How to embrace – and challenge – the idea of “beauty” (w / Elise Hu)

How to Be a Better Human

TED and PRX

Self-improvement, Education

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

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. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

Audio player

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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	You're listening to How to Be a Better Human.
0:12.0	I'm your host Chris Duffy.
0:14.0	In today's episode, we're going to switch things up a little bit.
0:17.0	We're going to question some of the assumption behind our title
0:20.0	that we should always be trying to improve ourselves.
0:23.0	Look, becoming thoughtful, kinder,
0:26.0	emotionally aware and mature, those seem like clearly good things.
0:29.0	Definitely worth trying to be a better human on those fronts.
0:32.0	But there can be an insidious side to the idea of better.
0:37.6	The idea that we always have to be optimizing and improving ourselves that we're never just enough.
0:42.0	That is not healthy. And that is what
0:44.0	today's guest, journalist and author, Elise Hugh, often found in her exploration of global beauty
0:49.4	culture. Elise had a special focus in her book on South Korea, but this is really an issue that is worldwide.
0:56.7	And like in so many other aspects of society, technology has accelerated and exaggerated global beauty standards and expectations.
1:04.4	A small personal experience with this.
1:06.4	I take almost all of my remote meetings on Zoom and when I'm on Zoom I have the touch up
1:10.9	my appearance feature enabled so my skin's a little smoother and clearer the bags under my eyes are lightened
1:16.6	but I use Zoom so often that when I occasionally switch to a different program like Google Meet
1:22.3	I'm shocked and appalled by how rough my unfiltered meeting face is.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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