Piers Morgan Uncensored - 'TOTAL GRIFTER!' Arthur C. Brooks On Andrew Tate & Whether Money Can Buy Happiness

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Piers Morgan speaks to Harvard professor, social scientist, and No.1 New York Times bestselling author Arthur C. Brooks about the science of human happiness. Arthur’s latest book is called 'The Me...aning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness' and together with Piers he explores relationships in the digital age, the effect of influencers like Andrew Tate and whether money really can can buy happiness... 00:00 Introduction 00:53 Arthur C. Brooks interview begins 01:51 Arthur on the science of human happiness 04:25 Piers and Arthur discuss their views on death and the afterlife 07:25 How can young people find happiness in an age of smartphones? 10:34 Why are younger generations going through a ‘sex depression’? 13:96 Can money make us happy? 17:25 The importance of resilience 18:55 Steven Bartlett’s controversial ‘glass of wine’ comments 21:11 ‘Grifters’ and content farmers in the happiness space 24:04 Piers asks Arthur: “How happy are you?” 25:51 Arthur on why he does not drink 27:20 Piers Morgan on the real route to HIS happiness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Andrew Tate, with his university or whatever, he's just a total grifter. Yeah. What do we do about that? The whole idea that we're so credulous, that we're so eager to actually be convinced by these particular people, has made us into bad consumers. The problem is not the grifters. The problem is the people who are willing to follow the grifters all the way to the end, and we need to be more skeptical. Well, depending on where you stand on these things, those who offer to reveal the meaning of life and secrets to everlasting happiness are usually one of three things. A guru, a grifter, or a genius, maybe even a bit of all three.
Starting point is 00:00:34 My guest today was certainly hoped to be considered in the last category. He's a Harvard professor, social sciences, a number one New York Times best-selling author, specializing in the science of human happiness. His new book is The Meaning of Your Life, Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. I'm delighted to welcome Arthur C. Brooks. Arthur, great to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. We were just talking off camera. I've followed you for a long time.
Starting point is 00:00:59 you followed maybe for a long time, we finally get to meet. It's interesting because I know Jordan Peterson very well. He's sadly been, I have a lot of ill health in the last year. Jordan, whenever I've interviewed him, he's always, often gets very emotional. He gets quite dark. He's almost, I wouldn't say he's completely glass half empty, but he veers that way. You're almost the opposite. You're just as scholarly in many ways, but you're a glass half full guy instinctively.
Starting point is 00:01:27 You look for the positive, you look for happiness, path to joy. Would you accept that categorization? Sort of. I mean, Jordan and I do have the same toolkit. We're both behavioral scientists with a real background in neuroscience as well to really look at the psychology and biology of what makes us up. I'm not a glass half-full guy naturally. Happiness is hard for me, which is why I study happiness.
Starting point is 00:01:49 I actually dedicated myself to the science of human happiness because I wanted the secrets. It's sort of me search more than research. So what is the secret of being happy? Well, it's a complicated business. But the secret to learning anything that's hard and nuanced really has three parts to it. You need to understand it.
Starting point is 00:02:04 You need to make a commitment to change your behavior. You need to teach it to others. It's like anything else. If you want to learn to be a good golfer, you should learn about golf. You should practice golf. And then really the most important part is actually explaining it.
Starting point is 00:02:16 So you become responsible for it. So funny enough, you see, take golf. So I play golf. And I find the harder I try to, and pursue being a better golfer, the less happy I am doing it. Whereas the more natural I play golf, where I get my joy just because it happens organically and around with friends or whatever, that's when I'm happiest playing golf. When I start to take it really seriously and think, I want to get my handicapped down,
Starting point is 00:02:45 I want to do it. I can feel the happiness eroding from me. Right. No, I can understand that too. And in truth, there's a parallel with happiness itself. If you say, I want to be happy today. Yes. I'm going to try to be happy today. It's a suit of happiness. It's a problem. It often be quite a miserable process. Yeah, that's exactly right. And that's one of the reasons that the pursuit of happiness per se is misbegotten. The way to actually become a happier person is to look at the macro nutrients of happiness, the component parts of happiness, and to do those things and to do those things and to do those things and live well.
