You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day.

Hello. No, I am not Elise Hu. I'm Manusse Zamorodi. I'm a journalist, an author, a two-time TED speaker, and you might recognize my voice because I host the TED Radio

Hour podcast over on NPR. So why am I here? Well, this week, I am taking over from Elise

to bring you something a little special, a series of episodes all about how you can live

a healthier life in our high-tech era.

Because in April, I had the honor of guest curating a session at the TED 2026 conference,

and I packed it full of speakers whose work I have been obsessed with and who I think will make

you think differently about your body, how you use your technology,

and what is keeping us human in this digital age? So every day this week, we are bringing

you one of these talks from my session, followed by a conversation with these incredible

speakers to go deeper. Really, truly, they are amazing.

Let's begin with a feeling.

Okay, that end of the day, so drained, can barely think exhausted feeling that comes after spending hours on our devices. Physiologist Keith Diaz knows that feeling.

I was still tired, exhausted actually, but I hadn't used my body at all.

I met Keith in 2023 when I came across research he'd done in his lab at Columbia University Medical Center.

This is where he studies how lives spent mostly sitting and looking at screens affects our health.

We are living in the most sedentary error in modern history.

And what scientists have found is that being highly sedentary increases your risk of diabetes, cancer, dementia, heart disease,

and ultimately early death.

This is true even if you exercise regularly.

Yeah, it's awful.

But Keith has spent his career trying to figure out the minimum amount of movement that the human body needs every day so that you don't die an early death.

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