What Pop Culture Keeps Dan Harris Centered and 10% Happier?
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 707 Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s a new year, so how about some timeless pop culture to lift our spirits?
Music that heals, TV shows that inspire joy, movies that create everlasting memories. Sam describes these as Modern Scriptures – the stuff that we can return to again and again to help us stay grounded, centered and connected.
Joining Sam for this is meditation and mindfulness expert Dan Harris. He hosts the popular podcast 10% Happier. Dan shares the pop culture that always boosts his mental health and gives advice on how to make your New Year’s resolutions stick.
Sign up for Sam’s Newsletter to get behind the scenes stuff from every interview each week.
The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm thinking about deleting Instagram. |
| 0:08.6 | If I watch Instagram for 45 minutes or half an hour or 15 minutes, I'm convinced that |
| 0:15.0 | everyone else who has a smartphone is making their own original music and music videos and building their own furniture |
| 0:22.4 | and cooking all their own food. |
| 0:24.7 | It makes me feel grossly inadequate. |
| 0:27.8 | So would you consider deleting it? |
| 0:29.5 | No. |
| 0:30.1 | Not yet. |
| 0:30.9 | Not until I... |
| 0:31.6 | Hey, y'all, Sam here. |
| 0:35.0 | So can I tell you a little secret? |
| 0:56.9 | I mean, it's not really a secret. I just haven't talked about it too much just yet. Anywho, the secret is that I went to a silent meditation retreat last year. I know. This surprises me as well because my job is literally to talk. This retreat was five days in upstate New York, |
| 1:00.7 | and I had to be totally quiet around other people who I couldn't talk to or even look directly in the eye. |
| 1:04.8 | But to my surprise, it was great. |
| 1:08.1 | And it got me thinking a lot about how I can bring mindfulness |
| 1:10.7 | into my life in all kinds of about how I can bring mindfulness into my life |
| 1:12.2 | in all kinds of ways and even bring mindfulness into this show. So let's say I am dedicating |
| 1:18.5 | this episode to that intention. But we're going to do it in a roundabout way. We're not going to |
| 1:24.2 | just sit in silence and meditate this entire episode. Me and my very |
| 1:27.9 | special guest are going to share some pop culture recommendations that help us stay grounded and centered |
| 1:33.7 | and happy and mindful and all those good things. I call these recommendations modern scriptures |
| 1:40.3 | because you can return to them over and over again like scripture. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KCRW & Sam Sanders, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of KCRW & Sam Sanders and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.