be a Better Human

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Humans have always been captivated by beauty, and for almost as long, we've been marketed products and new technologies to help us achieve certain beauty standards. Elise Hu is a journalist and the author of "Flawless: Lessons in looks and culture from the K-beauty industry." In this episode, she shares the fascinating insights she's learned from years of studying the $10 billion K-beauty industry and the cutting-edge skincare, niche makeup products, and technology that promise to optimize our appearance. Elise and Chris talk about the real stakes of placing a premium on our looks, why a more inclusive version of "beauty" is worth pursuing, and how we can both enjoy and push back against the very human desire to feel beautiful. Listen and subscribe to How to Be a Better Human and more podcasts from the TED Audio Collective at audiocollective.ted.com For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:11.0	Hey everyone, Elise Hugh here.
0:12.8	We have something a little different for you today, an episode of How to Be a Better
0:16.6	Human, another podcast from the Ted Audio Collective.
0:20.1	On the show, comedian Christuffy interviews guests about the big ideas and small changes
0:24.7	that can improve our lives.
0:27.2	Recently, Chris and I sat down to talk about shifting beauty ideals, our increasingly
0:32.1	visual world, and other ideas from my new book, Flaless, which just came out.
0:37.8	If you enjoy this conversation, please check out How to Be a Better Human Wherever You're
0:42.0	Listening to This.
0:46.1	Like Ted Talks, you should check out the Ted Radio Hour with NPR.
0:50.6	Stay tuned after this talk to hear a sneak peek of this week's episode.
0:59.1	You're listening to How to Be a Better Human.
1:01.2	I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
1:03.0	In today's episode, we're going to switch things up a little bit.
1:06.0	We're going to question some of the assumption behind our title that we should always be
1:09.5	trying to improve ourselves.
1:11.3	Look, becoming thoughtful, kinder, emotionally aware and matured, those seem like clearly
1:17.0	good things.
1:18.0	Definitely worth trying to be a better human on those fronts.
1:21.8	But there can be an insidious side to the idea of better.
1:26.3	The idea that we always have to be optimizing and improving ourselves that we're never
	...

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