The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

Latest Episodes:

How Talking to a Friend Helps (Live at The International Festival of Arts and Ideas) Jul 19, 2024

Show notes

Making shows about her own happiness challenges was both fun and instructive for Dr Laurie, but it also took guts to be so vulnerable and open. She later spoke to her close friend at Yale Dr Tamar Gendler about the experience. This private chat threw up lots of interesting insights, so when the duo were asked to speak at the 2024 International Festival of Arts and Ideas... they decided to share parts of that private conversation with the public.

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A Matter of Life and Death Jul 15, 2024

Show notes

Dr Laurie HATES thinking about her own death. It's scary, creepy and morbid, right? Wrong. Thinking about our finite lives can makes us better, happier people. The shadow of death makes us behave more kindly towards others, and can motivate us both to enjoy the little joys of life and seek out greater fulfilment in our careers and in our relationships.

But you need to look death square in the face - and that's not easy for a thanatophobe like Dr Laurie. To help her, she enlists psychologist Jodi Wellman (author of You Only Die Once: How to Make It to the End with No Regrets) and death doula Alua Arthur (author of Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End).

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Why Don't We Have a 15-hour Work Week? Jul 08, 2024

Show notes

By 2030 we'll only work 15 hours a week, predicted the legendary economist John Maynard Keynes back in 1930. He thought advances in technology and wealth would let us earn enough money to live in a day or two - leaving the rest of the week for leisure and community service.

How wrong he was. We seem to be working more than ever - with technology adding extra tasks to our workdays (like answering emails and monitoring Slack). Dr Laurie longs for more leisure time, but how can she tame her fear of being "unproductive"?

Computer scientist Cal Newport explains how we all got into this mess - and why we still treat modern employees as if they were farm laborers or assembly line workers. Reformed "productivity junkie" Oliver Burkeman also offers tips on how to concentrate our minds on fulfilling and important work - and not little tasks that chew up so much of our days.

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Why We Sabotage Our Future Selves Jul 01, 2024

Show notes

We often do things that will make our lives more stressful or difficult in the future, like overspending when we should save, eating junk food that makes us feel bad, or agreeing to committments when we should protect our free time. Why does it seem like we're always sabotaging our future selves?
University of California Los Angeles' Hal Hershfield helps us find the balance between listening to what we want now and the preferences our future selves might have. And Dr. Laurie steps into an AI time machine to get some happiness advice for herself decades from today.
Try talking to the “you of tomorrow” using the MIT Media Lab’s Future You chatbot.
Experts Mentioned:
- Gal Zauberman, Professor of Marketing, Yale School of Management
Resources Mentioned:
- “Doing Unto Future Selves as You Would Do Unto Others: Psychological Distance and Decision Making," (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2008)
- Tupac Hologram Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre Perform Coachella Live 2012
- Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do by Jeremy Bailenson (2018)
Related episodes of “The Happiness Lab”:
- “How to Kick Bad Habits (and Start Good Ones)”
- “For Whom the Alarm Clock Tolls”
- “Choice Overload”
- “Stop Endlessly Chasing the ‘Next Big Thing’”

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The Power of Awe... and Where to Find it Jun 24, 2024

Show notes

Awe reduces stress, helps us forget our minor worries and makes us feel more connected to the people around us. We all need more awe in our lives - but surely it's not that easy to find awesome experiences on your average Tuesday?

Actor Tony Hale explains how everyday awe helps ease his anxieties, while UC Berkeley's Dacher Keltner shows us how to find awe in music, art, scenery... even in a walk around our block. And Dr Laurie explores the things that give her a sense of awe with the help of Mike Menzel - who built a space telescope that lets us see billions of years into the past.

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How to Tame Stress Jun 17, 2024

Show notes

Dr Laurie is stressed, and it's harming her health. Constant worry and stress is bad for our bodies and our minds, but how can we break the cycle and relax? It turns out scientists have learned a lot from one of America's most stressed-out communities - caregivers.

Hollywood star Steve Guttenberg talks about the toughest chapter of his life - caring for his dying dad - and Dr Elissa Epel explains why some caregivers suffer badly from stress, while others seem to find ways to live with the awful situation they find themselves in daily.

And we find out how stress can be tamed and turned to our advantage with David Yeager.

Further reading:

David Yeager - 10 to 25. The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation And Making Your Own Life Easier

Steve Guttenberg - Time to Thank: Caregiving for My Hero.

Dr Elissa Epel - The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease.

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How to Stop Avoiding Boredom and Embrace Doing Nothing Jun 10, 2024

Show notes

Dr. Laurie used to dread boredom and would do anything—binge watch bad TV, take on extra work, snack endlessly—to avoid it. But boredom is actually an incredibly useful tool to boost our happiness and creativity. With the help of leading boredom experts, Dr. Laurie learns how to embrace doing nothing and finds that in the midst of tedium our brains can come up with amazing breakthrough ideas.
Experts Mentioned:
- Blaise Pascale, 17th-century French philosopher
- Dr. Sandi Mann, Senior Psychology Lecturer, University of Lancashire
- Dr. Jonathan Schuller, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UC Santa
Resources Mentioned:
- “Just Think: The Challenges of the Disengaged Mind,” (Science, 2014)
- “Boredom Proneness Scale-Short Form," (Assessment, 2017)
Related Episodes of "The Happiness Lab":
- "Reconnect with the Moment"
- "The Surprising Science of Creativity"
- "You Only Live Once... So Commit"

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How to Fight Perfectionism Jun 03, 2024

Show notes

Holding yourself to impossibly high standards is self-defeating and makes for a miserable life. Can Dr Laurie Santos find ways to tackle her constant perfectionism so she can perform better and have more fun?

She hears from researcher Thomas Curran about a worrying growth in perfectionism in society, and asks "recovering perfectionist" Jordana Confino how to tackle the nagging voice in your head telling you to always push yourself and work harder.

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My Personal Struggle to be Happy (Coming June 3) May 27, 2024

Show notes

Sometimes the happiness teacher flunks her own class. In a deeply personal new season, Dr Laurie Santos opens up about the things she really, really struggles with. Things like crippling perfectionism, chronic stress and a paralyzing fear of death.

With the help of world-class experts, a Hollywood star and a host of normal people who grapple with the same issues, Dr Laurie will face up to her own happiness demons and try to defeat them.

Coming June 3, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Happiness Through Generosity : Liz Dunn on The TED Interview May 20, 2024

Show notes

Liz Dunn is a regular guest on The Happiness Lab, but in this extended interview with TED's Chris Anderson she take us on a deep dive into her research. It shows that by increasing our generosity and by giving to others we can significantly boost our own happiness.

Listen to more episodes of The TED Interview wherever you get your podcasts.

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