The Happiness of the Long Distance Runner
Georgia Bell was a great runner as a child - but in college she fell out of love with the sport. She hung up her running shoes - and they gathered dust until Covid hit and she began to run again for f...
22 Jul 202433min
How Talking to a Friend Helps (Live at The International Festival of Arts and Ideas)
Making shows about her own happiness challenges was both fun and instructive for Dr Laurie, but it also took guts to be so vulnerable and open. She later spoke to her close friend at Yale Dr Tamar Gen...
19 Jul 202448min
A Matter of Life and Death
Dr Laurie HATES thinking about her own death. It's scary, creepy and morbid, right? Wrong. Thinking about our finite lives can makes us better, happier people. The shadow of death makes us behave mor...
15 Jul 202432min
Why Don't We Have a 15-hour Work Week?
By 2030 we'll only work 15 hours a week, predicted the legendary economist John Maynard Keynes back in 1930. He thought advances in technology and wealth would let us earn enough money to live in a da...
8 Jul 202435min
Why We Sabotage Our Future Selves
We often do things that will make our lives more stressful or difficult in the future, like overspending when we should save, eating junk food that makes us feel bad, or agreeing to committments when ...
1 Jul 202428min
The Power of Awe... and Where to Find it
Awe reduces stress, helps us forget our minor worries and makes us feel more connected to the people around us. We all need more awe in our lives - but surely it's not that easy to find awesome experi...
24 Jun 202431min
How to Tame Stress
Dr Laurie is stressed, and it's harming her health. Constant worry and stress is bad for our bodies and our minds, but how can we break the cycle and relax? It turns out scientists have learned a lot ...
17 Jun 202437min
How to Stop Avoiding Boredom and Embrace Doing Nothing
Dr. Laurie used to dread boredom and would do anything—binge watch bad TV, take on extra work, snack endlessly—to avoid it. But boredom is actually an incredibly useful tool to boost our happiness and...
10 Jun 202425min
