WELL-BEING: May 2022 podcast playlist

What is well-being and how do we achieve it? Well-being is a state of being, while happiness is a fleeting emotion. This podcast playlist explores flourishing, stoicism, how we can approach well-being without being misguided by the wellness industry’s marketing tactics, and the ways government can encourage well-being over productivity.

This playlist is sponsored by Stories of Impact, a podcast about the art and science of human flourishing.

Podcast Playlist on WELL-BEING

Get the full playlist on your podcast player of choice using these platforms (see the * below for instructions):

The Happy Pear Podcast: “Prof Paul Dolan on Happiness” (June 2021, 55 min)
A conversation with Paul Dolan focused on the many facets of happiness and how one glove does not fit all. Paul Dolan is a Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also is the author of “Happiness by Design” and “Happy Ever After: A Radical New Approach to Living Well.”

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish: “#123 William Irvine: How To Live a Stoic Life” (November 2021, 1 hr 7 min)
Author and philosophy professor William Irvine goes in-depth on Stoicism, and why the fundamental tenets of this ancient philosophy can provide answers to some of the toughest problems in today’s society. On this episode Irvine offers a definition and some useful background on Stoicism and its origins, the original Stoics, their thoughts on failure, their advice on decision making, and how we can train ourselves to be more stoic.

Stories of Impact: “Wellness & Human Flourishing with Deepak Chopra” (February 2022, 20 min)
A conversation with Dr. Deepak Chopra that explores the link between our minds and our physical health; between the way we decide to approach life, and the likelihood that we will flourish in our lives. Deepak Chopra is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation.

Lowy Institute: “Lowy Institute Conversations: Dr Julia Kim on Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness” (September 2021, 30 min)
Rather than using money (i.e. GDP) as the metric by which to measure success of government, why not measure the level of happiness of a country’s citizens? Well, Bhutan does just that. This episode is a conversation with Dr. Julia Kim, the Program Director of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Centre Bhutan.

Business Casual: “The Truth About the Wellness Industry” (January 2022, 38 min)
The wellness industry has a grip on society. From fasting for 16 hours a day to drinking a neverending supply of celery juice, we are constantly told that we can do more to improve our health. In this conversation, we hear about the the wellness industry’s history, marketing tactics, and lack of regulation.

Bonus podcast episodes:

• The 11th: “The Happiness Project” (March 2022, 35 min)
  While Charles Spearin was on paternity leave he was spending time with his kids on the playground and talking with his neighbors. That’s when he started noticing the musical quality of the voices around him. He asked his neighbors to come over to his house so he could interview them. And then he turned their voices into songs.
• The Current: “Back to the Land looks at how a prescription for nature could make us healthier” (December 2021, 21 min)
  Jon Cadang has struggled with his mental health since childhood, but he says spending time in nature proved to be a powerful treatment against his depression. He’s not alone, says Vancouver-based physician Dr. Melissa Lem, the director of PaRx, an evidence-based nature prescription program. They talk to Back to the Land host Duncan McCue about getting outside, and why it’s so good for us. Back to the Land is a four-part series about people who are (re)connecting with nature and the outdoors.
• Hidden Brain: “Minimizing Pain, Maximizing Joy” (January 2022, 52 min)
  Life is often filled with hardships and tragedies. For thousands of years, philosophers have come up with strategies to help us cope with such hardship. This week, we revisit a 2020 conversation with philosopher William Irvine about ancient ideas — backed by modern psychology — that can help us manage disappointment and misfortune.
• The Trip That Changed Me: “Bhutan with Eric Weiner: karma, wisdom quests and the truth about happiness” (March 2021, 55 min)
  Eric Weiner, a travel correspondent for NPR, was experiencing a self-described midlife crisis when he came up with the idea for his first book: The Geography of Bliss. The project took him to the world’s most contented countries, including Bhutan, a place famous for its Gross National Happiness index. It was there he met Karma, a buddhist monk and academic who changed how Eric saw the world and how he defined happiness.
• All in The Mind: “The building blocks of wellbeing” (October 2021, 29 min)
  Wellbeing’ has become a bit of a buzz word recently, but what does it really mean? It’s not the same as simply being happy, or experiencing pleasure – it’s something deeper and broader than that. It has to do with how we connect with others, how we feel about ourselves, and much more. So what do we need in order to achieve wellbeing?
• On Being with Krista Tippett: “Vivek Murthy and Richard Davidson – The Future of Well-being” (December 2021, 51 min)
  What if the future of well-being is about “tipping the scales in the world away from fear and toward love”? And what if it’s a surgeon general of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who talks this way? Krista draws him out with his friend, the groundbreaking neuroscientist Richard Davidson. Together they carry deep intelligence and vision from the realms of science and public health, expansively understood. They explore all we are learning to help move us forward as a species.

Recommended Books & Other Resources:

We’ve started compiling recommended books from the podcast playlists and from our chapter meetings on our Amazon Idea List. Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something PBC may earn a commission.

• Book: “Happiness by Design” by Paul Dolan (guest on The Happy Pear episode above)
• Book: “Happy Ever After: A Radical New Approach to Living Well” by Paul Dolan (guest on The Happy Pear episode above)
• Book: “The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher’s Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient” by William Irvine (guest on The Knowledge Project and the Hidden Brain episodes above)
• Book: “A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy” by William Irvine (guest on The Knowledge Project and the Hidden Brain episodes above)
• Book: “Abundance: The Inner Path to Wealth” by Deepak Chopra (guest on the Stories of Impact episode above)
• Article: “I Gooped Myself” by Amanda Mull in The Atlantic (guest on the Business Casual episode above)
• Video: “Health and Wellness: Don’t Take Instagram’s Word For It” by Amanda Mull on The Atlantic’s YouTube channel (guest on the Business Casual episode above)
• Music album: “The Happiness Project” by Charles Spearin (guest on The 11th bonus episode above)
• Website: PaRx (A Prescription for Nature) (from The Current bonus episode above)
• Book: “The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World” by Eric Weiner (guest on The Trip That Changed Me episode above)
• Book: “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World” by Vivek Murthy (guest on the On Being bonus episode above)

Conversation Starter Questions:

1. How do you define well-being?
2. Do you think well-being and happiness are the same?
3. Did any of the episodes we listened to give you tips or ideas of how to achieve well-being in a way that you hadn’t thought of before?
4. Did the stoic philosophy resonate with you?
5. What do you think about using the GNH (gross national happiness) as opposed to the GDP to measure success of government?
6. How has the wellness industry impacted you and what you’ve spent your money/time on?

* If you are manually finding each episode on a playlist in your podcast app, there is an easier way!!!! Every month we add the PBC playlist on four platforms: Listen Notes, Podchaser, Podyssey, and Spotify. We do this to make it easier on you so that you don’t have to hunt for each episode manually on your player of choice. You can simply grab the rss of the playlist from Listen Notes, for example, and drop it into your player and…boom!!…all of the episodes magically appear. Here’s a video that shows an example of quickly adding the episodes to Pocketcasts using the Listen Notes playlist.