The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

Latest Episodes:

How to be Awesome - With Almost no Effort (with John Green) Apr 14, 2025

Show notes

Best-selling author John Green wants to see less suck in the world and more awesome - and you can help achieve that right now! John's turned his attention to tuberculosis (TB) - a disease that is fixable and yet still kills millions of people. But you can stop that.

TB is a disease of poverty - so if you can spare a buck, then you can save lives by donating to GiveDirectly.org/tb

Giving to help others is proven to make us feel happier and more hopeful in tough times, so Dr Laurie will match every dollar up to the first $10,000, and John will match donations up to $10,000 after that.

It's a bad time for people everywhere - but even a dollar donated at GiveDirectly.org/tb will reduce the suck and increase the awesome.

John's new book Everything is Tuberculosis is out now.

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How to Stay Hopeful (Live from SXSW with Michelle Obama) Apr 11, 2025

Show notes

"What can we do to find hope when times are tough?" That was the question posed to Dr Laurie for a live recording of IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson at the 2025 SXSW festival.

Dr Laurie explained what science says about retaining hope and how we can act in ways that make us feel better even in bleak times - and the former First Lady shared her tips for staying hopeful.

IMO is a new show hosted by Michelle and her brother Craig - with guests ranging from Jay Shetty to Seth Rogen.

Listen to IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson wherever you get your podcasts.

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Why You Should Take a Few Months Off Work (Live from SXSW) Apr 07, 2025

Show notes

Sometimes a two-week vacation just isn't enough - we all might need to leave our jobs for three months, six months or even a year. Taking an extended break can be great for our wellbeing - allowing us to recharge our batteries and reassess our priorities.

But for most of us taking a sabbatical feels impossible - so live at SXSW Dr Laurie asked the advice of sabbaticals expert DJ DiDonna. DJ teaches at Harvard Business School and founded The Sabbatical Project - but in a past life he established a hectic start-up and eventually found he was badly in need of an extended career break.

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Friendships: Handling Change, Conflict and Finding New Friends Apr 04, 2025

Show notes

Dr Laurie was invited by her pal Gretchen Rubin to appear on a special edition of the More Happier podcast to examine friendship.

The two old friends were joined in their discussion by a new friend, Reshma Saujani (founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First and host of the podcast My So-Called Midlife).

The trio talked about how our friendships change over time, how to handle conflict, and how to make new friends in adulthood.

Listen to Gretchen's show Happier with Gretchen Rubin and More Happier - and Reshma's My So-Called Midlife - wherever you get your podcast

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Twelve Sayings That Could Change Your Life Mar 31, 2025

Show notes

There are so many happiness lessons to remember - but it helps if we can boil them down into memorable little sayings. Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin has done exactly that in her latest book - Secrets of Adulthood.

Dr Laurie picked twelve of her favorite aphorisms from the book and invited Gretchen along to explore sayings such as “Happiness doesn't always make us feel happy” and “Accept yourself and expect more from yourself”.

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Have You Got Trust Issues? Mar 24, 2025

Show notes

Do you trust your government? Do you trust your neighbors or the strangers you meet on the street? Do you trust the media? Or your teachers? Who we trust is changing. And trust in our institutions and our fellow citizens is in steep decline. That's according to the World Happiness Report. Who we trust can have a huge impact on our behavior and our happiness.

So what's behind the dramatic changes in how we trust? And can we learn to trust in a smarter way? We ask advice from Rachel Botsman, the Trust Fellow at Oxford University's Saïd Business School and author of How to Trust and Be Trusted.

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Why Eating Alone is so Bad for You (An International Day of Happiness Special). Mar 20, 2025

Show notes

It's the International Day of Happiness! It's a chance to talk about happiness and what we can all do to be happier. March 20th also sees the release of the World Happiness Report. A big finding of 2025's report is that more of us are dining alone - and that's bad news.

The report's editor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve talks us through the stark figures showing that shared meals are in decline - while Dr Anne Fishel of The Family Dinner Project gives us her tips on how to dine better with friends, families and colleagues.

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Why We're Better With Some Threats Than Others (An Earth Month Re-Run) Mar 17, 2025

Show notes

Earth Day is coming on April 22, but the whole month is seen as an opportunity to think about environmental issues and what we as individuals can do to help out.

It seemed like a good time to rerun an episode we made with Harvard professor Dan Gilbert about why we humans are great at tackling immediate threats, but find it harder to motivate ourselves to address problems that seem a longer way off. It's why we often don't save for our retirements, and why we're finding it difficult to take action on climate change.

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Harnessing People Around us to Feel Happier (Live with Ethan Kross) Mar 10, 2025

Show notes

Hell is other people. They can upset us, depress us and infuriate us. Their bad moods can bring us down. And their achievements can make us feel like failures. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Psychologist Ethan Kross says there are simple things we can do to make our daily interactions a source of fulfilment and joy.

Ethan's the author of Shift: Managing Your Emotions So They Don't Manage You and founder of the Emotion and Self Control Lab at the University of Michigan

Recorded before a live audience of teen students at Choate Rosemary Hall.

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How to Find Your Purpose Mar 03, 2025

Show notes

What's your purpose? Jordan Grumet thought that becoming a doctor would give his life meaning and direction... but he was wrong. He spent his days doing things he didn't really enjoy and dreaded waking up in the morning.

Finding a purpose that is authentic to you can be transformative - and it doesn't have to be some grand goal like curing a disease or founding a company. Jordan, author of The Purpose Code, explains how we can all find seemingly small and everyday activities which will fill our lives with joy and fulfillment.

Jordan also hosts the Earn & Invest podcast.

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