Dan Harris

Dan Harris is a former ABC News anchor turned #1 New York Times bestselling author, podcaster, and meditation advocate. For two decades he was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News — co-anchor of Nightline and the weekend edition of Good Morning America, and anchor of World News Sunday — reporting from war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq and filing investigative stories from Haiti, Cambodia, and the Amazon. In 2004, while doing the news updates on Good Morning America, he had a panic attack on live national television. That very public unraveling set him on a strange, circuitous path that eventually led him to meditation.

He wrote about that journey in _10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works—A True Story_ (2014), which became a #1 New York Times bestseller by making the secular, science-based case for meditation to fellow skeptics. He followed it with _Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics_ (2017), a practical how-to written with Jeff Warren and Carlye Adler for people who are sure they can't meditate. The book grew into a company: the 10% Happier meditation app (launched 2015) and the 10% Happier podcast (2016), where Dan has interviewed hundreds of guests — from the Dalai Lama to Brené Brown — about how to do life better.

Over his news career Harris earned an Emmy Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award, and he holds honorary doctorates from Colby College — his alma mater, class of 1993 — and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He left ABC News in September 2021 to focus full-time on his mental-health work. He continues to speak, write, and podcast, and in 2025 delivered a new TED talk, "A Guide to Self-Love for Skeptics." He introduces himself, with characteristic dryness, as "an author, podcaster, and failed game show host," and lives outside New York City with his family.