Why you need to get up and move—right now! (w/ Manoush Zomorodi)
How to Be a Better Human
TED
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 June 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How long have you been sitting today? If you’re still on the couch or the office chair, then this is your PSA to get up and move! In this episode, Manoush Zomorodi, host of NPR's TED Radio Hour, joins Chris to share the detrimental effects of sitting all day. They talk about the joy of adding more positive interruptions in your life, why going off-camera helps you improve your mind-body connection, and more!
Featured guest
- Follow Manoush Zomorodi on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at https://www.manoushz.com/
- Subscribe to Manoush Minutes on Substack
- Buy her book Body Electric
Connect with the team
- Follow Chris on Instagram and at chrisduffycomedy.com
- Buy Chris’ book, Humor Me
- Watch How to Be a Better Human videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
- Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok
For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is How to Be a Better Human. |
| 0:04.0 | I'm your host, Chris Duffy, and I am currently sitting at a desk. |
| 0:07.0 | Some days, I realize that I have spent the entire day sitting at a desk. |
| 0:10.0 | I've spent hours not moving anything other than my mouth and hands. |
| 0:14.0 | I have a sense that that's probably not the healthiest. |
| 0:17.0 | I mean, we've all heard how important it is to exercise and to get in your |
| 0:21.7 | steps and yada, yada, yada. But what if you don't have a schedule that allows you to go to the |
| 0:27.2 | gym every day? Or you have a job that requires you to sit in a cubicle for hours at a time, |
| 0:32.7 | or you're just exhausted all the time. How do you actually make those changes then? |
| 0:37.7 | Well, today's guest, Manusse Samaroti, has not only spent a lot of time thinking about |
| 0:42.5 | the answers to those questions and writing a whole book about it, which is called Body Electric, |
| 0:46.9 | the hidden health costs of the digital age and new science to reclaim your well-being. |
| 0:50.8 | But Manusha has also helped to organize a research study, which was looking at |
| 0:55.5 | this in a clinical and academic context. And what she and her co-collaborators found is not only |
| 1:01.8 | important for our health. It is also very practical. Manusia's not some scold who is just |
| 1:07.5 | telling you to get up out of your chair and onto a treadmill. Instead, she's a person with practical, useful, dare I say, even fun, ways to be healthier, |
| 1:15.7 | feel better, and end the day with more energy. |
| 1:18.2 | So to get us started, here is a clip from minutious TED Talk about why we often end up sitting |
| 1:23.2 | for such a long stretch, even though we know we should be moving more. |
| 1:27.6 | Do you ever close your laptop at the end of a long day and feel like you have just enough |
| 1:33.7 | energy to crawl over to the couch, to scroll on your phone, or watch a show, or maybe both |
| 1:42.6 | at the same time. |
... |
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