The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

By Pushkin Industries

Society & Culture Education

What's The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos about?

You might think you know what it takes to lead a happier life… more money, a better job, or Instagram-worthy vacations. You’re dead wrong. Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos has studied the science of happiness and found that many of us do the exact opposite of what will truly make our lives better. Based on the psychology course she teaches at Yale -- the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history -- Laurie will take you through the latest scientific research and share some surprising and inspiring stories that will change the way you think about happiness.

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Ask Us Anything! Laurie and...

05.29.2023

What do you do when you enter "survival mode"? How can you become better at forging social connections? Can you be happy in a sad world? Happiness experts Dr Laurie Santos and Gretchen Rubin came together at Toronto's Hot Docs ...

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos episodes:

05.29.2023 Ask Us Anything! Laurie and Gretchen Take Your Questions (Live from Toronto) What do you do when you enter "survival mode"? How can you become better at forging social connections? Can you be happy in a sad world? Happiness experts Dr Laurie Santos and Gretchen Rubin came together at Toronto's Hot Docs ...
05.22.2023 With Elmo's Help... It's Never Too Early to Learn About Happiness Not matter if you're aged three or 103, you can learn to be happier using pretty much the same strategies. Sesame Workshop and its furry friends have been teaching "emotional ABCs" alongside literacy and numeracy for decades. So in collaboration ...
05.15.2023 Can Spiritual Experiences and Psychedelics Make us Happy? (LIVE from DC) More than a third of us admit to having had a spiritual experience. We might have been profoundly moved by a sunset or a painting; or felt that we've connected with our god or with the entire world around us. ...
05.08.2023 Why We're Mean to Our Future Selves (LIVE from Boston) Who do we volunteer to run a gruelling half-marathon? Who do we expect to give up sugar, or quit drinking? Who do we demand clears out the garage in the middle of summer? Ourselves. Mean, right? Turns out we make ...
05.01.2023 The Man Who Invented Happiness Science: Marty Seligman When Marty Seligman started his long scientific career, psychologists concentrated on studying "misery and suffering" and what made people sad. But Marty wanted to discover what made happy people, well, happy. His research laid the foundations of "positive psychology" and ...
04.24.2023 Smell, Taste and Touch: How to Joyfully Awaken Your Senses Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin was warned that her eyesight was in peril. It shocked her into realising she'd taken all of her five senses for granted - and so she resolved to wring every ounce of joy from the sights, ...
04.17.2023 Sight and Sound: How to Joyfully Awaken Your Senses Are you seeing what you look at? Or tuning in to the noises all around you? We take our senses for granted - particularly when it comes to the sights and sounds of our everyday lives. Exploring your senses can ...
04.10.2023 Do We Need a New Word for 'Happiness'? Katie Couric talks to Dr Laurie Santos Laurie swaps seats in the studio to be interviewed by none other than Katie Couric. In this episode of Next Question with Katie Couric, Laurie's asked to define happiness; outline the best steps to reach it; and give an honest ...
04.03.2023 Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: Sikhism and Daily Habits Following 9/11, Simran Jeet Singh's Sikh family in Texas was subjected to extreme racist abuse. And yet, Simran's father chose to look on the bright side and offer thanks instead for the acts of kindness friends and neighbors showed them. ...
03.27.2023 Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: Sikhism and How We're All Connected Educator and author Simran Jeet Singh is Sikh. Most of his fellow Americans have no idea what Sikhism is - causing some to treat Simran with suspicion and hostility. But one of the key teachings of his religion is that ...
03.20.2023 Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: Yoga of the Mind We often think of yoga as a physical exercise - but a centuries-old Sanskrit text, The Yoga Sutras, share teachings intended to improve both the body and mind. The author, Patanjali, makes clear that the poses and stretches are only ...
03.13.2023 Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: The Trauma of Troy In Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid, few Trojans survive the destruction of their city at the hands of their Greek enemies. A prince, Aeneas, leads a band of those fleeing Troy - but the journey is fraught with deadly storms ...
03.06.2023 Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: The Anger of Achilles Achilles has anger issues. The great Greek warrior sits out most of the Trojan War because he's angrily sulking. When he finally enters battle, he does so in a fit of rage that causes him to commit atrocities and bring ...
