The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos
Episodes
Why You're Still Using Social Media (Even If You Want to Stop) with Dr. Cass Sunstein
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why is social media so hard to quit? We waste hours scrolling, feel worse when we log off, and still find ourselves going back for more. Dr. Laurie si...
What is Social Media Doing to Kids? with Dr. Jean Twenge
20 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past decade, rates of depression and loneliness have surged among young people. Many researchers point to one major change: th...
How to Stop Work From Taking Over Your Life
16 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Work doesn’t end when the workday does. Even after we close our laptops, our minds keep replaying awkward meetings, looming deadlines, and unfin...
Inside the Love Lab with Drs. John & Julie Gottman (Part 2)
09 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Part 2 of Dr. Laurie’s conversation with researchers Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman, we learn how couples can raise complain...
Inside the Love Lab with Drs. John & Julie Gottman (Part 1)
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this classic episode, Dr. Laurie speaks with two of the world’s most influential relationship scientists, Drs. John Gottman and Julie Schwart...
Why Algorithms Can’t Predict Your Love Life with Dr. Paul Eastwick
23 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Modern dating can feel like a marketplace. We’re told we all have a “mate value,” that some people are 9s and 10s, and that the laws...
How to Find "The One": The Science of Dating with Tim Molnar
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Modern dating can feel exhausting. On one hand, there’s the seemingly endless swiping that leads to dating app burnout; on the other, there&rsqu...
How to Feel Truly Loved (with Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky and Dr. Harry Reis)
09 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us have people in our lives who love us — partners, friends, family — yet many of us still don’t feel as loved as we want to...
How to Design a More Meaningful Life (with Dave Evans and Bill Burnett)
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to live a meaningful life? How do you find direction when you feel stuck or you’re unsure about your purpose? Dave Evans and B...
The Surprising Science of Creativity (with Dr. George Newman)
26 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We often think creativity comes from sudden flashes of genius within us. But what if ideas actually exist in the world around us — waiting to be...
Why Chasing Success Can Leave You Feeling Stuck (with David Brooks)
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It’s easy to fixate on the usual markers of success — your resume, your net worth, or how “impressive” you seem on paper. But ...
How to Bounce Back from Life’s Curveballs (with Dr. Maya Shankar)
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Life has a way of upending even our best-laid plans. Breakups, job losses, scary health diagnoses — these unexpected changes can leave us feelin...
Stop Wasting Your Energy — Here’s What to Do Instead (with Dr. Diana Hill)
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of us spend our energy on things that aren’t worth it: projects, relationships, or goals that may feel important in the moment but ultimat...
From Decoding Women's Health: Decoding Happiness in Midlife
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Midlife can be a period of immense change and, sometimes, challenging emotions. But it’s also an opportunity to cultivate deeper, more lasting h...
Holiday Survival Guide II: Perfect Gifts and Fighting Fatigue (with Rainn Wilson)
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What stresses you out over the festive season? Happiness Lab listeners sent in their holiday woes so Dr Laurie and guest Rainn Wilson (The Office star...
Holiday Survival Guide I: Ending Family Arguments (with Rainn Wilson)
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What stresses you out over the festive season? Happiness Lab listeners sent in their holiday woes so Dr Laurie and guest Rainn Wilson (The Office star...
How to Experience the Joy of Giving Right Now
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
According to the science, it really is better to give than receive. Donating a dollar; sharing a kind word or lending someone a hand changes lives, bu...
Why Being Grateful Makes Us Feel Great (A Thanksgiving Re-run)
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's Thanksgiving - a good time to think about gratitude and being selfless. Concentrating on the things we have to be grateful for is a great way to ...
Reset Your Relationship with Stress (for National Stress Awareness Day)
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On National Stress Awareness Day we've pulled a popular episode from our archive. Stress can suck. Many of us drown in it - worrying about past e...
How Horror Movies and True Crime Can Make You Happier
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Halloween isn't just costumes and candy. It's also a time when we indulge our interest in the scary and macabre. But there's also a taboo about gory h...
Make Vulnerability Your Superpower (with NBA star Kevin Love)
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Not many elite athletes talk openly about mental health, but five-time NBA All-Star Kevin Love is changing that. After a very public panic attack on t...
How to Make Better Choices (with Barry Schwartz)
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every choice you make shapes your wellbeing - and the bigger the decision, the greater the impact. So when it comes to life-changing questions like wh...
Take a Three-Day Weekend Without Losing Any Pay (with Juliet Schor)
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Many of us toil for long hours - and even take work home at the end of the day. That's bad for us in so many ways - but extensive research shows that ...
