How to stop doomscrolling — and what to do instead? (w/ Katherine Cross)

How to stop doomscrolling — and what to do instead? (w/ Katherine Cross)

Author: TED September 8, 2025 Duration: 39:36

Is it effective to engage with politics on social media — and what does it take to make actual change? Katherine Cross is a researcher on online harassment and the author of Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix. She shares why she believes social media is “anti-political” and how virtual engagement will not achieve the necessary political work for us. Katherine and Chris also discuss the limitations of short-form content in conveying decades of geopolitical strife, why our lives would be better off without social media, and the guardrails platforms could utilize to help users engage with posts critically and to slow down viral misinformation. 


Follow

Host: Chris Duffy (Instagram: @chrisiduffy | chrisduffycomedy.com)

Guest: Katherine Cross (Website: ischool.uw.edu/people/phd/profile/kcross1


Links

Log Off Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix


Subscribe to TED 

Instagram: @ted

YouTube: @TED

TikTok: @tedtoks

LinkedIn: @ted-conferences

Website: ted.com

Podcasts: ted.com/podcasts

For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts


Learn more about our flagship conference happening this April at attend.ted.com/podcast


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


You might find yourself wondering how small shifts in thinking or action could ripple out into your daily life, and that's precisely the space this How to Be a Better Human podcast occupies. Hosted by Chris Duffy, each episode is built from conversations with a range of insightful guests, including past speakers, who share practical wisdom that goes beyond typical advice. The discussions are grounded in real-world application, focusing on how we can all improve in tangible ways-not through grand gestures, but in the nuances of our interactions at work, within our families, and in our own internal dialogues. This isn't about abstract theory; it's about hearing specific stories and strategies that offer clear takeaways you can actually use. The How to Be a Better Human podcast, from TED, digs into those unexpected corners of life where genuine growth happens, exploring how we show up for others and ourselves with more intention. Listeners will find a thoughtful mix of humor, vulnerability, and sharp insights that challenge conventional self-improvement tropes, making the journey toward being better feel accessible and deeply human.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

How to Be a Better Human
Podcast Episodes
2025 Staff Picks - Best of How to Be a Better Human [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:20
Remember those fun high school superlatives like the “Class Clown” or the “Biggest Flirt”? In this special How to Be a Better Human season finale, you will be hearing from our previous guest Dallas Youth Poet Laureate Na…
How to find small delights in an uncontrollable world (w/ Sarah Kay) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:37
What makes a hometown home, and how do you find community? Sarah Kay is a spoken word poet and author of the latest poetry collection, A Little Daylight Left. Sarah and Chris grew up in New York City where the energetic…
How to Eat with Awareness and Purpose (w/ Sean Sherman) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:13
If you remove ingredients like dairy, wheat, flour, cane sugar, beef, pork, and chicken from your diet—then what do you eat? For Sioux chef Sean Sherman, excluding colonial ingredients from his cuisines gives him the opp…
How to find belonging (w/ Hanif Abdurraqib) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:52
Where do you belong and what does community mean to you? These are the central questions Chris asks poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib while visiting Hanif’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Hanif is a poet and essayis…
How to break bad habits (w/ Edith Zimmerman) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:32
Edith Zimmerman is a sketchbook cartoonist and writer of the Substack newsletter, Drawing Links. In this episode, she joins Chris to talk about honesty and self-discovery. From sharing her artwork to discussing her sobri…
How to use your muscles — or risk losing them (w/ Bonnie Tsui) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:34
Did you know that you start losing bone AND muscle mass as soon as the age of thirty? Or that your fingers and toes don’t have muscles? Or how women in Scotland are starting to compete in the lighting of Dinnie Stones –…