From PRX.

This is Studio 360. I'm Kurti Anderson.

On this special podcast episode, and two more to come soon, we are bringing you a series of stories about the science of laughter.

Today, is laughter really the best medicine?

Not so long ago, I went to a yoga class in the basement of an office building in Manhattan.

So picture it. About a dozen of us squeezed into a tiny room. It's very hot.

We're here for this thing called laughter yoga.

Because it's called yoga, you're probably picturing us yucking it up while we're doing downward dogs.

But it is not like that.

It's more like what I imagine comedy improv class to be, but without the jokes.

So while we're walking back and further on what he was saying. So here we are in the blood of a lung.

Let's tell each other where it is. So that horrible.

So that horrible pigeon French is me and the other members of my laughter yoga class doing one of the exercises.

I really wanted to test this theory that laughter was going to make me feel better and be better the way actual yoga actually does.

And on this particular afternoon, I kind of needed it.

I had just flown nine hours home from Europe, and I had just lost my iPhone as well.

I was jet lagged and feeling kind of bad.

But fortunately, I didn't have to go do this on my own.

I roped in my friend who's kind of an expert, Mary Harris.

Mary is a health reporter at WNYC.

Oh my gosh, a guy just walked in.

He's like, what was going on?

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