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Well, just a couple hours ago, Vice President jad Van, Special ENVOYE d Witcop and Jared Kushner met with Pakistan's Prime minister ahead of these highly anticipated peace talks between the US and iron We're going to go live to Pakistan in a moment, but joining us now Bloomberg's Israel Bureau chief Evan Brauner and White House correspondent Katherine Lucy Ethan.
I want to start with you because in Pakistan we have representatives from Iran and representaters from the United States, but not there and not represented is anyone from Israel. Is it possible for this war to end without Israel's participation in peace talks.
Uh, sure, I mean I think that you know, Israel is being informed by the United States on a sort of a side channel. So I don't think that's a problem. It would have been surprising if Israel would have shown up in Pakistan. There are no diplomatic relations in Pakistan, and Israel would have been complicated. And this is you know, negotiation with the United States and Iran. So I don't think that is the biggest problem.
No, So what is the biggest problem? I mean, there are quite a.
Few, but well, there are many many problems. Yeah, I mean Israel's presence at the table. I guess it's just not a very high one on the list.
I mean.
The biggest problem, of course, is that the United States and Israel launched this war six weeks ago and thought they could effectively take a heart that regime and force change, and found that the regime was far more resistant than
they expected. And the regime's survival and even Friday on some level in Iran, has allowed it to take control of the Strait of Weremus to sort of have a stranglehold over a large part of the world economy through that, and has you know, caused enormous political problems for President Trump, so he would like to find a way to wrap this up, you know, assuming you take seriously the goals he set for this war along with Israel, those.
Have not been met.
So to end it and not reach those goals, what does that mean for the security issues that he raised? On the other hand, to not end this war and allow oil and fertilizer and all the other issues that we're facing to go forward when most people did not consider this a necessary war also seems unlikely. I would say it's very gloomy picture. Frankly from the points of view of the United States.
Katherine, I want to go to you because I think I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Do we have any more information from the White House about when these talks are going to start, because it's already getting quite late in the afternoon in Pakistan, what the format of them is going to be, and how long they're willing to stay there. Are we still planning on only one day of talks regardless of the outcome?
Yeah, thanks so much. I mean, you know, we don't have a lot of information about how this is going to unfold. Obviously, we know that Vice President Vance is over there to lead this, you know, it's Jerry Kushner and Witkoff. They are they have already had this initial meeting with Pakistan, but we're still waiting, honestly for more information about how this is going to unfold, how this is going to proceed. And this is a very high
stakes moment for the Vice president. You know, we've never really seen him play this kind of role on the world stage before. It's kind of a classic vice president assignment which is high risk but potentially some reward. You know, it would help him obviously if he can help broker some kind of deal here as he looks ahead potentially to twenty twenty eight, but he could get saddled with a lot of blame if these there is there are no wins out of these talks today.
Yeah, yeah, Catherine, I want to talk a little bit more about that and Jady Vance's role here. There was that reporting earlier this week from The New York Times Maggie Harman and Jonathan Swan about what actually happened in the situation room and who felt what about this war and Jady Vance was sort of alone in his opposition to this, and he served in the military. He's against these forever wars. He is opposed and has been opposed
to different conflicts. I'm just curious what that means to send him as the lead negotiator somebody who, you know, based on reporting and what we've read, really didn't want to be attacking Iran in the first place.
Well, certainly we know that, you know, in those a conversation to events, was you know, among the more skeptical or certainly someone who wanted to you know, sort of have a more robust debate, bring more information to the president. And yes, he has a history of raising concerns and expressing anxiety about forever wars. So that is that is a key dynamic going into this. And the President was influenced by a lot of folks from outside of the White House as he made the decision to do this.
Also important to note that Jadvance has been very ear publicly the once the President made the decision, he was with him. He has he has defended it, he has he has been vocal about that and that he is,
you know, part of his team. I mean, the thing is that sending him over there really, you know, sort of saddles him with it, right, It puts it around his neck as well, and there's no way for him to distance himself from this war now, given that he is now really sort of taking a leading role in in the diplomacy here.
Yeathan, I want to ask you about the role of nationalism, because this is something we've seen time and time again, and where countries who may not like their leader go into a conflict, go into war and kind of close ranks behind them. And what I'm hearing from Iranian friends and people I know who have family there is that they hated this regime. Many of the ones I've spoken to are not friends of the Ayatola, of the clerics.
They are happy to see them go.
