What is happiness? Can it be studied? Are there steps we can all take in order to become happy? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Laurie Santos in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.

An expert on the science of happiness, Santos is the Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. In addition to her work on the evolutionary origins of human cognition, Laurie is an expert on the ways in which our minds lie to us about what makes us happy. Her Yale course, Psychology and the Good Life, teaches students how the science of psychology can provide important hints about how to make wiser choices and live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. The class became Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years, with almost one out of four students enrolled. Her course has been featured in the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, GQ Magazine, Slate and O! Magazine. The online version of the class—The Science of Well-Being on Coursera.org—has attracted more than 4 million learners from around the world. A winner of numerous awards both for her science and teaching, she was recently voted as one of Popular Science Magazine’s “Brilliant 10” young minds, and was named in Time Magazine as a “Leading Campus Celebrity.” Her podcast, The Happiness Lab, is a top-3 Apple podcast which has attracted 85+ million downloads since its launch.

In this episode, Santos talks about her Yale course on Psychology and the Good Life and why it has become so popular. Santos also explains what the research on happiness tells us about what people who report being happy have done to get there. Santos then discusses how often the things we tend to think will make us happy end up not making us happy at all. She also looks at the impact of the Covid epidemic and technology on our age’s mental health crisis and points out the value of social connection – and fun – for our happiness. Finally, Santos explains how important “negative” emotions like sadness, anger or frustration are for our ability to be happy, in a conversation well worth listening to.

More on this topic

• The online version of Santos’ Yale course

• The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos, her podcast

• A series of interviews with Laurie Santos

• A New York Times story on Santos’ Yale course

Other references in Portuguese

• Podcast [IN] Pertinente “O que é a felicidade” with Ana Markl and Rui Costa Lopes

• Podcast [IN] Pertinente “Felicidade liga com Economia?” with Hugo van der Ding and Joana Pais

• Podcast [IN] Pertinente “Somos iguais aos de antes?” with Ana Markl and Miguel Chaves

• “Felicidade e bem-estar: a importância dos outros”, na interview with neuroscientist Julianne Holt-Lunstad