How To! With Charles Duhigg: Self-help for the rest of us

The Premise (from Apple Podcasts):

What if Dear Abby were an investigative reporter? Each week, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Charles Duhigg (The Power of Habit) takes on listeners’ toughest problems and, with the help of experts, finds the answers to questions you’ve always wanted to ask but couldn’t. Until now.

Series or standalone:

Standalone

Begin listening to:

Any episode--just pick one that sounds interesting to you.

Format:

Advice/investigative reporting

Host(s):

Author Charles Duhigg

Sound/production quality:

Very good

Rating/age suitability:

Will mostly appeal to adults

Approximate length of episodes:

30 minutes

Curricular ties:

Pretty unlikely; these are more about “adulting” type topics.

Podcast Librarian’s Review:

This is one of my favorite podcasts nowadays, one that I listen to as soon as it’s released. In each episode, Charlie’s Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, chats with a regular person/listener who wants to learn how to accomplish something. He coordinates this by finding an expert (often authors, academics, and even celebs) who can help the advice-asker and give tips about how to achieve their goal. Charles then follows up to see how the advice works out for the listener. There is at least one episode that breaks this formula, though, and that is the one about how to rob a bank. It was one of the first episodes I listened to, and I was hooked immediately. I love the variety of topics, from the very serious to the terribly practical to the absolutely just-for-fun. Charles is incredibly likeable and a great host/interviewer with a fun sense of humor, which makes even the more sensitive topics a fun listen.