The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos
You might think you know what it takes to lead a happier life… more money, a better job, or Instagram-worthy vacations. You’re dead wrong. Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos has studied the science of happiness and found that many of us do the exact opposite of what will truly make our lives better. Based on the psychology course she teaches at Yale -- the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history -- Laurie will take you through the latest scientific research and share some surprising and inspiring stories that will change the way you think about happiness.
Episodes
Midlife can be a period of immense change and, sometimes, challenging emotions. But it’s also an opportunity to cultivate deeper, more lasting happiness. Dr Laurie recently joined another Pushkin podcast, Decoding Women's Health with Dr Elizabeth Poynor, to share insights on how midlife women can thrive. Dr Laurie breaks down the components of happiness, explains why we’re often mistaken about what makes us happy, and p...
What stresses you out over the festive season? Happiness Lab listeners sent in their holiday woes so Dr Laurie and guest Rainn Wilson (The Office star and host of Soul Boom) could weigh in with some science-backed advice.
In the second part of our Holiday Survival Guide, Dr Laurie and Rainn discuss what makes the perfect gift, how to slow down to enjoy the festivities, and why your smart phone should join the elf on a shelf.&...
What stresses you out over the festive season? Happiness Lab listeners sent in their holiday woes so Dr Laurie and guest Rainn Wilson (The Office star and host of Soul Boom) could weigh in with some science-backed advice.
In the first part of our Holiday Survival Guide, Dr Laurie and Rainn discuss ways to defuse family arguments, why it's ok to feel sad at Christmas, and how to beat festive FOMO.
According to the science, it really is better to give than receive. Donating a dollar; sharing a kind word or lending someone a hand changes lives, but can also hugely boost your happiness. So we're teaming up with other podcasts from Hidden Brain to Revisionist History to ask you to give to a charity helping some of the poorest people around. We're calling it #PodsFightPoverty.
It's Thanksgiving - a good time to think about gratitude and being selfless. Concentrating on the things we have to be grateful for is a great way to boost your happiness. So thank the people who've done good things for you, and think of ways you can help others too.
This circle of gratitude – the science suggests – will also make you a better friend to one of the most important people in your life… y...
On National Stress Awareness Day we've pulled a popular episode from our archive. Stress can suck. Many of us drown in it - 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 clinica...
Halloween isn't just costumes and candy. It's also a time when we indulge our interest in the scary and macabre. But there's also a taboo about gory horror movies and gruesome true crime shows - we often feel that being interested in blood and violence is unhealthy. The opposite is possibly true.
Psychologist Coltan Scrivner (author of Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away) says that watching a s...
Not many elite athletes talk openly about mental health, but five-time NBA All-Star Kevin Love is changing that. After a very public panic attack on the basketball court he was told to "snap out of it". But Kevin decided to discuss his "dark moments" of anxiety and depression and show that vulnerability is actually a strength.
The sports star joins Dr. Laurie to talk about overcoming generational trauma, the pressures of toxi...
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 ...
Bruce Hood was a mentor of Dr Laurie early in her academic career and now teaches a course on happiness based on her famous Yale class. Hear him discuss his top tips on 10% Happier with Dan Harris.
Find out more about Dan Harris and 10% Happier at https://www.danharris.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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.
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?
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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