Giving Can Make Us Happier

Introducing Beyond All Repair, a new WBUR podcast hosted by Amory Sivertson. This series tells the story of a murder, but also the woman who was accused of that murder, Sophia. Sophia was newly married and six months pregnant when she was charged with murdering her mother-in-law ... Show More

Produced by WBUR, Boston’s NPR, in partnership with The Trace, The Gun Machine looks into the past to bring you a story that most Americans never learned in history class: how early partnerships between mad scientist gunsmiths and a fledgling U.S. government created the gun indus ... Show More

We want to share a first listen of a new podcast we're working on at WBUR. Violation tells the story of two families bound together by an unthinkable crime. It explores America's opaque parole system and asks: How much time in prison is enough? Who gets to decide? And, when someo ... Show More

Money can buy you happiness - but not in the way we think. Giving money away - especially to help others - has been shown make us happier than spending on ourselves.  Social psychologist Lara Aknin explains the best ways to spend on loved ones, friends and even total strangers to ... Show More

Have you ever wondered: What does it mean to be truly happy? Can our brain chemistry, or even our genetics, determine how we feel about our lives? And, most importantly, can we learn to be even happier? Cognitive scientist and Yale University Psychology Professor Laurie Santos ha ... Show More

Leading psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen says Americans haven't been this unhappy in 50 years, but there's hope. He joins Sadie to share what he's learned from hundreds of thousands of brain scans, including the neuroscience secrets that can make you happier, how your brain type can ... Show More

Research shows that despite spiritual practice, most of us have a consistent set-point for happiness. While we can experience deep joy or sorrow, we often return to the same level of happiness. However, it is possible to reset our happiness set-point and break negative thought pa ... Show More

Everyone wants to be happy, and science has some answers. In this episode, Laurie Santos, the host of The Happiness Lab podcast, shares the science of cultivating gratitude and reframing positive thinking. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR ... Show More

For the millions of Americans that celebrate Thanksgiving, it's a time when a lot of us reflect on the things and the people in our lives that we appreciate. But according to Dr. Laurie Santos, psychology professor at Yale and host of the podcast, The Happiness Lab, a practice of ... Show More

Psychologist Elizabeth Dunn argues that happiness is made not found and explains how our everyday choices—in matters from time to money to technology—help create it. This episode was recorded on February 5, 2020. 

Psychologist Elizabeth Dunn argues that happiness is made not found and explains how our everyday choices—in matters from time to money to technology—help create it. This episode was recorded on February 5, 2020.