Rainn Wilson

speaker

443 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 26 Jul

Rainn Wilson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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TED Talks Daily · Sunday Pick: The Office’s Rainn Wilson on meaning and happiness | ReThinking with Adam Grant · 26 Jul 2026 podcast

Yes, I am.

Can you unpack that for us?

Sure.

When you turn to the teachings of the Buddha, his number one rule of the Four Noble Truths is life is suffering.

When the Buddha used the word suffering, the translation, the original word in Pali Sanskrit is dukkha.

And dukkha means kind of anxious discontent, right?

So life is anxious discontent.

And maybe some of you can see some heads nodding, have felt some anxious discontent in their lives.

Why aren't things the way that I want them to be?

Why can't it be more like this?

I want this outcome.

And why does this person keep acting this way?

And how come I didn't get what I wanted?

And we live our lives with those gears grinding.

We're wired to do that as human beings because it's what's kept us alive for hundreds of thousands of years.

But how does it come to play in the modern world?

For me, in my 20s, when I was struggling as an actor, trying to get an audition for Law & Order, I suffered a lot of anxiety and depression and addiction issues, loneliness.

And again, through trying to substitute purpose and meaning and vision for ambition, thinking that, ah, once I get this next audition,

big acting gig, then I'm gonna feel content.

Then I'm gonna feel at peace.

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