Productivity We’re Measuring Wrong
Let’s rethink what productivity really means
Design Matters with Debbie Millman
May 11, 2026 · 58 min · 36 segments
Manoush Zomorodi is an award-winning journalist, author, and host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour whose work explores how technology shapes our minds, bodies, attention, and sense of humanity. She joins…
Manoush ZomorodiGuest[upbeat music] Manoush Zomorodi is a journalist, author, and longtime audio storyteller whose work explores how technology is reshaping our minds, our bodies, our attention, and our sense of what it means to be human.
She is the host of NPR's TED Radio Hour, and over the course of her career has created and hosted podcasts including New Tech City, Note to Self, Zigzag, IRL, and the acclaimed NPR series Body Electric.
Her book, Bored and Brilliant, began as a public experiment with listeners and became a widely resonant investigation into boredom, creativity, and the power of reclaiming our attention.
Her brand-new book, Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and the New Science to Reclaim Your Wellbeing, extends that inquiry from the mind into the body, asking what our screen-filled, chair-bound lives are doing to our health, and how small science-backed changes can help us feel more alive.
Debbie recently interviewed Manoush at her book launch at PNT Knitwear in New York City in front of a live audience.
[upbeat music] Manoush Zomorodi is a journalist, author, and longtime audio storyteller whose work explores how technology is reshaping our minds, our bodies, our attention, and our sense of what it means to be human.
She is the host of NPR's TED Radio Hour, and over the course of her career has created and hosted podcasts including New Tech City, Note to Self, Zigzag, IRL, and the acclaimed NPR series Body Electric.
Her book, Bored and Brilliant, began as a public experiment with listeners and became a widely resonant investigation into boredom, creativity, and the power of reclaiming our attention.
Her brand-new book, Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and the New Science to Reclaim Your Wellbeing, extends that inquiry from the mind into the body, asking what our screen-filled, chair-bound lives are doing to our health, and how small science-backed changes can help us feel more alive.
Debbie recently interviewed Manoush at her book launch at PNT Knitwear in New York City in front of a live audience.
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Productivity We’re Measuring Wrong
Let’s rethink what productivity really means
Five Minutes Every Half Hour
A tiny habit with outsized health impact
Lab Day Changed Everything
Here’s what the data actually showed
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