Lulu Garcia Navarro

Why is it so hard to be happy for so many people?

Despite a culture of wellness influencers with their happiness hacks and mindset tricks, all of the indicators show that we Americans are less happy than ever.

What is going on and what can we do about it?

I put those questions to Dr. Lori Santos.

Santos is a cognitive scientist whose class on happiness quickly became the most popular in Yale's history.

And through her podcast, The Happiness Lab, and her free online course called The Science of Well-Being, Santos' reach has extended well beyond the classroom.

I wanted to understand what the science says happiness really is, how our understanding of what it takes to be happy has changed over time, and why, with the pandemic in our rearview mirror, it's still been so hard for me, and many others, to do the things that will actually make us happier.

And what she told me was surprising.

Here's my conversation with Dr. Lori Santos.

Thank you so much for being here.

I'm so glad you could join me.

Thanks so much for having me on the show.

I am going to start in a bit of a strange place because like so many people in the world, I was really obsessed with the story of Punch the Monkey, that little monkey in Japan whose mother sort of rejected him and he had no one to socialize with.

So he adopted that Ikea monkey toy.

Yes.

And I have a theory about punch that connects to happiness.

And I wanted to put it to you because apart from being a happiness expert, you also study animal cognition and you started your work with monkeys.

Literally everyone that I know sent me information about punch.

I was like getting in real time what was happening with punch.

I was really thinking about why so many people around the world connected with punch's inability to form relationships.