But the way the US has gone about this conflict is not making friends and winning over hearts and minds, and Iranians are almost starting to close rank.
Do you think the.
Scorched earth tactics we've seen in some places from the US have made it harder for a moderate regime to come in and take hold into ihran.
I do I think the things you said are very likely to be true. I mean this has been this was even a year and plus ago in the twelve Day War in June of twenty five. The question is, you know, raised both here and in the United States and generally that this is a very unpopular regime. They were barely able to keep the lights on in Iran, there were droughts. This is a country that's oil rich and spending vast sums of money on his belah and the hutis and hamas instead of on its own people.
And obviously the idea was that people are unhappy and want to get rid of it. But if an outside force comes and starts to bomb the place, and the natural reaction is to gather around those, you know, your own people, And it looks like that's kind of what's happened. I mean, you know, it's also true that this government in Iran is I think, was far more skill at decentralizing its command structure and so on. Vast country almost the size of Western Europe, ninety plus million people.
You know, this was not a.
Venezuela Mark II situation. And the Israelies and the Americans, at least the Americans led by President Trump, seemed to hope and believe that it might be. And I think that you're right. It's all kinds of things have happened that not what they expected, including a sense among a bunch of Iranians. And we don't have any polls, just the impressions that you've laid out that they're angrier at the outsiders than they are at their own government.
Hey, Ethan, we've spoken to you quite a bit over the last two and a half years, and one thing that we've learned is that you've spent more time in your bomb shelter along with your fellow Israeli people who live in Israel in your family than you would have liked to, especially over the last few weeks. And I'm wondering if that has changed, and how much that has changed since Tuesday and since this fragile ceasefire, Well.
It's completely changed. I still you're looking at me in my bomb shelter because it happens to be my study. But after the ceasefire was announced, there has been very little There was a Hisbolla missile that reached Tel Aviv the night before last, but generally people are out. I just actually came back from the seaside where I had lunch, and lots and lots and lots of people are out, So there is generally a set of security now in this moment of ceasefire, for sure, Catherine.
Meanwhile, the President, who has dispatched as Vice President overseas, is not in Washington this weekend. He's in Florida for he had an invention in Schotz Building on Florida for I believe a UFC fight. And then we have some comments from him on this whole thing before he got on his plant of Virginia on Friday.
The Strait will open up if we just left. The straight's gonna otherwise. They make no money, so the Strait's gonna open. But what we have is no nuclear weapon. But we'll open the Straight anyway. Don't forget we don't use the straight. Other countries use the straight. So we do have other countries coming up and they'll help out, but we don't use it. It won't be easy. It won't be I would say this.
We will have that open fairly soon.
Do you think the President has essentially moved on from this? He seems to think it's going to resolve itself.
No, moved on, And one tiny thing. He was in Virginia yesterday at this event. He actually went back to the White House last night, and he's expected to come down to Florida where it is just that said tiny programming note. Yeah, he's supposed to that he is. Yes, he is supposed to attend a UFC fight in Miami tonight, that is the expectation, and and then be here from part of the weekend. I think that he has made
very clear he would like to move forward. I mean he also said in those comments to reporters, you know, they've effectively defeated around you know, they're they're you know, it's basically done. And you've seen him laying that kind of rhetorical groundwork for some time. Right, We've heard and talk about how this is that basically this mission is basically accomplished. They've done what they've gave way they've wanted
to do, whether or not that is the case. And I think what's happening obviously, and this is referred to the I mean, he is under an immense amount of pressure about domestic gas prices, about public opinion polling, and about the midterm election, which we're already expected to be challenging for Republicans and now we're looking increasingly dire.
I mean, the.
Public is not sold on this war and the rise in gas prices is only sort of juicing frustration that was already there over the cost of living and prices.
I want to bring in Philip Crowther. He is joining us, he's AP international correspondent. He's joining us from Islamabad right now, Philip, we're going to get back to the affordability portion of this for American for Americans and especially as Republicans and Democrats go into the midterms in just a few months. But since you are in Islamabad, just bring us up to date on what has happened with negotiators. What's the latest that you're hearing on the ground between the US, Iran and Pakistan.
Yeah, this is where we have to start talking about what direct talks and what indirect talks are between the United States and Iran.
That is why we're here in Islamabad.
