18 Jan 2024 · 1 h 26 min
Books from Arthur C. Brooks
“No. 1 Happiness Expert: If Your Friends Get Divorced So Will You! Single Friends Will Keep You Single! Obesity Is Contagious”
9 books mentioned
Buy links are Amazon affiliate links. Timestamps come from the audio release (which includes ad breaks), so the video may differ by a few minutes.
The conversation
Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard professor and Atlantic columnist, discusses the science of happiness. He explains that happiness combines enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning, and emphasizes agency and managing wants. The episode covers emotional contagion, the difference between empathy and compassion, and metacognition for managing anxiety.
Talking points
- Happiness as enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning
- Importance of agency and managing wants
- Finding meaning through coherence, purpose, significance
- Three-part protocol for meaning
- PANAS personality test and love chemistry
- Emotional contagion and social influence
- Difference between empathy and compassion
- Metacognition as a tool for anxiety