Starting point is 00:03:13 That turns out to be a much better way to do it. Don't just try to be more, just don't try to be healthier. Figure out what healthy people do and do those things and enjoy those things and live well. And so when it comes to happiness, there's really things. three parts. There's enjoyment of life. There's satisfaction in your accomplishments and it's finding the meaning of your existence. And so what do you pursue a more enjoyable life, better accomplishments where you accept struggle to try to do good things and look for the why of your life by living in a particular way? And that's really what I teach my students. Someone said to me recently something that really struck me. They said, look, let's be clear. We've all got a terminal illness called death. We're all going to die. Yeah. So once you understand
Starting point is 00:03:52 that and you accept that, you can chart a path to happiness and fulfillment in life because you know how it ends. There's no secret source to avoiding the grim reaper. We all have, we're all in the same boat. It's just when it happens. You may as well do things which bring you joy, genuine joy. But I do think, I see some people and they just really strive to be happy in a way that doesn't really work.
Starting point is 00:04:19 Yeah. Now, and part of that is because they think that the heart they try, the more it's going to come to them. Once again, you need to live in a particular way where happiness finds you. That's the real secret to it. Now, you made an interesting point just now, which is you need to be thinking about the end for you to understand and enjoy the path to getting to the end. And that's key. I mean, different people disagree about what actually the end is all about. We all know we're going to die, but we don't all agree that we're not going to exist. And so different people, some people, traditionally religious people, live in such a way that they will extend their existence beyond their physical death. And ironically, those people are the happiest people. Because you're a Catholic, right? I'm a Catholic. I'm a practicing Catholic. So you believe in the afterlife. I do.
Starting point is 00:05:00 So I, you know, I've had this argument with atheists, whether it's Richard Dawkins or Ricky Jervais, whoever it may be, is like, God, it must be. I mean, that must be so depressing to think that when you died, that's it. Right? I said, at least I've got something to look forward to you. You might want to ridicule my beliefs as to them. But I am quite content that if I die, I think,
Starting point is 00:05:21 I mean, to me, it seems preposterous. that there wouldn't be something else out there. Otherwise, what are we? How have we got here? What's there before the Big Bang? All these unanswerable questions. There has to be a more powerful entity for me. No, I agree with you.
Starting point is 00:05:33 And as a scientist, I think that's especially interesting. If I were a Picasso expert, I'd want to know about the paintings and the painter. And I would find no evidence of the painter in the painting. And so that's one of the reasons that as a scientist, I marvel at the creation, but I wonder at the creator too. That's how that comes about. And that gives my life a whole lot of meaning. Look, Pierce, we might.
Starting point is 00:05:52 be wrong. But so what? Yes. So what? The thought that we're right is incredibly consoling. Yes? And it gives us an anchor in what we're trying to do. And by the way, we live better. And we lift other people up in bonds of happiness and love because we want a better life for them too. Do you think Jordan Peterson believes in God? I do. I do. Because he's never really said he does.
Starting point is 00:06:13 It's hard for scholars. It's hard for social scientists because we're born and bred to think that everything is socially. But why is it harder for scientists when all I ever ask a scientist who is sitting on the fence or is an atheist or whatever, I said, well, okay, you think everything started with the Big Bang. What was there before the Big Bang? And because the human brain can't comprehend nothingness, obviously, there must be something out there which can explain those kind of things, which is superior to us. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:42 There has to be, because otherwise, otherwise you have no answers for me. No, this is the Ipsum essay. That's what Aquinas called God, the To Be, the thing that's around it, that's not. Part of the problem with a lot of scientists that they look at the representation that you and I as Christian people or Muslims or Hindus for that matter, how they represent the Godhead. And that's like a guy
Starting point is 00:07:02 with a long beard. And that's so absurd because that's to say that God is another creature. And they justifiably reject that. But the Bible says, I am. I'm. It's something that's outside of our creation. And therefore, it's what Aquinas would have called the first mover.
