dash

How does one become truly happy? Arthur Brooks, author and Harvard professor, explains.

Throughout his career, Brooks has pinpointed the essence of real happiness. His key insight? Happiness is not just a feeling, it’s a state of mind.

In this interview, Brooks shares three primary elements of well-being, and explains how each one – enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning – contributes to your own happiness factor. Enjoyment, he explains, involves more than mere pleasure—it’s about shared experiences and lasting memories. Satisfaction arises from overcoming challenges, and meaning comes from understanding life’s coherence, significance, and purpose.

Brooks further breaks down the pursuits that genuinely contribute to happiness: faith, family, friendship, and meaningful work. He stresses that happiness is not a final destination but a continuous direction. By focusing on these core aspects, we can build a fulfilling and happier life.

This interview is an episode from ‪‪@The-Well‬, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the ‪‪@JohnTempletonFoundation‬.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Arthur Brooks:

Arthur C. Brooks is a professor at both the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, where he teaches public and nonprofit leadership and management practice. Before joining Harvard in July 2019, he spent ten years as the president of the American Enterprise Institute, a well-known public policy think tank in Washington, DC.

Brooks has written 11 books, including the bestsellers "Love Your Enemies" (2019), "The Conservative Heart" (2015), and "The Road to Freedom" (2012). He writes a column for The Atlantic, hosts the podcast "The Art of Happiness with Arthur Brooks," and is featured in the 2019 documentary "The Pursuit." He also serves on the board of the Legatum Institute, a think tank in London.

----------------------------------------------------

About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

Together, let's learn from them.

Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“People will claim that something is rigorous because it's by an authority figure or it's written in a book. But anyone can write a book.”

We often think the solution to misinformation is fact checking. But just checking facts is not enough. Even if a fact is 100% accurate, it could still be misleading – it could be a large-scale correlation when there’s no causation.

The solution to misinformation is not obtaining a PhD in statistics, London Business School professor Alex Edmans and author of “May Contain Lies” argues. We often already possess the discerning skills to distinguish truth within ourselves.

Misinformation is so prevalent today because we suffer from confirmation bias, or the idea that we have a certain view of the world and we will latch onto any piece of evidence that supports our viewpoint. When we inject skepticism into our thought process, we can overcome these biases.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. https://members.bigthink.com/?utm_sou...

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. https://bigthink.com/plus/great-leade...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Alex Edmans:

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex graduated from Oxford University and then worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking (London) and fixed income sales and trading (New York). After a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, he joined Wharton in 2007 and was tenured in 2013 shortly before moving to LBS.

Alex’s research interests are in corporate finance, responsible business and behavioural finance. He is a Director of the American Finance Association; Vice President of the Western Finance Association; Fellow, Director, and Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Financial Management Association; Fellow of the British Academy; and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. From 2017-2022 he was Managing Editor of the Review of Finance, the leading academic finance journal in Europe.

Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, presented to the World Bank Board of Directors as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talks The Pie-Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business with a combined 2.8 million views. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and World Economic Forum and been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WIRED founder Kevin Kelly explains why progress often looks like dystopia to the untrained eye.

Imagine that tomorrow, the world magically got 1% better. Nobody would notice. But if the world got 1% better every year, the "compounding" effect would be very noticeable — in the same way that compounding grows a bank account.

When technology solves a problem, it creates new problems. The solution is not less technology but better technology.

Kevin Kelly of WIRED magazine calls this incremental progress toward a better world "protopia." Protopia is a direction, not a destiny.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This video is part of The Progress Issue, a Big Think and Freethink special collaboration.

In this inaugural special issue we set out to explore progress — how it happens, how we nurture it and how we stifle it, and what changes are required in how we approach our most serious problems to ensure greater and more equitable progress for all.

It’s time for a return to optimism.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at WIRED magazine. He co-founded WIRED in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. His newest book is The Inevitable, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. He is founder of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily for 20 years. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a subscriber-supported journal of unorthodox conceptual news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. Other books by Kelly include 1) Out of Control, the 1994 classic book on decentralized emergent systems, 2) The Silver Cord, a graphic novel about robots and angels, 3) What Technology Wants, a robust theory of technology, and 4) Vanishing Asia, his 50-year project to photograph the disappearing cultures of Asia. He is currently co-chair of The Long Now Foundation, which is building a clock in a mountain that will tick for 10,000 years

