This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hello my fellow suffering beings how we doing one of the primary bugs in the human

operating system one of our most annoying design flaws is that we are

insatiable as the meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein

likes to ask people, how many great meals have you had?

How many promotions have you earned?

How many vacations have you taken?

And are you done yet?

Of course not. And in this way the pursuit of happiness

enshrined in America's founding documents can become the source of our

unhappiness. So how did we get this way and what can we do about it?

That is what we're going to talk about today with the journalist Michael Easter.

He's got a new book called Scarcity Brain.

We talk about the evolutionary roots of over-consumption,

the challenges of having an ancient brain in a modern world,

a scarcity mindset versus the abundance mindset, understanding what Michael calls the scarcity

loop and how to apply it in your daily life. We also talk about

other tactical ways to work with habits and cravings and how Michael's own life

changed after researching this book. And finally toward the end we talk about Michael's

previous book The Comfort Crisis and some practical steps for embracing

discomfort. A huge issue for me. We'll get started with Michael Easter right after this. But first

some BSP as you've heard me say before the hardest part of personal growth

self-improvement, spiritual development, whatever you want to call it.

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