Starting point is 00:07:18 And that's your point. In the book, the meaning of your life, the subtitle is finding purpose in an age of emptiness. It's interesting because I look at young people, I've got four kids. Yeah. How old are they? From 32 down to 14. Yeah, yeah. And they're all very different.
Starting point is 00:07:35 And I'm not pinning what I'm about to say on any of them individually. But generationally, I would say that the single biggest factor on how they think about things has been the advent of smartphones. the fear of the foamow, the fear of missing out, the ability to see what all your friends are doing at any given moment, which you may not be doing. Which when I was there age, it was impossible to know. Totally.
Starting point is 00:08:02 You didn't know, right? You might know what one or two mates were doing. Otherwise, they're all doing their own thing. This constant, they're much more looks obsessed because the stuff they're putting on Instagram or whatever always has to be perfect. I don't care, right? But they do.
Starting point is 00:08:18 That generation really cares about aesthetic. which in a way are quite empty things, I think. So we've got a bizarre situation where statistically, it remains the case that this is the best time to ever be alive. There are fewer wars than in recorded history, cleaner water, less child poverty, we're living longer, we're living healthier, we're finding cures for more diseases, and so on and so on and so on. It ought to be the absolute golden age of humanity.
Starting point is 00:08:47 And yet young people collectively are, have never been more anxious, never been more depressed. Very sadly, many taking their own lives. Right. There's a total disconnect between reality and what they are feeling about this. Where does the age of emptiness fit into this? So you're exactly right,
Starting point is 00:09:07 that the technology that mediates the relationships and the perception of reality of young people has broken their brains. And actually, we know this. Have you ever had Ian McGilchrist on your show? No. The great neuroscientist from Oxford? No.
Starting point is 00:09:18 Oh, he's wonderful. And he has this idea. He's a terrific. He's really the greatest neuroscientist who is also a psychiatrist and philosopher working today. And he talks about the two halves of the brain working differently. The left half of your brain is the analytical side, the information and stuff, how to, and what side. The right side is what you really care about. That's the why side, the mystery and the meaning side.
Starting point is 00:09:41 You think about your car and how it works on the left side. You think about your marriage and how it works or doesn't on the right side. I can solve my car. I can't solve my marriage, period. I've been married 35 years. I will never solve my marriage. Let me help you. Your wife's always right.
Starting point is 00:09:54 Exactly. There you. Well played, sir. Did she pay you? But this is really important because when we're using technology, we're forcing ourselves into the left sides of our brain. That's the analytical side. And what happens is when we have right side needs, love, mystery, meaning, hope, faith.
Starting point is 00:10:12 And we satisfied those needs with a simulation from the left-hand side, mediated through a screen, through an algorithm of social media. we're empty. We know. There's one thing you can't simulate, which is the meaning of your life. This is how we've broken our brains. Our brains are literally not working right. And it's led to a physical disconnect. Absolutely. Where people are just not even, I mean, they're talking about a sex depression, right? Where young people just aren't having as much sex as previous generations. They're not having the same kind of relationships. What's going on there? What's going on there is that we're mediating our relationships through a small screen so that men are
Starting point is 00:10:48 contenting themselves temporarily with pornography, which leads them to greater amounts of depression and anxiety and lonely. This is very, very clear in the data, that the more pornography that men consume, the lonelier and more depressed that they get. And then they'll date on apps. Men and women will meet on apps. Now the problem with that is that that's fake dating.
Starting point is 00:11:07 That's fake courting to a very large extent. You need more human friction, right, hemispheric friction in the mating. Okay, but let me figure up on that. What is the difference, if you think about it, between when I was young, 16, 17, going to a pub and chatting up a girl or whatever at the bar, right? And you get lucky or you don't get lucky. And doing exactly the same thing on the dating app,
Starting point is 00:11:28 where you just know a little bit more about that person. Oh, but it's different. It's completely different. So what's the difference? To begin with, all you're looking at is with very limited information on the basis of a photograph and a few words where you're curating your image. When you met your wife, did you meet your wife in a pub?
Starting point is 00:11:42 No. Where did you meet your wife? I was speaking at a event where I was dying a terrible death and everyone was mocking me. And she was the only one laughing. It turned out she was laughing at how they were mocking me. But she was the lone voice of support in a sea of derision. And you saw her and you heard her words and you smelled her. I met a girl in 1988 in Dijon that didn't speak a single word of English.
