Today we welcome Dr. Laurie Santos, psychology professor and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Her course, “Psychology and the Good Life,”is Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years and has been adapted into a free Coursera program that has been taken by over 3.3 million people to date. Dr. Santos is a winner of numerous awards both for her science and teaching from institutions such as Yale and the American Psychological Association. She is also the podcast host of The Happiness Lab.In this episode, I talk to Dr. Laurie Santos about happiness. People are unhappy not for lack of trying, but it’s because they’re applying ineffective strategies. Dr. Santos identifies some of the cognitive biases that can hinder our happiness. There is no magical antidote to our problems, but there are ways to boost well-being in small but significant ways. We also discuss resilience, social justice and mindfulness.Website: drlauriesantos.comTwitter: @lauriesantos Topics03:04 Laurie’s interest in well-being06:54 Our expectations about happiness 09:44 Defining and measuring happiness13:59 Predictors of resilience 15:43 Laurie’s happiness score17:39 “Self-care is a political act”22:39 The Feel Good, Do Good Effect24:11 The role of culture, environment, genes27:55 Contributions to the science of happiness32:13 The impact of Laurie’s research35:19 Cognitive biases that influence happiness38:16 Do mindfulness interventions work?44:37 The Happiness Lab’s new seasonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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