Hi there. I'm Jason Gots, and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

We've been talking a lot lately on this show about happiness, what it is, where we can get more of it,

why it does not yet seem to be available on the internet.

Author Ruth Whitman presented some compelling evidence that the way

most Americans are pursuing happiness is making us unhappier. Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein

talked about a way of training yourself to be more generous and the happiness that this has brought

to his life. In her new book Aristotle's Way, classicist Edith Hall reminds us that Aristotle's virtue

ethics was a sophisticated, subtle approach to the pursuit of lifelong happiness a couple

millennia before Oprah thought of inviting us to live our best life.

Offering no listicles of the top ten happiness hacks, Aristotle tried to live and taught the virtues of an ethically

guided, purpose-driven life, with plenty of room for good friends, sensual pleasures, and long

walks on the beaches of ancient Greece, Macedonia, and what is now Turkey. Edith Hall, my guest

today, enjoys putting the pleasure as well as the rigor into all aspects of ancient

Greek and Roman history, society, and thought. She's a professor of classics at King's College London,

the author of more than 20 books, and a world leader in the study of ancient theater and culture.

Welcome to think again, Edith. I'm delighted to be with you. I'm so glad to have you here.

If Aristotle were alive today, would he delete his Facebook account?

I think he might delete it except for public posts about what was available for the public

at the Lyceum, his university, where, amongst other things, he invited the general public

in every afternoon to lecture.

That's actually how I use

Facebook. I use it as a professional instrument to let people know what I'm up to. I think he would

...