Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi TED Audio Collective
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- Society & Culture
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We all want to know if we’re normal—do I have enough friends? Should it take me this long to get over my ex? Should I move or stay where I am? Endlessly curious data journalist Mona Chalabi NEEDS to know, and she’s ready to dive into the numbers to get some answers. But studies and spreadsheets don’t tell the whole story, so she’s consulting experts, strangers, and even her mum to fill in the gaps. The answers might surprise you, and make you ask: does normal even exist? Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi is produced in partnership with Transmitter Media.
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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 couple who’s been living apart together ("LAT") for years about what motivates them to be in a LAT relationship, and how the arrangement works for them.
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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 was adopted and was curious about her birth parents. After a few years of dead ends, she finally finds her biological mother … in the last place she expected.
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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, we talk to a Finnish “happyologist” about how she defines happiness, what we can learn from even trying to quantify something so subjective, and why happiness might be less of an individual pursuit than you think.
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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 how she and her family navigate independence. Then he hears from one special on-the-ground expert about the value of doing things on one’s own.
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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 of Am I Normal, Saleem Reshamwala talks to a 28-year-old teacher from Hong Kong about what it’s like to be growing into adulthood in her childhood home.
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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 technology…and she has a challenge for YOU. Starts TOMORROW Tuesday, October 3rd.
Customer Reviews
Loved it!
I want more from mona!
Fresh, intriguing and out of the box
Loved it, subscribed without a blink. Content and production are of high quality deliveries does of knowledge in a fun and engaging way. I love you’re mum’s contributions and influence too, she’s by far the best guest host across the series.
Just listened to “The Spermageddon is coming” episode, I generally agree with the views. We should weigh both partners fertility conditions equally. For some, having children is one of life’s best fortunes and gifts. Myself included.
Perhaps, I would like to add, in many eastern cultures (Iraq where I come from included), the gender of the baby is equally controversial and often blamed on the mother rather than factual connection to father’s contribution. Male children are favourited in Middle Eastern and in many cultures in the East at large for cultural, status and even financial factors and can lead to the same “sometimes” slippery slop of multiple marriages.
Spermagedon episode
Repeatedly uses made up words ‘wombers’ and ‘spermers’ rather than women and men. Crazy.