Hi, my name is Molly Young. I'm a book critic at the New York Times. Since 2012, the UN-backed

World Happiness Report has put out an annual ranking of countries. For the past eight years,

Finland has been at the top of the leaderboard, sitting at number one. In fact, Nordic countries dominate all the top spots,

which makes Finland's victory streak even more remarkable.

The U.S. came in at number 24 in the most recent report, released in March of this year,

ranking just below the U.K.

I'd already been to Iceland, number three, and Costa Rica, number six, as well as a few of the

other countries that beat out the U.S. on this year's ranking.

And when I found out that the New York Times magazine was going to put out an issue devoted

to happiness, I pitched going to Finland to see how the Finns define happiness,

and of course, how they achieve it. But I wanted to test Finland in the dead of winter,

at what I presume to be its lowest point. I would test Finland on hard mode. So here's my article,

read by Julia Waylon. Our audio producer today is Talley Abacassas,

and the music you'll hear was written and performed by Aaron Esposito. Thanks for listening.

Coming to Helsinki in February is an objectively weird choice, said a man named Miko Tirunen.

During this time, we don't have, he paused, colors.

I was sitting in a coffee shop with Tironen, a web developer and writer

after flying to Helsinki to think about happiness.

For eight years running,

Finland has been rated the happiest country in the world by a peculiar United Nations-backed project called the World Happiness Report, started in 2012. Soon after Finland shot to the top of the

list, its government set up a happiness tourism initiative,

which now offers itineraries highlighting the cultural elements that ostensibly contribute to its status.

...