What if the chains holding you back… are on the inside? What if the rules constraining what you do and say and think … are ones you didn’t even know you were following? In this episode, the biggest and most challenging one I’ve ever produced, we’ll follow four different stories of people finding the courage to write their own minds. This is the story of freedom you can’t see. ReferencesBerlin, I. (1969). Two Concepts of Liberty’. https://faculty.www.umb.edu/steven.levine/Courses/Action/Berlin.pdfFoner, E. (2016). Give me liberty! (6th AP). W W Norton.Franklin, B. (1753). Letter to Peter Collinson. Teaching American History; Ashbrook Center. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/letter-to-peter-collinson/Franklin, B. (1784). Founders Online: Remarks concerning the Savages of North America, [before 7 Jan …. Founders.archives.gov. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-41-02-0280Gowdy, J. M. (1998). Limited wants, unlimited means : a reader on hunter-gatherer economics and the environment. Island Press.Green, H. (2025, October 2). You are probably underestimating Jane Goodall’s impact. YouTube; Vlogbrothers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_FzzLeA6pkHarris, M. (1995). Cultural Anthropology. Good Year Books.Peterson, D. (2006). Jane Goodall : the woman who redefined man. Houghton Mifflin Co.Ronda, J. P. (1977). “We are well as we are”: An Indian critique of seventeenth-century Christian missions. The William and Mary Quarterly, 34(1), 66. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/1922626Sahlins, M. (1981). Stone age economics. Aldine.Thwaites, R. G. (Ed.). (1896–1901). The Jesuit relations and allied documents: Travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610–1791; the original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes (Vols. 1–73). Burrows Bros. Co. https://archive.org/details/jesuit-relations-allied-documents Westover, T. (2018). Educated: A memoir. Random House.
Anybody out there like to do big things? Anybody out there feel like your life is so full sometimes you can barely think? Anybody out there wonder if there’s a better way? Yeah … me too. In this much belated episode, I’m asking big questions about how much work is enough and how to make that happen in an ambitious life … because, right now, I’m right I’ve got no way around those questions. The story of the picnic table comes from Draft No. 4. It was retold in Cal Newport's Slow Productivity where some of the stories in this episode also originated. Research on the relationship between work quantity and quality is summarized in Scott Young's book, Get Better at Anything. ReferencesMcphee, J. (2018a). Draft No. 4 : On the Writing Process. Farrar, Straus And Giroux.Mcphee, J. (2018b). Pine Barrens. Daunt Books.Newport, C. (2023, April 28). Danielle Steel and the Tragic Appeal of Overwork - Cal Newport. Study Hacks. https://calnewport.com/danielle-steel-and-the-tragic-appeal-of-overwork/Newport, C. (2024). Slow Productivity. Penguin.Pema Chödrön. (2018). The wisdom of no escape : and the path of loving-kindness. Shambhala Publications, Inc.quoteresearch. (2013, September 16). Quote Origin: “To Be Is To Do” “To Do Is To Be” “Do Be Do Be Do” – Quote Investigator®. Quoteinvestigator.com. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/16/do-be-do/Young, S. H. (2024). Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery. HarperCollins UK.
A cheery greeting to people on the street can come off as fake or even intrusive. Here why I do it anyway.
I’d been a vegetarian for over a decade, when a desert survival trip changed how I thought about food. This episode explores the hidden costs behind everything we eat and asks, “If we must kill to live, how should we live in return?" Here's a link to Tovar Cerulli's The Mindful Carnivore. You should check it out. You could order it online ... but it would be more awesome if you ordered it through your local bookshop.