02.27.2023 Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: Aristotle and Plato ICYMI The Greek thinker Socrates was put to death for encouraging his students to question everything - from their own beliefs to the laws and customs of Athenian society. But his ideas didn't die with him. Here's a chance to hear ...
02.20.2023 Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: Socrates and Self-Knowledge Question everything... that's a key insight from the great Greek philosopher Socrates. We may think we know ourselves and what makes us happy... but that's not always true. Yale professor Tamar Gendler says that by harnessing our "inner Socrates" we ...
01.30.2023 The Happiness of Silence We're surrounded by noise. That "noise" can be actual sounds - but also other annoyances and distractions that make it hard for us to concentrate or think clearly. And it's only getting worse - we're all being bombarded with more ...
01.23.2023 Stop Looking for the Perfect Job - a "Good Enough Job" is Just Fine We can put huge amounts of physical and emotional energy into our jobs - even basing our self-worth on our achievements at work and letting ourselves be defined by what we do. So have our careers taken over too much ...
01.16.2023 A Daily Workout to Tackle Nagging Self-Criticism Lots of us hit the gym in January to get fit - but should we also be exercising our minds in preparation for tough times? A daily "self-talk workout" might be just as beneficial as squats and push-ups, says Seattle ...
01.09.2023 How to Eat Intuitively Everyone has a view about what you should eat and how much. We're so bombarded with fad diets, fasting plans and nutritional advice that we can bounce from one way of eating to another without stopping to think: "What do ...
01.07.2023 From Ten Percent Happier: The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness \| Part 1 Here's a preview of another podcast we love, Ten Percent Happier. Host Dan Harris flies to Dharamsala, India to spend two weeks in the orbit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is the first installment of a five-part audio ...
01.02.2023 Stop Endlessly Chasing the "Next Big Thing" We're often looking into the future... hunting for the "next big thing". That could be an exciting new job or a new relationship. We can get so fixated with these events and the happiness we hope they'll deliver, that we ...
12.19.2022 Coming Jan 2: Let Your Inner Voice be Heard in 2023 At the start of a new year there are plenty of voices telling us to get fit; go on a diet; or supercharge our careers. This advice might be well-intentioned, but it can also be DEAFENING!!! In 2023, try listening ...
11.29.2022 Giving Tuesday: Why Giving Money to Others Makes us Happier Money can buy you happiness - but not in the way we think. Giving money away - especially to help others - has been shown make us happier than spending on ourselves. Social psychologist Lara Aknin explains the best ways ...
11.07.2022 Happier Parents, Happier Kids Pt 2: Letting Children Try and Fail It's tempting to tie a child's shoe lace, tidy their rooms or help with their science projects - to see that these tasks are done right - but parents are depriving their kids of the valuable experience of falling, failing, ...
10.31.2022 Happier Parents, Happier Kids Pt 1: Your Child Isn't a VIP or a Fragile Vase Rosy had a packed schedule of lunches, meet-ups and activities - and she was only three. Mom Michaeleen Doucleff felt she couldn't waste a second of her daughter's time. Rosy needed to be constantly lectured and stimulated if she was ...
10.24.2022 Hulking Out! Why You Change When You're Angry When mild-mannered David Banner gets mad he transforms into the raging Incredible Hulk. Dr Laurie Santos loves this comic book tale - because it reflects real life. Intense things like anger, pain, even hunger, can cause us to act in ...
10.17.2022 You Only Live Once... So Commit YOLO seems like the perfect rock 'n' roll philosophy. You only live once... so do whatever seems right in the moment. Be spontaneous. Quit your job; find a new person to date; and always, always keep your options open. We ...
10.10.2022 The Fun of Eating a Pepper Hotter Than the Sun There is nothing hotter than Puckerbutt Farm’s Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce... and author Leigh Cowart gargles it for FUN!!! Why do we sometimes get a happiness high from painful and scary things? And what if we want to experience the ...
10.06.2022 From Revisionist History: The Starvation Experiment We’re sharing a bonus episode from another Pushkin podcast, Revisionist History. Revisionist History is Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast about things misunderstood and overlooked. This season, Malcolm’s obsessed with experiments – natural experiments, scientific experiments, thought experiments. In this episode, Revisionist History ...
10.03.2022 Why Living Without Regret is a Bad Idea Regret sucks. Thinking back on things we should have done, or should never have done, can make us feel bad. But #noregrets isn't a philosophy for a happy and healthy life. Regrets can be a great guide and can help ...
09.26.2022 The Handbook for Sonic Happiness - A Twenty Thousand Hertz/Happiness Lab Mash-up Some sounds bring happy memories flooding back. Other sounds put us on edge; drive us to distraction; or cause us considerable distress. Sound matters... so why don't we pay more attention to our sonic environment? In a mash-up with our ...
