4.6 • 12.2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 August 2025
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
An expert in failure shows us how to find success in the most counterintuitive way.
Manu Kapur is currently the Director of the Singapore-ETH Center, and Professor for Learning Sciences and Higher Education at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where he also directs The Future Learning Initiative (FLI). Manu is also the Founding Chair of the ETH Zurich – EPFL Joint Doctoral Program in the Learning Sciences.
In this episode we talk about:
Join Dan’s online community here
Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
Additional Resources:
Get ready for another Meditation Party at Omega Institute! This in-person workshop brings together Dan with his friends and meditation teachers, Sebene Selassie, Jeff Warren, and for the first time, Ofosu Jones-Quartey. The event runs October 24th-26th. Sign up and learn more at eomega.org/workshops/meditation-party-2025.
To advertise on the show, contact [email protected] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris
Sponsors:
Coop Sleep Goods
Upgrade your summer sleep. Visit coopsleepgoods.com/HAPPIER10 to get 20% off your first order.
Open Phone
OpenPhone is offering our listeners 20% off of your first 6 months at OpenPhone.com/happier.
NOCD
Head over to nocd.com and book a free 15‑minute call with their team, to learn more and start getting help with OCD.
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. |
0:08.0 | Hello, my fellow suffering beings, how we doing today? |
0:21.9 | In an era of rampant and rising perfectionism, many people desperately fear failure. |
0:28.2 | But today I'm talking to an expert who says we should be actively seeking out failure, at least the right kind of failure. |
0:34.7 | He calls it productive failure, which is also the name of his new book. |
0:38.8 | The he in question here, the human in question. His name is Manu Kapoor. He's the director of the |
0:44.2 | Singapore ETH Center and a professor for learning sciences and higher education at ETH Zurich, |
0:50.9 | which is in Switzerland, where he also directs the future learning initiative. |
0:54.7 | We talk about the definition of productive failure, a concept that Manu developed, which allows |
0:59.8 | you to design for and harness failure so that you can learn in a deeper and more effective way. |
1:06.3 | We talk about why we learn more from failing than from succeeding, which is counterintuitive for many of us. |
1:12.9 | The difference between desirable and undesirable failure, the neuroscience of curiosity, |
1:17.8 | practical ways to incorporate productive failure into your life, how to get into your so-called |
1:22.8 | failure zone, how to create environments in which other people feel safe to fail, and much more. |
1:29.3 | Just to say before we dive in, we're dropping a guided meditation that is customized to this episode. |
1:35.3 | It's going to help you take all of the fascinating things you're about to learn and really pound it into your neurons. |
1:41.3 | Today's guided meditation comes from a Chyra Jule Lingo who's going to talk about how to into your neurons. Today's guided meditation comes from Kyra Jule Lingo, who's going to talk |
1:45.7 | about how to handle your discomfort, which is, of course, a non-negotiable part of failure. |
1:52.1 | So if you want to get good at failing in the right way, you need to learn how to handle your |
1:56.0 | discomfort. So Kyra has crafted a guided meditation. Again, it's bespoke, customized to this episode. |
2:02.2 | As a reminder, we're now regularly offering these companion meditations for every Monday, Wednesday episode. |
2:07.6 | If you want to get them, you've got to sign up over at Dan Harris.com, our burgeoning little meditation community. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 10 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
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 2025.