That is why there is a mediator between Iran and the United States and a host of course for these talks about the ceasefire, maybe peace talks eventually. So what Pakistan is doing right now is it is meeting through its Prime Minister Sharif with the two delegations, a meeting with the Iranian delegation has already happened. Iran represented here
by its parliament speaker and by its foreign minister. Of course, as you know, on the US side, it's Jdevans, the Vice President, Steve Whitcoff, the chief negotiating Jared Kushner as well. They have also now met with the Pakistani Prime Minister. Now, that's how these talks tend to work, because the United States and Iran obviously don't see eye to eye together and don't tend to be seen in the same room together either.
It's what often.
Happens with warring factions. You need a mediator in the middle, and that is Pakistan here. Of course, the hope here is that eventually, after those meetings are done, that there might be a rap roshamo, if you will, between Iran and the United States and actual physical rap rosh more here in Islamabad, and that they will actually be able to sit not necessarily side by side, but opposite each other in a negotiating room here in the Pakistani capitol.
Now it's important to note though that there are obviously huge differences between these two sides when it comes to extending this very tenuous ceasefire, maybe reaching some kind of a peace agreement, and that starts with Iran setting some preconditions to even meet in the first place. With the
American delegation. The Iranians say that they want some of their frozen assets released in Qatar, for example, and that they want a ceasefire that is very tenuous right now, to also include Israeli attacks on Hesbala targets in Lebanon. That clearly hasn't happened over the last twenty four hours. So there is still a small question mark over whether we're going to see these actual face to face meetings between the US and Iranian delegations. Even if they don't,
there can still be a successful outcome here. But it is a sign of how these two sides, even though they used to negotiating with each other, they obviously don't see isoi with each other.
Well, if you're speaking music to my diplomatic reporter's heart, because I have also been trying to explain to folks that just because they're in the same city doesn't mean they're in the same room. Even if you see a photo of them, that doesn't mean that's where the negotiations are taking place. Normally with Iran, previously, when the Qataris and the Omanis have been moderating. They've been doing exactly what Philip was saying, essentially passing notes back and forth, delivering terms.
But Philip, you know this, that takes a long time. And when I've interviewed.
High profile diplomats who facilitated these talks, even they express frustration about how long indirect talks take.
It's getting late there. They're not even like really going with this. What are they going to get done.
In the day that they've laid out? Do you think these are going to drag on? Or do you think they're going to say this is great, let's try again next week.
Well, okay, It all depends on what you might consider a measure of success in these talks. From the Pakistanis, they as mediators are already very proud. I can tell you that they are hosting these talks in the first place, and that they are seen as the country responsible for bringing this ceasefire to a reality in the first place.
So for the organizers here, maybe a sign of success would be for these two delegations yes to meet, maybe indirectly, maybe directly, at a very high level, and for them to get along just about enough for there to be further technical talks as they're called. This means that lower ranked delegations might still remain here in Islamabad, or some might be flown in from Tehran and from Washington, for example, and that they will then be able to hash out
some of the crucial differences. How does one come to an understanding when the United States wants the nuclear program in Iran curbed or almost halted entirely, and when Iran says it has a right to a nuclear program.
How do they get to an actual agreement?
How the Strait of Hormues might be reopened when the United States it says it has to be open to all, or even the United States might want to make some money with it, and Iran says that it wants control over the straight and actually makes some money with it, as it has been doing over the last few weeks in the first place, huge differences between these two countries, obviously, but that doesn't mean that there can't be some kind of a successful outcome.
And that's diplomatic speak as well.
You might not come to a huge signed agreement here later tonight here in Islamabad, but you might see the two delegations saying, you know what, we have enough of an understanding to keep on meeting and to keep on working on this whole thing.
Bill Crowther, Associated Press International Correspondent joining us from Islamabad. I want to go back to Katherine Lucy, who is our White House correspondent joining us right now, and just Catherine bring you into the conversation about the question of success. And we heard from Philip just now, Okay, what success could look like to Pakistan and from a diplomatic angle, but how does JD Vance return from this trip and say that was successful?
What does that look like?
I mean, I think there's a lot of what if baked into that question, right, But I think one thing we've seen from President Trump that could extend here is that he is very good at sort of picking the things that he wants to emphasize and trying to declare wins when he can. If there is progress, I think that is what they will point to, right right, So if they can say we've moved forward on this talk
continue you know, this was a good first day. I mean, and of course obviously if there's more, they will they if they if they reach a full deal, I think, you know, that's obviously a big win for them. But I think as long as they can cite that this is moving forward, I think they will try, and they could try and sort of argue that that was a was a good day.