-----------------------------------

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™

► Big Think

The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Train for any argument with Harvard’s former debate coach, Bo Seo. Bo Seo, an author and two-time world debate champion, believes our public conversations are in crisis. To Seo, our arguing skills have collectively atrophied over recent decades, resulting in bad arguments that have caused many people to lose faith in the idea that productive disagreements are even possible. That's why Seo suggests a framework called RISA — which stands for "Real, Important, Specific, and Aligned" — to help people pick their fights more wisely and to give conversations the best possible chance of success. RISA helps individuals find a better way to disagree. Seo believes that by making a contract with the other party and reminding them of the rules, conversations can be productive, and disagreements can lead to progress

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapters for easier navigation:-

0:00 Why you’re losing your arguments

1:11 The making of a world champion

2:17 Intelligence vs wisdom

3:04 The RISA framework

4:29 Applying the RISA framework

6:23 Picking a good fight

7:46 Weak vs. strong arguments

9:21 Side-switch exercises

Listen To This Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

----------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

--------------------------------------

Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster....

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does math have to do with theology? According to Dr. Talithia Williams, a math professor and science communicator, quite a lot.

In just under three minutes, Williams explains how mathematics connects the natural world with deeper ideas of order and purpose. Math, she says, helps us make sense of everything from the migration of fish to the patterns we see in nature, uncovering the structure of our universe.

Dr. Williams believes math is more than just numbers—it’s a universal language that offers insights into our existence. This intersection of math, nature, and culture reveals something deep and profound about our lives and the purpose behind them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Dr. Talithia Williams:

Talithia Williams, PhD, is a Professor of Mathematics and the Mathematics Clinic Director at Harvey Mudd College. She develops statistical models focused on environmental issues, including a cataract model for the World Health Organization to predict surgical rates in Africa.

Known for making complex numerical concepts accessible, Williams inspires others through her dedication to STEM education. Williams has worked with NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the National Security Agency (NSA).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

Together, let's learn from them.

Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen To This Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children OVERVIEW: The school boards around the U.S. who’ve decided to teach children creationism, intelligent design, or whatever you choose to call it, are poking a stick in the eye of anyone who hopes to expand our understanding of the world around us. According to Bill Nye, evolution is such a fundamental scientific truth that…well, watch. If you dismiss evolution, Nye says, how can you get any of the followup questions right? The massive number of generations required for evolutionary changes make obvious the kind of time involved, lengthening the age of the earth from religion’s few thousand years to science’s billions of them. And that expanded view, argues Nye, makes so many other things make sense: If we’ve only been around a little while, for example, what’s the deal with those ancient dinosaur bones and fossils? A belief in deep time is so critical to our understanding of life, the earth, its processes, and the stars above us, that to deny it is to force oneself into settling for ever-more-implausible explanations of what we see around us. What’s got Nye even more chagrined is that it’s one thing to turn your own back on science, but when you pass that outlook on to your children, what’s at risk is nothing less than the creation of a generation whose basic premise—creationism—leads to and answers that just get wronger and wronger. Brilliant young minds consigned to scientific failure from the start. We’d hope for better from educators and parents. Just imagine the things these fresh, inquisitive minds could discover someday. BILL NYE: Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

--------------------------

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From politics to every day life, humans have a tendency to form social groups that are defined in part by how they differ from other groups.

Neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky, author Dan Shapiro, and others explore the ways that tribalism functions in society, and discuss how—as social creatures—humans have evolved for bias.

But bias is not inherently bad. The key to seeing things differently, according to Beau Lotto, is to "embody the fact" that everything is grounded in assumptions, to identify those assumptions, and then to question them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT:

0:00 Intro

0:30 Robert Sapolsky on the hardwiring of social creatures and the “runaway trolley problem.

4:53 Alexander Todorov on typicality and how we perceive faces.

6:46 Dan Shapiro on when tribe loyalty supersedes logic.

8:00 Amy Chua on the importance of grouping our identities.

8:47 Dividing into groups is inevitable,says Sapolsky, but how we divide is fluid.

10:44 Beau Lotto and Todorov discuss how our brains evolved for assumptions and the psychological functions of first impressions.

Our brain evolved to take what is meaningless to make it meaningful. Everything you do right now is grounded in your assumptions. Not sometimes, but all the time.

We are kind of hardwired to figure out the intentions of other people.

We turn the world into us's and thems. And we don't like the thems very much and are often really awful to them.

That's the challenge of our tribalistic world that we're in right now.

