DeepSummary
Chris Duffy interviews author and podcaster Kelly Corrigan on the TED Audio Collective podcast. Kelly shares stories from her life and discusses the importance of being brave during tough family moments, finding peace in ordinary moments, and learning from loss and grief. She reflects on her close-knit Irish Catholic family and the values she learned from her father and aunts/uncles.
Kelly talks about the challenges of maintaining perspective during difficult times like her own battle with cancer in her 30s and the loss of a close friend to cancer. She emphasizes the need to ask for help, admit mistakes, and have an open dialogue with children about emotions and struggles.
Kelly encourages being present, taking small victories, and not being too hard on oneself when inevitable mistakes happen. The conversation covers a range of topics like parenting, making the mundane meaningful, the human experience of highs and lows, and being a decent, effective person despite flaws.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Being brave doesn't mean being perfect - it means having the courage to show up, admit mistakes, and work through challenges in family life.
- Finding peace and perspective amidst life's inevitable struggles often requires revisiting profound insights from loss or hardship.
- Parenting should focus on raising emotionally whole, competent adults rather than obsessing over short-term perfection.
- Making meaningful connections, being present, and appreciating life's simple joys are vital for experiencing the fullness of the human experience.
- Asking for help, being vulnerable, and not taking oneself too seriously allows others to play a supportive role and creates stronger bonds.
- Modeling empathy, forgiveness, and emotional openness with children helps raise self-aware, resilient adults.
- Though loss and suffering are inevitable, they also provide insight, connection, and an opportunity to live more meaningfully.
- Doing hard things alongside good people and finding ways to be useful are key to a life of purpose and impact.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “We just don't live at that level 24/7 we touch it and we. It's a very great, beautiful space of clarity when you experience it. But for whatever reason, we just don't live there. We drop back into parking tickets and the five pounds we can't lose, and you know how our socks don't match.“ by Kelly Corrigan
- “You're trying to raise a competent 35 year old. That's what you're doing. That's your Jedi mind trick. You're not like, trying to make an Olympic sandwich maker who's gonna compete tomorrow.“ by Guest on Kelly's podcast
- “Make yourself useful, doing something hard with good people.“ by Kelly Corrigan
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Episode Information
How to Be a Better Human
TED and PRX
6/17/24
Every person, no matter how ordinary, has to occasionally summon extraordinary bravery to get through life’s challenges. If you haven’t already had one of those moments, you will at some point. Because, hey, Kelly Corrigan says, that’s life. Kelly shares her trademark wit and wisdom in this week’s conversation about how to hold ourselves, our families, and our loved ones together when our world is falling apart.
For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts.