TED Radio Hour (NPR)
Episode: "What Can You Control in This Chaotic World?"
Date: January 23, 2026
Host: Manoush Zomorodi

Episode Overview

This episode explores the deeply relevant question of agency: What can we actually control in a world that seems more unpredictable than ever? Through conversations with a financial advisor for lottery winners, a sociologist studying resilience and grit, a journalist investigating “mattering,” and a life design expert, host Manoush Zomorodi unpacks how individuals can reclaim agency, make choices aligned with what truly matters, and foster meaning and connection in uncertain times.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Lottery as a Lens: Expectations vs. Reality

Guest: Matt Pitcher, Financial Advisor for UK Lottery Winners

• Millions fantasize about winning the lottery, believing it would solve their problems and free their true selves.
• Matt Pitcher’s job: Helping sudden winners adjust to their new reality, manage windfalls, and make intentional choices.

"Everyone's got a vision of what it's like to win the lottery in their head. The reality, of course, is very different."
— Matt Pitcher (02:22)

• Stories from Matt’s clients reveal a spectrum: dream fulfillment (the man who bought a lime green Lamborghini—but never even drove it), emotional turmoil, and sometimes, regret after a win destabilizes happy lives.
• Sudden wealth often increases stress and impacts relationships, sometimes forcing winners to uproot their lives to escape pressure from others (see story of the man who had to move after being outed as a winner—06:00).
• Wealth amplifies who you were, but isn’t the shortcut to joy or meaning:

"It's just going to make you a wealthier version of you today. If you're really deeply unhappy, you just become a wealthier, deeply unhappy person."
— Matt Pitcher (15:50)

• Matt’s guidance: Reflect not on what money can buy, but on when you felt happiest, why, and how those moments can be created anew (often, those moments are relationship-based, not financial).

Memorable Anecdotes:

• A winner bought property and fancy holidays, quickly spent it all, then struggled adjusting back to “normal”—lesson: “Don’t upgrade, because once you do, it’s hard to go back.” (11:06)
• The most meaningful story: parents used their winnings to adapt their home for a terminally ill child, buying time together that they would not have otherwise had (17:56).

2. Moving from Grit to Agency

Guest: Dr. Anindya Kundu, Sociologist and Author

• Grit—the buzzword for perseverance—has been seen as the answer to success. But Dr. Kundu critiques this, noting early research on “grit” ignored systemic issues and context.

"You can have a lot of grit, but if the structural conditions around you are not also supportive of that grit, then you can only go so far."
— Anindya Kundu (24:23)

• Agency, in contrast, integrates an individual’s initiative with the structures and supports around them.
• Kundu’s research on outliers who beat the odds (despite trauma, poverty, incarceration) found that social support was key; agency is collective, not just individual.
• Real, lasting agency involves both personal resilience and broader community/institutional scaffolding.

Notable Quotes:

"Agency is more of this holistic idea...if I get knocked down, is there someone around me to help pick me up? Is there a space where I feel I belong?"
— Anindya Kundu (27:29)

• Call to action for listeners: Audit your environment, consider who supports you, and seek or create spaces of belonging and support. Social cohesion, not just self-reliance, is critical in uncertain times.
• As Kundu notes, “Social cohesion is something I think about a lot...if we think of society as an organism, what we're dealing with right now is almost like an autoimmune condition where we don't really see our commonality in someone else.” (32:34)

3. The Power of Mattering

Guest: Jennifer Wallace, Journalist and Author

• Jennifer’s research centers on the psychological need to “matter”—to feel valued, and to add value:
  • We withdraw when we feel irrelevant; we thrive when we’re seen and needed.
  • Mattering is actionable: you can help someone else feel they matter, and in doing so, rebuild your own agency.

"The fastest way to feel like you matter again is to remind someone else why they do."
— Jennifer Wallace (36:49)

• Moving stories: A harried train conductor treats an angry passenger with dignity, which defuses the situation through simple recognition and compassion (39:14).
• In workplaces, reminding employees how their work contributes to a bigger mission fosters meaning (42:00).
• We don’t need to “find our big purpose”—instead, build significance day by day through small acts of service and acknowledgment.

Key Ingredients of Mattering:

1. Feeling significant
2. Feeling appreciated
3. Feeling invested-in
4. Feeling needed (43:47)

• On agency: “Agency grows out of mattering...it is the feeling that you can take meaningful action in your life.” (45:28)

4. Designing Your Own Life

Guest: Bill Burnett, Stanford Professor & Author

• Applying “design thinking” to life choices: Treat your life as a design project—prototype changes, gather and compare options, and connect actions with authentic meaning.

Bill’s Key Steps (48:00–52:54):

• Connect the dots: Identify who you are, what you believe, and what you do—and build coherence.
• Three life plans: Imagine three parallel lives: your current trajectory, your “if my job disappeared” plan, and your wild-card dream—then cross-pollinate ideas.

  • “No plan for your life will survive first contact with reality...just have a bias to action, try stuff.” (47:53)

• Prototype experiences: Test changes in small ways before major leaps.
• Decision process: Mindfully gather options, narrow, and choose, rather than agonizing endlessly.
• Foundation: Curiosity, intentional action, and reflection lead to a “well-lived and joyful life.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Agency Amplifies You, Not Its Absence:

  • "Money is not a fix. It's a tool that we can use to make things better for ourselves, but you've got to understand that point first." — Matt Pitcher (15:50)

• Structural → Personal:

  • "If the win had happened 18 months, two years later, it would have been of no use whatsoever to that family…It came along at exactly the right time." — Matt Pitcher (18:29)

• On Grit’s Limits:

  • "All may have had some sort of similar life experiences or supports..." — Anindya Kundu (23:28)

• The Social Nature of Agency:

  • “Agency is this idea of navigating the system with support—someone to pick you up…” — Anindya Kundu (27:29)

• Mattering as an Antidote to Despair:

  • "When people feel seen, valued, and needed, they begin to believe they can influence the world around them." — Jennifer Wallace (41:13)

• Design Your Life Proactively:

  • "Get curious, connect the dots to find meaning...do three plans, never one...prototype everything...and choose well." — Bill Burnett (52:30–52:50)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Lottery Winner Realities: 01:11–13:04
• Choice, Joy, and Regret in Spending Windfalls: 03:14–13:04
• Meaningful Use of Sudden Wealth: 17:56–18:29
• Financial Planning for Ordinary Years: 19:32–21:18
• What is Agency? (with Anindya Kundu): 21:38–33:19
• Mattering & Making Meaning (with Jennifer Wallace): 36:23–45:20
• Life as a Design Project (with Bill Burnett): 47:53–52:54

Takeaways & Advice

• Money, alone, won’t deliver meaning or agency; clarity about what matters to you is key (Matt Pitcher).
• You are more likely to exercise agency, and overcome adversity, when embedded in supportive, connected communities (Anindya Kundu).
• Mattering—to be seen and needed—builds motivation, action, and agency. The simplest way to matter is to help someone else feel they matter. (Jennifer Wallace).
• Don't seek perfect plans; try small experiments, imagine alternate paths, and make decisions intentionally. (Bill Burnett).

Final Thought

“We want to know that our lives, our very existence, matters.”
— Jennifer Wallace (47:00)

In navigating chaos, anchoring to authentic values, social ties, and intentional, curious experimentation can give us back a sense of control and meaning—even for the things we can’t control, we can shape how we respond, and for whom.