DeepSummary
In this episode, Dr. Sanjay Gupta interviews Lori Santos, a cognitive scientist and professor at Yale University, about the science behind happiness. Santos explains that natural selection doesn't prioritize human happiness but rather survival and reproduction, which has resulted in a negativity bias in humans. She discusses common misconceptions about happiness and emphasizes that happiness is largely under our control through changing behaviors and mindsets.
Santos describes her course 'Psychology and the Good Life' at Yale, which became hugely popular as students sought evidence-based strategies to improve their well-being. The course covers rewiring habits through practices like social connection, gratitude, self-compassion, exercise, and meditation. Santos acknowledges that despite studying happiness, she still struggles to implement these strategies consistently.
The conversation also touches on the distinction between happiness and satisfaction, the role of material success in happiness, age patterns in happiness levels, vulnerability in relationships, and how to discuss difficult topics like climate change while maintaining optimism and emotional bandwidth to address challenges.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Happiness is not prioritized by natural selection, which has led to a human negativity bias.
- Common misconceptions about happiness exist, but research shows that happiness is largely under our control through changing behaviors and mindsets.
- Strategies like social connection, gratitude, self-compassion, exercise, and meditation can increase well-being.
- Implementing happiness strategies consistently is challenging, even for experts.
- Material success matters for happiness only at extreme levels of deprivation; beyond that, social connections and purposeful pursuits are more important.
- Happiness levels tend to decline in midlife but increase again in later years.
- Vulnerability and asking for help can strengthen relationships and increase likeability.
- Optimism and emotional bandwidth facilitated by happiness are important for addressing major challenges like climate change.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “We do a different kind of homework that I christened rewirements. So, you know, there's like the course requirements, but then the course rewirements are there to sort of rewire your habits.“ by Lori Santos
- “The biggest one that maybe I should have known, but really surprised me is just how bad we are at this stuff. Right? I mean, I think what's striking to me is that even having studied this stuff now for almost a decade, since I've really been kind of diving into the happiness work, I'm still really bad at it.“ by Lori Santos
- “I think if you can admit to them, dad's had a bad day and he's feeling really frustrated today, or dad's looking at this climate news and feeling really anxious, you kind of open up the possibility for them to be a little bit more vulnerable with you.“ by Lori Santos
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Episode Information
Chasing Life
CNN
5/21/24
Have you ever wondered: What does it mean to be truly happy? Can our brain chemistry, or even our genetics, determine how we feel about our lives? And, most importantly, can we learn to be even happier? Cognitive scientist and Yale University Psychology Professor Laurie Santos has spent her career researching these questions. As the host of The Happiness Lab, Laurie has gone on her own journey to discover what it truly means to be happy. On today’s podcast episode, Professor Santos will share her findings and how she says we can re-train our brains to make better choices, build better habits, and ultimately, be happier.
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