NPR Life Kit Podcast: Life Hacks That Offer The "New" & The "Old"

The advent and ubiquity of social media has unleashed upon the unsuspecting citizenry a horde of trolls, body shamers, frustrated incels, conspiracy mole rats, and losers who bask in the anonymity of the internet. 

So, as not to be a Negative Nellie or Nelson, social media has also supplied us with life hacks. Millions of them. TikTok has so many life hack videos, there is even a TikToker who evaluates the life hacks of others. 

Do you have cloudy headlights? Toothpaste and / or baking soda. WD-40 is apparently a life hack superpower of its own, with thousands of uses on life hacks. Toothpicks, paper clips, and almost any object in your kitchen junk drawer now doubles as a life hack mechanism.

To its credit, the NPR Life Kit podcast has been ahead of that curve, offering life hacks through almost 850 episodes.

Here is the NPR marketing pitch: "Everyone needs a little help being a human. From sleep to saving money to parenting and more, host Marielle Segarra talks to experts to get the best advice out there. Life Kit is here to help you get it together.Want another life hack? Try Life Kit+. Your subscription supports the show and unlocks an exclusive sponsor-free feed."

NPR podcasts are known to be content-rich, safe spaces, and hover, like a bee to a flower, close to the surety of what's left of the factual universe. You know, the earth is round, there was a moon landing, and JFK Jr. is sadly not alive. 

Life Kit, like a lot of life hack podcasts, videos, and articles, is blissfully short and to the point. Episodes on life kit average about 14 minutes.

Having written that, I have a complaint. When you listen to Life Kit, the topic will be introduced briefly, buttressed on either end by ads. There is also a post-roll ad at the end of each episode. My advice is to fast-forward to the fourth minute to begin the show and end about a minute before the episode end time. Just like in an Oreo, the good stuff is in the middle. 

And there is plenty of good stuff. Life Kit is an excellent life hack podcast. There are no YouTube videos with a guy named Jeff who's in his bathroom with his secret caulking around the bathtub hack. Note that there is one. Fill the tub with water, then caulk around the seams. 

Recent Life Kit episodes include, sleep myths, sunscreen mistakes, BMI, or body mass index, and my recent favorite, "screen apnea."

The show always speaks to qualified experts for their tips, advice, and hacks. Unlike TikTok, where the life hack person refers to a "secret home remedy" passed down through generations by Aunt Rose, the life hacks here are scrupulously researched and checked.

The life hacks on Life Kit typically fall into two categories. First, things you didn't know. For example, in the July 4th episode on sunscreen mistakes, I didn't know that SPF 30 blocks out 97 percent of the sun's UV rays. Returns diminish greatly as you move to a higher SPF. 

The second category is things you knew but either forgot or are too lazy to remember. Again, in the sunscreen mistakes episode, I re-learned that sunscreen must be re-applied every 90 minutes to two hours. I also re-learned that sunscreen left over from previous summers should be tossed since its effectiveness is significantly degraded or the ingredients are contaminated due to time.

In the BMI episode, we learn that this highly imperfect measurement tool of health is used more for convenience than accuracy, simply because you can calculate it without a physical exam. 

At times, the podcast can drift into more nebulous areas with episodes that are more advice driven than actual hacks. The podcast has a Dear Life Kit advice column on its website and does record these advice episodes every few months. Recent Dear Life Kit episodes include Your wedding etiquette questions answered in April 2024, and I can't stop thinking about my crush in June 2024. 

Like most NPR podcasts in recent times, hosting and staffing changes seem to be more frequent than ever before. Life Kit is no exception.

In 2022, Life Kit added an anchor host to its roster of contributors. Marielle Segarra, most recently of Marketplace, became the podcast and radio show's first regular host, and Andee Tagle, who was an associate producer on the show, joined Segarra.  

"What I love about Life Kit is that it's honest and vulnerable," said Segarra. "Each episode feels like a kindness. The hosts are telling you: look, you're not alone, and we've taken the time to figure out how to help you. Basically: we've got your back."

"I mean, our lives get incredibly busy. There are all these things we write on Post-its or put in our Google calendars (or if you're me, in the draft of an email)...things we mean to get to, but don't have the mental energy to research or pursue. Life Kit does that learning for people and helps them finally tackle the tasks that have been hanging over their heads. And the conversations on the show also help listeners live more meaningful, considered lives. I'm so excited to be joining this team."

Segarra joined NPR from Marketplace, where she helped people understand how the ins and outs of the economy are relevant to their lives. Over the years, she reported stories on Amazon's counterfeit problem, the lack of paid family leave in the U.S., the origin story of the song of the summer, the role of makeup during a pandemic, and the jarring experience of returning to an office in August 2020.

And as a podcast host, she talked about U.S. refugee policy, green energy, the war in Ukraine, the movie Encanto, cauliflower smoothies, hairless cats, inflation, mental health, honoring her ancestors, sea glass hunting in Puerto Rico, and a lot more.

Before Marketplace, Segarra worked at WHYY in Philadelphia. She has also taught audio journalism at Columbia University, and she coaches reporters and producers on how to write and deliver scripts that sound like them.

She has lived in New York for much of her life, but somehow still hasn't visited the Statue of Liberty.

Here's why I recommend Life Kit as a life hack podcast. First, NPR excels at these lifestyle podcasts. Second, the information offered in these episodes has been vetted far more scrupulously than a TikTok video where Gus explains how to unclog your bathroom sink drain with a concoction made from unidentified liquids left over from his workbench. Third, the show is short, fun, enjoyable with an understated sense of humor. 

Finally, here's an excerpt from a user review about Life Kit. "This show is offensively condescending. We’re not quite as stupid/incompetent as you clearly make us out to be." 

Let's return to the sunscreen mistakes episode. The episode explains that millions of Americans get squamous and basal cell cancer every year. More than 8,000 Americans die from melanoma every year. These cancers are from sun exposure.

Now, let's look at a CDC study from a few years ago reveals that only 12.3% of men and 29.0% of women over 18 years of age used sunscreen when outside on a sunny day for more than one hour.

It's possible we, like the children we raise, need reminders about leading safe and healthy lives. After all, learning isn't just about retaining new information, but also about using information effectively that we already possess. Therefore, that reviewer might reconsider their assessment.