Deep Questions with Cal Newport - Listen to This: The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

Here’s a special preview of the new season of The Happiness Lab, a podcast from Pushkin Industries. 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. She’ll take you through the latest scientific research and share some surprising and inspiring stories that will change the way you think about happiness. Hear more from The Happiness Lab at: podcasts.pushkin.fm/thls5?sid=questions Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey listeners, I'm changing things up a bit today and sharing with you a preview from another podcast that I enjoy and think you will too. It's called the Happiness Lab. Now, our minds lie to us all the time about what will make us happy. We might think the key to happiness is more money or a better job, but on the Happiness Lab, Yale professor, Dr. Laura Santos, shares the evidence-based strategies proven to help us live more joyful lives. On every episode, Laura is joined by incredible guest, like the Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart,

Star Trek's Will Wheaton, the viral Instagram illustrators Liz and Molly, who by the way share a book editor with me. I know them. They're great. She also brings on other experts like Adam Grant and Brunei Brown to explore the science of the mind. Together they discovered the best way to flex your friendship muscles, unravel the mystery of why fear and pain can feel good,

and examine the you only live once philosophy and why it doesn't work quite like you think. So as with deep questions, the Happiness Lab shares scientific advice on practical issues most of us deal with. It's also a podcast that is done by a professor. There are only so many of us full-time professors doing serious podcasting right now, so we'd like to help each other out when we can. And Laura's show is fantastic. I think you're not only going to like it,

but find it to be useful in your daily life. All right, so what I'm going to do now is play a preview from the show. If you want to hear more from the Happiness Lab, just search for it wherever you get your podcast. What could be more appetizing than a new season of the Happiness Lab? How about drinking the world's hottest hot sauce straight from the bottle? Wow, that is a large swig. Oh, my God.

This isn't a stunt. You're listening to the science of well-being in action. This season will be unraveling the mystery of why small doses of fear, sadness, and pain can feel good. I feel a little lightheaded. I feel a little loopy, goosey. I feel like I love my job. Your glasses are fogging up a lot. We'll also be hitting the gym.

I was the last one to finish some horrific series of running and lifting in burpees. To find if it's the right place to flex our friendship muscles. And everyone stood around me clapping, like shouting my name being like, you can do it. And of course, in the moment, I hated every single one of them. We'll also head back to the playground to talk about modern parenting. Our eight-month-old is on a slide. I thought he was afraid. No, no, no, no.

He was looking to me for how should I feel. Oh, mom's afraid. Oh, dad's afraid. What is happening to me? We love our kids and want them to be happy. But are we guilty of doing too much? Oh, my God, if I could go back, because that was the beginning. of just a decade and a half of over parenting.

This season of the Happiness Lab also features the U.S. Surgeon General, Star Trek's Wesley Crusher, and the person credited with coining a very famous phrase. Yeah, there was a song, Yolo. I mean, Yo, Lo! Yolo! The Grateful Dead's drummer, Mickey Hart. He'll explain why that you only live once philosophy doesn't work the way we think. It takes courage to go where you've never been before and do what you've never done before or do something and commit to it with everything you have.

Will Globetrot and meet a woman whose pursuit of happiness met moving to the middle of nowhere in the depths of winter. It was the coldest I have ever been. Plus, you'll still get evidence-based tips and well-being hacks from the greatest researchers and experts working in the fields of happiness science. I look at this pursuit of happiness a lot like a game of black just. Jack, and you get to stack the deck. You can have a deck full of six and sevens, or you can stack that deck with aces and jacks. But I'll leave you with a question. What's your biggest regret in life? My instinct was that my early 20s were the perfect moment to broaden my horizons, experience a new culture, and take a risk. Instead, I moved to Indiana. Oh, man, I blew it.

We love Indiana, by the way. The Happiness Lab with me, Dr. Laurie Santos, returned September 6th, wherever you get your podcasts. Miss it, and you'll regret it.