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The Good Fight

The Pursuit of Happiness

The Good Fight

Yascha Mounk

News

4.7 • 964 Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2021

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Arthur Brooks is a leading authority on the science and philosophy of happiness. In his books—most recently “Love Your Enemies”—and his regular contributions to The Atlantic, he urges us to act smarter in our pursuit of the good life. Combining insights from social science with wisdom from ancient sages, his unique blend of practical advice and philosophical depth serves as the perfect antidote to what he calls our “culture of contempt”. He holds professorships in the Practice of Public Leadership and Management Practice at Harvard, and was formerly the president of the American Enterprise Institute. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Arthur Brooks discuss the biological and circumstantial origins of happiness, debate the necessity of transcendence, and explore stoic philosophy’s relevance for today’s polarized politics. This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: podcast@persuasion.community  Website: http://www.persuasion.community Podcast production by John T. Williams, Brendan Ruberry and Rebecca Rashid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google Twitter: @Yascha_Mounk & @joinpersuasion Youtube: Yascha Mounk LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is brought to you by Guinness. Official beer of the Premier League is quite the title, but for Guinness it feels earned.

0:08.0

After all, the Premier League and the Black Stuff have a common goal, bringing people together in packed pubs and front rooms for

0:14.7

donkey's ears.

0:16.2

And now, so is Guinness Zero, the same beautiful Guinness Taste with no alcohol.

0:21.6

Guinness, the official beer and non-alcoholic beer of the Premier's with no alcohol. Guinness. Guinness.

0:23.0

The official beer and non-alcoholic beer of the Premier League.

0:25.0

18 plus, please drink responsibly.

0:27.0

For the facts, visit Drinkaware.

0:29.0

Co. UK. And the And now the good fight with Yasha Monk.

0:54.8

Hi, I'm Richard Reeves. I'm a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. I'm a

1:02.3

contributor to persuasion and I have my

1:04.9

own podcast called Dialogues with Richard Reeves. I've recently written a piece

1:09.2

for persuasion with the title Don't Roll back due process on campus.

1:15.0

And the piece is about Title IX,

1:17.6

which is the federal law that prohibits discrimination

1:20.4

on the basis of sex in education, but it also and most

1:24.3

pertinently shapes the way we handle sexual assault claims and harassment in

1:28.8

colleges. I should probably start by saying perhaps the only thing less popular to say than Donald Trump got this right

1:38.0

might be Donald Trump got this right after Barack Obama got this wrong. But that's precisely the case with what happened

1:46.5

with Title IX. There were three big problems with the 2011 guidance. The first was the burden of proof was set way too low. It was called a preponderance level of proof which just means more than 51%, more likely than not. That's pretty low given what's at stake. The second is that the guidance made the

2:05.8

definition of harassment too broad. It meant that one-off unwelcome advances or comments could count as harassment and then third the guidance pushed

2:16.2

what was called a single investigator model which meant essentially that the

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