ROBERT SAPOLSKY: When you look at some of the most appalling realms of our behavior, much of it has to do with the fact that social organisms are really, really hardwired to make a basic dichotomy about the social world, which is those organisms who count as us's and those who count as thems. And this is virtually universal among humans. And this is virtually universal among all sorts of social primates that have aspects of social structures built around separate social groupings, us's and thems. We turn the world into us's and thems and we don't like the thems very much and are often really awful to them. And the us's, we exaggerate how wonderful and how generous and how affiliative and how just like siblings they are to us. We divide the world into us and them. And one of the greatest ways of seeing just biologically how real this fault line is is there's this hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is officially the coolest, grooviest hormone on Earth because what everybody knows is it enhances mother infant bonding, and it enhances pair bonding in couples.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

@JimLee, President, Publisher, and Chief Creative Officer of @dcofficial tells us how his childhood obsession with Superman changed his life. Jim Lee is synonymous with DC Comics now, but when he was first charting his path, his family pushed him towards medical school. In this interview, Jim shares how he reasoned with his parents and bought time to pursue his dream of being a comic book artist over the span of a gap year.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Jim Lee: Jim Lee, a world-renowned comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher, is currently Chief Creative Officer of DC (DC) and Publisher for the company. Known for his incredibly detailed and dynamic artistic style, Lee is one of the most revered and respected artists in American comics. A veritable legend in the industry, he has received numerous accolades and recognition for his work, including the Harvey Special Award for New Talent in 1990, the Inkpot Award in 1992, and the Wizard Fan Award in 1996, 2002 and 2003. Get Smarter Faster, With Daily Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers......

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

Listen To This Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

----------------------------------------------

Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a world where our decisions are increasingly influenced by data, understanding the information we encounter has never been more essential. Dr. Talithia Williams explains the case for data literacy.

Dr. Talithia Williams, a math professor and science communicator, shares her take on why understanding data is now more important than ever. Using examples like noticing targeted ads after a conversation, Williams shows how data shapes our everyday experiences. But she also warns of the dangers, like biases in data-driven models that can lead to unfair outcomes. While AI and machine learning offer powerful insights, it’s up to us to ensure these tools are used fairly and accurately.

Dr. Williams also emphasizes that by deepening our understanding of data, we can better navigate the challenges that arise in our daily lives. She encourages us to see data not just as numbers, but as a tool for making more informed, fairer decisions in our bewilderingly complex world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Dr. Talithia Williams:

Talithia Williams, PhD, is a Professor of Mathematics and the Mathematics Clinic Director at Harvey Mudd College. She develops statistical models focused on environmental issues, including a cataract model for the World Health Organization to predict surgical rates in Africa.

Known for making complex numerical concepts accessible, Williams inspires others through her dedication to STEM education. Williams has worked with NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the National Security Agency (NSA).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

Together, let's learn from them.

Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You might suppress your emotions when you walk through the door at work. But your colleagues can still feel them. Author Cassandra Worthy explains how to transform negative thoughts into positive ones. Cassandra Worthy, the author of Change Enthusiasm: How to Harness the Power of Emotion for Leadership and Success, believes that emotions can have a uniquely strong influence on our personal and professional lives. According to Worthy, emotions don't turn off when we walk into a business setting or turn on our laptops, and we can catch the emotions of those around us, both positive and negative. This phenomenon is called emotional contagion, and it can have a significant impact on our mood and productivity. Worthy suggests that suppressing emotions can lead to physical ailments and that it's important to acknowledge and transform them instead of ignoring them. Emotions can be transferred, transformed, or conserved, and by becoming more self-aware of our emotions, we can transform negative thoughts into positive ones. This transformation can help us reach our goals and fuel our personal evolution.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

chapters:

0:00 Emotional contagion at work

1:02 5 ‘signal emotions’ we suppress: Fear, frustration, anger, anxiety, grief

2:16 Can physics help? Conserve, transfer, or transform emotion

3:55 Unlocking self-awareness: The weeds and the soil

Listen To This Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

------------------------------------

About Cassandra Worthy: Cassandra Worthy is the world’s leading expert on Change Enthusiasm®. She is lighting the world on fire with her refreshingly unique take on not just ‘managing’ but growing through change. Her leadership development and consulting company Change Enthusiasm Global creates value at the intersection of change and emotion in the workplace. Worthy's mission is to bring this revolutionary and research-backed approach for embracing change and using it to propel you to new heights with people all over the world. She is trusted by clients around the globe including Google, Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, Sanofi, Zoom, and Cisco. After spending nearly 15 years working as an executive within both Procter & Gamble and Berkshire Hathaway thriving through some of the biggest acquisitions ever recorded in the consumer packaged goods industry, Worthy decided to cultivate the mindset and tools she practiced to grow through these disruptions in a way that inspires, invigorates, and motivates others to grow through their greatest change challenges. Change Enthusiasm® has become much more than just a mindset, it's a worldwide movement.

-----------------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

-----------------------------

Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices