Cord Jefferson's creativity is fueled by mental health

How to Be a Better Human

TED

Self-improvement, Education

4.2 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Television writer Cord Jefferson has written for the kind of shows that crack hearts open. From The Good Place to Watchmen, Station Eleven to Master of None, Cord has spent his career wrangling human emotions in the writers’ room – but also in his own life. In this episode, Cord speaks about the connection between his personal life and his creative work, how he thinks about vulnerability in making art and why he thanked his therapist in his acceptance speech for his first Emmy. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective.
0:02.0	Audio Collective.
0:04.0	You're listening to How to Bea
0:09.0	You're listening to How to Be a Better Human.
0:11.0	I'm your host Chris Duffy. When I think
0:14.1	about the creative people who inspire me the most, besides them all being
0:17.1	exceptionally talented at what they do, the other thing that unites them is that they're
0:21.1	all kind of unpredictable. I love when you never quite know what project they're going to take on next.
0:26.0	And when you look at the resume of today's guest,
0:29.0	Cord Jefferson, that is exactly what you see.
0:31.0	He's a journalist then an editor. He's worked in almost every medium from
0:34.8	radio to print to television and film. He's now a director and an Emmy Award winning
0:39.6	writer who's worked on network sitcoms like The Good Place, big prestige shows like Succession, and
0:45.6	Superhero shows like Watchmen.
0:47.7	I'm a huge fan of Chord's work because no matter how different the genres of his shows or
0:52.2	the mediums that he's working in are, there's always
0:54.6	this thread that ties them all together.
0:56.8	To me the thread has always been that they are all ambitious in their own way and they're
1:01.0	all trying to do something new in their own way.
1:03.4	I think that the good place for instance is a sitcom about ethical philosophy.
1:08.4	Sounds crazy, but it worked and Mike sure is brilliant and he made it work and I was you know
1:14.9	excited to work on it succession in my mind is the first successful British comedy in
	...

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