17. Why Trying to Be Happy Will Make You Unhappy: Emily Esfahani Smith

The Suzanne Venker Show

Suzanne Venker

Society & Culture

4.9 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is there more to life than being happy? What gives your life purpose? Do you ever think about your legacy?

These are just some of the questions Emily Esfahani Smith asks in her book, The Power of Meaning. Our culture is obsessed with happiness, but what if there’s a more fulfilling path? Happiness comes and goes but having meaning in life—serving something beyond yourself and developing the best within you—gives you something to hold onto.

Emily is a writer, editor, and speaker in Washington DC. Her work draws on psychology, philosophy, and literature to write about the human experience—why we are the way we are and how we can find grace and meaning in a world that is full of suffering.

Emily is also an international speaker who has delivered dozens of keynote addresses and workshops around the country and world. In 2017, Smith delivered a talk called “ There’s More to Life Than Being Happy” on the main stage of TED, which was based on her book. It has been viewed over 8 million times.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Suzanne Venker Show. First, a quick thanks to my friends at Hair Saloon for providing
0:05.4	space at their corporate offices to record this podcast. Hair Saloon's mission has as much to do with
0:10.7	the restoration of men as it does with the business of hair cutting. They try to make a difference in the
0:15.4	lives of thousands of men who come through their doors every week. Hair Saloon is based in St. Louis,
0:19.9	Missouri, and if you've ever been interested in running your own business
0:22.4	and want to work with great people,
0:24.0	I would highly recommend you check out the Hair Saloon Franchise opportunity.
0:27.6	Go to hareseloonfranchise.com to find out more information.
0:31.6	That's hareseloonfranchise.com.
0:46.2	Is there more to life than being happy?
0:49.1	What gives your life purpose?
0:51.7	Do you ever think about your legacy?
0:58.0	These are just some of the questions Emily S. Fahani Smith asks in her book, The Power of Meaning. Emily is a writer, editor, and speaker in Washington, D.C.
1:02.0	Her work draws on psychology, philosophy, and literature to write about the human experience,
1:07.0	why we are the way we are, and how we can find grace and meaning in a world that is full of suffering.
1:13.1	Emily is also an international speaker who has delivered dozens of keynote addresses and workshops around the country and world.
1:19.1	In 2017, she delivered a talk called There's More to Life Than Being Happy, on the main stage of TED, which was based on her book. It has been viewed
1:29.5	over 8 million times. Emily joins us now via Skype. Hello, Emily. Hi, Suzanne. I'm so happy to
1:38.5	have you. I'm really excited to talk with you. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. So I wanted to begin by introducing something that
1:48.2	you, I believe, used to do and no longer do, but is how I first learned about you some years ago.
1:54.3	You had an online magazine called Acculturated, which was about the virtues and vices of pop culture and why it resonates with so many
2:04.6	people and what it says about the world and what it says about the way we choose to live our lives.
	...

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