Super Soul Special: Shawn Achor, Part 1: The Secrets of Happy People

Oprah's Super Soul

Oprah

Society & Culture

4.6 • 32.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Original Air Date: December 18, 2017 Do you want to be happier? Harvard-trained researcher and bestselling author Shawn Achor shares his simple, achievable steps to diminish depression, increase joy, and shift our perspective to be more positive. Shawn brings to life his research on the science of happiness and the techniques of what he calls positive psychology.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of the most
0:07.8	valuable gifts you can give yourself is time. Taking time to be more fully present. Your journey
0:16.5	to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now.
0:24.4	Best-selling author, Sean Acour says that while many of us believe we're either born happy or not,
0:30.9	his research has proven that we all have the power to become happier people.
0:36.3	Born in Waco, Texas, in 1978, to an English teacher
0:39.9	mom and a neuroscientist dad, it looked like Sean was going to follow in his father's footsteps
0:45.8	from an early age. After high school, Sean left home to attend Harvard on a military scholarship,
0:52.0	and after studying religion as an undergrad, he was inspired to continue his studies at Harvard's
0:57.7	Divinity School.
0:59.0	There, he became fascinated with the big questions in life, why we love, why we wake up in the
1:04.9	morning, and how we discover meaning and purpose.
1:08.7	He was introduced to an emerging field called Positive Psychology, which
1:13.1	simply put is the study of happiness. Sean was hooked and was tapped to help develop and teach
1:20.5	the most popular class at Harvard, known on campus as the happiness class. Today, Sean travels the world, training people and professionals on how to rewire their brains to become more positive.
1:36.2	He is the author of four books, including the bestsellers, The Happiness Advantage, and his latest, before happiness.
1:43.9	What began as an experimental college course is now at the heart of Sean's inspiring work.
1:51.0	When I heard that there was a course at Harvard, not just a course, but the most popular course at Harvard,
1:57.0	and it was on happiness, I was saying, gosh, I would either like to be in that class or teach that class.
2:03.6	And you were one of the teachers of that class.
2:05.2	I got to be both, right?
2:06.4	Yes.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 8 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Oprah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Oprah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.