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How to Be a Better Human

How to find your purpose (w/ Yara Shahidi)

How to Be a Better Human

TED

Emotional Awareness, Self-help, Interviews, Education, Self-improvement, Chris Duffy, Better Human, Personal Growth

4.1 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“Optimism is not what exists in a vacuum on your best day, but how you're pulling through for yourself on your worst days,” says actress Yara Shahidi. Yara is known for her sitcoms Black-ish and its spinoff Grown-ish. She shares what she learned from creating a “Hard Yes” list, why she chose to attend Harvard after acting, and why she thinks anyone can find their highest order if they pay attention.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to How to Be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy. This month on the podcast, we are reexamining our relationship to work. We started with psychologist Guy Wynch's new book, Mind Over Grind, and we talked about how to prevent burnout and make space for your life outside of your job. And then we had financial journalist Matt Levine explain the economy and money stuff to us. But this week, we are tackling, to me, the biggest question around work, which is, what do you want to do? Figuring out what you want to do is in many ways figuring out who you want to be. What do you want to contribute to the world? What do you want to learn? Who do you want to be

0:37.5

surrounded by? What do you believe in? I am, quite frankly, overwhelmed even just saying these

0:43.2

questions out loud, and I'm not even trying to answer them. But today's guest, Yara Shahidi,

0:47.5

is remarkably clear-eyed about how to tackle these big questions head-on. You might know Yara

0:53.1

from her award-winning work on the TV shows Blackish and Grownish,

0:57.0

but Yara is also a producer, the host of the Optimist Project podcast, and a Harvard graduate.

1:02.9

In other words, Yara has succeeded at the highest levels across many different fields.

1:08.0

And while I'm getting winded just pondering my future,

1:14.8

Yara is sprinting across the finish line and then designing a whole new race course.

1:19.4

But Yara also has practical inspiring advice for everyone, including me.

1:23.4

So today we are talking with Yara about how to understand yourself,

1:28.0

how to understand your goals, and how to figure out what you want to say yes to.

1:31.5

To get us started, here's a clip from Yara's TED Talk.

1:40.0

My grandpa and I would reimagine and act out the entire saga of the Odyssey with my Polly Pocket dolls, as one does at the age of four.

1:44.3

And around the age of five, I asked for every religious book.

1:46.0

I mean, every religious book.

1:50.9

Fast forwarding to 13, I read my first short story from the formidable James Baldwin,

1:53.4

and my life was forever changed.

1:58.7

Needless to say, I was grateful to be surrounded by a community of people that honored my interests.

2:02.6

But as I got older, I began to get confronted by a big question. Are you sure about that?

2:04.6

Now, this was a question I really could not escape in August of 2018,

2:08.6

right as I was embarking on my next adventure.

...

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