Kathryn Schulz

And those are hard emotions to hold together all at once. And yet I find that to be a necessary and productive friction, not least because as I said earlier, it reminds us that actually we should always live that way. You And we have the resources and the lives to even have the possibility of ignoring the suffering in the world.

And those are hard emotions to hold together all at once. And yet I find that to be a necessary and productive friction, not least because as I said earlier, it reminds us that actually we should always live that way. You And we have the resources and the lives to even have the possibility of ignoring the suffering in the world.

We should be grateful for everything that reminds us not to and reminds us like we should experience this kind of friction in our lives all the time.

We should be grateful for everything that reminds us not to and reminds us like we should experience this kind of friction in our lives all the time.

I think that's almost certainly true. I mean, it's so interesting. You said you were reading Melting Point and there's an arresting moment in there when one of the sources in the book who we're hearing from talks about how, you know, you used to read one newspaper and you'd get 20 minutes of news in the evening or maybe you'd get 10 minutes of newsreels before a movie and that was it.

I think that's almost certainly true. I mean, it's so interesting. You said you were reading Melting Point and there's an arresting moment in there when one of the sources in the book who we're hearing from talks about how, you know, you used to read one newspaper and you'd get 20 minutes of news in the evening or maybe you'd get 10 minutes of newsreels before a movie and that was it.

And I put down the book when I read that. I thought about it for a long time because, I mean, there was not a shortage of news in the world. This was in the middle of the Second World War. And she goes on to say something I found equally arresting and highly related, which is the world seemed much bigger and more mysterious than...

And I put down the book when I read that. I thought about it for a long time because, I mean, there was not a shortage of news in the world. This was in the middle of the Second World War. And she goes on to say something I found equally arresting and highly related, which is the world seemed much bigger and more mysterious than...

So I think you're right, although I also think it's a little bit more complicated than that because in this kind of tragic way, I feel like we simultaneously know more about the world and less about our own communities in a certain sense. Oh, yeah. bits of news from all over, much of it tragic, some of it just inflammatory for a deep and connected knowledge of our own immediate communities.

So I think you're right, although I also think it's a little bit more complicated than that because in this kind of tragic way, I feel like we simultaneously know more about the world and less about our own communities in a certain sense. Oh, yeah. bits of news from all over, much of it tragic, some of it just inflammatory for a deep and connected knowledge of our own immediate communities.

And that does feel tragic and upsetting to me. And this kind of absolute flattening of distinctions. So

And that does feel tragic and upsetting to me. And this kind of absolute flattening of distinctions. So

Happiness routinely gets not only less attention, but also more criticism than its opposite number.

Happiness routinely gets not only less attention, but also more criticism than its opposite number.

Contemporary thinkers sometimes dismiss it as a shallow fixation of modern life, but to condemn it on those grounds is to mistake it for proximate but different phenomena, either superficial forms of itself, like amusement and pleasure, or superficial means of trying to achieve it, from substance abuse to so-called retail therapy.

Contemporary thinkers sometimes dismiss it as a shallow fixation of modern life, but to condemn it on those grounds is to mistake it for proximate but different phenomena, either superficial forms of itself, like amusement and pleasure, or superficial means of trying to achieve it, from substance abuse to so-called retail therapy.

I can't believe you're asking me to define happiness on the fly in your podcast as required.

I can't believe you're asking me to define happiness on the fly in your podcast as required.

Well, you know it when you feel it. I mean, I think that happiness is a state of profound appreciation for what you have in that exact moment. I guess if I were going to generate a spontaneous definition, that's what it would be. I mean, I was moved to write about it because I was lucky enough to find myself extremely happy. And...

Well, you know it when you feel it. I mean, I think that happiness is a state of profound appreciation for what you have in that exact moment. I guess if I were going to generate a spontaneous definition, that's what it would be. I mean, I was moved to write about it because I was lucky enough to find myself extremely happy. And...