Starting point is 00:12:10 And I didn't speak a single word of her language. which turned out to be Catalan and Spanish. And she smelled to me like a cantaloupe on an August afternoon. And that is the woman with whom I have four grandchildren today. Really? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It took a couple of years to improve our communication. But the whole point is that your brain is highly complex.
Starting point is 00:12:32 You know who your mate is. Interestingly, we know the repertoire of the genetic tendency to be able to protect against diseases, by the way, that our mate smells. That's actually called a major histicompatibility complex. Your brain knows that from how she smells. You don't get that over a dating app. All you get is a few lies about who the person is and the best picture that was ever taken.
Starting point is 00:12:53 And you know perfectly that you don't know anything. And that's meaningless. That's the reason that people have more dates and less attraction, less sex, less likelihood of marrying. There is a narrative that money doesn't bring you happiness. Correct. I've interviewed thousands of people. I would say it can bring you happiness.
Starting point is 00:13:11 I know rich people who are really happy, and I know very poor people who are really happy. It often has little to do with actual money. But the ones who have money who are happy say, it just bought me security not to have to worry about things. They're having no money made me worry about. I get that. But I don't think it's the money itself that makes them happy. It's the other things. It might be the relationship they're in or the job they have or whatever.
Starting point is 00:13:36 They're getting fulfillment, which is making them happy that I don't think is paid to the cash. Yeah, that's correct. Money does eliminate sources of unhappiness. Unhappiness and happiness are actually functioning in different parts of the brain. They're not the opposites of each other. You have happiness and you have unhappiness. You have positive emotions.
Starting point is 00:13:52 You have negative emotions for different reasons. And if negative emotionality is getting in your way because of you don't meet your caloric needs, you can't pay your rent. Your kids can't go to the doctor. When you eliminate that, you eliminate those sources of unhappiness and your life is better. And you conclude, I got happier.
Starting point is 00:14:08 At one point, I was so poor as a musician. when I was 19, 20 until I was 25, I couldn't go to the dentist. I didn't go to the dentist one time. We didn't have socialized dentistry in the United States. And then I had enough money at 25 to go to the dentist, and I filled 12 cavities, and I concluded that money bought happiness. Now, I will confess that not one day during that period that I go without a cigarette, so priorities, I suppose.
Starting point is 00:14:32 But the point is that I made the wrong conclusion. I was eliminating unhappiness, and I thought it brought me happiness. That's wrong. Now, when you do have money, there are ways that you can buy happiness, and your rich friends were happier doing these following things. You don't get happiness by buying stuff. You get happiness by buying experiences and having those experiences with the people that you love.
Starting point is 00:14:51 Have you ever bought an Aston Martin Rapid? Because I have, and that brought me a lot of happiness. How long? I'd always wanted to be Aston Martin. James Bond always drove Aston Martin. And when I could finally afford one, it brought me happiness when I bought it. I still have it.
Starting point is 00:15:09 Every time I drive it, it brings me happiness. But it's the experience of driving the car. It's not the car per se. Well, actually, looking at it, it makes me happy. Yeah, yeah, but that's an experience. Knowing I have one makes me happy. So I slightly... Perhaps the exception, but, you know, the truth is that as an empirical matter,
Starting point is 00:15:24 buying experiences and spending those experiences, either in really an edifying way or with people that you love, that brings real joy. Or buying time and using that time in a way that's really productive, not scrolling Instagram for Pete's, giving the money away to causes that you care about brings happiness. Saving for the future brings happiness because that's future success, whereas borrowing money ruins your happiness.
Starting point is 00:15:46 But I'm kind of a saving it for the future. It's fine right to the point when you have a, as I have recently in the last year or two, lost a couple of great friends suddenly. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, well, what if you don't have a future? I know. What are you saving it for? And also, I don't want to just leave what I have to my kids necessarily
Starting point is 00:16:05 because then they wouldn't have what I had when I was at. which was just the hunger to have these things. To earn their success. Yeah, and there's nothing, as you talk about happiness, I remember my first pay packet as a young journalist on the Wimbledon News. I was 1819. I remember it was hardly any money, really, right?
