"What's the Point?" – A Simple Answer to Life's Biggest Question | Lili Taylor
5/8/202646 min
Escaping the productivity trap, silencing the inner nihilist, and finding awe in the most ordinary places.
Lili Taylor is an award-winning movie, television, and theater actor. In the birding world, Lili is a board member of the National Audubon Society, the American Birding Association, and the New York City Bird Alliance.
In this episode we talk about:
- Why humans are hardwired to connect with nature
- What it means to "pay attention"
- The role of listening and investigation
- Antidotes to hopelessness
- How to overcome obstacles in your meditation practice
- Practical nature tips for city dwellers
- The liberating concept of "autotelic" activities
Related Episodes:
- This Scientist Says One Emotion Might Be the Key to Happiness. Can You Guess What It Is?
- The Science Of How Nature Changes Your Brain—From Sleep To Cognition To Your Nervous System
- The Science Of Walking
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Additional Resources:
- Turning to Birds
- Turning to Birds on Substack
- A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching
- The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping
Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.
Join Dan, Sebene Selassie, and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18. Grab your in-person spot here, or sign up to livestream here!
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDan Harris· Host0:00
[upbeat music] This is the Ten Percent Happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. [upbeat music] Hello, my fellow suffering beings. How we doing today? One of the biggest ongoing issues in my life is that sometimes I feel like I'm just trudging through my to-do list. There's this great quote from a former mayor of New York City, I forgot which mayor, but many decades ago, this mayor coined a nice phrase, "The squalid succession of days." And if you're just in a constant state of toppling forward, uh, looking at everything through the lens of productivity, life really can feel like a squalid succession of days. So today we're gonna talk about doing stuff just for the pleasure of doing it. No ulterior motive, nothing to gain, the only purpose is the experience itself. Although actually, and this is interesting, these types of activities, which again, you just do for the fun and pleasure of the activity itself, can also put you in touch with awe, which is an incredibly powerful human emotion that is genuinely transformative. My guest today is Lily Taylor, who you've probably seen in innumerable movies and plays and TV shows. She was in Mystic Pizza and Say Anything back in the '80s. Then she was in I Shot Andy Warhol and Ransom. She was also in High Fidelity, Public Enemies, the TV show American