09.19.2022 Move to Your Happy Place People who live in some places are happier than others. But if you move to a happy country, happy city or happy district, will it make you feel better? And what can do if you can't uproot from your current ...
09.12.2022 Nerd Out! The Happiness of Being a Fan Really love a TV show; a boyband; a sci fi movie; or a celebrity? We're often too embarrassed to admit adoring some things for fear that we'll be seen as frivolous or childish - but we may be missing out ...
09.06.2022 The Secret to Making Friends as an Adult Loneliness is a far more common and far more serious problem than we think. It affects one in five Americans, and takes a toll on our bodies and minds. To thrive we need to several types of social interactions - ...
08.22.2022 The Joy of Star Trek, The Grateful Dead and Hot Sauce: The Happiness Lab Returns September 6 Happiness can be found in unusual places. Dr Laurie Santos returns with a new season that takes us to the fun frontiers of fandom with Star Trek's Wesley Crusher; to the world's happiest country in the depths of winter; and ...
08.01.2022 Q: "What Did the Pandemic Teach Us About Happiness?" Covid brought disruption and despair... but it also caused many of us to think about our lives and what is most important to us. Listener Dr Amy Comander, Director of Lifestyle Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, wants ...
07.25.2022 Q: "How Do I Stop Negative Self-talk?" It can speak to us in the middle of a work project, the middle of a date, or the middle of the night. The critical voice in our head telling us we're just not good enough and we're headed for ...
07.18.2022 Q: "Can You Be Happy Alone?" Since Covid hit, many of us have seen fewer people and experienced more loneliness. Listener Ivana Cole wants to know what we can do to reconnect and asks, if we can't reconnect: "Can we be happy alone?" Dr Laurie Santos ...
07.11.2022 Malala on Burnout, Guilt and How to Disagree Better Nobel Peace Prize winners feel burnout too. Malala Yousafzai - who survived an assassination attempted by the Taliban - works tirelessly so that more women and girls can access education. But she often feels guilty at taking time off, but ...
07.11.2022 Q: "Are We Born to Work? Or Born to Live?" Listener Niki Walker has a question... in our busy, career-driven, money-oriented live, are we forgetting to make time for more important things? In our first episode fielding questions from fans of The Happiness Lab, Dr Laurie Santos looks at the ...
07.04.2022 Laurie Answers Your Happiness Questions - Coming July 11 What would you ask a wellbeing expert? Dr Laurie Santos is back with a special season of The Happiness Lab fielding listener questions about work, relationships and getting back out into the world after Covid. She'll be joined by fellow ...
02.21.2022 Burnout and How to Avoid It If you dread getting out of bed in the morning; if you are bad tempered with co-workers, clients or customers; if you leave work feeling an exhaustion that goes way beyond tiredness... it could be that you're burned out. Jonathan ...
02.14.2022 Fighting that "Meh" Feeling of Languishing Psychologist and writer Adam Grant used every second of his day to the fullest... until he was struck by feelings of emptiness and stagnation. His sleep patterns changed, his productivity dipped, he found himself breaking his own rules by aimlessly ...
02.07.2022 When Guilt is Good... and When it's Not If you've done something wrong, feelings of guilt can prompt us to apologise, make amends and change our ways. But many of us also feel guilty with little cause. We may think we're bad parents, lazy or incompetent workers, or ...
01.31.2022 Embracing Sadness in the Pursuit of Happiness We react to sadness in a variety of unhelpful ways. We try to suppress it. We experience guilt over it and apologise to the people around us for feeling it. We assume it means we've failed. We even fear it. ...
01.24.2022 How to be Angry Better Anger is a powerful signal that you or someone you value is in danger. But in our normal lives the sensations of rage we experience are false alarms - we aren't in real peril and we don't need to resort ...
01.17.2022 Stepping Off the Path of Anxiety Many of the most painful or troubling emotions we experience are reactions to events that have actually happened - but one powerful and sometimes paralyzing feeling can be provoked by things as yet to occur. Say hello to anxiety. Psychotherapist ...
01.10.2022 The Paradox of Grief Most of us don't like to think about death - and when we experience a bereavement we're often not prepared for the pain or willing to confront all the feelings grief can bring. Psychotherapist Julia Samuel says the paradox of ...
01.10.2022 The Eight Pillars of Grieving Grief is a simple enough word, but the emotional journey it describes is chaotic, messy and unique to each person. Psychotherapist and bereavement expert Julia Samuel (www.grief-works.app) joins Dr Laurie Santos for the second time to describe strategies which we ...
01.03.2022 Emotions Are Data...So Listen to Them Uncomfortable emotions such as anger, guilt or loneliness are like the guiding beam of a lighthouse - they warn you of dangers ahead and help you navigate a meaningful life more effectively. Harvard Medical School psychologist Susan David tells Dr ...

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