Everybody, have an awesome day too, all right. Awesome day. Good morning. Meet the 71-year-old turning New York subway into a happiness hot spot.

Top of the morning to you. Have an awesome day. Each morning, Rodney, a customer service agent, makes the subway feel a little bit brighter.

Happiness is an inside job because it's all on you.

It's all you to decide whether or not you're going to be happy.

No matter what you're going through in your life, all right.

You could, you know, things go wrong, sure, but you just deal with it.

Just, I gotta say this line, don't worry, be happy. but you just deal with it.

I got to say this line, don't worry, be happy.

That's how I live my life.

Hello, and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt.

I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Thursday, November 13th, 2025.

In honor of World Kindness Day, we've partnered with the humankind team at USA Today for a deeper exploration on the topic of compassion. What drives us to carry out acts of

kindness for total strangers? And how can we actively cultivate this selflessness as a society?

Joining me to dig into all of it is Abigail

Marsh, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Georgetown University. Abigail studies empathy

and altruism, why we help even when it costs us. Thanks so much for joining me on the

excerpt, Abigail. Thanks for having me. You've shared

that a life-changing event in college sparked your research into altruism. What happened?

Yeah, I was visiting my hometown of Tacoma, Washington, during the summer between college years.

And as I was driving south on the Interstate 5 freeway over an

interpass, a dog ran out in front of my car. And I swerve to avoid it, as lots of people do,

...