How You Can Help End Polarization and Inequality – and Get Happier, Too | Robert Putnam & Shaylyn Romney Garrett
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2021
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett discuss the recent book they co-authored, The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again.
Robert Putnam is perhaps best-known for his seminal book Bowling Alone, about the increasing atomization and isolation of American society. He is the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. Shaylyn Romney Garrett is a writer and social entrepreneur who holds a BA in History from Harvard.
Content Warning: There are multiple references to racism and racial violence in this episode.
Click here to give a gift subscription to the Ten Percent Happier app.
Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/putnam-romney-garrett-405
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is the 10% happier podcast. |
| 0:05.6 | I'm Dan Harris. |
| 0:07.0 | Hey, everybody. |
| 0:11.6 | We are living in a pretty ugly moment in many ways, inequality, polarization, self-centeredness. |
| 0:19.0 | They're all peaking. |
| 0:21.0 | And it can all make you feel hopeless and helpless. |
| 0:24.7 | But here's the good news. |
| 0:26.1 | We have been here before and dug ourselves out. |
| 0:29.3 | And it is possible for you as an individual to contribute to solving this problem once |
| 0:33.6 | again. |
| 0:34.8 | And the very work of contributing is likely to make you happier. |
| 0:39.6 | Just to note, when I talk about the ugliness of the current moment, I'm talking specifically |
| 0:43.4 | about America. |
| 0:44.4 | But the social dynamics we're going to discuss today are relevant in many parts of the |
| 0:48.9 | world. |
| 0:49.9 | And the individual happiness-inducing work that my guests are going to propose, that advice |
| 0:55.4 | is universally applicable. |
| 0:58.6 | Getting up my guests, I have two of them today. |
| 1:00.8 | Robert Putnam is a name you may have heard me mention before, or you may have just heard |
| 1:05.7 | about him in any number of other ways. |
| 1:08.4 | He is perhaps best known for his seminal book, Bowling Alone, which was about the increasing |
| 1:14.0 | atomization and isolation of American society. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from 10% Media, LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of 10% Media, LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.