Ted Audio Collective.

Audio Collective.

You're listening to how to be a

you're listening to how to be a better human.

I'm your host Chris Duffy.

When it comes to how to find meaning in life, how to deal with tragedy, grief, and loss,

how to build community, and honestly how to be a better human,

one of the clearest answers for many people is through religion and faith.

We've never done an episode that's explicitly about that, about religion and spirituality before,

and that's because it's hard to figure out how to talk about prayer or religious beliefs in a way that doesn't immediately exclude people or turn a lot of people off.

But I think that we've probably been missing out by not having that conversation because it's a really important piece of many people's lives

I know for me personally faith and belief have been a real comfort in my life, a real help for me. And I know that that's probably true for many of you too.

And at the same time, I also have a lot of friends who are very much against organized religion of any kind for very good reasons.

So I think that today's guest, Psychology Professor David Disteno, is going to do a great job of

allowing us to speak to both camps as well as to everyone in between.

David is the author of the book How God Works and the host of the podcast by the same name.

And he studies the science behind the benefits of religion and what he has to say

about his research and why he got into this well it might surprise you I have no

agenda in this in fact if you ask me what do I believe I'd say, I'm an agnostic? I don't know.

But what led me to this work is just simply looking at the data that's out there.

From what we know, people who engage with spirituality

live longer, healthier, and happier lives.

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