How to Stop Chasing Happiness and Make a Meaningful Life Instead

How to Stop Chasing Happiness and Make a Meaningful Life Instead

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. In this episode you’ll hear about: why pursuing happiness won’t make you happy [but pursuing meaning can make you happier], why doing three random acts of kindness improves your mood, and discussion of the book A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding A Meaningful Existence. Our guest is: Dr. Frank Martela, a professor at Aalto University in Helsinki. He finds meaning in family life, good conversations, friendships, and being a scholar. He is a philosopher and researcher of psychology specializing in studying the meaning of life, and is the author of A Wonderful Life. Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She reinterprets the historical narrative in both traditional and creative forms. She finds meaning in her personal life, her research, and in nature. She supports her work-life balance with long walks and her photography, which you can find here. Listeners to this episode might be interested in: A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding A Meaningful Existence by Frank Martela Donna Freitas, The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost. Find the Good by Heather Lende The Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith Sue Stuart-Smith, The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature. The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor The Outsider by Colin Wilson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Episoder(321)

Empathy Takes Action: An Autistic Therapist on the Radical Work of Connection

Empathy Takes Action: An Autistic Therapist on the Radical Work of Connection

Mainstream psychology has long accepted that some people (like those with autism) are naturally more logical and unemotional, while others (like so-called empaths) intuitively experience the feelings ...

30 Apr 48min

Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King

Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King

Caroline Bicks became the first scholar granted extended access by Stephen King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendary writerʼs creative process—most of t...

23 Apr 55min

The Case for Career Services

The Case for Career Services

What exactly is career services? If you don’t know, you aren’t alone. Most of us operate from a limited or outdated idea of what career services offers, why it’s necessary, and how soon you should sta...

16 Apr 47min

The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence

The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence

Each year, police officers kill over 1,000 people they’ve sworn to protect and serve. While some cases, like George Floyd’s and Sandra Bland’s, capture national attention, most victims remain nameles...

9 Apr 57min

 The Club: Where American Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris

The Club: Where American Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris

In Belle Époque Paris, the Eiffel Tower was newly built, France was experiencing remarkable political stability, and American women were painting the town and gathering at a female-only Residence know...

2 Apr 51min

The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America

The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America

Most employers in the United States routinely conduct criminal background checks on job applicants, weeding out those with criminal convictions—and thus denying opportunities to those who need them m...

26 Mar 54min

 ⁠The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health⁠

 ⁠The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health⁠

A powerful blend of deeply human stories and rigorous research, The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health (Beacon Press, 2026) reveals how social and structural factors like ...

19 Mar 54min

What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life

What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life

Mothers and fathers use their time differently, with women spending roughly twice as many hours on family labor as men. But what about the gendered differences in the ways women and men think? What’s ...

12 Mar 50min

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