Greater Good: The Science of The Meaningful Life

Some forms of distress at work are easy to recognize because they interrupt someone’s daily performance and the work of those around them: For example, a person on your team becomes visibly exhausted, they are irritable, or they’re frequently absent. But other forms of distress are harder to see precisely because the work continues uninterrupted. It’s common to talk about burnout at work and to recognize it in others and in ourselves. But a new paper of mine with David S.

When the Stanford Center on Longevity launched in 2007, founding director Laura Carstensen spent a lot of time correcting misperceptions. “The initial response people had was, ‘Like the Methuselah Foundation? You are going to extend life?’” Carstensen was clear that the center’s aim was not to increase lifespans—which had nearly doubled during the 20th century—but rather to build societies that accommodated that new and unprecedented reality.

Parenting a teen can sometimes make you nostalgic for the early years, when you could still scoop up a frustrated toddler and redirect her with bubbles. In the teen years, sweet hugs can provoke eye rolls; a well-intentioned “How was your day?” may be misconstrued as meddling. That’s just your teens becoming independent. Decades of research finds that portraying adolescence as a period of “storm and stress” is not only misguided, it’s harmful.

Scroll down for a transcription of this episode. Buddhist meditation teacher, Anushka Fernandopulle, guides us through a practice of Mudita, or appreciative joy, to help us share in the happiness of others. How To Do This Practice: Get comfortable and ground yourself: Sit comfortably, close your eyes if you’d like, and take a few deep breaths. Relax your body: As you exhale, release tension in your face, jaw, shoulders, and anywhere else you feel it.

August 27, 2026 We often underestimate how much small talk can impact our wellbeing. Research shows that even brief… Your browser does not support the audio element. Bookmark SHARE August 13, 2026 How can we feel more moments of joy? Explore how joy is rooted in connection, gratitude, and paying… Your browser does not support the audio element.

Finding love is big business (a multi-billion–dollar industry), and artificial intelligence is transforming that business. Dating apps are increasingly outsourcing user matching to AI. Recent examples range from Overtone, an AI-powered matchmaking service started by the former chief executive officer of Hinge, to SciMatch, a dating app that aims to use AI to detect compatibility from a single selfie. But can AI actually help people find love?

Our monthly Happiness Calendar is a day-by-day guide to well-being. This month, we’re offering a special Happiness & Connection Calendar in partnership with the US Chamber of Connection—and we hope it inspires you to invite someone to belong. To open the clickable calendar, click on the image below.

Over the past two decades, my doctoral students and I have focused on studying love, care, kindness, and compassion in urban settings. Why? Because social science research on life in America’s cities is desperately incomplete. Much like the vision of urban life that permeates most of American popular culture, social science research imagines urban areas as sites of overwhelmedness, disengagement, social and moral crisis, threat, and violence.

Polarization is a fact of political life in the U.S. today. Gen Z, however, is less inclined than older generations to view it as a permanent fixture in American politics, according to research by students in the Stanford political science course Democracy in the Balance: Polarization and the Road Ahead. Students found that Gen Z is more optimistic than any other age group about the possibility of bridging the political divide in America.

Can We Build a World Where We All Belong? john a. powell explains why we distance ourselves from groups of people and how we can all find the connection that we crave.