Jan 30 Watch 3:07 Author and journalist Sarah Smarsh on resisting ‘bogus’ labels that divide us Sarah Smarsh is an author and a journalist whose environment as an adult diverges greatly from her childhood on a Kansas wheat farm. With exposure to extremely different regions and cultures within the U.S., Smarsh shares her humble opinion on… Continue watching
Dec 28 Watch 2:50 Author Paul Greenberg on why Americans should eat more fish Americans consume about 14 pounds of seafood per person annually, compared to over 200 pounds of meat. But many try to capture the nutritional benefits of fish, such as omega-3 fatty acids, by taking fish oil supplements. Paul Greenberg, author… Continue watching
Dec 25 Watch 2:41 Author Alice Stephens on reframing adoption stories Alice Stephens is a fiction writer. She is also an adoptee, born to a Korean mother but raised by a white American family. Stephens shares her humble opinion on “parent narratives” and how she learned to become the subject of… Continue watching
Dec 17 Watch 3:07 A poet’s take on looking to language for ‘radical hope’ In this digital and divided society, it can often seem that language is used primarily to deliver criticism and express rage. But poet Ada Limón shares her humble opinion on why she sees people turning to poetry for language that… Continue watching
Dec 10 Watch 2:32 NPR’s Peter Sagal on prioritizing time ‘without input’ The latest episode of our series In My Humble Opinion features Peter Sagal, the storied host of NPR’s "Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me!" Sagal laments how little time we spend with our own thoughts and recommends escaping our “digital dystopia” of… Continue watching
Nov 19 Watch 3:06 Kate DiCamillo on the magic of reading aloud We tend to reserve reading aloud for kids or others who can't read on their own. But beloved children's book author Kate DiCamillo thinks the practice offers a special opportunity for people to connect. She offers her humble opinion on… Continue watching
Nov 14 Watch 2:54 A cross-country bus trip helped Gary Shteyngart understand American happiness Who is happy in America? Author Gary Shteyngart took a bus trip across the country to find out -- and the answer surprised him. Hedge fund managers, some of the most successful Americans by standards of economic achievement, tended to… Continue watching
Oct 15 Watch 3:09 Why we need to stop sharing American Dream success stories Why would author Casey Gerald want people to stop highlighting success stories like his own? Gerald says he grew up on “the wrong side of the tracks” and went on to Harvard Business school. But he says celebrations of the… Continue watching
Sep 10 Watch 2:46 ‘If you think you know everything, you can’t learn anything’ When students come into Dan Levitin's lab, he spends most of his time trying to teach them that they don't know everything they think they do. "Knowledge can only be created in an environment where we're open to the possibility… Continue watching
Sep 03 Watch 2:47 What French women get right about aging well By Pamela Druckerman What makes older French women so radiant, and have more active sex lives than American women? Journalist Pamela Druckerman wanted to know how women in her adoptive country cope with looking older. She found the secret is simply to aspire… Continue watching