Fresh Air

Riz Ahmed takes on his inner critic

the gap between that public self and the messy vulnerability of our private selves is often huge, you know, and that's true whether you're talking about how your life is actually going versus the Instagram post you just got up, put up, or that you saw of someone else, or like how professional and put together you're seeming on a Zoom call when actually you're not wearing any pants, you know, just out of the frame.

Fresh Air

Riz Ahmed takes on his inner critic

We all feel that we have to perform this version of ourselves that knows the script, that, as you said, is commanding and decisive and desirable, the best public version of ourselves. We're performing that. But actually the gap between that public self and the messy vulnerability of our private selves is often huge.

It's Been a Minute

'The Pitt' star Sepideh Moafi on being limitless

We spend our adulthood trying to cover feeling and trying to numb ourselves and distract ourselves. And so acting we get back to the source of like these raw exposed unhinged feelings

TED

The Power of Imagination — Onstage and Off | Suki Hillier | TED

I'd stopped trying to find Matilda, because I realized she'd been inside me the whole time. She was the girl I'd been dreaming about since I was three. I didn't become her. I just finally let her out.

Fresh Air

‘Spider-Man’ director Destin Daniel Cretton

I remember being in those parties. I remember feeling- being surrounded by people who all seem like they have it together and seem like they are having the time of their lives. And I remember certain times feeling very alone in the middle of it.

Book of the Day

Judy Blume says she doesn't miss writing … but she’s very glad she wrote

Details in fiction are everything. Even kids write and say, "I like your books because people brush their teeth." I mean, it's that kind of, you know, everyday stuff. And that gives us a bond with the characters.

Book of the Day

In 'Names Have Been Changed,' a criminal on the run confesses her story on a podcast

I think the way we speak, like you know, the body, the way we actually make the sounds and especially when we're talking to ourselves in, you know, what we would call our natural voices, like that is in some way maybe the most honest part of ourselves coming out.

Fresh Air

'Daily Show' comic Josh Johnson

One of the most connected attributes of the human condition ... is just being flawed. We really connect with people on their faults.

TED

Love, Intimacy and Connection in the Age of AI | Bryony Cole | TED

Relationships were never meant to be efficient, that suddenly we're saying oh my gosh this is this is infiltrating my daytoday relationships.

The New York Times

The Man Behind the Love Songs of Whitney Houston, Ariana Grande, Madonna & More

I've always leaned towards in in terms of writing music writing songs that it's the pain that excited me.

TED

3 Ways to Create a Truly Original Design | Lope Gutierrez-Ruiz | TED

If you allow yourself to live a life where you can take these bold, unique choices and build on top of them, you can move away from doing things that are different into doing things that are wonderful.

Code Switch

In college admission, trauma is shorthand for Blackness

And when you heard more compelling, you understood that to mean that I needed to write about hardship and overcoming trauma or pain, um and something that reflected or talked more about my identity as a black girl, a black girl from Detroit, a black girl from a low-income community, a black girl who was first-generation college.

Fresh Air

Best Of: Arsenio Hall / Jeff Ross

You're never going to be number one if you have this insatiable desire to do Toni Braxton instead of Dolly Parton.

How to Be a Better Human

How to Confront Your Inner Critic (W/ Anu Gupta) | How to Be a Better Human | TED

I realized people aren't seeing me. people are seeing ideas of me and it was those ideas that kept me depressed and paranoid all these years and I realized I wasn't alone. I don't want to live in a world where we live in ideas of one another. I want to live in a world where we live in the presence of one another, the real people.

How to Be a Better Human

How to Confront Your Inner Critic (W/ Anu Gupta) | How to Be a Better Human | TED

I realized people aren't seeing me. I don't want to live in a world where we live in ideas of one another. I want to live in a world where we live in the presence of one another, the real people.

Pivot

Anthony Scaramucci: Trump Is Waging War With "A 12-Year-Old's Mentality" | Pivot

I have a 12-year-old's mentality. Uh, and when I'm moving stuff into the region, guess what, guys? I'm not using that as a leverage point. I'm using the stuff.

TED

How a Viral Choreographer Makes His Moves | Sean Bankhead | TED

I always put 1,000 percent of my heart and time and energy into anything I create. And people can feel heart, they can feel passion. And I think it translates through the screen.

Code Switch

Being an “ally” is kind of cringe. Why? | Code Switch

There's just so much talk and that's why there's a cynicism. You get burnt out from all the talk and all the things that you know whether it's safety pins or some other thing to show like I'm on your team. Like after a while it's like I I don't need that. I want you to actually do this stuff.

Code Switch

Being an “ally” is kind of cringe. Why? | Code Switch

There's just so much talk and that's why there's a cynicism. You get burnt out from all the talk and all the things that you know whether it's safety pins or some other thing to show like I'm on your team. Like after a while it's like I I don't need that. I want you to actually like those are people that are using their time. They're using their money. They're using their bodies to help a movement to to to to support others who don't have the same luxuries like to to use their body and their time and their money.

It's Been A Minute

The hard work of having "good taste" | It's Been A Minute

And you can't have taste without existing. Like, you can't have taste if you have no self that the taste is built upon, you know?

Book of the Day

In new memoirs, David Archuleta and Lindy West break with their pasts

It is so hard to try and live this way without being able to really share who I really am.

Fresh Air

Riz Ahmed is chasing acceptance in 'Bait'

We're often our own worst critics. Yes, you know, I know a lot of people will be watching this series and thinking, is Riz playing himself, playing a character? And so much of this, you, well, all of it, you wrote. So it comes from real experience as well as your imagination.

Fresh Air

Riz Ahmed is chasing acceptance in 'Bait'

There's a lot of me and Shah, but I think actually there's a lot of Shah in all of us, more than we like to admit. And really the show is about this feeling that life sometimes feels like one big audition.

Fresh Air

Riz Ahmed is chasing acceptance in 'Bait'

the gap between that public self and the messy vulnerability of our private selves is often huge. And that's true whether you're talking about how your life is actually going versus the Instagram post you just put up or that you saw of someone else, or how professional and put together you're seeming on a Zoom call when actually you're not wearing any pants, just out of the frame.

Fresh Air

Jill Scott is in her ‘auntie’ era

you could be all of what you are, and someone would pass on it, desire you privately. But because society says that someone has to look a certain way or be a certain way or that you want to gain favor by having someone who looks a certain way on your arm, I've seen it a lot. And it's always disturbed me, quite frankly, that you're not even choosing what you actually like.

Fresh Air

Jill Scott is in her ‘auntie’ era

You're not even choosing what you actually like. There's always disturbed me, quite frankly, that you're not even choosing what you actually like.

Prof G Markets

You Think You're Diversified. AI Disagrees. | Prof G Markets

I want to say I've written more books than I've read in the last 5 years. That that that would um reveal me for the pseudointellectual douchebag I actually am.

Pivot

Tim Walz is "Petty As Hell" After Kristi Noem Firing | Pivot

Well, I was trying to act all serious and say, you know, I'm not a petty person. And then I checked myself and I said, in this case, I'm petty as hell.

Book of the Day

In new memoir, Gavin Newsom reflects on his political rise | NPR's Book of the Day

I'm just offering a glimpse of some of the things that people may not see, of sweaty hands, of anxiety, insecurity, of trying to be someone I'm not, of making mistakes, learning from those mistakes.

NPR Podcasts

'The Irish Goodbye' and 'Frog' are micro-memoirs and essays about everyday life

I'm not interested in holding anything back anymore. I'm not interested in protecting myself or being koi or photoshopping my emotions or my life.