TED Talks Daily Book Club: Embrace your limitations | Oliver Burkeman
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 11.9K Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
How can you make your life meaningful with the finite amount of time you have? In this TED Talks Daily Book Club interview, host Elise Hu speaks with Oliver Burkeman about his book “Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.” They explore Oliver's philosophy of “imperfectionism” and shows how choosing to let go can help you feel more in control.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey y'all, happy Sunday. |
| 0:09.1 | Elise Hugh here, and today we're bringing you a new episode of our very own book club series, |
| 0:14.8 | where each month we check out new books from TED speakers that will spark your curiosity all year long. |
| 0:20.7 | Writer and journalist Oliver Bergman wrote a popular weekly psychology column for The Guardian |
| 0:25.7 | called This Column Will Change Your Life. |
| 0:29.1 | But years into this effort, he felt no closer to knowing the secret to, quote, |
| 0:33.4 | winning at life than before he started. |
| 0:36.3 | This work led Oliver down the path he's on today, |
| 0:39.2 | including his newest book, Meditation for Mortals, Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations |
| 0:44.2 | and Make Time for What Counts. It's a book I recommend to just about everyone, and so I was so |
| 0:49.3 | excited for this last book club conversation of the year, where I got to virtually sit down |
| 0:54.0 | with Oliver |
| 0:54.5 | in front of a live audience of TED members. |
| 0:57.0 | We talked about why he now believes |
| 0:58.6 | the best guiding philosophy of life |
| 1:00.6 | is to embrace many of the things |
| 1:02.5 | we've been taught to run from, |
| 1:04.1 | our imperfections, limits, |
| 1:06.4 | and inability to succeed at everything. |
| 1:08.7 | And yes, even our own mortality. Let's get into it. Enjoy. |
| 1:17.2 | Oliver Berkman, welcome to the book club. Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm really, |
| 1:26.1 | really glad to be here. Before we get into your |
... |
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