Baratunde Thurston is a comedian, writer, and media entrepreneur. He has eyes open to the contradictions, strangeness, and beauty of being human. He looks for learning happening even amidst our hardest cultural tangles. And he intertwines all of this, innovatively and searchingly, with his lifelong joy in the natural world.
The kaleidoscopic view of life and love and the world that is Baratunde's builds and builds in this conversation Krista had with him around the edges of the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival — towards an exuberant glimpse of how we can all be more fully human and socially creative.
Baratunde Thurston's latest adventure is hosting the fascinating PBS series America Outdoors. He's been Director of Digital at The Onion, produced The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and advised on digital strategy at The White House. He's a founding partner of the media start-up Puck, and creator and host of the podcast How To Citizen. He's the author of several books, including How To Be Black.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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Matthew Sanford – The Body's Grace
Reid Hoffman — AI, and What It Means to Be (More) Human
Kerry Washington — Acting as a Devotional Practice
Kate Bowler — On Being in a Body
Kate Bowler — A Blessing for the Life You Didn't Choose
A New Season of On Being Is Coming
"Love is still the only revenge. It grows each time the earth is set on fire."
From Poetry Unbound: Benjamin Gucciardi — The Rungs
Patronage and Love: On Being's Becoming
Vivek Murthy — To Be a Healer
Vivek Murthy — A Meditation for Moments of Despair, and To Feel Less Alone
[Unedited] Vivek Murthy with Krista Tippett
Barbara Brown Taylor — “This Hunger for Holiness”
[Unedited] Barbara Brown Taylor with Krista Tippett
Ruth Wilson Gilmore — “Where life is precious, life is precious.”
Janine Benyus — Biomimicry, an Operating Manual for Earthlings
Rick Rubin — Magic, Everyday Mystery, and Getting Creative
Isabel Wilkerson — "We all know in our bones that things are harder than they have to be."
James Bridle — The Intelligence Singing All Around Us
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