Sunday Pick: How to solve your problems through drawing (w/ Liana Finck) | How to Be a Better Human

**Elise Hu** (0:04)
Happy Sunday, y'all, Elyse Hugh here, and today we're bringing you a Sunday pick where we share an episode of another podcast from TED, handpicked by us, for you.
Liana Finck's cartoons explore life's big predicaments. What to make for dinner, how to leave a party without being rude, how to feel like more than a snack machine once you have a child. In this 2023 episode from How to be a Better Human, Liana speaks with host Chris Duffy about how drawing has become a practice for her to answer questions and solve problems, and why creating art helps us understand ourselves better. She also discusses why she's not bothered by imposter syndrome and how she navigates the feelings of doubt we all experience with honesty and humor. How to be a Better Human looks in unexpected places for new ways to improve and show up for one another. If you want to hear more insights like this, listen to How to be a Better Human, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn all about TED's podcasts at podcast.ted.com.

**Chris Duffy** (1:05)
You're listening to How to be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
When I think about the artists, comedians, writers, when I think about the people that I admire the most, they run the gamut when it comes to the topics that they cover, and their styles, and the formats that they work in. But the thing that ties everyone who I admire together, the thing that they all share is that they found a way to be distinctly and uniquely themselves. That is the trait that I admire the most. And that is why I am so excited about today's episode of our podcast, because our guest, the cartoonist Liana Finck, makes work that could only be made by her. You can see her cartoons in places like The New Yorker, but her style is so distinct from what a classic New Yorker cartoon is. You would never mistake her work for something by anyone else. Because Liana's drawings, they're much simpler, but they're also more impressionistic, and they convey so much emotion. And they're also very, very, very, very funny. Liana is hilarious, and her humor comes from this deeply honest confessional place. It's some of the best proof I've ever seen, that the more specific and the more true to yourself you go, the more universally your jokes will connect.
Whether it is Liana overthinking what to say at a party, or analyzing the pressures of adulthood or motherhood, she is always so funny and she is always 100% herself. If you can't already tell, I am a huge fan and I'm so excited to talk to her. Here's a clip from Liana's TED Talk.

**Liana Finck** (2:33)
When I first started making cartoons for The New Yorker about a decade ago, I kept my ideas light and quirky. I didn't draw anything too personal. I figured I was too specific, too hard to relate to and read possibly too female. It took a break up to get me to start drawing more autobiographically.
The pain I was feeling, although objectively pretty run of the mill, was impossible to ignore. I knew that drawing was my strongest problem-solving tool, so I decided to diagram what I was going through.
By making these drawings, I could see how my ex and I had hurt each other and move on. Drawing from my own life was a revelation to me, not only because it helped me understand myself better, but because it made me see for the first time that people could relate to me. Now that I had this amazing tool, there were so many problems I wanted to solve with it.

**Chris Duffy** (3:45)
We're going to be right back with much more from Liana after these quick ads. Don't go anywhere.
Today we're talking about humor, creativity, and cartoons with Liana Finck.

**Liana Finck** (4:02)
Hi, I'm Liana Finck. I'm a cartoonist, which in my case means that I make New Yorker cartoons and graphic novels and a lot of random freelance stuff.

**Chris Duffy** (4:12)
One of the things that is kind of the driving idea behind the interview, which is also a big part of your TED Talk, is how drawing and how art more generally can help you to figure out who you actually are and be more yourself. So could you talk to us a little bit about that journey of how your cartoons let you be more yourself or figure out who that self really is?

**Liana Finck** (4:38)
I think for me, drawing coincided with wanting to figure out who I was. I'm not sure that they need to go together for everyone. I think some people draw and some people are on a desperate quest to figure out why they are the way they are. And some people are both and some people are neither. And there's room to be creative in each of those quadrants.