There are many benefits to being an optimist - particularly when things go wrong in our lives. But we aren't all naturally optimistic, so can we learn to adopt the best and most positive behaviours of born optimists? Through treating New Yorkers caught up in the 9/11 attacks, psychiatrist Dr Sue Varma developed a concept she calls "practical optimism". She shares her tips on how we can all be more optimistic in the face of life's challenges. Read more in Sue's book Practical Optimism: The ...
Apr 21, 2025•45 min•Season 10Ep. 19
Author and vlogger John Green looks around the world and sees a lot of things that suck. But rather than giving in to despair, he's trying to develop a sense of hope. He says the most "punk rock" thing to do is tackle our problems head-on. John embraces the motto: "Human beings can be good news!" In a live discussion with Dr Laurie, he explains that if we work together we can decrease the suck in the world and increase the awesome. This live event marked the publication of John's new...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 12 min
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 wil...
Apr 14, 2025•31 min•Season 10Ep. 18
"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 ...
Apr 11, 2025•58 min
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 establ...
Apr 07, 2025•48 min•Season 10Ep. 17
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 Rubi...
Apr 04, 2025•37 min•Season 10Ep. 16
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”. See omnystudio.com/listener fo...
Mar 31, 2025•32 min•Season 10Ep. 15
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 fro...
Mar 24, 2025•42 min•Season 10Ep. 14
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...
Mar 20, 2025•37 min•Season 10Ep. 13
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...
Mar 17, 2025•35 min•Season 10Ep. 12
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 Rec...
Mar 10, 2025•49 min•Season 10Ep. 11
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 wi...
Mar 03, 2025•43 min•Season 10Ep. 10
Leaders aren't just generals, presidents and CEOs. You're probably a leader too! Someone in your home, school or workplace might look to you for guidance - and that's leading. So how do you inspire the people around you and make yourself the best leader you can be? Columbia Business School's Adam Galinsky (author of Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others ) reckons we can all learn simple lessons that will make us better and more encouraging colleagues, parents and friends. S...
Feb 24, 2025•51 min•Season 10Ep. 9
To improve your life you might decide to prioritize your own personal happiness, or find meaning in helping the people around you. Few of us consider pushing ourselves well beyond our comfort zones. It might take a lot of effort and risks pain or disappointment. University of Chicago professor Shige Oishi thinks to live fully we all need to push ourselves to find "psychological richness". He tells Dr Laurie that we should look for daily opportunities to explore, get lost, mess aroun...
Feb 17, 2025•38 min•Season 10Ep. 8
Love Factually is a new podcast looking at what "rom com" movies get right and wrong about relationships. Dr Laurie Santos joined the hosts Eli Finkel of Northwestern University and Paul Eastwick from UC Davis to talk about her favorite 80s teen movie, Say Anything. In this episode, they discuss what Cameron Crowe's 1989 film tells us about what constitutes stalking; and the transition when romantic partners supplant our parents as our closest relationships. See omnystudio.com/liste...
Feb 14, 2025•1 hr 1 min
In the absence of better advice, we learn a lot about love and dating from rom com movies - but is the depiction of relationships in these films leading us in the wrong direction? Let's find out. Eli Finkel of Northwestern University and Paul Eastwick from UC Davis are both accomplished relationship experts - but for fun they’ve launched a podcast called Love Factually exploring what the makers of rom coms get right and wrong about how humans really find love. See omnyst...
Feb 10, 2025•45 min•Season 10Ep. 7
Do you go on endless dates hoping to find the perfect partner only to be endlessly disappointed? Or have you stopped meeting people because you've decided that you're undateable ? Maybe you need to start dating like a scientist. Behavioural scientist Logan Ury has studied the common mistakes we make when looking for love - and thinks science can shows us a better way. Logan is the director of relationship science at the dating app Hinge. She’s also the dating coach for th...
Feb 03, 2025•47 min•Season 10Ep. 6
Stress can suck, but it's part of life - it’s normal and even useful. Many of us drown in our stress - worrying about past events and fearing upcoming challenges. We even stress about feeling stressed. So how can we reset our relationship with stress - benefitting from its positives and avoiding those negatives? Dr Jenny Taitz has some effective tips to help you greet stress more healthily. A clinical psychologist and the author of Stress Resets: How to Soothe Your Body and Min...
Jan 27, 2025•44 min•Season 10Ep. 5
Negative emotions like fear or anger are part of being human. These feelings tell us something - perhaps prompting us to take action or bring about change. However, they're powerful and disruptive - and if they hang around too long or are too intense, they can take a huge toll on our happiness and wellbeing. We need to shift them... but how? Psychologist Ethan Kross knows. He's the author of Shift: Managing Your Emotions So They Don't Manage You and founder of the Emotion and Self Control Lab at...
