Hidden Brain
You 2.0: The Path to Contentment + Your Questions Answered on Conversations
14 Jul 2025
Full Episode
This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedanta. In the summer of 1776, 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson drafted one of the most important documents in the history of the United States. The Declaration of Independence laid out a vision for a new country and said all men had God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
86 changes to the draft were made by John Adams, Ben Franklin, and others. Like many writers, Thomas Jefferson is said to have been unhappy with the changes his editors recommended. But the line about how we are all entitled to the pursuit of happiness endured.
In recent years, many elements of the Declaration of Independence have come under scrutiny, including its omission of women, the poor, and enslaved people. We've examined some of these ideas in an earlier episode that looked at Thomas Jefferson's complicated life story.
Today on the show, we continue our U2.0 series with a favorite episode that explores Jefferson's psychological claim about what makes for a good life. What happens in our minds when we pursue happiness this week on Hidden Brain. When you ask people what they want in life, nearly everyone will tell you they want to be happy.
After all, that's the point of finding a great job, starting a family, or going on wonderful vacations. At the University of California, Berkeley, psychologist Iris Moss studies a paradox associated with our pursuit of happiness. Iris Moss, welcome to Hidden Brain.
Thank you so much for having me.
Iris, about a decade ago, you achieved a major milestone in the life of a scholar. You got tenure at a great university. How long had you dreamed of becoming a professor at a school like UC Berkeley?
I think forever. So this was a really big deal for me. I'd been working toward this for a long time and had been really looking forward to that moment, hoping I would get tenure. Getting tenure is a big deal, of course. I would get to be with the most lovely colleagues I could imagine and doing what I love in a beautiful area.
Now, whenever I visit UC Berkeley, I'm struck by how beautiful it is. I mean, Berkeley really is absolutely gorgeous. So mission accomplished, Iris?
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