The Secret To A Fulfilling Life (Backed by Science) w/ Arthur Brooks

Conversations With Coleman

The Free Press

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I’m joined this week by someone who asks questions maybe all of us don’t ask enough: How do we become happier? And how do we date people we disagree with? And maybe most importantly: Why do people feel they are living lives without meaning? And how do we solve this? My guest is Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard professor, a best-selling author, a social scientist, and a co-author (with Oprah, no less) of Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. Arthur has spent decades studying the science of human flourishing, and this conversation turned out to be one of the most personal I’ve had on the show . . .think live therapy session. I hope you enjoy it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Arthur Brooks.
0:06.3	Arthur is a social scientist, author, and public intellectual, known for his work on happiness,
0:11.7	leadership, and public policy. He served as the president of the American Enterprise Institute
0:16.8	from 2009 to 2019. And before entering the world of public policy, he was, like me, a professional
0:23.8	musician, in his case, a classical French horn player. He's currently a professor at Harvard,
0:29.1	where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness. In this episode, we talk about what social
0:34.7	science can tell us about happiness. We talk about global poverty.
0:38.7	And Arthur gives me a public therapy session, which was sort of terrifying, but also pretty
0:43.0	interesting. So without further ado, Arthur Brooks.
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1:24.8	Iron Hard has arrived on Disney Plus.
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1:32.4	I wanted to build something undeniable, but now I'm in trouble.
1:35.3	Don't miss the sixth episode of Vand.
1:37.3	I joined a crew of criminals, and now I'm about to get killed by Drenched Man in a Cake.
	...

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