Fresh Air

Our lives are often defined by turning points. They can happen gradually or in an instant. But how do we reconcile the before and the after — our former selves with who we’ve become? In this hour, we hear from TED speakers who have been shaped by profound turning points in their lives. Surgeon and author Sherwin Nuland recalls how he broke free of a debilitating depression after undergoing electroshock therapy. Businessman Ric Elias had a front row seat on Flight 1549 that crash-landed in the Hudson River in 2009. He describes what went through his mind as the plane was going down. As a teenager, Maajid Nawaz was active in an extreme Islamist organization. But after spending five years in an Egyptian jail, he now devotes himself to promoting democracy in the face of extremism and xenophobia. Journalist Joshua Prager describes his life before and after a devastating bus accident that left him paralyzed on his left side. He probes questions of self-deception, identity, and whether the crash or his response to the crash has ultimately defined him.