meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
PBS News Hour - Full Show

The science behind small wins

PBS News Hour - Full Show

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.52.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

So you want to change a habit — or maybe start something new. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Charles Duhigg's book, "The Power of Habit," explores how habits are made, and the cues and rewards that shape our behavior. He spoke with Amna Nawaz about how to make habits that actually stick as well as his most recent book, "Supercommunicators." PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey everyone, it's Omna Navaz. Welcome to our PBS podcast, Settle In. So it's the start of a new year. A lot of you probably set some New Year's resolutions, and I know a lot of you can feel frustrated when they end up falling by the wayside. Well, today we're going to talk to somebody who's going to help you stick to them. We're going to talk to a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, an author whose seminal

0:22.6

book called The Power of Habit helps you to change your habits and keep good ones. His name is

0:28.7

Charles Duhigg. His book has sold millions of copies worldwide. We talked about how to change your

0:34.4

habits, the science of small wins, and how you can set reachable goals.

0:38.7

We talked about how to get back on track when you fall off. And we also talked about his most

0:43.6

recent book, which is called Super Communicators, and how you can have great conversations. So

0:49.8

settle in and enjoy what I think is a great conversation with author Charles Duhigg.

0:58.0

Charles Duhigg, welcome to settle in. Thanks so much for joining us.

1:01.2

Thank you for having me.

1:03.4

So we are talking at the beginning of this year, a time a lot of people are making resolutions, trying to set new habits.

1:13.1

You know a lot about this from the book that most people know you from, which was the power

1:19.1

of habit. You have another book I want to talk about called Super Communicators, which is your

1:22.7

most recent book, and we will talk about this. But I want to jump into this book first, the power of habit,

1:28.9

because when you step back for a second, it sold more than 3 million copies, right?

1:35.4

Spent years on the best sellers list. Did that surprise you? Why do you think it resonated so

1:42.3

much with people? I should explain why I wrote

1:44.8

this book, which is that when I wrote it, I basically was having trouble controlling my own habits.

1:51.1

I was working in as a reporter at the New York Times. I had won fancy awards. And I thought to

1:57.8

myself, if I'm so smart and talented, why can't I get myself to wake up and go

2:01.6

running in the morning? Why can't I resist eating a donut when I pass the break room? And so I thought

2:07.4

to myself, okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to write a book about the science of habits

2:11.2

because that way I can call up habit experts and I can say, you know, if I've got this friend who has

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PBS NewsHour, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of PBS NewsHour and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.