Arthur C. Brooks: Are We Happy Yet?

What Now? with Trevor Noah

SiriusXM & Day Zero Productions

News, Comedy, Society & Culture

4.6 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 124 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Trevor and Eugene are joined by author and social scientist Arthur C. Brooks to unpack the science of happiness and why we’re so good at looking for it in all the wrong places. What begins as a breakdown of the macronutrients of a good life turns into a funny, wide-ranging conversation about the necessity of failure, the search for human connection, and the surprising wisdom hiding inside our most embarrassing moments. Along the way, Brooks makes the case that the road to happiness isn’t neat, polished, or linear. Rather itt’s messy, imperfect, and usually learned the hard way.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I've often thought one of the worst things that happened to society was a series of movies, whether it was kids' movies or adult movies, rom-coms, but that were happily ever after.
0:18.5	Like they ended at the moment where the people met. And I always wondered what that did to people's brains growing up in a world where they went like, oh, if you meet the person you love, that's the end. And then it's like, this is it. That's right. What is that? That is the same idea. That is the same idea. I never finished Pac-Man. Was they meet and then, you know, Miss Pac-Man. I've never seen the end of Pac-Man. Yeah. Yeah. I never finished Pac-Man. Was they meet and then Miss Pac-Man?
0:37.7	Yeah, but I've never seen the end of Pac-Man.
0:40.7	I saw Junior Pac-Man, so I know what they did, but I don't know. But there's Junior Pac-Man? Yeah, Junior Pac-Man. Junior Pac-Man. Junior Pac-Man? Yeah, Junior Pac-Man. Like Baby Pac-Man? Yeah, like a tiny little peckman had a little bow and then the pickety-a-bitt-a-but-like a tiny little peckman.
0:52.7	So as a girl, Pac-Man.
0:53.9	Yeah, there was a boy and a girl.
0:55.1	There was a girl in a boy.
0:56.2	Miss Pac-Man.
0:56.4	No, there was Miss Pac-Man, but then there was also Junior Pac-Man had a little bow and then they pickety-a-bitty, but like a tiny little Pac-Man. So as a girl, Pac-Man. Yeah, there was a boy and a girl.
0:55.1	Miss Pac-Man.
0:56.2	No, there was Miss Pac-Man, but then there was also Junior Pac-Man.
0:58.4	Junior Pac-Man.
0:59.2	Yeah, no, they...
1:00.0	The whole family.
1:00.7	Yeah, Pac-Man had...
1:01.4	I like these family values and video games like this. Yeah, no, Pac-Man did it, bro.
1:04.6	I was like, okay.
1:05.1	Yeah, Mario and Luigi did it well.
1:07.2	They were brothers, bro.
1:08.2	I think you're mixing up the story.
1:09.8	Yeah, they were family members.
1:11.1	Oh, yeah, they were.
	...

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