#377 ‒ Special episode: Understanding true happiness and the tools to cultivate a meaningful life—insights from past interviews with Arthur Brooks

2025-12-22

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View the Show Notes Page for This Episode Become a Member to Receive Exclusive Content Sign Up to Receive Peter's Weekly Newsletter In this special episode of The Drive, Peter presents a curated "best of" conversation with bestselling author and previous guest Arthur Brooks, organized around four core themes: happiness itself, the forces that undermine it, the tools and practices that help cultivate it, and the courage required to live and love well. The episode brings together the most meaningful moments from two past...

View the Show Notes Page for This Episode

Become a Member to Receive Exclusive Content

In this special episode of The Drive, Peter presents a curated "best of" conversation with bestselling author and previous guest Arthur Brooks, organized around four core themes: happiness itself, the forces that undermine it, the tools and practices that help cultivate it, and the courage required to live and love well. The episode brings together the most meaningful moments from two past interviews into a single, focused discussion that distills Brooks' most insightful ideas and offers practical takeaways for building a life that's both successful and deeply happy.

We discuss:

Happiness vs. happy feelings, and how happiness and unhappiness can coexist [2:15];
The six fundamental emotions [5:30];
The three main "macronutrients" of happiness [15:00];
Enjoyment: one of the three macronutrients of happiness [22:45];
Satisfaction: one of the three macronutrients of happiness [30:45];
Sense of purpose: one of the three macronutrients of happiness [38:45];
Fame: one of the traps that hijack our happiness [46:30];
Success addiction, workaholism, and their detriment to happiness [49:15];
The reverse bucket list: one of Arthur's tools and practices he recommends for moving past the traps that hijack our happiness [59:15];
Metacognition: one of Arthur's tools and practices he recommends for moving past the traps that hijack our happiness [1:01:00];
Taking charge of your happiness: discipline, transcendent experiences, and other deliberate actions for "happier-ness" [1:11:30];
Tracking happiness: the biomarkers and micronutrients behind the macronutrients of happiness [1:22:45];
The value of minimizing the self and looking outward [1:30:45];
How Arthur surprised himself with his ability to improve his happiness [1:34:45]; and
More.