Do self-help books really work?

All your favorite CBC podcasts are now available on YouTube. The best in award-winning true crime investigations, hilarious comedies, vibrant pop culture conversations, and even more audio series are all available on CBC Podcasts YouTube channel. You'll also find exclusive video first episodes, YouTube Shorts, and behind-the-scenes content from our hosts and producers that you can't find anywhere else. So if YouTube is your go-to source for podcasts, just search CBC Podcasts and hit subscribe, and you'll never miss the latest update. [upbeat music]

This is a CBC podcast.

Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current podcast. Mel Robbins, Jay Shetty, Brené Brown, they're all household names.

I just heard about this thing called the let them theory. I freaking love this. If your friends are not inviting you out to brunch this weekend, let them. If the person that you're really attracted to is not interested in a commitment, let them. You think saying no will let the other person down. Well, guess what? When you say yes when you don't want to, you let yourself down and you let that person down.

Don't walk through the world looking for evidence that you're not enough, 'cause you'll always find it. Our worth and our belonging are not negotiated with other people.

Self-help is a multi-billion dollar industry, an entire ecosystem of books, podcasts, social media. Over 10,000 self-help books are published in the United States alone each year. They account for 17% of nonfiction book sales in Canada. How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the most checked out books of all time at the New York City Library. And so we went out onto the streets of Toronto to talk to people about why they turn to self-help.

Self-help books is almost like a guidance. It's not set in stone. It's almost a direction. If I'm going through some kind of minor crisis that doesn't necessarily warrant calling up my therapist, then maybe a self-help book would help. [laughs]

I find self-help books really helpful to understand sometimes how I can improve myself. I really like the ones that help me at work, for example, to be a better leader or to be a better listener.

I've read, like, one, but it's not, like, self-help. Like the habit loop or whatever. I wouldn't, I wouldn't slant or, like, judge self-help generally because anything could be self-help. Like, you read a magazine article that's impactful and you're like, "Oh, I like that and I'm gonna, like, carry myself differently."

What exactly makes a good self-help book? Does self-help actually work? How do you differentiate guru from grifter? [laughs] I'm joined by three people who have thought a lot about this. Beth Bloom is a professor of contemporary literature at Harvard and author of The Self-Help Compulsion: Searching for Advice in Modern Literature. Toni Jones runs an international self-help book club called Shelf Help, and she is the author of the mini self-help book, You! The Beginner's Guide. And Jeremy Stephenson is a clinical psychologist and author of 12 Levers: The Complete Psychological Toolkit for Improving Your Life. Good morning, everyone.

Hello. Good afternoon from the UK.

Hello.

Toni, we'll start with you.