TED Audio Collective.

You're listening to How to Be a Better Human.

I'm your host, Chris Duffy.

Sometimes when I'm trying to be a better human, I feel like my job is to re-evaluate my actions

or to think about things that I'm already thinking about in a new

way. What if I prioritized my work tasks differently? Or if I thought about my self-worth from a

different angle? Maybe this one new life hack for loading the dishwasher is going to be what

pushes me over the edge into transcendent bliss. Other times, I think you might argue,

more self-aware times, I realize how vast the universe of ideas that I've never even considered

at all is. There is so much wisdom and perspective that I've never exposed myself to. And that is a

big reason why I am so excited that we have today's guest on the show.

Simran Jit Singh is a professor of history at Union Theological Seminary,

and he's the best-selling author of The Light We Give, How Sick Wisdom Can Transform Your Life.

Simran is also the host of the podcast Wisdom and Practice,

and he writes and speaks a lot about the sick religion, which I have to be

honest, I was not very familiar with before I read his book. That's actually kind of surprising to me

in retrospect, because it's one of the largest religions in the world with somewhere between

25 and 30 million believers, depending on how you count. And for perspective, that means that about

twice as many people, or almost twice as many people or almost twice

as many people identify as sick as identify as Jewish. I'm not going to try and sum up all of the

sick beliefs for you, partly because who am I to do that? And partly because I think Simran

does such a great job of it in this interview and in his book. But I will just say

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