TED Radio Hour – “Navigating Uncertainty”

Date: January 2, 2026
Host: Manoush Zomorodi (NPR)
Theme: Exploring how to navigate uncertainty—individually and collectively—with insight from medical clowns, psychologists, and an Icelandic writer on intuition.

Main Theme Overview

This episode of TED Radio Hour tackles the pervasive feeling of uncertainty in today’s world by delving into real stories and research that show how we can find hope, connection, and clarity even in unpredictable times. Through conversations with medical clown Matt Wilson, psychologist Jamil Zaki, intuition researcher Rund Gunstansdottir, and human rights leader Yifat Susskind, the show examines how to sit with discomfort, transform our outlook, trust ourselves, and act with compassion, especially when the path forward isn’t clear.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Joy and Meaning in Uncertain Times: The Medical Clown’s Perspective

Guest: Matt Wilson, former medical clown
Segment: [00:43–13:00]

• Setting: Pediatric wing of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Medical clowns from Healthy Humor interact with young patients and their families.
• Role of Medical Clowns:
  • Bringing play, lightness, and laughter into difficult clinical environments.
  • Using improvisation, nonverbal communication, and embodied movement to reach children facing pain and fear.
  • “The whole role of a medical clown is to reintroduce the sense of play and joy and trust and hope and light into a space that it doesn't normally inhabit.” – Matt Wilson [03:12]
• Research-Backed Benefits:
  • Reduced pain perception during procedures.
  • Improved sleep and well-being, especially for the elderly and those with autism.
• Embracing the Absurd:
  • Clowning is about “embracing the absurdity and sitting in it and sitting with it and mining it and finding it.” – Matt Wilson [05:54]
  • Not merely distraction, but accompaniment: “You're not actually trying to change the outcome...I am here to experience this with you.” – Matt Wilson [05:54]
• Memorable Story:
  • Accompanying a young child through a painful port flush, moving between laughter and suffering. The clowns provided “a source of power or control for the child while supporting the staff.” [07:38–08:56]
  • Long-term relationships sometimes develop, affirming the life-changing, yet transient, roles clowns play.

Notable Quote:
"Pain is pain and you're really not trying to distract from it. You're almost trying to accompany it." – Matt Wilson [05:54]

2. Cynicism, Trust, and Hope: The Science of Social Connection

Guest: Dr. Jamil Zaki, Psychologist, Stanford University
Segment: [15:36–33:27]

• Uncertainty and Cynicism:
  • Uncertainty makes people crave control; cynicism offers “a sort of dark safety.” – Jamil Zaki [15:55]
  • Cynics often appear smarter due to the “cynical genius illusion” but are less accurate and less socially effective. [22:35–23:40]
• Downsides of Cynicism:
  • Associated with poorer physical health, psychological distress, and less satisfying relationships.
  • “Cynicism makes it harder to metabolize the calories of social life to receive nourishment from the people around us, which is tragic…” – Jamil Zaki [24:10]
• Cycles of Trust and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies:
  • Social environments (“ocean villages” vs. “lake towns”) shape the degree of trust and cooperation.
  • Trust begets trust, cynicism breeds selfishness and division.
• Hopeful Skepticism:
  • Skepticism is not cynicism: It means doubting assumptions, not people.
  • “Hope is the idea that things could get better, that we don't know what the future holds, and because of that, our actions matter.” – Jamil Zaki [30:43]
  • Advocates for “creative maladjustments” (after MLK Jr.): refusing to accept injustice while believing change is possible.
• Advice:
  • Engage with real conversations to disarm automatic assumptions about “the other side.”
  • Embrace hopeful skepticism to master uncertainty through openness, evidence, and persistence.

