On the NPR TED Radio Hour, Sunday 23rd November, Newstalk FM:

Our lives are often defined by major turning points. They can happen gradually or in an instant. But how do we reconcile the before and the after, our former selves with who we’ve become? In this hour, we hear from TED speakers who have been shaped by profound turning points in their lives.

Sherwin Nuland is a successful surgeon and author known for his bestselling books on the nature of life and death. But 40 years ago, he faced spending the rest of his life in a mental institution. Nuland describes his debilitating depression and how electroshock therapy gave him a second lease on life.

In January 2009, businessman Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York. Elias tells his story, what was running through his mind, and how the crash changed his approach to life, love and family.

For more than a decade, Maajid Nawaz recruited young Muslims to an extreme Islamist group. But while serving time in an Egyptian prison, he went through a complete ideological transformation. He left the group, his friends, and his marriage for a new life as a democracy advocate.

When Joshua Prager was 19, a devastating bus accident left him paralyzed on his left side. Twenty years later, he returned to Jerusalem to find the driver who turned his world upside down. Prager tells his story and asks deep questions of identity, self-deception and destiny.

The NPR TED Radio Hour on Newstalk 106-108 FM, this Sunday at 6pm. 

Listen back to TED Radio Hour 'Turning Points' here.