Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi by TED

11.01.2023

Together for 20 years — but living apart?

The binary category of single/married doesn't allow for much nuance. What if, say, you’re in a long term committed relationship like a marriage — but you live apart? In the last episode of this mini series, Saleem talks to a...

10.25.2023

What it's like to find your birth parent

In Britain, one-fourth of people who were adopted make contact with their birth parents before they turn 18. In this episode, Saleem meets Amanda, a Dominican woman who was adopted by a white couple in Connecticut. Amanda always knew she...

10.18.2023

Lessons from the happiest place in the world

For multiple years in a row, Gallup has named Finland the happiest country in the world. But can you actually measure happiness — and what do the Finns know that the rest of the world doesn’t? Before you move to Finland,...

10.11.2023

Should kids have more freedom?

Would you let your child run errands unaccompanied? Saleem investigates what this kind of early age autonomy can teach us about community, resilience, and family. Saleem talks to a Japanese mother who has lived in the U.S. & Japan about...

10.04.2023

What it’s like to live at home with your parents as an adult

In the U.S. living with your parents can be seen as a “bad” thing. But across the world, living with your parents is common – and even preferable to living by yourself. In the first episode of a special series...

10.02.2023

Introducing Body Electric

Am I Normal will be back this week! Until then, we’ve got a special 6-part series with an interactive twist coming your way: On Body Electric, TED Radio Hour host Manoush Zomorodi investigates the relationship between our bodies and our...

07.26.2023

Episode 1: The Internet’s First Main Character? | The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks

The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks is a new show from the TED Audio Collective, hosted by Dylan Marron. It’s 1999, and sixteen years after its original release, a new Star Wars is finally coming. Fans have been camping out in...

04.05.2023

Fixable: Kelli - "How do I deal with a communication breakdown?"

This is an episode of Fixable, a new business call-in podcast from the TED Audio Collective hosted by Harvard Business professor Frances Frei and CEO and best-selling author Anne Morriss. Kelli is a nurse at a leading teaching hospital where...

02.15.2023

Introducing Good Sport

This week on Am I Normal? we’re excited to introduce TED’s newest podcast, Good Sport, hosted by veteran sports producer Jody Avirgan. What can sports teach us about life – and each other? Good Sport brings you invigorating stories from...

01.04.2023

How to answer your biggest questions—with data | How to Be a Better Human

Whenever we have a question – about ourselves or the world around us – it can be helpful to visualize our answer in order to really understand it. But how do you conceptualize something as big as inequality, as complex...

12.08.2022

Come As You Are with Dr. Emily Nagoski: How to Improve Your Orgasms

Today, we're sharing a preview of a new podcast we think you'll enjoy. On Come As You Are, educator and bestselling author Dr. Emily Nagoski answers questions about sex with the latest science. You’ll get a modern guide to sexual...

08.22.2022

How to predict the future | The TED Interview

Future forecaster and game designer Jane McGonigal ran a social simulation game in 2008 that had players dealing with the effects of a respiratory pandemic set to happen in the next decade. She wasn’t literally predicting the 2020 pandemic—but she...

07.25.2022

The secret Somali mixtapes | Far Flung

It’s 1988, and Somalians are fleeing the city of Hargeisa. People are trying to get out, trying to save their families and sometimes their things. But in the city’s radio station, staff are packing cassettes and reel to reel recordings...

05.03.2022

Breaking Up with Perfectionism | WorkLife with Adam Grant

Perfectionism is on the rise–and not just in job interviews when people claim it’s their greatest weakness. But the desire to be flawless is not always productive—or healthy. As a recovering perfectionist, organizational psychologist Adam Grant dives into how he...

03.17.2022

What question is on YOUR mind?

The first season of Am I Normal? centered around the questions of data journalist Mona Chalabi. In Season 2, launching in September this year, we want to answer the questions on YOUR mind. If you’ve ever wondered if something’s normal–whether...

11.29.2021

Is it really that bad to marry my cousin?

Charles Darwin. Edgar Allen Poe. Albert Einstein. What do all of these men have in common? Yes, they’ve made major contributions to science and literature. Buuuut they also all married their first cousins. Mona looks at the genetic consequences of cousin...

11.22.2021

Should you break the law?

The obvious answer: no. Though you haven’t exactly committed to a life of crime if you jaywalk on an empty street. But if we bend the law on jaywalking, why not drunk driving? Well, there was a time when people...

11.15.2021

Which box do I check?

We’re constantly checking boxes on forms, whether it’s for eye color or sexual orientation. Those categories can be empowering or, they can make you feel invisible, like when Mona painted a portrait of 100 New Yorkers based on the New...

11.08.2021

The Spermageddon is coming

"You should start thinking about kids at your age! Your biological clock is ticking!” When we talk about fertility, there's one section of the population that's consistently subjected to fear mongering: the people with the ovaries. But is that worry...

11.01.2021