How to Spend Your Time and Money Better (with Nobel Prize Winner Richard Thaler)
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We all behave irrationally. We pay for expensive gym memberships and only go once. We spend windfall cash on things we'd never buy with our salaries. ...
Eat Like the People Who Live Happily to 100 (with Dan Buettner)
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Your eating habits could be cutting years off the end of your life. But there's a simple solution - eat like the people who live happily and healthily...
Why Having the Courage to Defy Makes us Happier (with Dr Sunita Sah)
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We all go along with things we don't want to do... or worse, things that make us feel uncomfortable or morally uneasy. We comply for lots of reasons. ...
Stop Caring What Other People Think of You (Bruce Hood on 10% Happier with Dan Harris)
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bruce Hood was a mentor of Dr Laurie early in her academic career and now teaches a course on happiness based on her famous Yale class. Hear him discu...
“Can You Train Your Mind to Be Happier?” (with Dr Tal Ben-Shahar)
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do you train your mind to be happier? That was the question posed to Dr Laurie by Dr Tal Ben-Shahar at a live webinar for his Happiness Studies Ac...
"Human Minds Are Stupid!" (with Rich Roll)
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On his podcast, Rich Roll seeks to give his listeners the knowledge to unleash their best selves. He invited Dr Laurie on his show to explain the scie...
The Joy of Not Being Dead (with Ryan Holiday on The Daily Stoic)
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Laurie often uses the teachings of the ancient Stoic philosophers to help her through daily life - so she was invited on Ryan Holiday's hit show&nb...
Anyone Can Play, Anyone Can Win (Cornholing with Michelle Hastie Thompson)
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do you put your life back together after your home and your neighborhood's been destroyed in a wildfire? By tossing beanbags at a hole? That's wha...
The Jimi Hendrix of the Cello (with Joshua Roman)
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Joshua Roman has been playing the cello everyday since he was three - but then on a concert tour he caught Covid. The illness wouldn't go away and sap...
"Birds Are Like My Afternoon Martini" (Birding with Lili Taylor)
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lili Taylor loves her acting career - but the emotional intensity of her work and the constant travel can take its toll. But Lili has found a way to r...
How Good Manners Made Me Happier (with Etiquette Expert William Hanson)
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You might think etiquette is outdated. Who really needs a dinner with nice napkins and four different forks? Etiquette expert William Hanson disagrees...
How Dogs Changed my Life (with The Dogist)
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We all have our own ways of coping - especially when things get tough. So for the next few shows we're going to talking to people with interesting cop...
The Two Words That Saved Mel Robbins (From A Slight Change of Plans)
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re bringing you an episode of A Slight Change of Plans hosted by Dr. Maya Shankar - the behavioral scientist who also happens to be a f...
How Smartphones Changed Childhood (And What to do About it)
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The happiness of young people has taken a big hit since the advent of the smartphone - and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that there is a d...
How to Think Like a Child (with David Yeager)
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why do kids do disruptive, annoying or maddening things? Usually when children behave badly, the first thing adults do is yell at them, tell them they...
How to Tackle Bad Behaviour (with Dr Becky Kennedy)
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Clinical psychologist Dr Becky Kennedy thinks every child is “good inside” even when they’re behaving badly. So to tackle tantrums o...
Is a "Viking" Childhood a Happier Childhood (with Helen Russell)?
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nordic countries are known to be happy - so should we all raise our children like the Scandinavians do? British parent Helen Russell moved to Denmark ...
How Not to Repeat Your Parents' Mistakes (with Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach)
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Parents are never perfect - but their mistakes can have a lasting impact on their children. We all carry with us ideas and attitudes planted in us dur...
Reducing the Stress of Parenting with Dr Vivek Murthy
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Too many parents feel “exhausted, burned out, and perpetually behind” according to the former US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy. He says ...
How to Build Resilience (with Ben Walter from The Unshakeables)
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a special episode brought to you by Chase for Business, Dr. Laurie joins Ben Walter—CEO of Chase for Business and host of The Unshakeables po...
Can You Become a "Practical" Optimist?
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There are many benefits to being an optimist - particularly when things go wrong in our lives. But we aren't all naturally optimistic, so can we learn...
How to Confront the Things that Suck (Live with John Green)
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Author and vlogger John Green looks around the world and sees a lot of things that suck. But rather than giving in to despair, he's trying to develop ...
How to be Awesome - With Almost no Effort (with John Green)
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Best-selling author John Green wants to see less suck in the world and more awesome - and you can help achieve that right now! John's turned his atten...
How to Stay Hopeful (Live from SXSW with Michelle Obama)
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
"What can we do to find hope when times are tough?" That was the question posed to Dr Laurie for a live recording of IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig...