Notable Quotes:

• “We act as though trusting others is a sort of weakness... In fact, it's a gift that we give to other people that can change them for the better, and a gift that they often repay.” – Jamil Zaki [26:21]
• “If cynical stories can become self-fulfilling, our work shows that hopeful ones can as well.” – Jamil Zaki [29:41]

3. Rediscovering Intuition and Inner Compass

Guest: Rund Gunstansdottir, Icelandic writer and filmmaker
Segment: [34:23–45:44]

• Inspiration from Iceland:
  • “Insai” means “the sea within” and “to see inside.” It points to the importance of inner wisdom and self-knowledge in navigating life’s uncertainties.
• Personal Journey:
  • After grounding in childhood intuition and awe, Rund lost touch during a high-stress, high-responsibility UN career.
  • Disconnection from self leads to burnout and breakdown—even to missing her own miscarriage.
• Finding Ground in the Unknown:
  • Returning to the sea and her roots enabled a radical life change—grounding herself in intuition.
  • “It's funny, running towards instability made you feel more calm.” – Manoush [41:26]
• Practices for Accessing Intuition:
  • Notice what you pay attention to and document it.
  • Recognize when your intuition is affected by emotion, fatigue, or external pressure.
  • Ground yourself before major decisions.
• Belief:
  • “The deepest sense of security we will ever find in our lives is within ourselves.” – Rund Gunstansdottir [45:27]
  • Intuition is available to all but requires conscious tuning-in and respect.

Notable Quote:
“Attention is the gateway to intuition.” – Rund Gunstansdottir [43:58]

4. Thinking Like a Mother: Compassion as a Compass

Guest: Yifat Susskind, Human rights advocate, founder of MADRE
Segment: [46:34–51:03]

• Introduction:
  • 9/11 as a moment of profound uncertainty and vulnerability; instinct to shield her child.
• Motherhood as a Lens:
  • Not limited to parents or women—means being attuned to the world’s vulnerable and seeing oneself as part of the solution.
  • Example: Sudanese subsistence farmers pooling money for Somali mothers during famine; an act of “the root meaning of love for humanity.” [47:00+]
• Love and Justice in Public:
  • “Justice is what love looks like in public.” – Cornel West, cited by Yifat Susskind [50:15]
  • Positioning love as a basis for policy leads to more humane, hopeful, and constructive societies.
  • Migration, like motherhood, is “an act of hope.”
• Actionable Principle:
  • “Thinking like a mother is a tool we can all use to build the world we want.” [50:50]

Notable Quote:
“Thinking like a mother means seeing the whole world through the eyes of those who are responsible for its most vulnerable people.” – Yifat Susskind [46:34]

Memorable Quotes and Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Pain is pain and you're really not trying to distract from it. You're almost trying to accompany it.” – Matt Wilson [05:54]
• “Cynicism makes it harder to metabolize the calories of social life to receive nourishment from the people around us…” – Jamil Zaki [24:10]
• “If cynical stories can become self-fulfilling, our work shows that hopeful ones can as well.” – Jamil Zaki [29:41]
• “Attention is the gateway to intuition.” – Rund Gunstansdottir [43:58]
• “Justice is what love looks like in public.” – Cornel West, via Yifat Susskind [50:15]
• “Thinking like a mother means seeing the whole world through the eyes of those who are responsible for its most vulnerable people.” – Yifat Susskind [46:34]

Timestamps for Notable Segments

• Medical Clowns & Embracing Joy in Hospitals: [00:43–13:00]
• Cynicism, Trust, and How to Cultivate Hopeful Skepticism: [15:36–33:27]
• Rediscovering Intuition – The Icelandic Model: [34:23–45:44]
• Thinking Like a Mother—Leadership Through Compassion: [46:34–51:03]

Episode Takeaways

• Sit with uncertainty, don’t simply distract from it.
  Accompaniment and presence (as modeled by medical clowns) can profoundly change experiences of fear and discomfort.

• Trust begets trust; cynicism begets isolation.
  Our beliefs about others and ourselves are reinforced by how we treat each other—hopeful skepticism can break negative cycles.

• Intuition is real, powerful, and accessible with practice.
  Slowing down to notice where our attention goes, and caring for our inner world, gives us guidance when logic and data fall short.

• Radically compassionate thinking is its own kind of strength.
  Acting from a place of shared humanity—“thinking like a mother”—can inspire effective, hopeful decisions in times of crisis.

Conclusion

“Navigating Uncertainty” brings practical wisdom, grounded research, and moving personal stories to the challenge of living through unpredictable times. Through humor, trust, attention to intuition, and collective care, the episode offers listeners both comfort and actionable hope for whatever the future holds.