"Earth’s moon is more than just a pretty light in the night sky—it’s jackpot of a cosmic lottery. From perfect eclipses to a stable axis, discover why our moon is the most astonishing stroke of luck in the solar system."#astronomy facts#spacemystery#moonscience
What if the solution to your problem was worked out for you … 500 years ago. This is the story of the Oak Beams of New College, Oxford, and a secret plot that lasted for five centuries. In this episode, I tell you that this story is a legend because it did not happen exactly as it was told. Read on to find out more. This story was told to Stewart Brand of the Whole Earth Catalog by Gregory Bateson, a linguist and anthropologist who was interested in systems theory and, for a while, the husband of Margaret Mead. The replacement oaks were not planted at the college's founding but some years later in the 1400s. And they weren't planted expressly for the purpose of replacing the ones in the dining hall ... but they were planted for just that type of thing. The college had been managing its woodlots to provide large timbers for centuries, even if the drama of the scene described here was a little less dramatic. As I said in the episode. This story is true as many legends are. It is based upon things that actually happened and its lesson is a real one, and one that the nameless foresters of New College knew.
I didn’t think I liked the circus.But one night under a Cirque du Soleil tent changed that. In this episode, I reflect on why — and what it taught me about beauty, teamwork, and the fine line between entertainment and art.https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcast
Feeling like you’ve got this whole life thing figured out? Yeah, me neither. In this episode . . . lessons learned from trying to live a more appreciative life and screwing it up over and over again. It’s about wonder, ritual, letting go of perfection, and three magic words that actually did change my life. Visit I Heart This on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcast
Rocks seem almost like the dictionary example of “boring.” But in 1788, some curious guys standing on a rugged Scottish shoreline saw something entirely different — a revelation that shattered the known timeline of Earth and made them physically dizzy with wonder.In this episode, we follow those guys to one of science’s greatest discoveries — and what it has to tell us about the nature of wonder itself.
What are you thankful for? Take a second to think … Got it? … Whatever it is, I’d bet it’s not your ballpoint pen. But maybe it should be.
When Megan fell into QAnon, it nearly cost her everything. This is a story about a conspiracy theory and how one person’s radical listening helped Megan break free. I’m Ben Lord. Let’s talk about what we love. This episode is based on a story from: Zaki, J. (2024). Hope for Cynics. Grand Central Publishing.Find: I Heart This's Facebook Page. Our YouTube Channel.Our Website.
What does it mean to be free? Sometimes it means two wheels and an open road. This episode is a love song to and a celebration of the bicycle--from a dead-end American suburb, to a trail in Quebec, to a train station in Amsterdam. This is a story about how a few spinning gears can change the world.
How do we live in dark and difficult times? There are lots of places that people look to answer those questions. One place I find wisdom is J.R.R. Tolkein’s classic story, The Lord of the Rings. In today’s episode how these stories became so much more than a fantasy escape, what they have to say about the role of stories in our lives, and the inspiration that I find for living through the darkness. This I Heart This, everyone. I’m Ben Lord. Let’s talk about what we love. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcastEmail: ben@iheartthispodcast.com
Look I know what you’re thinking … You’re thinking, “Are you kidding? Textbooks are the dullest, most lifeless, deepest vortexes of soul-suck known to humankind. Their suck goes down to the sub-atomic level. You’re thinking about how you hated your chemistry textbook so much that you literally threw it out the window . . . twice.” Okay . . . deep calming breaths . . . I get it . . . but . . . hear me out. I’m willing to bet that I can convince you that the textbook is one of the most underappreciated genres of all time. Because the truth is that textbooks are free of some constraints that bind nearly every other genre. Listen on, to find out what they are.
