Creating Our Own Lives

On Being Studios

4.1 (124)
PERSONAL JOURNALS

We’re called to create a better world, but what about the more immediate task of creating our own lives? Inspired by a quote of Thomas Merton. Limited series (2016-2017) that explored running as a spiritual practice and humor as a tool for survival. Hosted by Lily Percy.

06/08/2017

[S2] Hari Kondabolu: Comedy Is Therapeutic but Not Therapy

“My mom has a very dark sense of humor. I think that’s how I learned how to recycle pain.” Hari Kondabolu is not your average stand-up comedian. He has a Masters in Human Rights and worked as an immigrants rights organizer — all of which you hear in his writing. His jokes simultaneously bring about discomfort and a nod of the head, without sounding preachy. He uses comedy as a coping mechanism for addressing complex issues of race, identity, and ethnicity post 9/11.

17 min
06/08/2017

[S2] Sam Sanders: If I Can Laugh With You, I Can See You

“I cannot tell you how many times laughter has connected me with all different kinds of people throughout the country, of all kinds of political persuasions.” When politics and comedy mix they can become mean, sarcastic, and divisive. Reporter and NPR Politics Podcast co-host Sam Sanders thoughtfully avoids this. As an African American and Pentecostal growing up near a military base in San Antonio, he was surrounded by people from different class, political, and cultural backgrounds. This helped him develop his thoughtful voice, his objectivity, and his ability to connect to others through jokes and laughter.

17 min
06/08/2017

[S2] Terry McMillan: Humor Is a Form of Hope

“I don’t think that humor is evasive at all. It’s how we protect our hearts from just bleeding to death.” Bestselling author Terry McMillan knows how to write funny yet complex female characters: Savannah in Waiting to Exhale, Stella in Stella’s Got Her Groove Back, and Georgia in her latest novel, I Almost Forgot About You. Whether they’re wrestling with heartbreak, grief, or loneliness, these women use humor to face whatever life throws at them. But these characters are simply taking the lead from their creator, who sees humor as a way of “protect[ing] our hearts from just bleeding to death.”

15 min
06/08/2017

[S2] Amichai Lau-Lavie: Deep Laughter in the Place of the Deepest Pain

“Humor is always about ‘as if.’ And it just relaxes everybody. We’re going to laugh.” Transparent creator Jill Soloway describes Amichai Lau-Lavie as “a God-optional, patriarchy-toppling, Jewish modern mind.” He uses humor to connect — to himself and others, his family, his sexual identity, and his spiritual life. The rabbi says the Jewish people have endured because of their ability to laugh at themselves and, in this way, laugh at the world.

14 min
06/08/2017

[S2] Heidi N. Moore: When It Comes to Finance and Comedy, It’s All About Patterns

“What makes humor is pattern recognition. Finance is very helpful on that front because there are a lot of patterns that keep repeating themselves.” Heidi N. Moore uses humor as a tool for understanding the world of finance. She tells stories about the people behind the money — why they do what they do and how they do it, and has done so for many years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Marketplace. By humanizing something as intimidating as finance, she helps people actually understand it.

16 min
06/08/2017

[S2] Daniel José Older: How We Love Is by Roasting Each Other

“Humor reminds me a lot of magic, in that there’s no way to quite replicate it. There’s a power to that” The humor in Daniel José Older’s writing makes his characters come alive. Whether in the playful banter of books like Shadowshaper, in his spiritual practice of Lucumí, or alchemizing tragedy into comedy as a paramedic in New York City, he sees humor as key to finding a storytelling voice.

22 min
06/08/2017

[S2] Alexis Wilkinson: Disarming People with Laughter

“Humor gives me release. Sometimes there’s just too much tension and you have to let it go. Laughter is such a great natural physical response to do that.” Humor has been a tool for success for Alexis Wilkinson, and not just a tool for survival. She writes for Brooklyn Nine-Nine and previously wrote for VEEP, a job that she got right out of college, at the age of 22. And, before that, she made headlines as the first African-American woman to be president of Harvard Lampoon magazine.

19 min
06/08/2017

[S2] Maureen Craig: This Strange, Peculiar Family I Call Mine

“Humor establishes new ground for parents and kids to relate on that isn’t just parent-kid.” For Maureen Craig, humor is central to how she understands and relates to her family. As a parent, a wife, a daughter, and a brand strategy executive, she believes that there’s always something you can make a joke about.

16 min

See All (27)

4.1

out of 5

124 Ratings

Another winner from On Being Studios

06/22/2019

Introvert Intrapreneur

Found this podcast earlier this year. Sorry to find that it stopped in 2017. Season 2 on humor was helpful. Nice job Lily! Keep learning, doing and growing!
Humor

01/15/2021

e_la_34

The terry mcmillan pod was the first one I listened to and it was a breath of fresh air. Plus they sampled brandy Sittin’ Up in my Room at the end so what’s not to love!?
Love and companionship

06/25/2017

Debbie H & Kids

Listen to these and On Being often. I recommend to many folks and share specific episodes frequently. I have one request...episodes are short therefor the snippet used for the intro often plays shortly after. Initially I thought my podcast app was misfiring.
This is one of the good ones

07/31/2017

kalemoons

I never write reviews and I wanted to rate, that should be enough for you to give this a listen

We’re called to create a better world, but what about the more immediate task of creating our own lives? Inspired by a quote of Thomas Merton. Limited series (2016-2017) that explored running as a spiritual practice and humor as a tool for survival. Hosted by Lily Percy.