Happiness in America, Part 1: The Secret to a 'Good Life,' According to an 80-Year Study

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Americans have never had more access to social technology. It’s easier to talk to friends and family members hundreds of miles away; easier to see their faces; and easier to find single people to date. But if you ask them, Americans today will say they are as lonely as or lonelier than any time on record. The amount of time all Americans spend alone has increased every year for about a decade. What's going on? Today’s episode is about the longest study on happiness in U.S. history — the Harvard Study of Adult Development. Our guests are the study's director and associate director, Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz. They are the authors of a new book, 'The Good Life,' about what their study should teach all of us about the secret to a long and fulfilling life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did your favorite NFL team win the Super Bowl?
0:03.3	No, then the NFL draft is your Super Bowl.
0:06.2	I'm Danny Heifetz and for now until the draft,
0:08.1	we are turning our fantasy football show feed
0:09.6	into the Ringer NFL draft show.
0:12.0	Every Tuesday and Thursday,
0:13.0	we talk about the top players in most important
0:14.6	store lines for the NFL draft.
0:16.2	So join us on the Ringer NFL draft show.
0:22.5	Today's episode is about the longest study on happiness
0:26.4	in U.S. history.
0:28.0	And it's lessons for America today.
0:31.3	This is the first in a two episode arc about happiness
0:34.6	that we're doing on the show this week.
0:36.3	On Friday, I'll be speaking with a psychiatrist
0:39.0	about the incredible and mysterious rise
0:41.4	in teenage anxiety in the last decade.
0:44.4	But first, a broader look at happiness in America.
0:48.8	Let's wind back the clock to 2009.
0:52.0	I had just started working as an online writer
0:54.4	for the Atlantic magazine.
0:55.7	And I remember in one of my first months
	...

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