Robert Waldinger is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, Zen priest and Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest-running study of adult life ever conducted.
What makes for a good life? That was one of the main questions I asked myself when I began this podcast. A far easier solution would have been to speak to Dr Waldinger as his team has been researching thousands of the same individuals for 75 years to answer this question definitively.
Expect to learn how you operate a longitudinal study that spans more time than any researcher’s career, just how in depth this study went with brain scans and blood tests, what the most important factors which determined life happiness were, how many friends people should have, whether being married makes you live longer, what role achievement has on happiness and much more…
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00:00 Intro
00:16 Logistics of The World’s Longest Happiness Study
09:09 Why the Study Focuses on Happiness
12:34 Biggest Misconceptions of What Makes a Happy Life
17:42 Defining Happiness
27:14 Why Do Relationships Matter So Much?
35:43 How Self-centred Actions Lead to Lower Happiness
38:02 What to Look for in an Intimate Partner
44:32 Can Friendships Replace Marriage?
47:34 How Relationships Benefit Health
54:49 Influence of Childhood on Future Relationships
57:58 Is Happiness Based on Luck?
1:02:18 Is Current Society Conducive to Happiness?
1:05:34 What’s Next for the Study?
1:07:39 Where to Find Dr Waldinger
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