What does it really mean to be healthy?

VPM | By Manoush Zomorodi, Katie Monteleone and Sanaz Meshkinpour

Published July 10, 2026 at 1:10 PM EDT

Part 3 of TED Radio Hour’s “Tracking what your body needs“

After losing her mom to cancer, Lizzie Braicks-Rinker began to rethink what it means to be healthy. She now advocates for holistic wellness — prioritizing how the body feels over how it looks.

About Lizzie Braicks-Rinker

Lizzie Braicks-Rinker is a speaker and writer whose TEDx talk explores the difference between physical health and true wellness. Inspired by the loss of her mother to cancer while she was a college athlete, she encourages people to care for their whole selves — not just their bodies. Today, she is a real estate agent and the mother of two daughters.

Web Resources:

Body Stuff: A cleanse won’t detox your body — but here’s what will

Related TED Talk: What if you could be your own, best, first doctor?

Related NPR Links:

TED Radio Hour: The truth about our bodies

TED Radio Hour: How to mend a broken heart

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Manoush Zomorodi

Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.

Zomorodi is a co-founder of Stable Genius Productions and is the co-host and co-creator of ZigZag, the business podcast about being human. She also created, hosted, and was managing editor of the podcast Note to Self in partnership with WNYC Studios, which was named Best Tech Podcast of 2017 by The Academy of Podcasters.

Prior to her time at WNYC, Zomorodi reported and produced around the world for BBC News and Thomson Reuters, including a few years in Berlin.

She was named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2018 and has received numerous awards for her work, including The Gracie for Best Radio Host in 2014 and 2018. Her book "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Creative Self" (2017, St. Martin's Press) and her TED Talk are guides to surviving information overload and the "Attention Economy."

Zomorodi received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in English and fine arts. She is half-Persian and half-Swiss but was born in New York City, where she lives with her family.

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