The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos - The Joy of Star Trek, The Grateful Dead and Hot Sauce: The Happiness Lab Returns September 6

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

Happiness can be found in unusual places. Dr Laurie Santos returns with a new season that takes us to the fun frontiers of fandom with Star Trek's Wesley Crusher; to the world's happiest country in the depths of winter; and inside the ranch that inspired The Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart to exclaim "YOLO!".   And you'll hear what it's like to chug the hottest hot sauce on the planet to get a rush of pleasure.  The Happiness Lab Returns September 6 - wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pushkin. 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, we'll 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 and 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, YOLO, YOLO. The Grateful Dead's drummer, Mickey Hart. YOLO. YOLO. 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,

do something and commit to it with everything you have. We'll globetrot and meet a woman whose pursuit of happiness meant 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 blackjack. And you get to stack the deck. You can have a deck full of sixes 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, returns September 6th, wherever you get your podcasts. Miss it, and you'll regret it.