Who invented first grade? Or second and third for that matter? Someone had to. Someone had to decide that it was a good idea to put all of the kids of the same age in one room and have one person teach them for a year before passing them on. But why? Today, story of the rise and fall of school system from the past that did things completely differently . . . why almost nobody has heard of it today . . . and what we have to learn from this almost forgotten experiment. This is the story of Andrew Bell and his Madras schools. Email us: ben@iheartthispodcast.comOur Website: www.iheartthispodcast.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcastReferencesDuffin, E. (2022, July 27). Americans with a college degree 1940-2017, by gender | Statista. Statista; Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/184272/educational-attainment-of-college-diploma-or-higher-by-gender/Lancaster, J. (1932). The Practical Parts of Lancaster’s Improvements and Bell’s Experiment. Cambridge University Press. https://constitution.org/1-Education/lanc/practical.htmSarma, S. E., & Yoquinto, L. (2020). Grasp : The science transforming how we learn. Doubleday.Sheposh, R. (2022). Monitorial system (education) | EBSCO. EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | Www.ebsco.com. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/education/monitorial-system-educationSnyder, T. D. (1993). 120 years of American education: A statistical portrait. National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdfSouthey, R., & Southey, C. C. (1844). The Life of the Rev. Andrew Bell. John Murray. https://archive.org/details/lifeofrevandrewb02sout/page/n1/mode/2upTED. (2007). Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY&t=2sWatters, A. (2015, April 25). The invented history of “the factory model of education.” Medium; The History of the Future of Education. https://medium.com/the-history-of-the-future-of-education/the-invented-history-of-the-factory-model-of-education-a069ae3d1e99Wikipedia Contributors. (2025, March 8). Racial achievement gap in the United States. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_achievement_gap_in_the_United_States
It’s the last place you’d expect to find a library--the long hallway of an old brick warehouse at the sanitation department . . . Long rows of white garbage trucks parked nearby. What the heck? Why put a library there? Who thought that was a good idea? This is the true story of one of the world’s most unexpected libraries and what it has to teach us about libraries, good ideas, community resilience, and . . . garbage collecting. Email us: ben@iheartthispodcast.comOur Website: www.iheartthispodcast.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcastReferencesDorsey, D. (200 C.E., December). Positive deviant. Fast Company, 41, 284–287. https://communication-skills.net/pdf/PositiveDeviant.pdfHeath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: how to change things when change is hard. Broadway Books.Positive Deviance Collaborative. (2018, April 14). The Vietnam story: 25 years later. Positive Deviance Collaborative. https://positivedeviance.org/case-studies-all/2018/4/16/the-vietnam-story-25-years-laterWikipedia Contributors. (2024, April 9). Positive deviance. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_deviance
This is the story of positive deviance . . . the story of how a simple, counterintuitive approach transformed the lives of children suffering from malnutrition, empowered their families, and changed the way that aid agencies work all over the world. In this episode, that story and how it provides hope for all of us facing intractable societal problems. Email us: ben@iheartthispodcast.comOur Website: www.iheartthispodcast.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcastReferencesDorsey, D. (200 C.E., December). Positive deviant. Fast Company, 41, 284–287. https://communication-skills.net/pdf/PositiveDeviant.pdfHeath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: how to change things when change is hard. Broadway Books.Positive Deviance Collaborative. (2018, April 14). The Vietnam story: 25 years later. Positive Deviance Collaborative. https://positivedeviance.org/case-studies-all/2018/4/16/the-vietnam-story-25-years-laterWikipedia Contributors. (2024, April 9). Positive deviance. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_deviance
