The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

Every choice you make shapes your wellbeing - and the bigger the decision, the greater the impact. So when it comes to life-changing questions like where to live, who to marry, or which career to pursue, how can you tell if you’re making the best decision for your long-term happiness?

Economists might argue that you should weigh up every single option carefully - like a gambler in a casino figuring out the odds of winning. Bu...

Many of us toil for long hours - and even take work home at the end of the day. That's bad for us in so many ways - but extensive research shows that it just doesn't have to be this way. Many of us could work a four-day week and still get everything done. 

Economist Juliet Schor has studied every kind of business - from breweries to ad agencies - and found that thoughtfully reducing work hours benefits employees, improves prod...

We all behave irrationally. We pay for expensive gym memberships and only go once. We spend windfall cash on things we'd never buy with our salaries. We plan to do nice things in the distant future, but don't actually write them down in our calendars. These things can be bad for our happiness, so why do we do them?

Economist Richard Thaler won a Nobel Prize for studying human irrationality - and explains why we all do odd things so...

Your eating habits could be cutting years off the end of your life. But there's a simple solution - eat like the people who live happily and healthily into their 80s, 90s and beyond. Dan Buettner studies the inhabitants of so-called "Blue Zones" - where people live long lives. Food and eating culture seem to play an important role this longevity.  

Dan talks to Dr Laurie about Blue Zones and explains the idea behind his c...

We all go along with things we don't want to do... or worse, things that make us feel uncomfortable or morally uneasy. We comply for lots of reasons. We don't want to make trouble, or upset our friends, our bosses or people in authority. But Dr Sunita Sah says we should be more ready to defy.  

Defy: the Power of No in a World That Demands Yes is one of Dr Laurie's favorite books of 2025, so she invited Sunita to explain ...

How do you train your mind to be happier? That was the question posed to Dr Laurie by Dr Tal Ben-Shahar at a live webinar for his Happiness Studies Academy. 

Tal is a leading expert in positive psychology and co-founded the academy to share his knowledge online with students from around the world. Dr Laurie is just one of the scientists he invited to give lessons and take questions from the audience.

If you want to learn more ...

On his podcast, Rich Roll seeks to give his listeners the knowledge to unleash their best selves. He invited Dr Laurie on his show to explain the science-backed "rewirements" she recommends to make us happier. The wide-ranging interview covers lots of topics - but tackles the tricky question of why the human mind often encourages us to do things that are actually bad for our happiness. 

The Happiness Lab will be back with a ne...

Dr Laurie often uses the teachings of the ancient Stoic philosophers to help her through daily life - so she was invited on Ryan Holiday's hit show The Daily Stoic to discuss what she's learned. Ryan started off asking Dr Laurie's thoughts on death and the importance of seeing life as finite - but never fear, the conversation wasn't at all depressing. 

The Happiness Lab will be back with a new series after Labor Day, but ...

How do you put your life back together after your home and your neighborhood's been destroyed in a wildfire? By tossing beanbags at a hole? That's what Michelle Hastie Thompson did. 

Michelle ("Cornhole Meesh") loves the backyard game of cornholing - and uses it to help her relax, share time with her loved ones, and meet new people. So what can cornholing teach Dr Laurie about happiness?

Find more about Michells's work at http...

Joshua Roman has been playing the cello everyday since he was three - but then on a concert tour he caught Covid. The illness wouldn't go away and sapped his ability to play the music he loves at the level he was used to.

How can things like music help us feel better during tough times? And what can tough times teach us about appreciating and reappraising the activities we sometimes take for granted? 

Check out more of Joshua'...

Lili Taylor loves her acting career - but the emotional intensity of her work and the constant travel can take its toll. But Lili has found a way to relax and unwind - watching birds. 

As Lili explains in her new book Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing - if we stop to listen to birdsong or pause to watch their busy daily lives - we give ourselves a break from our own stresses.  

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You might think etiquette is outdated. Who really needs a dinner with nice napkins and four different forks? Etiquette expert William Hanson disagrees. By observing good manners we show others we respect and care about them - deepening our bonds. 

William (author of Just Good Manners and host of the podcast Help I Sexted My Boss) explains the origins of many formal behaviours and how they can make us happier. 

See omn...

We all have our own ways of coping - especially when things get tough. So for the next few shows we're going to talking to people with interesting coping strategies. And we start with Elias Weiss Friedman, aka The Dogist.

Throughout his life, Elias has found comfort in dogs. And when he got fired from his job, dogs came to the rescue again - they helped him forge a new career as a photographer and a social media star. 

Elias d...

We’re bringing you an episode of A Slight Change of Plans hosted by Dr. Maya Shankar -  the behavioral scientist who also happens to be a former student of Dr Laurie.

Maya sits down with bestselling author and popular podcast host Mel Robbins to talk about letting go of perfectionism and people pleasing, and how to cope when you lose control of a situation. If you enjoy this episode, list...

The happiness of young people has taken a big hit since the advent of the smartphone - and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that there is a direct link. He warns that allowing children easy access to the internet and social media adversely impacts their sleep, their self-esteem and even how their brains develop.  

Jonathan explains the dangers he sees in letting kids use smartphones, while Jill Murphy of Common S...

Why do kids do disruptive, annoying or maddening things? Usually when children behave badly, the first thing adults do is yell at them, tell them they're bad and dole out punishments. Developmental psychologist David Yeager says that's the wrong approach. Instead parents need work out why their child made bad decisions in the first place.   

David is the author of the book 10 to 25  and argues that we should wor...

Clinical psychologist Dr Becky Kennedy thinks every child is “good inside” even when they’re behaving badly. So to tackle tantrums or rule-breaking, she argues that parents must set clear boundaries for acceptable behaviour, but also seek to understand why their children are misbehaving. 

If a child is acting "badly" because they are disappointed, sad, frustrated, jealous, or uncomfortable, then a parent's jo...

Nordic countries are known to be happy - so should we all raise our children like the Scandinavians do? British parent Helen Russell moved to Denmark and was shocked that Danish children play outside in all weathers; are given sharp tools and they're shown how to light matches.

In her book The Danish Secret to Happy Kids: How the Viking Way of Raising Children Makes Them Happier, Healthier, and More Independent, Helen explains why ...