Why You Should Take a Few Months Off Work (Live from SXSW)
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes a two-week vacation just isn't enough - we all might need to leave our jobs for three months, six months or even a year. Taking an extended ...
Friendships: Handling Change, Conflict and Finding New Friends
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Laurie was invited by her pal Gretchen Rubin to appear on a special edition of the More Happier podcast to examine friendship. The two old fr...
Twelve Sayings That Could Change Your Life
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There are so many happiness lessons to remember - but it helps if we can boil them down into memorable little sayings. Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin...
Have You Got Trust Issues?
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do you trust your government? Do you trust your neighbors or the strangers you meet on the street? Do you trust the media? Or your teachers? Who we tr...
Why Eating Alone is so Bad for You (An International Day of Happiness Special).
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's the International Day of Happiness! It's a chance to talk about happiness and what we can all do to be happier. March 20th also sees the release ...
Why We're Better With Some Threats Than Others (An Earth Month Re-Run)
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Earth Day is coming on April 22, but the whole month is seen as an opportunity to think about environmental issues and what we as individuals can do t...
Harnessing People Around us to Feel Happier (Live with Ethan Kross)
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hell is other people. They can upset us, depress us and infuriate us. Their bad moods can bring us down. And their achievements can make us feel like ...
How to Find Your Purpose
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What's your purpose? Jordan Grumet thought that becoming a doctor would give his life meaning and direction... but he was wrong. He spent his days doi...
How to Inspire the People Around You
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Leaders aren't just generals, presidents and CEOs. You're probably a leader too! Someone in your home, school or workplace might look to you for guida...
How to Lead the Richest Life Possible
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To improve your life you might decide to prioritize your own personal happiness, or find meaning in helping the people around you. Few of us consider ...
Dr Laurie Talks Romance, Parents and Stalking on 'Love Factually'
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Love Factually is a new podcast looking at what "rom com" movies get right and wrong about relationships. Dr Laurie Santos joined the hosts Eli Finkel...
How to Learn from a Rom Com Movie
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the absence of better advice, we learn a lot about love and dating from rom com movies - but is the depiction of relationships in these films leadi...
Date Like a Scientist
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do you go on endless dates hoping to find the perfect partner only to be endlessly disappointed? Or have you stopped meeting people because you've dec...
Stop Stressing About Stress
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Stress can suck, but it's part of life - it’s normal and even useful. Many of us drown in our stress - worrying about past events and fearing up...
Hack Your Emotions
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Negative emotions like fear or anger are part of being human. These feelings tell us something - perhaps prompting us to take action or bring about ch...
Get Over Yourself
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As children we think we're at the center of the world - but as adults we need to learn to see the perspectives and problems of other people. It helps ...
Feel Like You're Enough
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Perfectionism isn't just wanting to be perfect... it's the feelings of failure and shame when we simply can't perform at a superhuman level all day, e...
How To Embrace Imperfection
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In our first "How To..." guide of 2025, Dr Laurie is asking how can we stop striving for perfection and make peace with the idea that it's ok to lead ...
Finding Holiday Happiness (Dr Laurie on the How God Works podcast)
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy. But all too often, the darker, colder days of winter, and even the stress of preparing for the holidays...
Why Giving is a Great Daily Habit
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's Giving Tuesday - a time when many people donate to charity (using websites like this: givingmultiplier.org/happiness). Giving money to help peopl...
Get Happier, Help Others: Some Good Ideas About Giving
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's the season of giving: colorful paper and shiny bows, sure, and charitable giving, too. In this special episode, Jacob Goldstein, the host of What...
Top 5: How to Act Like an Extrovert
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's Happiness Lab's fifth birthday - so as part of the celebration we're playing some of Dr Laurie's favorite episodes. The final selection attracted...
Top 5: Throw Yourself into Fandom
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate five years of The Happiness Lab, Dr Laurie has picked out the five episodes she loves the most. And this is a special one - Nerd Out! The...
Top 5: Love the Past, But Don't Live There
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Happiness Lab is five years old. To mark our birthday, Dr Laurie has picked her favorite five episodes from the archive. The show Why Nostalgia Ain't ...
Top 5: Finding Joy in Any Job
15 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To mark the podcast's fifth birthday, Dr Laurie is revisiting some of her favorite episodes. And this show - Working Your Way to Happiness - has a spe...
Happy Birthday, Happiness Lab: Dr Laurie's Top 5 Shows
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Happiness Lab debuted back in fall 2019. To celebrate our fifth birthday, we're revisiting Dr Laurie's favorite shows. We kick off with one from w...
You can be happier at work — here's how from Fixable
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We're bringing you an episode of Fixable, where Laurie joined Frances Frei and Anne Morriss to discuss whether you can make yourself happier at work. ...