In 1960, one woman was all that stood between American families and a medical disaster of epidemic proportions. In this episode, the story of how that woman saved untold numbers of children and how all of us today are better off for her mostly-forgotten legacy. ReferencesErick, M. (n.d.). Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey. National Women’s History Museum. Retrieved May 13, 2025, from https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/frances-kathleen-oldham-kelseyHooper, C. L., & Henderson, D. R. (2024). Two Thalidomide Disasters: Myths about the FDA's role in the thalidomide tragedy have resulted in decades of it obstructing many beneficial drugs. Regulation, 47(4), 8+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A828313658/GPS?u=vol_b733s&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=abff486b Janik, E., & Jensen, M. B. (2011). Giving them what they want: the Reinharts and quack medicine in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Magazine of History, 94(4), 28–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41331156 Kean, S. (2024). “Frances Oldham Kelsey, the FDA, and the battle against thalidomide” review: The noble bureaucrat [Review of “Frances Oldham Kelsey, the FDA, and the battle against thalidomide” by C. Warsh]. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/frances-oldham-kelsey-the-fda-and-the-battle-against-thalidomide-review-the-noble-bureaucrat-7f1fc379 Kean. S. (Host). (2024, November 12). The woman who ‘turned back a plague of Old Testament proportions’ [Audio podcast episode]. In The Disappearing Spoon. Science History Institute. Knaier, R. G. (2017). Homeopathy on trial: "Allen v. Hyland's, Inc." and a failure of evidentiary gatekeeping. Jurimetrics, 57(3), 361–396. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26322714 Kriplin, N. (2017, February 5). The heroine of the FDA. Discover Magazine. https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/the-heroine-of-the-fdaMcFadden, R. D. (2015, August 7). Frances Oldham Kelsey, who saved U.S. babies from thalidomide, dies at 101. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/08/science/frances-oldham-kelsey-fda-doctor-who-exposed-danger-of-thalidomide-dies-at-101.htmlMcGovern, James. "Quieter Things: The Tale Of Frances Oldham Kelsey." Boulevard, no. 104-105, spring 2020, pp. 209+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A625413665/GPS?u=vol_b733s&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=8681eca8. Accessed 9 May 2025. Phillips, S. (2020, March 9). How a courageous physician-scientist saved the U.S. from a birth-defects catastrophe. Forefront. https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/biological-sciences-articles/courageous-physician-scientist-saved-the-us-from-a-birth-defects-catastropheWikipedia Contributors. (2024, August 26). Marion Merrell Dow. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Merrell_DowWikipedia Contributors. (2025a, January 3). Elixir sulfanilamide. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_sulfanilamideWikipedia Contributors. (2025b, March 8). Frances Oldham Kelsey. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Oldham_KelseyWikipedia Contributors. (2025c, May 10). Food and Drug Administration. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_and_Drug_Administration#History
Glowing balls of energy appear out of nowhere only to vanish a few seconds later. Ball lightning is strange, rare, and unexplained. In this episode, we explore the mystery, prod at the boundary between folklore and science and ask how, when evidence is scarce, we can figure out what is true. Check out our YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcastReferencesArgyle, E. (1971). Ball lightning as an optical illusion. Nature, 230(5290), 179–180. https://doi.org/10.1038/230179a0Cen, J., Yuan, P., & Xue, S. (2014). Observation of the Optical and Spectral Characteristics of Ball Lightning. Physical Review Letters, 112(3). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.112.035001Cooray, G., & Cooray, V. (2008). Could some ball lightning observations be optical hallucinations caused by epileptic seizures? The Open Atmospheric Science Journal, 2(1), 101–105. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874282300802010101Jennison, R. C. (1969). Ball lightning. Nature, 224(5222), 895–895. https://doi.org/10.1038/224895a0Neil deGrasse Tyson Videos. (2018, March 6). Neil Tyson Answers “Do You Believe In UFOs?” & Sets The Record Straight!! YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZDjel3dyv0Parks, J. (2024, September 19). Is ball lightning real? The science behind nature’s strangest light show. Discover Magazine. https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/is-ball-lightning-real-the-science-behind-natures-strangest-light-showPowerfulJRE. (2021, May 26). Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Skepticism Over UFO’s. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u0VDFppCI4Sagan, C. (2008). Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark. Paw Prints. (Original work published 1995)Stephan, K. D., Sonnenfeld, R., & Keul, A. G. (2022). First comparisons of ball-lightning report website data with lightning-location-network data. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 240, 105953. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2022.105953Weeks, L. (2015, May 28). The windshield-pitting mystery of 1954. Npr.org. https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/05/28/410085713/the-windshield-pitting-mystery-of-1954Wikipedia Contributors. (2025a, April 29). Sprite (lightning). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning)#HistoryWikipedia Contributors. (2025b, May 3). Ball lightning. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning#Historical_accountsImage Credit: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/