The TED talk that put writer Pico Iyer in “Marty Supreme”

“Marty Supreme” stars Timothée Chalamet as a young, brash table tennis player in the 1950s trying to hustle his way to a world championship. One of the characters standing in Marty’s way is played by frequent guest, Pico Iyer, a TED speaker and travel writer who’d never acted before. In this bonus episode, Iyer shares how a TED talk unexpectedly landed him the role and reflects on how this simple game can teach us to play with someone, not just against them. This bonus episode was released early on TED Radio Hour+. Listeners there get access to regular bonus episodes (like this one) as well as all of our episodes, sponsor-free. That’s because with Plus, you directly support our work and public radio. You can join at plus.npr.org/ted . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

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The TED talk that put writer Pico Iyer in “Marty Supreme” is an episode from TED Radio Hour by NPR.

This episode is 15:19 long.

This episode was published on Mar 18, 2026.

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