# DL Ep.24: Born to Flourish - The Science of Human Potential

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/dharma-lab-7434763/dl-ep-24-born-to-flourish-the-science-of-human-potential
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/dharma-lab-7434763/dl-ep-24-born-to-flourish-the-science-of-human-potential.md
Podcast: [Dharma Lab](https://stenobird.com/podcast/dharma-lab-7434763)
Published: 2026-02-09T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.dharmalab.co/p/dl-ep24-born-to-flourish-the-science
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/187342184/7d749db79c96fc935fc7cd6dab401262.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/dharma-lab-7434763/episodes/dl-ep-24-born-to-flourish-the-science-of-human-potential
Duration seconds: 2216

## Resource

Reminder: Join Richie & Cort tonight at 8pm ET for our monthly AMA HERE In today’s episode of Dharma Lab, Cort and Richie explore a radical and hopeful idea from their upcoming book Born to Flourish : that we all come into the world with an innate capacity for kindness, compassion, and human flourishing. Through personal stories, recent science, and ancient Buddhist wisdom, they reveal how reconnecting with our true nature can transform not only ourselves but also our divided world. “It’s probably more important today than at any other time in my life to really affirm this statement: that we are born to flourish. And this isn’t vacuous hope—it’s hope grounded in practice and in science.” - Dr. Richard Davidson This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS * Cort shares a heartwarming memory of teaching his three-year-old son about “Buddha nature” and the pure joy it sparked in him * Richie presents stunning research showing that 100% of six-month-old babies naturally prefer kindness over meanness - scientific proof we’re wired for goodness * How Buddhist psychology teaches that suffering often stems from forgetting our fundamental wholeness and getting trapped in limiting (and changing) identities * Practical tips for daily life: seeing the Buddha nature in others during interactions, practicing “just like me” reflections, and shifting from a “fixing” mindset to appreciating what’s already whole * How viewing harmful behavior as arising from confusion rather than fundamental evil can transform rage into compassion, even toward difficult public figures * A powerful reminder that flourishing isn’t just a belief system—it’s a practice of actually seeing ourselves, others, and t…

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## Transcript

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