Ethan quickly before we have to let you go.
Does Benjamin that nawho want these negotiations to be successful?
I guess it.
Depends on how you define success. If success means that the American demands that in the program they put forward an ending of all enrichment, the ending of the nuclear program, the ending of the ballistic program that cut off from the proxies, then I think he'd be delighted. He said so from the beginning, you know, and if a diplomatic solution can do it, great, But the likelihood, of course, given where we are, is that those things will not
emerge from this. And in that sense, i'd say you're right to ask the question that he remains skeptical, and of course for him, for Israelis, it's a much more immediate danger from their perspective to have Iran back on the horse and agreeing to make money in the Strait and so on. So certainly a fair amount of concern here that this may happen in a way that will not be good for this country.
All right.
Ethan Browner are Israel BUA chief and Catherine Lucy are White House corispondent.
Thank you both so much.
Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend right after this, Welcome back to Bloomberg this weekend.
I'm Chrisina Raffini.
And I'm Tim Stenebeck.
What's going on with airlines?
I don't know.
It's so expensive and I hate flying, and I always want to upgrade, and then I'm too cheap to do I do.
For as much as I've travel, there's been a fifty plus countries. I hate flying. Ika do it, but I don't like it.
We're gonna have to work on that.
I know there's going to be I feel like there's a lot of travel at your near future.
I'll go.
I just want to upgrade myself, but it's getting too expensive.
To do that.
Well, that's why we're bringing in Katie Nastro. She's the going dot com travel expert, and we're talking about not just rising energy prices, but what these airlines are doing as a result of these rising energy prices. We've heard from a few airlines recently Jet Blue, Delta among them. They're not just raising ticket prices to deal with this, but raising bag fees to do this. Why are they raising prices in both areas when airline tickets are so dynamic.
To begin with.
Yeah, look, you know, two things can be true at once. You know, the price of airfare can rise, cheap flights can also exist, But that doesn't necessarily mean that that is working for airlines. You know, airlines are really feeling the pressure from this additional cost, and they're looking at ways to protect their margins. So they're really looking to be creative here, and one of such ways is looking
at ancelerities like bag fees. And it's sort of a win win for the airlines in this stage because yes, they're getting extra revenue from these increased bag fees, but then they're also not subject to a seven point five excise tax that they put on basefares that they are subject to, so that's more money.
In the pocket as well. As they have now this framing.
This justification of higher jet fuel prices, and they can always push back and say, you know what, you don't have to check a bag even though the prices have risen, But do travelers. Can they just decide not to check a bag? We ask that question for families that unfortunately are feeling the pressure of having or needing to check a bag.
So it's really a win.
Win for the airlines and he lose lose for travelers, especially when yes, base fares have increased. Domestic prices for summer just for example, according to our going data, up eighteen percent, international fairs up seven and a half percent. So unfortunately, this summer specifically is really going to be challenging for that cost conscious traveler.
I'm starting to get very mad at David Gerra who is taking his vacation now and smartly already planned this, whereas I was waiting till the end of summer.
Right shoulder season is a good deal.
But my concern is that.
When we see industries raise these prices, they don't tend to go back down because consumers get used to it.
That threshold sticks.
We very rarely if oil prices go down, see those other prices go back down. Do you think these increase bag fees will stay at this level.
I really hope I'm wrong, But I am not a betting woman, but I would bet that these fees.
Are here to stay.
They're pretty sticky.
Historically, we have seen bag fees risen every few years, and it's likely that this was in airlines playbook all the long. But we have this perfect time frame now to raise fees.
And have a justification to do so as well.
As you know, Jeff Blue really started the trend and then United joined and if you noticed, it's a herd mentality. You know, if one airline dois, if one does it, it's a green light for everybody else. And unfortunately, again travelers are looking at this to.
Be the new norm.
Is it a way to creatively get us to buy sort of that more expensive tier ticket too, because if you think about it from you know, the perspective of these airlines, they have these different tiers of service. So even the big three have these basic economy fairs to try to compete with the ultra low cost carriers. So if you're in basic economy, maybe you don't get you to choose a seat or to check a bag.
You get to pay to check a bag.
But then if you buy that one tier higher you can get some of those things and maybe those margins are better.
