This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hey, hey, how we doing?

I think quite commonly when we contemplate the various levers we could

pull to upgrade our mental health, to get happier, we consider things like sleep, exercise,

meditation, et cetera. But there's a ton of evidence to suggest that aesthetic experiences,

i.e. beauty, are also extremely powerful ways to boost your well-being.

This could be nature, but also, of course, art, and not just fine art that you see in museums.

I'm talking about movies, music, TV shows, the stuff that I personally love.

So today, we're going to play you a conversation between me and my friend, Sam, I'll tell you about in a second, about which pieces of art reliably produce happiness and meaning for us.

The friend in question is Sam Sanders, who is the host of the Sam Sanders show.

I should say that we initially recorded this conversation that you're about to hear for Sam's show

back at around New Year's, but we're dropping it for you here because we think you'll like it

and also because we think you might want to check out Sam's show, which I highly recommend.

He's awesome, as you'll hear. Sam has a term for the pieces of art, music, TV, or film that we

return to again and again.

He calls them Modern Scriptures.

So you're going to hear us discuss our modern scriptures.

Side note, I'm recording this after several days of being alone in our house.

My wife and son are overseas.

I've been going back to old movies in the evening, specifically the Godfather

movies and also some Martin Scorsese stuff, which I know just totally reveals my age,

but those are definitely modern scriptures for me, those old mafia movies and organized crime

...