Journalist Jodi Kantor and happiness expert Arthur Brooks on how to find purpose

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

Journalist Jodi Kantor and Harvard happiness expert Arthur Brooks are both out with new books about identifying and cultivating meaning in one’s life. Brooks says he wanted to write The Meaning of Your Life after observing an explosion in depression and anxiety among young people beginning around 2008. In today’s episode, he chats with Here & Now’s Indira Lakshmanan about how neglecting right-brain activity has led us astray. Then, Kantor tells NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly about the daunting commencement speech invitation that led to her book How to Start, which focuses on cultivating one’s life work through ideas like “craft” and “need.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Melissa Advorni, and you're listening to NPR's Book of the Day.
0:07.0	Today, two books to help you live your life. In a minute, we'll hear from the incredible journalist Jody Cantor,
0:13.6	who adapted a graduation speech into a book called How to Start.
0:18.1	But first, Arthur Brooks, who studies happiness at Harvard, has a new book about how
0:23.2	our ambitions and drive might be getting in the way of finding true joy in our lives. It's called
0:29.9	The Meaning of Your Life. Brooks spoke with Hira Now host Indira Lakshmanan.
0:36.3	What is the meaning of life? It may sound like a lofty, philosophical, or even unanswerable
0:42.0	question, but we all need meaning in our lives to get up every day and keep going. If you don't
0:47.9	have a sense of purpose in your life, it's probably making you feel empty, anxious, or depressed.
0:53.3	Author, Harvard professor, and happiness expert
0:55.7	Arthur Brooks wants to help. In his latest book, Brooks argues that our tendency to be strivers
1:01.2	working towards measurable goals often gets in the way of finding meaning in our lives. He also
1:07.1	believes rapid technological changes have rewired our brains for the worse. Yes, he's talking
1:12.8	about our ever-present smartphones, reducing our ability to find or perceive purpose and satisfaction.
1:20.0	Arthur Brooks' new book is called The Meaning of Your Life, and he joins us now from NPR New York
1:24.4	Studios. Welcome, Arthur. Hi, Indira. Great to be with you. Great to have you.
1:28.7	So you've written bestsellers about finding happiness, purpose, and success before,
1:33.5	including your last book, co-authored with Oprah Winfrey. Why this book now? What's new?
1:39.0	Well, I've been studying happiness my whole career for decades, as a matter of fact. And over the past
1:43.9	seven years, I've
1:44.6	been exclusively dedicated to teaching it to my students at the Harvard Business School and
1:49.9	Harvard Kennedy School. And there's a particular crisis that I have seen, especially over the
	...

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