Yeah, it's unfortunately feeling like you are being punished for just trying to get a base fair. We call basic economy just the base fair. It is basically just a seat at this point, and so we want travelers not to feel like there are no options, because actually there are options. When you do buy up, you are giving yourself the flexibility of taking advantage of price drops when
and if they occur. And that is one huge tip that we would impart on anybody that is looking to fly in the near future that's worried about higher costs, especially for summer. When you book that main economy fair, you have the flexibility to take advantage of a notification when it comes in, whether it's on Google Flights, whatever tracking you have, maybe.
It's on the going app.
Call the airlines, they reprice you and then you get a credit for the difference to use in the future within the year, so you're never actually losing out when you book that higher fair US. However, yes, it is a more exive expensive ticket on the upfront.
All right, before we let you go. It's not just flights.
This is impacting cruises as well, cruises light It's like the family bargain basement travel. I have so many friends who describe themselves as vietmamely not cruise people. But then they need to do a vacation with tiny children and older parents and families who can't decide, and they've all gone on a cruise and said, you know what, it was perfect.
But it was affordable.
It makes sense that people are looking at alternatives. We are looking at all inclusives, domestic all inclusives. Vegas just announced some of that is being implemented. Cruises always a family favorite because you know what your bottom line cost is going to be. However, written into cruise contracts is little stipulations surrounding that there may be fees after the fact,
even after you paid. Now it varies across cruise lines, but that's something that travelers really need to be aware of, and unfortunately, again it's looking to be a challenge for those cost conscious travelers this year, specifically families.
Okay, just settle this in the last twenty seconds that we have. If you once in facial challenge, no challenge. They are a best time to buy an airline ticket, a best day of the week to do it.
Or have they just gotten so.
Smart there were a certain number of weeks out.
Yeah, no, she's just shaken air, complete myth that two pm on a Tuesday is going to be the best time four three am on a Saturday.
Whatever it is.
Your your booking window, your goldilocks window of how early ahead of your flight that you book is the best strategy that you can impart. Don't wait till last minute, but don't wait, don't book super super early. Somewhere in that juicy middle.
Are you going on a trip this summer?
Always?
Where are you going? Did you find a good deal?
I already booked my flight to Seoul, South Korea for fifty nine round trip.
That was a stay fair that we found over it going.
Yeah, but I really get to see nothing else. You have to bring your own food for the whole flight.
All right, See you, Katie, Asta, thank you so much for joining us.
I have an excellent trip.
Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend right after this, it's the weekend, and that of course means it's time to tackle really simple questions like what is the meaning of life?
And how do I find existential happiness?
Those are loaded questions.
Here we go.
Our next guest is as Arthur Brooks. He's a Harvard professor. He's also a happiness expert, and he is the author of a new book. Yes, it is the meaning of your life finding purpose in an age of emptiness.
That is a tough one in itself, right there, Arthur, Thanks for Arthur j.
Yeah, that's great to see you.
Yeah.
I got to start with this because you talk to a lot of people.
So in this book you kind of uncovered this similar theme on people who felt like they were stuck in this simulation.
So there was a quote in there. I want to read it to you.
Life felt unreal, full of false rewards, empty accomplishments, therapeutic talk, fake experiences, all curated to pass the time as painlessly as possible.
I mean, does life like this for so many people?
Really a lot, especially for young adults.
I teach graduate students at the Harvard Business School, you know, and a lot of people who watch us here in Bloomberg they went to the Harvard Business School and they have an experience. They remember their time as one of real life and real relationships. And a lot of our students today are not having that experience. And the reason is because their lives are mediated by technology. When you put technology between you and the rest of the world,
What happens is you get a simulated life. What I show in this book, what I show in this research, is that simulation you wake up and you look at your phone and you scroll while you eat breakfast, you go to work on zoom, you date online, you game after work, whatever it happens to be. The truth is that you lose the sense of real life. And what that does is it changes the functioning of your brain and you lose the most important thing in life, which
is the understanding the meaning of your life. I talk about the science behind that. Most importantly, I talk about how you can fix it.
Is it that they're holding themselves up to fosse ideals that they're saying online. Is it that they're dulling their ability to interact in real life because they're so used to seeing it through a screen.
Is it all of the above.
It's all of the above.
But fundamentally, what's going on is that when you're having a real life experience, really complex emotions, which you have when you're with other people, you're using the right hemisphere of your brain, which is the why side of your brain, the meaning side of your brain. When you're on technology, you're using the left side of your brain, which is the what and how to side, the engineering side of your brain.
