Ed Helms on The Office, comedic snafus, and learning from failures | ReThinking with Adam Grant

You may know Ed Helms from his roles on The Office or in The Hangover, but building his career as a successful comedian required many moments of failure and embarrassment. In this episode, Ed joins Adam live at the Authors@Wharton series to discuss his new book, SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups, look back on what Ed learned from some of his own mistakes, and uncover the common patterns among historical blunders. Follow Host: Adam Grant (Instagram: @adamgrant | LinkedIn: @adammgrant | Website: adamgrant.net/) Guest: Ed Helms (Instagram: @edhelms) Links Snafu: The Definitive Guide to History Greatest Screw Up Subscribe to TED Instagram: @ted YouTube: @TED TikTok: @tedtoks LinkedIn: @ted-conferences Website: ted.com Podcasts: ted.com/podcasts The TED Audio Collective is a collection of podcasts for the curious. The TED Audio Collective videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organiz...). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com. 00:00 Intro 00:36 Learning to love failure 02:27 Ed's worst standup bomb 05:12 Breaking into showbiz 08:33 Lessons from The Office 09:53 Snafus in history 12:46 Lightning round 17:36 How to face your next snafu

Adam GranthostEd Helmsguest

Aug 8, 202519mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: August 8, 2025
Duration: 19m
Channel: Re:Thinking with Adam Grant
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

You may know Ed Helms from his roles on The Office or in The Hangover, but building his career as a successful comedian required many moments of failure and embarrassment. In this episode, Ed joins Adam live at the Authors@Wharton series to discuss his new book, SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups, look back on what Ed learned from some of his own mistakes, and uncover the common patterns among historical blunders. Follow Host: Adam Grant (Instagram: @adamgrant | LinkedIn: @adammgrant | Website: adamgrant.net/) Guest: Ed Helms (Instagram: @edhelms) Links Snafu: The Definitive Guide to History Greatest Screw Up Subscribe to TED Instagram: @ted YouTube: @TED TikTok: @tedtoks LinkedIn: @ted-conferences Website: ted.com Podcasts: ted.com/podcasts The TED Audio Collective is a collection of podcasts for the curious. The TED Audio Collective videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organiz...). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com. 00:00 Intro 00:36 Learning to love failure 02:27 Ed's worst standup bomb 05:12 Breaking into showbiz 08:33 Lessons from The Office 09:53 Snafus in history 12:46 Lightning round 17:36 How to face your next snafu

SPEAKERS

Adam Grant
host
Organizational psychologist, author, and host of the podcast ReThinking with Adam Grant.
Ed Helms
guest
Actor and comedian known for playing Andy Bernard on The Office.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Re:Thinking with Adam Grant, featuring Adam Grant and Ed Helms, Ed Helms on The Office, comedic snafus, and learning from failures | ReThinking with Adam Grant explores ed Helms on embracing failure, community, and avoiding groupthink snafus Ed Helms argues that standup comedy trains performers to “love bombing,” treating failures as callus-building practice rather than as identity-defining events.

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