How to believe in God even when the world sucks (w/ Nadia Bolz-Weber)

How to Be a Better Human

TED

Self-improvement, Education

4.2 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nadia Bolz-Weber believes the good and bad in all of us is what makes us human. Nadia has built a career talking about personal failings, recovery, grace, faith, and really whatever the hell else she wants to. She’s a bestselling author, a former stand-up comic, and now an ordained Lutheran Pastor. Nadia joins Chris to discuss her journey with religion, leadership, and community. They explore questions around the definition of faith, whether spirituality is innate to us, and the beauty of low expectations.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for listening to How to Be a Better Human. Listen on Amazon Music or just ask Alexa, play How to Be a Better Human on Amazon Music.
0:10.5	You're listening to How to Be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy. Today on the show, we're talking about faith and religion with Nadia Boltsweber. She is a New York Times best-selling author of the book's
0:21.5	Shameless, Accidental Saints and Pastricks. She's also the host of the confessional podcast
0:26.5	and the very popular newsletter, The Corners. But more than any of the accolades or the
0:32.0	accomplishments, Nadia is a person who has been remarkably open and vulnerable about the
0:37.4	ways that she has struggled and failed and found ways to continue in her life.
0:42.1	Now, whatever your opinion on religion is, I think that you're going to find that Nadia has a refreshingly different and much needed perspective on what it means to have faith in the world today.
0:52.1	And just as an example of how Nadia is really different from what you might expect you'd
0:57.1	be hearing from a pastor, here's a quote that's featured prominently on her website and which
1:01.6	Nadia says is as common a prayer as she has ever prayed in her life.
1:06.3	And that prayer is, God, please help me to not be an asshole. I love that. And here's a clip of Nadia talking
1:14.0	about why that prayer in particular resonates with her. I guess I think spiritual leaders a lot of
1:21.0	times, even just that term feels weird to apply to myself, but a lot of times it feels like
1:27.1	there are people who have such an abundance
1:29.3	of some kind of virtue that they have extra, that they can share with people who don't have
1:35.5	that virtue, you know, whether it's like forgiveness or patience or gratitude, right? And that's never
1:42.0	what I have to offer, ever. I think the only thing I have to offer is the fact that I still
1:47.7	struggle with, like, hating most people. I'm not, like, naturally the most grateful person. I,
1:54.2	I can hold resentments longer than I should. You know, all of these things that I would like to be
1:59.7	able to somehow work on, even it's just
2:03.2	like in one percent increments. I don't mind admitting that and then sort of reporting back
2:09.9	to people when I have something that worked. Or more often than not, what will happen is I will
	...

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