How to Thrive at Work
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We can spend a lot of time working - and it gives us fulfillment, social interaction and fun - but still one in five of us say our workplaces are "tox...
How to Fail at Work
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You can't alway win at work. We all have career setbacks and disappointments - and learning how to deal with them is vital. We need to move on from ou...
Advice from The Titans of Happiness on World Mental Health Day
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The biggest names in wellness podcasting - "The Titans of Happiness" - come together to talk about the greatest mental health challenges facing us in ...
How to Make a Difference (Happily)
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We often assume that we can’t fix the big problems we see in the world around us. And that trying is for suckers - who’ll just end up sad, exhaust...
How to Disagree Better
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It feels like our world is deeply polarized. We seem to fundamentally disagree with so many people - and with those disputes comes anger and hatred. C...
Survival of the Fittest... or the Kindest?
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some people think they need to be ruthless and selfish to thrive and survive in life. The theories of Charles Darwin are often wrongly interpreted to ...
How to Find Hope in a Cynical World
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s hard to stay hopeful these days. Stanford professor Jamil Zaki has been studying the incredible depth of human kindness for decades, but even h...
Find Hope and Banish Cynicism... Coming Sept 9
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's hard to stay hopeful sometimes. Things can look pretty bleak and divided, especially around election time. But if you're losing hope in your fell...
"Happiness Is Like A Leaky Tire" from Immigrantly
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We're bringing you an episode of Immigrantly, where Laurie joined host Saadia Khan to discuss the psychology of happiness education and the expansive ...
The Happiness Lessons Helping Win Olympic Medals
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
America's top athletes need coaches. And those coaches themselves need guidance. It's a hard and stressful job - and one where coaches can easily beco...
The Happiness of the Long Distance Runner
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Georgia Bell was a great runner as a child - but in college she fell out of love with the sport. She hung up her running shoes - and they gathered dus...
How Talking to a Friend Helps (Live at The International Festival of Arts and Ideas)
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Making shows about her own happiness challenges was both fun and instructive for Dr Laurie, but it also took guts to be so vulnerable and open. She la...
A Matter of Life and Death
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Laurie HATES thinking about her own death. It's scary, creepy and morbid, right? Wrong. Thinking about our finite lives can makes us better, happie...
Why Don't We Have a 15-hour Work Week?
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By 2030 we'll only work 15 hours a week, predicted the legendary economist John Maynard Keynes back in 1930. He thought advances in technology and wea...
Does the You of Today Hate the You of Tomorrow?
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We often do things now that will make our lives more difficult or stressful in the future. We spend money, when we should save. We eat junk food, when...
The Power of Awe... and Where to Find it
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Awe reduces stress, helps us forget our minor worries and makes us feel more connected to the people around us. We all need more awe in our lives - bu...
How to Tame Stress
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Laurie is stressed, and it's harming her health. Constant worry and stress is bad for our bodies and our minds, but how can we break the cycle and ...
How I Stopped Fearing Boredom
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Laurie HATES boredom! Since childhood she's found it so painful that she'll do anything to avoid being bored. She'll watch crappy TV. She'll find e...
How to Fight Perfectionism
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Holding yourself to impossibly high standards is self-defeating and makes for a miserable life. Can Dr Laurie Santos find ways to tackle her constant ...
My Personal Struggle to be Happy (Coming June 3)
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes the happiness teacher flunks her own class. In a deeply personal new season, Dr Laurie Santos opens up about the things she really, really s...
Happiness Through Generosity : Liz Dunn on The TED Interview
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Liz Dunn is a regular guest on The Happiness Lab, but in this extended interview with TED's Chris Anderson she take us on a deep dive into her researc...
Unlock Your Hidden Potential with Adam Grant and Maya Shankar
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A chance to hear a recent episode of A Slight Change of Plans in which Maya Shankar asks psychologist Adam Grant about his new book "Hidden Potential:...
Five Tips to be Happier at Work (Dr Laurie at SXSW)
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Work is a worry. Are we paid enough? Should we be getting promoted quicker? Is artificial intelligence about to replace us all? Speaking at SXSW 202...
Tame Those Devices: 10 Tips to Achieve Digital Balance
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Technology is amazing! We can make video calls, find facts in an instant and watch movies on our phones. We take all this for granted, but have we let...
How to Grow After Adversity
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Karen Guggenheim was devastated by the death of her husband, Ricardo. She was alive, but dead to the world around her. Slowly she put her life back to...
Simple Ways to Feel Great Every Day - with Dr Rangan Chatterjee
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Medical doctors are waking up to the importance of happiness, partly prompted by the work of people like Rangan Chatterjee. Dr Chatterjee is Professor...