I Heart This

What if the chains holding you back… are on the inside? What if the rules constraining what you do and say and think … are ones you didn’t even know you were following? In this episode, the biggest and most challenging one I’ve ever produced, we’ll follow four different stories of people finding the courage to write their own minds. This is the story of freedom you can’t see.  References Berl...

Anybody out there like to do big things? Anybody out there feel like your life is so full sometimes you can barely think? Anybody out there wonder if there’s a better way? Yeah … me too. In this much belated episode, I’m asking big questions about how much work is enough and how to make that happen in an ambitious life … because, right now, I’m right I’ve got no way around those questions. The sto...

A cheery greeting to people on the street can come off as fake or even intrusive. Here why I do it anyway.

I’d been a vegetarian for over a decade, when a desert survival trip changed how I thought about food. This episode explores the hidden costs behind everything we eat and asks, “If we must kill to live, how should we live in return?" Here's a link to Tovar Cerulli's The Mindful Carnivore . You should check it out. You could order it online ... but it would be more awesome if you ordered it through...

"Earth’s moon is more than just a pretty light in the night sky—it’s jackpot of a cosmic lottery. From perfect eclipses to a stable axis, discover why our moon is the most astonishing stroke of luck in the solar system." #astronomy facts #spacemystery #moonscience

What if the solution to your problem was worked out for you … 500 years ago. This is the story of the Oak Beams of New College, Oxford, and a secret plot that lasted for five centuries. In this episode, I tell you that this story is a legend because it did not happen exactly as it was told. Read on to find out more. This story was told to Stewart Brand of the Whole Earth Catalog by Gregory Bateson...

I didn’t think I liked the circus. But one night under a Cirque du Soleil tent changed that. In this episode, I reflect on why — and what it taught me about beauty, teamwork, and the fine line between entertainment and art. https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcast

Feeling like you’ve got this whole life thing figured out? Yeah, me neither. In this episode . . . lessons learned from trying to live a more appreciative life and screwing it up over and over again. It’s about wonder, ritual, letting go of perfection, and three magic words that actually did change my life. Visit I Heart This on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcast

Rocks seem almost like the dictionary example of “boring.” But in 1788, some curious guys standing on a rugged Scottish shoreline saw something entirely different — a revelation that shattered the known timeline of Earth and made them physically dizzy with wonder. In this episode, we follow those guys to one of science’s greatest discoveries — and what it has to tell us about the nature of wonder...

What are you thankful for? Take a second to think …  Got it? …  Whatever it is, I’d bet it’s not your ballpoint pen. But maybe it should be.

When Megan fell into QAnon, it nearly cost her everything. This is a story about a conspiracy theory and how one person’s radical listening helped Megan break free. I’m Ben Lord. Let’s talk about what we love.  This episode is based on a story from: Zaki, J. (2024). Hope for Cynics . Grand Central Publishing. Find: I Heart This's Facebook Page . Our YouTube Channel . Our Website.

Back on Wednesday, July 9th.

What does it mean to be free? Sometimes it means two wheels and an open road. This episode is a love song to and a celebration of the bicycle--from a dead-end American suburb, to a trail in Quebec, to a train station in Amsterdam. This is a story about how a few spinning gears can change the world.

How do we live in dark and difficult times? There are lots of places that people look to answer those questions. One place I find wisdom is J.R.R. Tolkein’s classic story, The Lord of the Rings . In today’s episode how these stories became so much more than a fantasy escape, what they have to say about the role of stories in our lives, and the inspiration that I find for living through the darknes...

Look I know what you’re thinking …  You’re thinking, “Are you kidding? Textbooks are the dullest, most lifeless, deepest vortexes of soul-suck known to humankind. Their suck goes down to the sub-atomic level.  You’re thinking about how you hated your chemistry textbook so much that you literally threw it out the window . . . twice.”   Okay . . . deep calming breaths . . . I get...

Who invented first grade? Or second and third for that matter? Someone had to. Someone had to decide that it was a good idea to put all of the kids of the same age in one room and have one person teach them for a year before passing them on. But why? Today, story of the rise and fall of school system from the past that did things completely differently . . .  why almost nobody has heard of it...

It’s the last place you’d expect to find a library--the long hallway of an old brick warehouse at the sanitation department . . . Long rows of white garbage trucks parked nearby. What the heck? Why put a library there ? Who thought that was a good idea?  This is the true story of one of the world’s most unexpected libraries and what it has to teach us about libraries, good ideas, community re...

This is the story of positive deviance  . . . the story of how a simple, counterintuitive approach transformed the lives of children suffering from malnutrition, empowered their families, and changed the way that aid agencies work all over the world.  In this episode, that story and how it provides hope for all of us facing intractable societal problems. Email us: ben@iheartthispodcast.c...

In 1960, one woman was all that stood between American families and a medical disaster of epidemic proportions. In this episode, the story of how that woman saved untold numbers of children and how all of us today are better off for her mostly-forgotten legacy. References Erick, M. (n.d.). Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey . National Women’s History Museum. Retrieved May 13, 2025, from https://www.wo...

Glowing balls of energy appear out of nowhere only to vanish a few seconds later. Ball lightning is strange, rare, and unexplained. In this episode, we explore the mystery, prod at the boundary between folklore and science and ask how, when evidence is scarce, we can figure out what is true. Check out our YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcast References Argyle, E. (1971)....

Sometimes it seems like the world would be better off without the internet. What do we do when the technologies that promised to connect us, divide us instead? What do we do when the internet spawns trolls and bullies and misinformation? What would it take to make the internet  … kind? In today’s episode:  two different teens whose lives were changed by the internet in very different way...

Language is impossibly complicated. And yet, nearly everyone uses it with ease. Where does it come from?  In this episode we look for clues to answer this question in the story of the world’s newest language, how it arose, and what it tells us about what it means to be human.  References Blunden, A. (1990). The invention of Nicaraguan sign language . Www.ethicalpolitics.org. https://www....

Tourists are obnoxious...unless you're one of them. We all want adventure, but every adventure happens in someone else's backyard. Hawai'i knows this better than anyplace. This episode is part two (of a two-part series) about what I learned from my travels in Hawai’i. In it, I ponder, "How can we visit paradise without paving it?" and "What do we owe the places we visit?"

Tourists are obnoxious...unless you're one of them. We all want adventure, but every adventure happens in someone else's backyard. Hawai'i knows this better than anyplace. In this episode what I learned from my travels in Hawai’i about "How can we visit paradise without paving it?" and "What do we owe the places we visit?"

What is humanity’s greatest achievement? Language? Science? Space travel? I’m not sure how you define greatness, but I would offer this one for consideration: A little over 40 years ago, humankind eradicated smallpox. In today’s episode, a celebration of the knowledge, the work, and the people who made it happen. And why they deserve to be remembered and celebrated. References Ali Maow Maalin . (2...