We Speak Podcast

Behavioral Scientist Dr. Zelana Montminy Asks Why We Don’t Do What We Know Is Good for Us in New LA Times Studios Podcast

Published

1 hour ago

October 29, 2026

We know we should sleep more, scroll less, call our friends and take the walk. Then we do the opposite. That gap — between what we know and what we do — is the territory of “Dr. Zelana On Being Human,” a new weekly interview podcast from LA Times Studios hosted by behavioral scientist and bestselling author Dr. Zelana Montminy, which premiered October 21 following an October 13 trailer.

Each week, Montminy sits down with guests to explore why human beings so often act against their own best interest — and, more usefully, how to close the gap. The roughly 55-minute premiere features Amanda Kloots in a conversation about grief and rebuilding after losing her husband, Broadway performer Nick Cordero, to COVID-19 — a fitting first chapter for a show interested in how people keep going.

The series also carries an original miniseries, “The New Revival,” examining the turn toward faith and spirituality among young adults — a generation often assumed to be drifting away from organized belief, and one Montminy approaches with a scientist’s curiosity rather than a stereotype.

With her background in behavioral science and a bestselling book on focus behind her, Montminy brings an evidence-based lens to the wellness conversation, asking not just what a good life looks like, but why it is so hard to live one — and what actually helps.

It is a crowded category, but the premise gives “On Being Human” a sharper edge than most: not another list of habits to adopt, but an honest investigation into the moment every habit falls apart. New episodes arrive weekly from LA Times Studios on all major podcast platforms.

We Speak Podcast

Billy Porter Opens a Faith-and-Identity Conversation Series as First Guest of ‘This Is Our Story’

Published

28 minutes ago

October 29, 2026

We Speak Media

A new monthly conversation series is making room for the stories people are rarely asked to tell in full. “This Is Our Story,” hosted by Seth Pinnock — founder of the UK charity Symphony Co. — launched October 20 from Symphony Co. and In Details Studios, exploring culture, faith, sexuality, identity and the life-shaping stories in between.

The inaugural guest sets the tone: Billy Porter, the Emmy, Grammy and three-time Tony Award winner, sits down with Pinnock for an open conversation about growing up in the Pentecostal church, enduring bullying, and the long road through faith, healing and forgiveness.

Porter’s reflections anchor the episode. “Forgiveness is for me,” he says in the conversation. “It’s not forgive and forget. It’s forgive and move forward.” It is the kind of unguarded exchange the series is built to hold — personal history examined without spectacle, by a host whose own work through Symphony Co. centers community and young people’s stories.

As a monthly series, “This Is Our Story” is positioned as a slow conversation in a fast medium: one guest, one story, and the space to tell it properly. With Porter as its first voice, it opens with a story that moves from the church pews of Pittsburgh to the highest stages in entertainment — and finds healing, not bitterness, at the center of it.

That is precisely the ground Pinnock wants the series to hold. The conversations are structured around the moments that shape a life rather than the highlights that sell one, and Porter’s episode — part testimony, part masterclass in survival — gives the young series an unmistakable statement of intent from its very first installment.

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