Starting point is 00:16:23 But the joy that it was my money to spend how I wanted to spend it. I can remember how happy that may be. Yeah. No, I believe you, and I completely believe that too. And the truth of the matter is that some people save too little and some people save too much. Some people just generally by nature. I mean, my mother always remembers being a happy child.
Starting point is 00:16:43 We went through quite a lot of trauma as a family. But she always remembers me just being a real glass, half-full person. And I still think I am. Right. But I'm able to deal with, like, a lot of crap, just quite phlegmatically, count to ten. You're not flagmatic. You're sanguine. I mean, you've got a kind of a...
Starting point is 00:17:00 Well, I wouldn't even say sane. You also have a good sense of humor. Well, I think that helps. I think that helps. But also, I think just, I always do think it could be worse. Right? And I also quote to my sons the famous Rocky speech with someone. He says, life will knock you down and keep you there if you let it. You don't win by how hard you can hit. You win by how hard you can get hit, get back up and keep moving forward. I do really believe
Starting point is 00:17:24 that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I do think your ability to deal with the crap in life to find how happy you are. Yeah, resilience is incredibly important. I think resilience is a key to happen. Absolutely. And I would say, you know, I don't have many skills, but I think resilience. is something I could definitely teach people. Being emotionally delicate is really, really problematic. And that's one of the reasons that the aspect of personality that's most associated with unhappiness is neuroticism. So there's five aspects of personality.
Starting point is 00:17:50 No doubt you've talked to Jordan Peterson about this. Openness to experience, which brings great happiness, conscientiousness, which brings happiness, agreeableness, which brings happiness, extroversion, which is better than introversion for happiness, and neuroticism, which brings you way down. And if you're a neurotic person, if you're a delicate flower, if everything offends you, if you're walking around prickly.
Starting point is 00:18:09 And this is the reason, peers, that our modern society, which is telling young people that they're victims and they should be aggrieved, this is destroying their happiness. 100%. I wrote a book called Wake Up, which is a clarion call as a liberal-minded person to young people to not fall into this trap where everything, where you just, there's almost a premium in being a victim. Right. It's an identity. Well, I would cite the thing like, you know, I see people on Instagram and they say, I've just passed my driving test at the year. 11th attempt. I'm so proud of myself. I'd be like, I'd be totally ashamed if that was 11 times. And by the way, I don't want you on the road. I know. Right? I don't want some maniac you took 11 times to pass it. So I think about that and I think that's past my medical boards after the 40th time. Yes. Of course, what's happened with all this? I mean, it's interesting Stephen Barley. He's a great
Starting point is 00:18:59 friend of mine. He's a great friend of mine. He's a director. I love a show. I love him too. And actually, when I remember him, he seems very happy. I was just done in South of France, and he was there doing something. He's a positive force. However, he got into a lot of trouble by saying, you're thinking about your dopamine exposure when you've had three glasses of wine? I mean, I went to Royal Ascot last week
Starting point is 00:19:19 and drank about three bottles of wine, and I was in the gym at 9 o'clock the next morning, feeling horrendous, but proud of myself for getting through the terrible hangover I had. And he's been, like, ridiculed for it. I got what he was getting at. which is, you know, he's one of those bodies of temple guys. And if you do that, it throws off your equilibrium.
Starting point is 00:19:39 And maybe for him, that is genuine. Maybe he genuinely did go through all that. I'm sure he did. He's probably being honest about it. But I found that, I watched the debate with quite amusement. You know it. What do you think of that? Well, you know, I think it's actually a good idea to be paying attention to your health
Starting point is 00:19:54 and to be tracking things. And I do it myself. I mean, I've got the tracker and I have various reasons. You look very healthy. And I work out every day for an hour and I do all these types of things. My guess is that Stephen, to make a point, was just overstating the effect that it had on him. He noticed that it affected him because he hadn't drunk in a long time than he did, and he noticed that he felt a little bit different.
