episode-header-image

Mar 2025

39m 54s

How to enjoy poetry — without being a po...

About this episode

In honor of National Poetry Month, Chris is speaking with Naisha Randhar. Naisha is the Youth Poet Laureate of Dallas, the author of Roses of Arma, and the youngest guest Chris has ever interviewed — she’s a high school sophomore. Chris and Naisha talk about the inspiring work of teaching teenagers poetry and how to balance self-awareness with self-confidence. Naisha also encourages listeners to be witnesses more than interpreters and how it’s equally important to witness yourself and your presence in the world.

Follow

Host: Chris Duffy (Instagram | Website)

Links

Youth Poet Laureate of Dallas

Roses of Arma by Naisha Randhar

Subscribe to TED

Instagram: @ted

YouTube: @TED

TikTok: @tedtoks

LinkedIn: @ted-conferences

Website: ted.com

Podcasts: ted.com/podcasts

For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next

How to Eat with Awareness and Purpose (w/ Sean Sherman)

<p>If you remove ingredients like dairy, wheat, flour, cane sugar, beef, pork, and chicken from your diet—then what do you eat? For Sioux chef Sean Sherman, excluding colonial ingredients from his cuisines gives him the opportunity to spotlight indigenous produce and uplift local ... Show More

How to find belonging (w/ Hanif Abdurraqib)

<p>Where do you belong and what does community mean to you? These are the central questions Chris asks poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib while visiting Hanif’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Hanif is a poet and essayist of many notable works such as <em>They Can’t Kill Us Un ... Show More

Why you need to learn how to fight in a relationship (w/ Dr. Julie and John Gottman)

“All couples fight. In fact, how they fight in the first three minutes predicts with 96% accuracy not only how the rest of the conversation will go, but how the rest of the relationship will go six years down the road,” says relationship expert Dr. Julie Gottman. Dr. Julie and Jo ... Show More

Recommended Episodes

Sunday Pick: How poetry builds teenagers' confidence (w/ Youth Poet Laureate Naisha Randhar) | How to Be a Better Human

<p>In honor of National Poetry Month, Chris is speaking with Naisha Randhar. Naisha is the Youth Poet Laureate of Dallas, the author of Roses of Arma, and the youngest guest Chris has ever interviewed — she’s a high school sophomore. Chris and Naisha talk about the inspiring work ... Show More

Self Improvement Wednesday: How to Appreciate Poetry

Dr Anne Casey, a poet and writer teaches us the joy of poetry.

The power of performance poetry

Spoken word poetry is a powerful tool for storytelling, activism and self-expression. Ella Al-Shamahi speaks to two award-winning poets who use the craft to amplify issues they care about.Sofie Frost is a Norwegian actor, slam poet and spoken word artist. She won the Norwegian Po ... Show More

A.O. Scott on the Joy of Close Reading Poetry

<p>On this week's episode, A.O. Scott joins host Gilbert Cruz to talk about the value of close reading poetry. And New York Times Book Review poetry editor Greg Cowles recommends four recently published collections worth reading.</p><p>Books mentioned in this episode</p><p>* "New ... Show More

Danielle Chapman — Trespassing with Tweens

Wonder and strangeness commingle with the commonplace and universal in Danielle Chapman’s “Trespassing with Tweens.” In a not-quite mirroring, a human mother and her children stand and watch together in awe as a great blue heron flaps in and feeds its two offspring. The pleasures ... Show More

Kinsale Drake — Put on that KTNN

In Kinsale Drake’s poem “Put on that KTNN,” she writes about driving to a hometown as a familiar station crackles to life on the car radio. From this corner of America, she creates her own country music — of Navajo voices alongside Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn, of drumbeats and g ... Show More

Diannely Antigua — Another Poem about God, but Really It’s about Me

“You would’ve made a lousy nun.” The narrator of Diannely Antigua’s “Another Poem about God, but Really It’s about Me” overhears these words, and they jolt her into contrasting her life experience with the limited archetypes offered by her church — good daughter, good sister, hol ... Show More

Introducing: Poems as Teachers (ft. Wisława Szymborska) | Ep 1

Host Pádraig Ó Tuama gives an overview of this Poetry Unbound mini season that's devoted to poems with wisdom to offer about conflict and humanity. He also brings us Wisława Szymborska’s “A Word on Statistics,” translated by Joanna Trzeciak, which covers statistics of the most hu ... Show More

First Steps to Fluency: How Young Learners Become Independent Readers with Virginia Quinn Mooney

<p><b>Episode 226</b></p><p>In this episode, Virginia discusses the importance of fluency in K-2 grades, emphasizing its role in reading comprehension. She shares strategies for teaching fluency, including within partner reading, read-alouds, and shared reading. Virginia highligh ... Show More

Poetry | Nizami Ganjavi's sokhanee chand dar eshgh, Introduction with Dr. Sahba Shayani

In this lesson, we introduce Nizami Ganjavi, an important 12th-century poet in the cultures of Iran, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan who is also considered the national poet of Azerbaijan. We are joined by Dr. Sahba Shayani to discuss sokhanee chand dar eshgh, ... Show More

Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami