Welcome to Episode 302 of Live Happy Now.

This seems like a great time to tell you just how grateful we are to have you join us today.

I'm your host Paula Phelps, and this week we're kicking off an entire month of happiness as we prepare to celebrate the International Day of Happiness on March 20th.

As part of that celebration, we're launching a gratitude challenge, which I'll tell you about

at the end of this podcast.

But first, I'm talking to Kira Newman, managing editor at Greater Good Science Center and

co-editor of the book, The Gratitude Project, how the science of thankfulness can rewire our brains for

resilience, optimism, and the greater good. Kira is here to talk about what gratitude does for us,

how we can make it part of our lives, and why it's even more important during difficult times.

Kira, welcome to you, live happy Now. Thank you so much.

I'm glad to be here.

Well, this is a great time to talk to you because we are starting the month of March

and we do have International Day of Happy and it's on March 20th.

And as part of this, we're doing a different theme every week.

And our first week, the theme is gratitude because here at Live Happy Now, we are gratitude junkies.

And it just seems so fitting to bring you on because of the work you've done on gratitude.

So and with the Greater Good Science Center.

And so to start, for those who aren't familiar with the Greater Good Science Center, can you tell us a little

about what it is and what it does? Sure. So we're a nonprofit center based at UC Berkeley in California,

and we kind of think of ourselves as a conduit between the research world and the mainstream. So we

translate findings in social and emotional

well-being to a mainstream audience. And we do that through a lot of different venues. A major one is

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