Okay, so how does a stand-up comic, Dan Tomasulo, hailed by the legendary improv as one of

the four top comics alongside people like Robin Williams and Andy Kaufman end up leaving

it all behind to pursue a PhD in psychology and MFA in writing a master of applied positive

psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, then build a decades-long career in clinical

practice, Landage Gage is the incoming academic director and core faculty member at the

Spirituality MindBody Institute at Columbia University and become a leading voice in the

world of positive psychology, positive education, psychodrama, and positive psychotherapy.

And how exactly along the way does that same person build a career as a writer, pending

an award-winning memoir American Snake Pit, along with a companion screenplay that has

since racked up awards at more than 30 film festivals, all about deepening into teaching,

researching, helping thousands, and now bringing to the world a new book, Learned Hopefulness,

the power of positivity to overcome depression at a time that we need these ideas more than

ever.

How does one person do all of this and what is this thing he calls Learned Hopefulness?

This is where we go in today's conversation, so excited to share it with you.

I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project.

For the seventh year on the Code Switch podcast, conversations about race and identity go

way beyond the day's headlines.

Because we know what's part of every person is part of every story.

We're bringing that perspective with new episodes every week.

Listen on the Code Switch podcast from NPR.

So I was a comic, I was a stand-up comic for years, and if you go back and look on the

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