Danielle Frimer is the Head of Conversation Design at Xandra (and Kat's Boss). Like Kat, Danielle is an actor. In this conversation, we talk about how she found herself writing Alexa Skills, how it's like acting, and some of the differences between art and design.
Sue and Bruce Wilcox make chatbots that frequently win the world's top prizes for artificial intelligence. Learn about the way they approach designing conversations.
What's the difference between making stuff that impresses people and making stuff that's actually good?
How far can you run... before you realize you haven't been getting anywhere?
There's lots of stuff you know you shouldn't do, like text and drive. So why do you still do it?
If you get good at something, someone is going to ask you to teach them how you did it. But being good at something and being good at teaching it are not the same thing.
Patrick Kelly Jones is one of the best, most highly sought-after actors in the Bay Area. So why, after 20 years of mastering his craft, is he giving it up?
Has someone ever told you that you couldn't do something, and it only made you want you want to do it more? Kate Hamill knows that feeling.
Yusuf took the name Yusuf when converted to Islam when he was 20. But it's taken him 20 years to live up to that name.
What does it mean to have a "biblical standard?" Mark Young is trying to be a better husband, and in our conversation we talk about what that means to him as a modern man using an old text for spiritual, and practical guidance.
Brenda Cunningham and I share a problem— we hate having to call people. We even break into a sweat when the phone rings. Learn how both of us have dealt with this problem, including the surprising ways that Brenda has leveraged her Christian Faith to help her be a better friend.
What do you do when you realize that you trust yourself, more than your community? When Angella Johnson was 19 years old, she left the Mormon Church and has spent her life trying to define what it means to be "a good person" without the structure that defined that for her growing up.
What does it mean to be authentic? What are we trying to learn when we say we are trying to communicate with "more integrity?" Tammy Washington has been asking these questions for the last few months, when she had to move back closer to home after 13 years of living in LA.
Brandon Scott Chien has lived in the woods for 45 days. He's drifted cars and shot arrows off a horse. But he's tried to get better at all of it in order to learn more about being useful for the people he cares about.
Imagine giving up your entire life to pursue something, then right after you've made the plunge, becoming so paralyzed with fear that you couldn't perform at even the most basic level.
Imagine giving up your entire life to pursue something, then right after you've made the plunge, becoming so paralyzed with fear that you couldn't perform at even the most basic level.
5 years ago, Kent Davis had never written a novel. Now he's published three. We learn how he got started and how he kept going when nothing he was writing was good enough and everything was hard and terrible until it wasn't.
Dr. Amy Bucher has been designing health behavior change programs for over a decade, but how does she keep herself feeling motivated?
On a whim, Shane moved to Oakland to start a rap career when he was 20 years old, shy, and didn't know anyone. Now he makes new friends every day, because he learned how to get out of his comfort zone. Find out what happened when Shane just started walking up to people and saying, "yo, I like you shirt."
If you were the most-produced living playwright in the USA, you probably wouldn’t consider taking up a new art form. But Lauren Gunderson did just that, in a tribute to someone who loved the banjo. Then she wrote about it, and finally — after writing hundreds of plays — cast herself as the main character.
What if you only ever tried stuff that you were already awesome at? You'd never end up cycling across France, with a bunch of high school students, like our guest Stella Orange. Learn what you might gain from what she calls "falling on the sword of your own dignity."
What would happen if you just unfollowed the things that made you feel bad? Kat Zdan began doing just that about a year ago, and it turns out the answer is not so simple.
Dr. Heather Patrick has designed some of the largest behavior change studies in history. We sit down to talk about why some people seem to achieve their New Year's goals and others struggle.
How do you have difficult conversations? We talk to Marcia Baczynscki about how she got so good at confrontation and difficult conversations with both people she loves and strangers on the street.
Does technology help or hinder you? We talk with Dustin DiTommaso about how you can make technology work for you...instead of letting it run your life.
What would happen if I never complained again? Cianna Stewart asked herself one day in 2010. The answer inspired the No Complaining Project.
Unexpected things can happen when your car won’t start and you have no time, money, or tools. Plus, you may have heard about something called a “growth mindset”: learn about this one simple trick that will help you fix anything.
Does it ever feel like your friends and family don’t support your plans? Dr. Jennifer LaGuardia, a Clinical Psychologist and one of the world’s top motivation experts, talks about how you can recruit help from the people in your life to change your habits.
The Bettercast is for people who want to learn how to get a little bit better at the habits that matter. Improving your life is a worthy challenge.