Starting point is 00:20:11 And it felt a little bit worse is what it came down to. And he said it ruined three days of my life, but you know what? I overstayed things all the time. Yeah. What do you make of this sort of cult of gurus, grifters? I like the geniuses better, by the way. Yeah, yeah. But I do think people like you and Jordan Peterson are geniuses,
Starting point is 00:20:29 and I think you do so much good. So let me just say that. But there are, as you know, a lot of pseudo people out there. The internet's good for that, yeah. Just making money. I mean, someone like Andrew Tate with his university or whatever is just a total grifter. Yeah. What do we do about that with the influence that people like that can have over?
Starting point is 00:20:50 Yeah. I mean, on the internet, you have a lot of people who are influencers who are farming content. They're sort of autodidacts that have figured out that they're good at taking other people's content. and putting it together, kind of putting it into packages and then selling it to the public. And that's really, really compelling thing. And by the way, some people, I don't insist that everybody suffers through a PhD like I did, for Pete's sake. Not everybody has to do that. And some people who didn't are really good communicators.
Starting point is 00:21:17 They're retailers of big ideas. But some people have also figured out that they can go beyond their headlights. They can go beyond what the science will actually say. Or they don't understand the science and they'll be disreputable. There's somebody who says, you know, carrots are going to kill you. They're the people who say, like, if you eat any meat, you're doomed. Or if you anything but meat, you're doomed. That's what it comes down to.
Starting point is 00:21:36 And that's really, really problematic. We need prudential judgment for Pete's sake. The whole idea that we're so credulous, that we're so eager to actually be convinced by these particular people, has made us into bad consumers. The problem is not the grifters. The problem is the people who are willing to follow the grifters all the way to the end. And we need to be more skeptical. But in a way, it's why I have the grifters on my show quite regular. you take people. I take them on and I've noticed the real world impact of exposing a lot of their
Starting point is 00:22:04 crap to an equally big platform that young people will come up to me go, I didn't know that about him until I watched that interview. That's why I think giving these people unfettered runs is wrong. Yeah. People say you shouldn't platform these people. I was like actually someone like me should. Yeah, because you're a professional skeptic. Yes. Yeah. And I will challenge them and I will what I think they're misogynist or whatever, I'll take them on and take them down. Right. And I see the real world consequence of that on the streets when people come up to me. They go from adulation to them within a year after a couple of contentious interviews,
Starting point is 00:22:40 much more critical of the person I've interviewed. So I see it works. It's a good public service. I mean, it really is. The whole point is that if we're uncritical about people, I mean, I want people to be critical of my work. My work is contested because I'm working in neuroscience and behavioral science and I do the best that I can, but there are alternative points of view
Starting point is 00:22:59 and other scientists who can say, no, that's the wrong definition of happiness. That's fine. The problem is that when we're completely credulous, because we want somebody to have the skeleton key for all things in life, that's unhelpful of people. How happy are you, do you think? So I'm less happy than average.
Starting point is 00:23:16 And I know this because I've fielded very large surveys on human well-being, which is why I got to do this first place. I mean, you've got so much going through you. Oh, no, no, for sure. I have a charmed life, to be sure. So what are you unhappy about? Well, here's the thing. Happiness is about half genetic.
Starting point is 00:23:30 And we know this from identical twins that were separated at birth and given personality tests when they were reunited around age 40. So separated at birth and adopted into separate families. This was not a diabolical Harvard experiment, I assure you.
Starting point is 00:23:42 And when they were reunited, of course, they had nerds like me with white lab coats following around with clipboards asking them about their personalities. And all of these aspects of personality that we've been talking about. But wouldn't it be down to the experiences
Starting point is 00:23:53 they had after that network? But that's the other half. See, here's the point. Why can't that be 95%? I wish it were. But how do you know it's not? Well, we know it's not because actually what we find is that you have a perfect natural experiment because identical twins are carbon copies genetically from each other.
Starting point is 00:24:08 And then you'll measure their happiness in very, very precise ways. And you can use sophisticated statistical techniques to net out nature and nurture. Say one of them goes off and has his heart really broken. And the other one meets the love of his life. Right. One is, in that consequence, the trauma of the first one, it might take him a long time to get over there. It might determine how he leads his life, right?
