Happy You Asked: The Podcast That Explores Happiness One Awkward Conversation at a Time

With me in this episode is Dr. Aaron B. Daniels, Associate Teaching Professor of Psychology and a Senior Mindfulness Fellow at Northeastern University. He is a former psychotherapist and a Certified Spiritual Director who has published six academic books. We talk about how his work on Dante, Jung, aliens, and mindfulness led him to see spiritual direction as a key to a content life.

Joining me in this episode is Dr. Kostadin Kushlev, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University who runs the Happy Tech Lab. He studies how smartphones, social media, email, and constant digital connectivity affect our happiness and health. It’s not all doom and gloom, though! There’s also practical advice for how to use digital devices to enhance our lives rather than make them more stressful.

This episode features Ray Raghunathan, author of If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Happy? and the creator of a Coursera course on happiness that's one of the most popular MOOCs ever made. We discuss why happiness and success often do not go hand in hand, because we so often chase the wrong things.

Dr. Earlene Avalon joins me for this episode to discuss the self-care practices she’s developed over time that incorporate beloved aspects of her family’s background. We also reflect on how self-compassion has looked differently for both of us during different eras of our lives, which is a testament to the human ability to adapt.

In this episode I am joined by Dr. Jay Post, a professor of outdoor recreation and tourism. We discuss the history of the outdoors in the U.S., from European explorers mapping the “unknown” wilderness, to the Transcendentalists finding divinity within nature, to the creation of modern outdoor trails for different experiences. This episode reminded me of one of my favorite quotations from Thoreau’s Walden: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

In this special episode, I reflect on what "home" means and how it relates to our perceptions of happiness.

In this episode I am joined by the Cleveland-based community leader, entertainer, and entrepreneur Ryan “Shug” Gilkerson. We discuss how a meandering career path is, for many of us, the way a life should be.

Dr. Latasha Holt--a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette--joins me to discuss finding joy amongst the stress and challenges of caring for a loved one with medical needs.

In this episode, I am joined by the Executive Director of Main Street Russellville, Danielle Housenick, to discuss how we can intentionally create thriving central hubs and happier communities.

Elizabeth Franks--an educator with over 40 years of experience and a parent to nine children--joins me to discuss the best ways for a community to live as family.