242: Unabridged Interview: Charles Duhigg

15 snips

Jan 2, 2026

Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author, dives into the science of habits and communication. He reveals how our daily routines shape our character and influence happiness, linking Aristotle’s ideas to modern habit science. Duhigg explains the habit loop of cue, routine, and reward, emphasizing that true change comes from redesigning these elements. He also discusses keystone habits that create positive chain reactions in life and shares insights on better conversation techniques to foster deeper connections.

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INSIGHT

Habits Shape Character

Habits form the backbone of character and a flourishing life according to Charles Duhigg and Aristotle's view of virtue as repeated action.
Habits are neither morally labeled nor fixed; they can be reshaped to align behavior with chosen values.

ADVICE

Use The Habit Loop To Change Behavior

Break every habit into a cue, routine, and reward to find leverage points for change.
Focus on redesigning cues and rewards rather than white-knuckling the routine alone.

ADVICE

Design Clear Cues And Real Rewards

When building a habit, pick clear cues (time, place, emotion, people, preceding ritual) and a reward you actually want.
Repeat the cue–routine–reward cycle until the basal ganglia links them and the behavior becomes automatic.

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This is our unabridged interview with Charles Duhigg.

What if the biggest lever to your happiness isn’t found in your big decisions, but in the small, automatic things you do every day?

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author Charles Duhigg joins Lee C. Camp to explore how habits quietly shape our character, our choices, and our capacity for authentic human flourishing. Drawing on Aristotle, neuroscience, and his book ⁠⁠The Power of Habit⁠⁠, Duhigg unpacks the classic “cue–routine–reward” loop, keystone habits, and why willpower alone so often fails us. He then turns to his book ⁠⁠Supercommunicators⁠⁠ to show how changing the way we speak and listen can transform our relationships, our communities, and our search for meaning and purpose.

Key Ideas:

Habits shape character: How Aristotle’s vision of virtue and excellence as “what we repeatedly do” connects with modern habit science and the quest for a flourishing, ethical life.
The roadmap of habit formation: The habit loop of cue, routine, and reward—and why lasting change comes not from white-knuckled willpower, but from redesigning our cues and rewards to support authentic living and habits for happiness.
Keystone habits lead to other better habits: Keystone habits like exercise, making your bed, or food journaling that trigger chain reactions in finances, procrastination, self-control, and our sense of identity and agency.

Classifying types of conversations can help you connect: From Supercommunicators: the three kinds of conversations (practical, emotional, social), the “Matching Principle,” and the looping-for-understanding practice that can heal conflict, deepen empathy, and nurture flourishing relationships.
Understanding cues for connection: How laughter, curiosity, and deep questions signal “I want to connect with you,” and why Duhigg believes anyone can learn practices of communication that contribute to the common good and true happiness.

⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Show Notes, Resources and Transcript⁠⁠ for abridged episode with Charles Duhigg⁠⁠

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No Small Endeavor: An award-winning podcast that asks what it means to live a good life. Through conversations with leading thinkers across theology, philosophy, psychology, politics, and the social sciences, we explore human flourishing, meaning and purpose, faith and culture, science and religion, virtue and character, community, and the practices that help shape a good life grounded in truth, beauty, and goodness.

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