How to feel alive in an exhausting world

TED Radio Hour

NPR

Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture, Technology

4.3 • 21.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why do some of us feel so tired, while others seem to have endless energy? This hour, host Manoush Zomorodi explores what science is revealing about stress, breathing, cellular energy and the body.

Guests include mitochondrial psychobiologist Martin Picard and science journalist James Nestor.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the TED Radio Hour.
0:04.4	Each week, groundbreaking TED Talks.
0:06.8	Our job now is to dream big.
0:08.2	Delivered at TED conferences.
0:09.9	To bring about the future we want to see.
0:12.0	Around the world.
0:12.9	To understand who we are.
0:14.8	From those talks, we bring you speakers and ideas that will surprise you.
0:20.0	You just don't know what you're going to find.
0:21.9	Challenge you.
0:22.8	We truly have to ask ourselves, like, why is it noteworthy?
0:25.1	And even change you.
0:26.3	I literally feel like I'm a different person.
0:28.4	Yes.
0:29.4	Do you feel that way?
0:31.1	Ideas worth spreading.
0:33.5	From Ted and NPR.
0:39.0	I'm Manohe Zamoroti.
0:48.5	Today on the show, the age of exhaustion, what's making us so tired, and how we can get some of our energy back.
1:04.0	Have you ever closed your laptop at the end of a long day and felt like all you could manage next was to crawl over to the couch, to look at your phone, or watch some TV, or both?
1:08.9	There was a day when this happened to me, and I got so annoyed.
1:13.8	Why didn't I want to spring up from my chair at the end of the day?
	...

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