I’m hot and cold on New Year’s resolutions. Most Januarys, I come in guns ablazin’ with a list of goals I will try my hardest not to discard by Valentine’s Day. Other years, I prefer to hibernate over the winter, vowing to revisit resolutions during a more generative season like the spring.
If you’re finding yourself overwhelmed in the new year, legendary journalist Krista Tippett has an alternative to a list of resolutions: try sitting with a big, unanswered question instead.
Krista talked to TED Radio Hour’s Manoush Zomorodi about reckoning with her own uncertainty. After turning sixty, Tippett didn’t know whether to double down on her career or leave it altogether. Instead of rushing to a solution, she reframed her approach:
"It is not treating time like some kind of bully that tells me I must have an answer. It's letting things emerge… not grasping for the first thing that feels like an answer, but moving with curiosity towards it, testing it and not feeling like it's a failure if it turns out… it's not the answer."
It’s hard to linger on a big question like: What’s my purpose? Am I heading in the right direction? What’s not quite working? But if you can manage to settle into the mystery now, you may unlock a deeper understanding later. Good things come to those who wait… or so they say!
I think this year, I just might stick to attempting to wake up on the first alarm 😅. But in the spirit of Krista Tippett, I’m welcoming 2026 with a healthy dose of humility and curiosity.
Cheers to a new year!
🥂Lauren
P.S. What unanswerable questions do you keep coming back to? Write to us at podclub@npr.org.
The week’s best episodes
……to listen with your accountability buddy or your co-hibernator.
🌎 Necessary context for this week’s headlines on Venezuela
If you’re looking for a historical deep dive after the U.S. strike on Venezuela, Throughlineexplores the legacy of two Venezuelan leaders who set the stage for Maduro’s rise. (Bonus recs!! Sources & Methodshas a great conversation with NPR’s Carrie Kahn who’s on the ground in South America, and The Indicatordigs into Maduro’s drug-trafficking accusations.)
🤑 Put your money where your conspiracy theories are
I know you're not supposed to play favorites, but Alternate Realities was my most rec'd podcast of last year. This follow-up episode checks in on host Zach Mack and his father after a year of putting conspiracy theories to the test.
📺 Oy with the poodles already!
Grab your third cup of coffee, we’re heading to Stars Hollow! Connecticut Public Radio launched Generation Gilmore Girls, a nostalgia-packed pod about your favorite mother-daughter duo. Listen at 2.0 speed if you’re the type of fan who can keep up with Sherman-Palladino’s quippy dialogue.
➕ Saturday night and we in the spot...
I DARE you not to belt out the next lyric. Who among us can resist Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ 2014 anthem, Uptown Funk? On this bonus episode of All Songs Considered, NPR critics dig into the lore behind this beloved earworm. To get sponsor-free listening, sign up for NPR+
One to Watch
It’s been five years since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Two of the defending officers visited NPR headquarters to rewatch their bodycam footage from that day:
@npr/YouTube
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