Today we welcome Dr. Laurie Santos, psychology professor and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Her course, “Psychology and the Good Life,”is Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years and has been adapted into a free Coursera program that has been taken by over 3.3 million people to date. Dr. Santos is a winner of numerous awards both for her science and teaching from institutions such as Yale and the American Psychological Association. She is also the podcast host of The Happiness Lab.

In this episode, I talk to Dr. Laurie Santos about happiness. People are unhappy not for lack of trying, but it’s because they’re applying ineffective strategies. Dr. Santos identifies some of the cognitive biases that can hinder our happiness. There is no magical antidote to our problems, but there are ways to boost well-being in small but significant ways. We also discuss resilience, social justice and mindfulness.

Website: drlauriesantos.com

Twitter: @lauriesantos

Topics

03:04 Laurie’s interest in well-being

06:54 Our expectations about happiness 

09:44 Defining and measuring happiness

13:59 Predictors of resilience 

15:43 Laurie’s happiness score

17:39 “Self-care is a political act”

22:39 The Feel Good, Do Good Effect

24:11 The role of culture, environment, genes

27:55 Contributions to the science of happiness

32:13 The impact of Laurie’s research

35:19 Cognitive biases that influence happiness

38:16 Do mindfulness interventions work?

44:37 The Happiness Lab’s new season