You can't fool your brain.
You can simulate a lot, you can simulate all kinds of experiences, but you can't simulate the meaning of life.
And that leads inexorably.
When you don't know the meaning of your life, when it feels false, you will become anxious. You will become depressed, you will become lonely, and you probably won't know why.
That's why you mentioned earlier, how do you fix it?
Then?
Yeah, The point is that you have to live in a way that used to be ordinary and that actually isn't. Now, this is a real addiction that we have. The average American looks at her his phone two hundred and five times a day.
I have two phones.
I notice you have two phones there, but you have to looked at them the whole time we've been doing this interview.
So I want to congratulate you on that.
It's only been like what happened?
So what happens is that you send your brain activity over to the left hemisphere and you stop doing the real work of mind wandering and thinking about questions of meaning, questions of mystery. The things that actually matter to us. You can't love somebody on the left side of your brain. You can only love somebody on the right side of your brain. Every time you look at your phone, you jar yourself out of the part that actually brings you happiness,
which is obviously a big problem. Now, why did we do it? Is because you know, we don't like being bored. We want to distract ourselves.
So I was just reading that people are like so boredom averse these days, that we're not getting that quiet time in our brain to think about people, we love, things we want to do, even the meaning of life.
Yeah, so when you when you're bored, and by the way, when I mean bored, it's just you're not doing something, your brain naturally goes into the default mode network. That's what we talk about in the behavioral science world. It's a fancy way of saying that your mind wanders. We call it that because we need tenure and we have to make it fancy. But the truth is that mind wan is really important for understanding the meaning of life. That's why you get your best ideas in the shower,
because the phone isn't in there for Pete's sake. But if you're looking at your phone all day long, you'll never be bored, but your life will be weirdly boring. You know, if you think back to your great grandfather, you know he never came home and said to his wife, your great grandma, honey, I had a panic attack behind the mule today. And the reason is because his brain was working the way it was supposed to. He was bored a lot behind that mule. But his life wasn't boring.
But if I talk to a lot of young people today, and by the way, a lot of people my age too, their life is never boring from moment to moment because they've eradicated the boredom problem. But their life is actually really boring. They don't know what they're scrolling, they don't know what they're doing on the internet. They're just staying distracted. Life is like an airport lounge, and the meaning of your life is the flight that never takes off, and
you're just kind of distracting yourself. That's the problem to solve, and you first solve it by trying to eradicate the addiction. You got to break the grip because this is neurochemically functioning like a like a substance or behavioral addiction, and then you have to go live like that.
It gives you.
It's a dopamine.
Sorry, I knew that.
This is why why you have a degree and I do not.
Well, you know it said, but the neuro modulator is very very powerful. That mediates all addictions, to be sure, and it's very easy to break.
Believe it or not.
The grip of addictions over you are very easy to break with certain protocols. Not using your phone intensively for the first hour of the day. I mean you have to, the two of you have to because you're in media. You wake up and you look at the phone and say, what happened in markets?
Right?
But don't scroll. Don't use it to distract yourself. Never use it during meals, which you're telling your kids anyway, And never use it for the last hour before you go to bed more than anything else. Never look at it during the night. And if you do those three things, your relationship will change, and then you're able to start living differently like good old great Grandpa, which was ordinary for him but not so much for us.
Well, it's a rule at our table, like at dinner time. Yeah, no, no phone, No phone.
Yeah, you know the number one predictor of kids using their phones at dinner, Mom and Dad using the phone.
Wrong example, I can't do that.
How do you think?
I'm curious? How do you think AI is going to change the game?
I mean?
Or is that the next book?
Well?
No, I mean It's like people ask me all the time because I'm a happiness specialist, how will AI affect happiness? And the answer it depends on how you use it. So the brain is hemispheric. The right side is the why, mystery, meaning, love and happiness side. The left side is the how to, the what, the engineering, analysis and tech side. So AI is the ideal part of the left hemisphere of your brain. It extends the left hemisphere to answer analytic questions for you,
but it's horrible for asking questions that matter. The problem is when people try to use it for their right hemisphere. These are the complex problems of love and meaning. And when you ask AI questions about friendship, about love, if you use it as a therapist, you're using it wrong. The way to use AI to get happier is to get rid of all the nonsense tasks, all the quotitian things that bother you and using the time that you
have leftover in real life and loving other people. That's how you use your brain correctly.