Starting point is 00:24:29 I mean, that might flood his entire life for all sorts of reasons, to be sure. But on average, across the population, half of your happiness in genetic, appears your mother literally made you unhappy. Or happy. I think happy, yeah. In your case, it's happy. In my case is probably a little bit unhappy. I had gloomy parents, as the way to that works.
Starting point is 00:24:47 See, I've put very, like, gregarious, fun parents. So you'd like to have a good time or whatever. And the good news about this, by the way, is when you know this, you can manage yourself, and that's what I'm doing. So here's the thing. I also know from the data that half of your tendency toward alcoholism is genetic. But if you came to me and said, I'm doomed, Arthur, man. I mean, both my parents were drunks and all four of my grandparents were bootleggers.
Starting point is 00:25:10 And what am I going to do? I would say, well, you missed a step because there's one thing that you can do that can turn the genetic tendency to zero. Don't drink. It's an amazing new technique. Do you drink? No. I don't drink at all because I know where it leads. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Starting point is 00:25:24 So what made you give up? Because I knew where it was going to lead. I actually saw it in my family and I saw it myself and I looked at the data. I ran the numbers and I realized that as a social scientist, I had the ability to actually look into the future. I had a crystal ball and it ended in a very dark place. See, I'm a happy drunk, right? So I don't get drunk about how much do you think? Well, I mean, sometimes a lot.
Starting point is 00:25:46 But when I do, I never get nasty or, or, or, it's a bit. I'm just a happy drunk. Yeah, I like it too much was the problem. And here's the thing. Alcohol, when you like it too much and you use it every day, like any drug or anesthetizing behavior, is a relationship. And that relationship is substituting for the relationships that you care about the most. If you can use alcohol as a compliment to the people that you love on an occasional basis,
Starting point is 00:26:12 more power to you. I work a lot with adult beverage companies, and I think they do a wonderful service for the people who can handle it. On the other hand, if it's a substitute for these relationships and not a compliment, then you're in trouble. Because what's going to do is crowd out what you truly want, which is the meaning of your life. Well, you know, I discovered the meaning of my life and what the real route to happen is, and it came a few weeks ago. What is it? Tell me. After 22 years of hurt and pain, genuine.
Starting point is 00:26:39 Yeah. Like miserable pain, wretched torment. My football team, Arsle, finally won the Premier League. Congratulations. Having lost it, come second. five times. Yeah, yeah. And my kids all went through the same thing.
Starting point is 00:26:52 They went through, you know, 22 years of just agony. Watching this team that we loved just come up short again and again and fail and causes pain. And then when we finally won, it was this explosion of joy. Yeah. And it's carried on. We meet up and we're just happy. You're still happy?
Starting point is 00:27:09 Yes. So as you can carry all, I think, for months. Are you keeping yourself? Me too, by the way, the Seattle Seahawks. Right. NFL Super Bowl. My team. I grew up in Seattle.
Starting point is 00:27:17 my heartbroken year after year and now, and now see? You see, I do think that can make you happy. It can certainly help, especially, by the way, when you're enjoying Arsenal together with your kids. Because that's really the secret. No, no, it is.
Starting point is 00:27:31 It is, but it's been very interesting that all our well-being has dramatically increased. That's right, but wait till next season. They'll break your heart. It will. Arthur, great to meet you. Great to meet you too. I'm not to do this again,
Starting point is 00:27:42 and I really enjoyed it. Great that you're in London. Great, we could have you. Yeah, thanks. Thank you very much. Thanks for what you're doing. Thanks for the service that you're providing to all of us. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Of course. Cheers.
Starting point is 00:27:53 Pierce Morgan Unscensored is proudly independent. The only boss around here is me. If you enjoy our show, we ask only one simple thing. Hit subscribe on YouTube and follow Pierce Morgan Unsensored on Spotify and Apple Podcast. And in return, we will continue our mission to inform, irritate and entertain. And we'll do it all for free. Independent Unsensive Media has never been more critical, and we couldn't be. Do it without you.

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