The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos Folgen

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 day or two - leaving the rest of the week for leisure and community service.  How wrong he was. We seem to be working more than ever - with technology adding extra tasks to our workdays (like answering emails and monitoring Slack). Dr Laurie longs for more leisure time, but how can she tame her fear of being "unproductive"?  Computer scientist Cal Newport explains how we all got into this mess - and why we still treat modern employees as if they were farm laborers or assembly line workers. Reformed "productivity junkie" Oliver Burkeman also offers tips on how to concentrate our minds on fulfilling and important work - and not little tasks that chew up so much of our days. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 we should protect our free time. Why does it seem like we're always sabotaging our future selves? University of California Los Angeles' Hal Hershfield helps us find the balance between listening to what we want now and the preferences our future selves might have. And Dr. Laurie steps into an AI time machine to get some happiness advice for herself decades from today.Try talking to the “you of tomorrow” using the MIT Media Lab’s Future You chatbot.Experts Mentioned:- Gal Zauberman, Professor of Marketing, Yale School of ManagementResources Mentioned: - “Doing Unto Future Selves as You Would Do Unto Others: Psychological Distance and Decision Making," (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2008)- Tupac Hologram Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre Perform Coachella Live 2012- Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do by Jeremy Bailenson (2018)Related episodes of “The Happiness Lab”:- “How to Kick Bad Habits (and Start Good Ones)”- “For Whom the Alarm Clock Tolls”- “Choice Overload”- “Stop Endlessly Chasing the ‘Next Big Thing’”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 experiences on your average Tuesday? Actor Tony Hale explains how everyday awe helps ease his anxieties, while UC Berkeley's Dacher Keltner shows us how to find awe in music, art, scenery... even in a walk around our block. And Dr Laurie explores the things that give her a sense of awe with the help of Mike Menzel - who built a space telescope that lets us see billions of years into the past.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.