Are you concerned that that side of the brain that AI helps will become less astute, will start to paralyze itself because people are not forcing themselves to not only not solve complex problems, but really basic things that I feel like you could do.
My friends are going, oh, I put into chat GPT.
Well, we're already seeing brain changes because of the technology in general.
So can you see them like physically, Yeah, for sure.
So for example, your brain is highly synaptically plastic. In other words, your brain grows in areas that you use for particular tasks, even in after childhood. And for example, you'll find that in the ancient times, London is a very hard city to navigate. Taxi drivers in London before the onset of GPS actually had more developed, physically developed parts of their brains for navigation, and now they don't because they're using GPS. So you will see synaptic changes
in the brain. However, we'll learn new skills. I'm not worried about it's what it comes down to.
My dad was.
I'm a professional mathematician, He was a math professor and he said, in.
My day, we would evalue it a logarithm manually, and you kids just plug it into a calculator.
It's like, yeah, dad, but we're doing another stuff. That's what it comes down to.
The problem is when you atrophy on the right and that's what's happening today. When you don't use the right side of your brain, when you don't ask the questions of complexity and meaning and mystery, then you will become depressed and anxious and lonely. And that's where we are today.
Is it also that AI is not going to challenge you.
You know, there's this fallacy sometimes that like the easier thing is going to make you happier, but that's not always the case.
Well, that's absolutely true, but that actually speaks to another big problem of meaning. Challenge and hardship is central to the meaning of life. When you suffer, that's when your right brain is really active. And that's one of the reasons that we have a big problem today where we teach a lot of young people if you're sad and anxious, that means there's something wrong.
With you and we have to lower that pain. Well, that's wrong.
I mean that could be a part of life that isn't I mean, I tell my students it's like you're studying at Harvard. If you're not said and anxious, you need therapy and it's important part of life. And so I have ex recruitment video coming your way from I have a whole chapter in the book about never wasting your suffering because when you understand the nature of suffering, how you can grow from suffering, life gets richer and you find the meaning of your life.
Well, I mean, are the kids going to be okay?
I mean, I have a son who's the age of some of your students, and then I have a daughter who's you know, eighteen going on it teen, getting ready to go.
To that Are they going to be okay? When it comes to you talk about loneliness, I mean relationships, things like that.
We are losing a generation right now, we absolutely are. The reason I wrote this book is because it's necessary. I wrote this book because I want people to have a way out. This book promises that in six ways, you can find the meaning of your life in six months and change your life.
Because I've seen it.
I've developed this protocol over the past five years with my graduate students at Harvard, and I wanted to get it out into a mass audience because that's actually what we need. Look, we will figure out these problems, but I don't want to lose a generation of people in the meantime, which is why I'm talking about these ways of living alive, fully alive.
If you could give I know, we have a lot of advice, and there is a very good book with lots of it.
In it I've read.
If you give one piece of advice to our audience, regardless of.
Age, about how to be happy.
The number one thing is actually breaking the grip of what's sending you, what was breaking your brain, and that's putting on your phone.
Not all the time.
You know, to throw it in the ocean and join a monastery, unless that's your thing. But the truth is actually in strategic times during the day, when you're neurocognitively programming, first thing in the morning, when you're eating your meals, and when you're loving your your spouse or partner dog an hour before you go to bed, just do those things. Just put down the phone.
My dog hates my phone. He actually hits it with this.
Oh yeah, no, no, they know because they have a very development, they have a very developed limbic system.
They've developed emotionally in parallel with us. Your dog knows you.
I love that, all right, Arthur Brooks, thank you so much. The book is the Meaning of Your Life in stores now in starts.
No, thank you for coming in.
Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend. Right after this, welcome back to Bloomberg this weekend. Tim, put your phone away.
I'm looking at the no cheating, no cheating doing.
All right, it is time for the pointed news quiz to It's very defensive me just did a segment works is going to operate and just steal your phone.
Before that happens, we're gonna go to Lisa, who's gonna explain to you what exactly is going on.
This is the quiz for risk takers, okay, Tim, So I hope you fit right in. Let me explain it to you. Here's how it works.
So you have thirty chips in front of you right there, split into three categories, so ken each all right. You have these little little whiteboards in.
Front of you. There's three categories.
