Playlist
7 brilliant talks to expand your perception
Ready to learn new stuff, the fun way?
Welcome. I’m so pleased you’re here. I guess you like the sound of testing your perspective as much as I do?
You can get me hooked on just about anything that opens my eyes to things I couldn’t see before, even if the path to learning involves fish in a Spanish delta, or bullet train approval ratings. That might sound far too eclectic, but stick with me here. Each one of these talks will bring you wisdom you can act on, and that cozy-meets-enlightening vibe you get when you rediscover common sense that somehow went astray.
These speakers explore how our worldview can either propel us into magic new territory or keep us locked in the status quo. Each one will give you a sense of the potential for creativity, insight, adaptation and joy available to us when we pay attention to the things that truly matter, and when we work to expand our awareness. And they only made the list because they’re undeniable experts in their field, who deliver their insights with passion.
Collectively, these talks feel like a breath of fresh, exciting air to me. I hope you find them as inspiring as I do.
Love, Anna
How we think about
Choices
Ruth Chang
Philosopher
If you watch nothing else on this list, watch this. I have shared it so many times I’ve lost count, because it is the most practical talk in this set. Practical, from a Philosopher? Yes. And what she has to say has given me so much inspiration over the years - that we can’t get it wrong, and the point of our choices isn’t to ‘win’ the problem, but to uncover our identity.
How we think about
Ourselves
Brené Brown
Researcher-Storyteller
This talk so vastly addresses what it is to experience your own humanity, and the humanity of others. You could say this is about connection, or relationships, or lots of things. It’s definitely about how we fool ourselves about what’s important, what’s valuable, and what’s safe.
How we think about
Others
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Novelist
In this talk, Chimamanda tells a personal story that reveals our universal failing to see others as whole, demonstrates how we passively isolate from each other in this way, and how both balanced information and a personal experience are critical on the path to understanding our connectedness.
How we think about
Problem Solving
Rory Sutherland
Advertising Executive
A fun and incisive talk on how our solutions could be more rewarding and our lives infinitely richer, if only we asked better questions, and held ourselves to a higher standard for what an answer could look like.
How we think about
Facts
Mona Chalabi
Data Journalist
Seen a statistic that’s so shocking you wonder how it could possibly be true? Mona gives us an elementary peep into how averages fool us, how to find the truth when we can’t see ourselves in the data, and why it’s so important that we do.
How we think about
Death
Kelli Swazey
Anthropologist
Kelli explores a radically different approach to marking the death of loved ones and their passage into the afterlife, and asks what our lives in the West might look like if we viewed death as something other than a medical event that severs relationships with the dead.
How we think about
Food
Dan Barber
Chef
In this talk, Dan brings to life the invisible elements of our food supply, reminds us of what’s at stake inside of our faltering food system, and provides a window into the delicious magic that’s possible when we shift our focus from the supply chain to the ecosystem.
And that’s our list
But perhaps you have a question?
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that meditation is our main squeeze around here. And so you’d be right to wonder, what does any of this have to do with meditation?
Plenty.
Meditation is one of the most proven ways to help us return to curiosity and wonder — the traits these speakers utilised to produce such impactful work. A daily practice makes you infinitely more efficient at fully integrating the wisdom you encounter, like the lessons above, because it builds your capacity to …
know what you truly want for yourself and develop courage to make choices in the way Ruth describes, to mindfully define your direction.
observe your ingrained conditioning, essential to utilising Brené’s discoveries in your own life.
open yourself willingly to new experiences with less fear, so that you can know others more deeply, as Chimamanda inspires us to do.
ask better questions and demand better answers, and take a more creative view of the problems we face, so you can be on Rory’s more delightful bullet-train, instead of the barely-faster-debt-ridden one.
be more observant, notice inconsistencies and bluster, and use your intuition to guide you through the world of questionable influence that Mona reveals.
expand your understanding of our human experience, in order to play with the idea of death as a step on a relational continuum, as Kelli describes, rather than a final destination.
examine your behaviour and the systems you’re part of, and make change for the better, just like Dan’s heroes.
This list of benefits is just a small sample of what’s on offer when you develop a daily meditation practice. Want to know more?