Jan 20, 2025•47 min•Season 10Ep. 4
As children we think we're at the center of the world - but as adults we need to learn to see the perspectives and problems of other people. It helps us connect with those people, but also makes us realise that our own problems aren't unique or especially awful. In short, to be happy you need to know ... How to Get Over Yourself. Dr Laurie hears how to stop being egocentric and start being allocentric from Bruce Hood - a professor at the University of Bristol and the author of T...
Jan 13, 2025•43 min•Season 10Ep. 3
Perfectionism isn't just wanting to be perfect... it's the feelings of failure and shame when we simply can't perform at a superhuman level all day, every day. To be happy, we have to accept the reality that perfection is impossible. So this episode is... How to Feel Like You're Enough. Dr Laurie is joined by fellow recovering perfectionist Dr Ellen Hendriksen - who is a clinical psychologist at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders and author of “ How to be En...
Jan 06, 2025•45 min•Season 10Ep. 2
In our first "How To..." guide of 2025, Dr Laurie is asking how can we stop striving for perfection and make peace with the idea that it's ok to lead messy and "half-assed" lives. Oliver Burkeman (author of Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time For What Counts ) explains how we can embrace imperfection and find liberation and joy in just doing our best. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jan 01, 2025•44 min•Season 10Ep. 1
The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy. But all too often, the darker, colder days of winter, and even the stress of preparing for the holidays themselves, can lead people to feel something else: rushed, stressed, lonely, or even hopeless. How can you make sure this year is bright? Dr Laurie joins Dave DeSteno on his show How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality to unpack the psychological secrets of celebrations from Christmas, to Hanukkah, to Yule, and more. They’ll al...
Dec 16, 2024•39 min•Season 9Ep. 25
It's Giving Tuesday - a time when many people donate to charity (using websites like this: givingmultiplier.org/happiness ). Giving money to help people makes them feel good, but it can also make you feel great too. Last year, Happiness Lab listeners gave over $100,000 to raise a whole village in Rwanda out of extreme poverty. Dr Laurie hears the stories of how we all helped transform lives in Kibobo. With the aid of happiness expert, Nick Epley, we explain why helping Kibobo felt so uplifting a...
Dec 03, 2024•43 min•Season 9Ep. 24
It's the season of giving: colorful paper and shiny bows, sure, and charitable giving, too. In this special episode, Jacob Goldstein, the host of What's Your Problem , gets smart about donating. Did you know that spending money on others makes you happier than spending money on yourself? Or that altruistic nerds have discovered four of the most impactful charities in the world (per dollar spent)? Have you ever wondered how poker players think about giving? Dr. Laurie Santos from The Happiness La...
Dec 02, 2024•51 min•Season 9Ep. 23
It's Happiness Lab's fifth birthday - so as part of the celebration we're playing some of Dr Laurie's favorite episodes. The final selection attracted a lot of downloads when it went out. but also made some people mad. The Introvert's Guide to Extroversion. Jessica Pan hated social gatherings - she cried when her friends threw her a surprise birthday party, and was even too scared to give a speech at her own wedding. Jessica was a hardcore introvert - and it was making her sad. Extroverts find i...
Nov 25, 2024•31 min•Season 9Ep. 22
To celebrate five years of The Happiness Lab, Dr Laurie has picked out the five episodes she loves the most. And this is a special one - 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 on the happiness benefits that geeking out can bring. Dr Laurie explores the joy of fandom with Benedict Cumberbatch ob...
Nov 22, 2024•33 min•Season 9Ep. 21
Happiness Lab is five years old. To mark our birthday, Dr Laurie has picked her favorite five episodes from the archive. The show Why Nostalgia Ain't So Rosy was certainly a memorable one for her. Actor Rob Lowe LOVES the 1980s. And who can blame him? He was one of the most famous men on the planet. But, as he tells Dr Laurie, he's careful not to wallow in nostalgia for the music, fashions and events of his youth too much - and happiness science backs him up on this. Research suggests that our m...
Nov 18, 2024•35 min•Season 9Ep. 20
To mark the podcast's fifth birthday, Dr Laurie is revisiting some of her favorite episodes. And this show - Working Your Way to Happiness - has a special place in her heart. Marty kills rats... but if you asked him what his job is he'd say it was "solving problems" and "helping people". How we view our work can contribute greatly to our daily levels of happiness - far more than money or status. Dr Laurie examines how we all came to ignore the importance of job satisfaction and hears from Profes...
Nov 15, 2024•35 min•Season 9Ep. 19
The Happiness Lab debuted back in fall 2019. To celebrate our fifth birthday, we're revisiting Dr Laurie's favorite shows. We kick off with one from way back. Technology allows us to bank, shop and dine without talking to another human, but what toll is this taking on our happiness? So in this episode, the inventor of the ATM and the Talking Heads singer David Byrne joined Dr Laurie to explore the ways in which talking to strangers can bring us all genuine joy. See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...
Nov 11, 2024•36 min•Season 9Ep. 18