Okay, So when each category comes up, you figure out you know, I feel confident about this one. I'm gonna put ten or I'm gonna put twenty on this one category. And you figure out by the categories. Okay, you write each I'm gonna ask a question. You ask you rtepherd answer on the board, and then you flip it and we see who gets it right.
And we do that for each category. All right, are you ready?
Are you ready?
Okay, let's get to our category. So I'll reveal to you guys, so you can figure out what you want to bet. The first category is a I, the second category is fires, and the third category is retail.
All right, so think about it.
Where do you want to place your bets? Where are you going? You gotta put all ten? You can't, you can't.
Don't do math here to pick a ten and flight it over? All right, I'm going to do ten.
Yeah, make it easy.
I'm doing all right?
All right, all right, so let's get to the first question AI. Okay. On April eighth, a team of AI researchers.
Debuted their model called blank spark, which name fills that blank?
Hey?
April eighth researchers, their model was called blank spark, What will fill that blank? I?
Like the music we have too, I love it like get he looks he's.
Oh he's erasing there.
There we go.
Okay, flip it. What do you got tim meta meta?
No, and you have quantumtem No.
The answer it is music music Okay.
Okay, code named avocado.
Yes, you're correct, you're correct.
Do I get any part?
But you get no points for that?
Ok okay.
So here's what happens. Okay, I saw you, but I was so confused.
I wrote avocado because that was what internally what it was called.
You should have committed, I would turn.
Okay, and.
I think I should got partial credit.
But no, no, he erased it.
And that's what happens. Don't second guess yourself. I would have agreed with you.
But negative ghostorright, it actually comes out yes, Meta ceo Mark Zuckwork's new Meta superintelligence Labs. That was the first kind of a on a lot of it. All right, let's go to fires. Okay, all right, I know, very strange topic, but here we go. A suspect was arrested after a fire at a.
Toilet paper warehouse.
Which company leased that facility toilet paper. There's your there's your clue. There toilet paper warehouse. Okay, which company lease that facility?
All right?
Flip it, guys.
What do you got Kimberly Clark, yes, Tim, and you have Charman.
Oh Kimberly Clark is a wall they make They make Kleenex, Scott and cottonell.
Okay, yeah, so no you you hold on you them all right, so you keep you know, hold them over me.
But this category that could that could that could do it?
Okay, we'll go to retail, all.
Right, come on shopping hobo Nie Cheese techo.
It costs twenty six hundred yen or sixteen US dollars, and it has c record sales, thanks of course to social media.
Which type of product is it?
What is a Hobonchi techo?
You heard it?
It was in the headlines this week. It's about sixteen US dollars.
I feel like I did know that.
Yeah, what this was?
You remember passing the story and you're like, oh, what was that again? It's racking your brain.
What is it?
It's a it's not a clothing, and I.
Can't I can't give any giftses.
Nope, nope, I'm not giving it away.
I'm sorry.
I'm peaking at his board.
I know it's not right, but it's a good guess.
Okay, I don't know. I don't know. All right, all right, let's see what you got, says Macha, and it sucks.
Okay, No, it is a Planner.
It's Japan's fastest movie stationary brands. This is actually one of them because in the news in the in the control room has one, and she has it and it's it's look at it, you go what I mean?
I mean, she's so organized.
Oh my, I have paper Planner and it is Japanese but it's a different brand.
But maybe I need to upgrade.
I have one, but it doesn't have all of this stuff in here. Elizabeth.
I'm so impressed.
So if you're keeping track, Yes, you got zero.
Right she has.
I didn't know.
She has to pass those over to me.
Yes, I've gotten euro You did not get that one.
But you know what, we have got a bonus.
Here's the bonus question and the category is movies. Okay, all right, you probably might get this, Okay, no, you might.
Okay.
The Super Mario Blank Movie is a box office success, which word hailing from a two thousand and seven Mario game fills in that title. It's called the Super Mario Blank movie.
You have children seconds, Here we go, Here we go. It's a sequel to you know, the Super Mario Brothers. Okay, what do you got, smash bros.
No, it's a Super Mario Galaxy movie.
Okay, so here's the deal. Yes, this was embarrassing because.
You won.
I'mbled out of out of like an opportunity for eight right answers.
No, there was one right answer.
We didn't degree. We integree.
But people try to do sing online do it.
No, it's a once a week thing, so you're going to have to come back and redeem yourself.
Allowed back tomorrow, You can come.
Back tomorrow how it goes and play at home Bloomberg dot com.
Slash pointed.
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